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crimereporter · 4 years ago

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Rodney Alcala... The Dating Game Killer

*WARNING: this post contains mentions to sexual assault, assault, murder and more content that may not be appropriate for some viewers. Read at your own discretion*

Rodrigo Jacques Alcala-Buquor was born on August 23, 1943 to parents Raoul Alcala Buquor and Anna Maria Gutierrez in San Antonio, Texas. “ Rodney “ was raised in Los Angeles, Califorrnia, however at the age of 8, his family moved to Mexico. His father has been regarded as “absent” by Rodney. There we're multiple Alcala-Buquor children, however, not much is known about them or detailed in resources.

In 1960, at the age of 17, Rodney joined he military where he worked as a clerk. He ended up being medically discharged only 4 years later after having a break down which resulted in him being diagnosed with Antisocial Personality Disorder.

He then went to UCLA where he graduated in 1968 with a Fine Arts degree.

1968- 8 year old Tali Shapiro is found raped and beaten, having been beaten using a steel bar. A motorist saw Rodney lure her into his apartment and called police to notify them of the incident.

After this, Rodney fled to New York where he attended NYU film school under the alias John Berger. He ended up working at a New Hampshire camp for the arts as a children’s counselor using a slightly dissimilar alias of “John Burger”.

June, 1971-

Cornelia Crilley, a 23 year old TWA flight attendant was found raped and murdered in her apartment in Manhattan.

1971-

Rodney is caught by 2 child campers at the New Hampshire arts camp due to an FBI wanted poster at the Post Office and was arrested. He was then extradited to California for the trial. However, the family of the young girl had moved to the East Coast in an effort to move on from the horrors that Rodney had committed. They then went to Mexico and the parents of the child refused to subject her to testifying. Without testimony from the primary witness and victim of the attack, Alcala was given a lesser sentence.

Rodney Alcala is released in 1974 after only 17 months in prison under the cause of “indeterminate sentencing”.

1974- Rodney is arrested after being out of prison for 2 moths after violating parole. He had provided marijuana to a 13 year old girl of whom he had kidnapped.

Alcala was then released 2 years later for the same reason before [indeterminate sentencing].

In 1978, he was hired at the LA Times as a typesetter where he was questioned on the Hillside Strangler murders. At this time, Rodney was a registered sex offender with a criminal record on file. However, it’s believed that he had faked credentials to receive the job in the first place.

1977- Cold case investigators believe that Alcala is irresponsible for the murder of Ellen Jane Hover after briefly moving to Manhattan with the permission of his parole officer.

During his time at the LA Times, Rodney used fake credentials to convince dozen of young women that he was a photographer. These women then posed in compromising positions and were photographed for Alcala’s “portfolio”. Most of these women are still unidentified to this day.

1979- The Samsoe Murder

Robin Samsoe, a 12 year old girl from Huntington Beach, CA disappeared between the beach and her ballet classes on June 20, 1979. He body was found 12 days later in the Los Angeles foothills. Her earrings were later found in a train locker owned by Alcala in Seattle, WA.

In 1980, Rodney was put on trial and convicted for the Rape and Murder of Robin Samsoe, where he was sentenced to death. This conviction, however, was overturned by the Orange County Superior Court due to the jury hearing testimony regarding Tali Shapiro as well as other rape and kidnapping convictions. This was believed to lead to a jury bias that led to reasonable doubt of the legitimacy of his conviction.

In 1986 Alcala was put on trial again for the Samsoe case after the state rep-files the case. He was once again convicted for the crime and sentenced to death, however it was once again overturned by a panel in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. It was said that testimony that could have changed the evidence of the case was not allowed to be provided as it supported Alcala. A witness supported Alcala’s claim the park ranger that found Samsoe was “Hypnotized by police investigators”.

In 2003, Alcala’s DNA is found in connection with 6 additional murders. They also found one of these victim’s earrings in the same Seattle locker as they found Robin Samsoe’s.

4 of the additional victims were:

- Jill Barcomb, 18, who was a New York runaway in an LA ravine (1977). She was originally believed to be a victim of the Hillside Strangler.

