Rodney Alcala, "The Dating Game Killer," pleads not guilty in '70s slayings of Manhattan pair
(CBS/AP) NEW YORK - Rodney Alcala, the convicted California serial killer who appeared on "The Dating Game" TV show in 1978, pleaded not guilty Thursday to charges of killing two women in the 1970s.
PICTURES: Serial Killer's Secret PhotosAlcala, accused in the deaths of Cornelia Crilley and Ellen Hover, was ordered held without bail and is due back in court Oct. 30.
Crilley, a flight attendant for Trans World Airlines, was found, strangled with a stocking in her Manhattan apartment in 1971. Hover was also living in Manhattan when she vanished in 1977. Her remains were found the next year in the woods on a suburban estate. Both women were 23-years-old.
A former photographer with an IQ said to top 160, Alcala was convicted in 2010 of killing four women and a 12-year-old girl in Southern California in the 1970s. He represented himself, offering a defense that involved showing a clip of his 1978 appearance on "The Dating Game" and playing Arlo Guthrie's classic 1967 song "Alice's Restaurant."
While appealing his death sentence in California, Alcala was indicted last year in New York, partly on evidence that emerged during his California trial, prosecutors said.
"After more than three decades, the defendant will finally face the justice system in New York for the murder of two victims," District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. said. "Today's arraignment brings us a step closer to obtaining justice for Ms. Crilley and Ms. Hover."