He killed the heiress. And he killed the flight attendant, too.
Serial sex killer Rodney Alcala took a surprise guilty plea in Manhattan this afternoon to taking the life of two women, both age 23, from 1971 and 1977.
The so-called “Dating Game” killer, 67, admitted to the 1971 murder of TWA flight attendant Corelia Crilley and the 1977 murder of Ellen Hover, daughter of a Hollywood nightclub owner.
Under his plea, the pony-tailed monster will be sentenced next month to 25 years to life in prison — a legally irrelevant term given that he will now be returned directly to death row in San Quentin Prison in California.
Alcala had been convicted in Feb., 2010, of a spree of LA-area sex slays, which left four women and a 12-year-old girl defiled, bludgeoned and strangled between 1977 and 1979.
Speaking directly to Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Bonnie Wittner, and with his legal aid lawyer Beth Unger at his side, Alcala said today that he was admitting the New York City murders so that he can return as quickly as possible to California, where he said he wants to continue fighting his death penalty conviction.
Today’s murder plea seemed to be unexpected even by Alcala himself, who was led shuffling into court in an orange jump suit, his Brillo-like mane held back in a ponytail.
“No, I don’t,” Alcala had initially answered, when asked by the judge if he still wished, as he’d stated in a November letter to the court, to end the Manhattan case today.
Then ensued a back and forth between the judge and Alcala, in which Alcala asked for access to materials and library privileges he needed to fight the California death sentence while he is incarcerated in New York.
“I can’t assure you can get unlimited use of your (jail) library or get your five cartons of (legal) materials,” along with a laptop he requested access for, the judge said, adding that these access issues were an interstate correctional matter.
Added Manhattan prosecutor Martha Bashford, “The California governor set the standards for how he is to be housed here.” California had at first insisted that Alcala, as a death row inmate, be housed in a state prison upstate during the pendency of the Manattan murder case, she said, and it took much negotiation even to allow Alcala to remain in a city jail.
That’s when Alcala took a moment to whisper with his lawyer, then capitulated.
“I’m just saying that since I can’t have the use of the laptop .. I’ll go ahead and enter the plea,” he said.
“A plea to what?” asked the judge.
“Guilty,” he answered.
“I’m going to ask you to admit to the crime charged,” the judge told him.
Alcala pleaded separately to intentionally causing each woman’s death.
“How do you plead to count one in the indictment, murder, charging that on June 24, 1971, with intent to cause the death of Corelia Crilley, you in fact caused her death?
“Guilty,” Alcala said, his voice firm.
“With respect to count 3 in the indictment, murder in the 2nd degree, charging that on July 15, 1977, you intended to cause the death of Ellen Hover and did in fact cause her death — how do you plea?
“Guilty,” Alcala repeated.
He admitted that he was pleading of his own free will, and that he was waiving his right to a trial voluntarily, and then was led out, still cuffed and still shuffling despite not being shackled at the legs.
The judge set Jan. 7 as his sentencing date.
In announcing the cracking of the Hover and Crilley murders back in January, 1011, Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance, Jr. improvements in forensic science, and the pursuit of more than 100 witnesses interviewed in Manhattan and across the country — including Alcala himself, who they visited in prison in California.
Alcala earned the nickname “The Dating Game Killer” thanks to his mid-slay-spree appearance in 1978 as the winning Bachelor No. 1 in a now retroactively creepy episode of the once-popular TV game show.