- Georgia Wixted, 27, found in her Malibu apartment after being bludgeoned to death (1977).

- Charlotte Lamb, 31, found in the laundry room of her el Segundo apartment complex after being raped and strangled (1978).

- Jill Parenteau, 21, Killed in her Burbank apartment (1979).

In 2006, the state motioned to combine the cases of the 4 women with that of the Samsoe case, which was approved. In 2010, Rodney stood trial for the combined charges. He decided to act as his own attorney for his third trial, tetstifying in his own defense while asking himself questions (he was essentially interrogating himself from the stand). Alcala testified that he was at Knott’s Berry Farm applying for a photographer positions at the time Samsoe was murdered. He did not, however, provide any testimony regarding the other 4 murders other than “not remembering” killing any of the women. For his closing argument, he played Arlo Guthrie’s “Alice’s Kitchen”, in which the protagonist tells a psychiatrist he wants to kill.

After less than 2 days of deliberation, Rodney was convicted on all 5 counts of first-degree murder. Tali Shapiro served as a surprise witness during the penalty phase of the trial. He was sentenced to death.

Court psychiatrists later proposed that additional diagnoses for Rodney could bet that of Narcissistic Personality Disorder, Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD), and Malignant Narcissism with psychopathy and sexual sadism comorbidities.

In December, 2012, Alcala was extradited to New York and convicted to additional charges of murder. He was sentenced two an additional 25 years two life, as the death penalty hasn’t been an option in New York since 2007.

Rodney is now incarcerated at California State Prison, Corcoran (as according to Wikipedia) awaiting execution. He is now 77 years of age. It is thought that his victim's range anywhere from 8 to 130 in numbers. He is additionally associated with crimes in Washington and Wyoming, however these aren’t crimes he’s been convicted for.

Why he’s called the Dating Game Killer:

In 1978, he appeared on a television. show called the dating game, in which a contestant questions 3 different individuals anonymously and picks one of these 3 to go on a date with. He was introduced as a “successful photographer who got his start at the age of 13.” He actually won a date with contestant Cheryl Bradshaw, however, she refused the date after meeting him. She later said that she had found him “creepy”. He was at the height of his killing spree during his appearance on the show. It is proposed that this rejection from Cheryl may have exacerbated his desire to murder women as he would go on to kill at least 3 more women after this appearance.

Here is a link to a clip of him on The Dating Game:

https://images.app.goo.gl/vqpkGUqV1km23BZ38

#true crime #Crime #criminal justice #history #true story

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casillaschristianlaw · 1 year ago

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localizee · 3 years ago

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ryans-law-blog · 6 years ago

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Few charges carry significant consequences that are such as that of sexual assault. A certainty on charges of sexual assault in Texas can bring about decades or years invested behind bars, as well as astronomical penalties to be certain. Also, a person convicted of sexual assault may face professional and private repercussions also, which will, actually, continue for a lifetime. It is critical that you just comprehend the effects this might have on your daily life, in case you happen to be charged with sexual-assault in Tx. Go through the following tips as a preliminary manual, and don't wait to contact a professional that is legal to begin working on your defense promptly. What Constitutes Sexual Assault? Generally, rape is synonymous with the term "sexual assault" as it is employed in a colloquial context. Here, approval is crucial; it has to be demonstrated the sexual penetration was non-consensual to be able to get a certainty to take place. In addition to basic sexual-assault, the state-of Tx separately classifies such actions of transmission that involve the use of risks or violence, also. Codified as aggravated sexual-assault, this offense takes place when someone causes sexual penetration of another party without their authorization, along with the crime leads to serious bodily injury, the accused voiced risks or used a weapon during the puncture, or the accused participated in various other tasks specified in the Texas Penal Code. In all cases involving sexual assault, the burden of evidence is really on the plaintiff, the individual asserting they were offended, to show that the defendant, the victimizer, not just facilitated the penetration, but did so without the plaintiff's approval, and, in case of aggravated sexual-assault, required other actions that are in violation of Arizona law.

Possible Penalties of Sexual Assault Upon Conviction The penalties associated with a conviction on charges of sexual assault or aggravated sexual-assault should not be dismissed. In fact, the results might have devastating, long-term effects on a variety of the defendant's lifestyle. As an example, Texas law defines sexual assault typically as a second-degree felony, the punishments for which may incorporate a jail term of between 2 and 20 years, plus a fine as high as $10,000. Aggravated assault, nevertheless, is considered a much more serious violation, and is rather categorized as a first-degree felony. The certainty of the crime carries a substantial-good, along with a prison term of 99 and between five years. Sadly, the abuse doesn't end there. An individual convicted of this kind of sex-crime in Texas should place their name to the Texas Public Sex-Offender Registry, a database viewable by people. "And anyone whose name is really on the registry may unavoidably have a tough time obtaining or maintaining a job, enrolling in an educational institution, and also guaranteeing home. Additionally, the stigma of being a true sex-offender could even lead to the loss of friendships or associations, and also other devastating personal effects." States a San Antonio Sexual Assault Attorney. Combat with the Charges In case you are facing charges for sexual assault in Texas, there is absolutely no substitute for specialist assistance that is experienced. Don't attempt to battle with these costs alone; rather, contact a lawyer that specializes in protecting sex offenses for the support that is proficient. A criminal justice attorney will start operating immediately to help create distinctive protection to ensure you receive the best possible outcome on your situation.

original post:

http://www.austincriminallawjournal.com/sexual-assault-in-texas/

cite:

http://www.sexcrimedefenseattorney.com/

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casillaschristianlaw · 1 year ago

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jtrainer21ahsgov · 4 years ago

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Blog Post #6: California Proposition Assessment

FORMER CALIFORNIA PROPOSITIONS

Please use the UC Hastings Law Library-California Ballot Measures Database to search past propositions which relate to your civic action issue. In the search bar type your issue. The most effective words to search are guns, gun control, women, abortion, gay, same-sex, climate change, speech, etc. Next, on the left of the screen is a gray box; under Publication, click Propositions. A list of all propositions to make the CA ballot on that issue will appear. Choose the most recent proposition and answer the questions below.

Questions: 1. Proposition number, title, and election year 2. Summarize the proposition in your own words. 3. What was the fiscal impact: how much would it cost to enforce?

Next, search Ballotpedia: the Encyclopedia of American Politics to answer the remaining questions. In the search bar type California Proposition (insert #) and choose the accurate title from the list. Scroll down to answer the following questions. 4. What were the election results? Do they surprise you? 5. Identify the proposition sponsors, interest group endorsements, and financial backers. Are you surprised by any of the endorsements? Explain how this information can help voters understand the true intentions of the proposition. 6. What were the arguments in favor for and against the proposition? 7. How would you have voted on the proposition and explain why. 8. Identify one additional fact you found interesting about this proposition from your review of Ballotpedia.

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1) Proposition 34, End the Death Penalty Initiative, 2012.

2) Wants to, instead of the Death Penalty, Imprison people for life without the possibility of Parole.

3) It would at least cost $100 million.

4) The proposition did not succeed, which does not surprise me at all. Mostly because of how much it would cost to house all of the Death Row inmates for life instead.

5) Some the supporters were the Democratic Party, Gil Garcetti (former District Attorney for LA 1192-2000), Jennifer A. Waggoner ( the president of the League of Women Voters of California), and Antonio R. Villaraigosa (former mayor of the City of Los Angeles County 2005-2013[mayor at the time]).

6) For: Repealing the death penalty will "save the state millions of dollars through layoffs of prosecutors and defense attorneys who handle death penalty cases, as well as savings from not having to maintain the nation's largest death row at San Quentin prison."

Against: "On behalf of crime victims and their loved ones who have suffered at the hands of California's most violent criminals, we are disappointed that the ACLU and their allies would seek to score political points in their continued efforts to override the will of the people and repeal the death penalty."

7) I would vote against Proposition 34 because I can only imagine how much taxes could’ve gone up if it got passed and how much I would have to pay if it were not to get repealed once I became an adult.

8) It had raised $7.4 million in favor of Proposition 34 and $391,900 against it.

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fullspectrum-cbd-oil · 5 years ago

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Seventeen Democrats, Three Republicans in U.S. Presidential Race

The historically large field of Democratic presidential candidates vying to take on Republican President Donald Trump in next November’s U.S. election was reduced by one on Wednesday when Wayne Messam dropped out of the race.

Messam, 45, the mayor of Miramar, Florida, announced via Twitter that he was suspending his campaign. His withdrawal brings the number of Democrats still in the race to 17, with former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg also considering a White House bid as a Democrat.

TOP DEMOCRATIC CONTENDERS

There are four candidates who have separated themselves thus far from the rest of the field among Democratic voters.

JOE BIDEN

Biden, the early Democratic front-runner in opinion polls, waited until April to enter the race, launching his bid with a direct swipe at Trump. Biden, 77, served eight years as President Barack Obama’s vice president and 36 years in the U.S. Senate. He stands at the center of the Democratic debate over whether the party’s standard-bearer should be a veteran politician or a newcomer, and whether a liberal or a moderate has a better chance of defeating Trump. Biden, who frequently notes his ‘Middle-Class Joe’ nickname, touts his working-class roots and ability to work in a bipartisan fashion. Some fellow Democrats have criticized him for his role in passing tough-on-crime legislation in the 1990s.

ELIZABETH WARREN

The 70-year-old U.S. senator from Massachusetts is a leader of the party’s liberals and a fierce critic of Wall Street. She was instrumental in creating the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau after the 2008 financial crisis. Her campaign has surged in recent months, equaling Biden in some polls. She has focused her presidential campaign on a populist anti-corruption message, promising to fight what she calls a rigged system that favors the wealthy. She has released an array of policy proposals on everything from breaking up big tech companies to implementing a wealth tax on the richest Americans. Warren has sworn off political fundraising events to back her campaign.

BERNIE SANDERS

The U.S. senator from Vermont lost the Democratic nomination in 2016 to Hillary Clinton but is trying again. For the 2020 race, Sanders, 78, is fighting to stand out in a field of progressives running on issues he brought into the Democratic Party mainstream four years ago. Sanders suffered a heart attack while campaigning in Nevada in October, but there has been little impact so far on his support. His proposals include free tuition at public colleges, a $15-an-hour minimum wage and universal healthcare. He benefits from strong name recognition and an unmatched network of small-dollar donors.

PETE BUTTIGIEG

The 37-year-old mayor of South Bend, Indiana, emerged from virtual anonymity to become one of the party’s brightest stars, building momentum with young voters. A Harvard University graduate and Rhodes scholar, he speaks seven languages conversationally and served in Afghanistan with the Navy Reserve. He touts himself as representing a new generation of leadership needed to combat Trump. Buttigieg would be the first openly gay presidential nominee of a major American political party. Recent polls in Iowa and New Hampshire, which hold the first nominating contests in February, put him ahead of the other leading candidates, even though his national standing is lower.

TRYING TO BREAK THROUGH

The rest of the Democratic field is a mix of seasoned politicians, wealthy business people and others still looking to break into or regain their toehold in the top tier of contenders.

KAMALA HARRIS

The first-term U.S. senator from California would make history as the first black woman to gain the nomination. Harris, 55, the daughter of immigrants from Jamaica and India, announced her candidacy on the holiday honoring slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. She supports a middle-class tax credit, the Green New Deal and marijuana legalization. Her track record as San Francisco’s district attorney and California’s attorney general has drawn scrutiny in a Democratic Party that has grown more liberal in recent years on criminal justice issues. She saw a significant bounce in the polls after a high-profile clash with Biden over racial issues during the first Democratic debate in June but has since seen her numbers drop back down.

ANDREW YANG

The New York entrepreneur and former tech executive is focusing his campaign on an ambitious universal income plan. Yang, 44, wants to guarantee all Americans between the ages of 18 and 64 a $1,000 check every month. The son of immigrants from Taiwan, Yang supports the Medicare for All proposal, which is based on the existing government-run Medicare program for Americans aged 65 and older, and has warned that automation is the biggest threat facing U.S. workers. His campaign has released more than 100 policy ideas, including eclectic proposals like creating an infrastructure force called the Legion of Builders and Destroyers.

AMY KLOBUCHAR

The U.S. senator from Minnesota was the first moderate in the Democratic field vying to challenge Trump. Klobuchar, 59, gained national attention when she sparred with Brett Kavanaugh during his Supreme Court nomination hearings last year. On the campaign trail, the former prosecutor and corporate attorney has said she would improve on the Affordable Care Act, popularly known as Obamacare, by adding a public option, and is taking a tough stance against rising prescription drug prices.

CORY BOOKER

Booker, 50, a U.S. senator from New Jersey and former Newark mayor, gained national prominence in the fight over Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court nomination. Booker, who is black, has made race relations and racial disparities in the criminal justice system a focus of his campaign. He embraces progressive positions on healthcare coverage for every American, the Green New Deal and other key issues, and touts his style of positivity over attacks.

TULSI GABBARD

The Samoan-American congresswoman from Hawaii and Iraq war veteran is the first Hindu to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives and has centered her campaign on her anti-war stance. Having previously worked for her father’s anti-gay advocacy group and drafting relevant legislation, she later apologized for her past views on same-sex marriage. Gabbard’s populist, anti-war approach has won her fans among the far left and the far right, and she recently engaged in a Twitter war with Hillary Clinton, whom she called the “personification of the rot” after Clinton suggested Gabbard was being groomed for a third-party run at the presidency. Gabbard, 38, slammed Trump for standing by Saudi Arabia after the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

JULIAN CASTRO

Obama’s secretary of housing and urban development would be the first Hispanic to win a major U.S. party’s presidential nomination. Castro, 45, whose grandmother immigrated to Texas from Mexico, has used his family’s personal story to criticize Trump’s border policies. Castro advocates universal prekindergarten, supports Medicare for All and cites his experience to push for affordable housing. He announced his bid in his hometown of San Antonio, where he once served as mayor and as a city councilman. In the third Democratic debate in September, Castro drew jeers from the audience for an attack on Biden that was perceived as questioning the former vice president’s memory as a way to draw attention to his age.

TOM STEYER

A billionaire environmentalist and force in Democratic fundraising over the past decade, Steyer said in January he was focusing on his efforts to get Trump impeached and Democrats elected to Congress. Steyer, 62, reversed course in July, saying other Democrats had good ideas but “we won’t be able to get any of those done until we end the hostile corporate takeover of our democracy.”

JOHN DELANEY

The former U.S. representative from Maryland became the first Democrat to enter the 2020 race, declaring his candidacy in July 2017. Delaney, 56, says that if elected, he would focus on advancing only bipartisan bills during the first 100 days of his presidency. He is also pushing for a universal healthcare system, raising the federal minimum wage, and passing gun safety legislation. A former business executive, Delaney is self-funding much of his campaign.

MICHAEL BENNET

Bennet, 54, a U.S. senator for Colorado, has based his political career on improving the American education system. He previously ran Denver’s public schools. Bennet is not well known nationally but has built a network of political operatives and donors helping elect other Democrats to the Senate. During the partial U.S. government shutdown in January, he garnered national attention criticizing Republicans for stopping the flow of emergency funds to Colorado.

STEVE BULLOCK

Montana’s Democratic governor, re-elected in 2016 in a conservative state that Trump carried by 20 percentage points, has touted his electability and ability to work across party lines. Bullock, 53, has made campaign finance reform a cornerstone of his agenda. He emphasizes his success in forging compromises with the Republican-led state legislature on bills to expand the Medicaid healthcare funding program for the poor, increase campaign finance disclosures, bolster pay equity for women, and protect public lands.

MARIANNE WILLIAMSON

The 67-year-old best-selling author, motivational speaker and Texas native believes her spirituality-focused campaign can heal the United States. A 1992 interview on Oprah Winfrey’s show led Williamson to make a name for herself as a ‘spiritual guide’ for Hollywood and a self-help expert. She is calling for $100 billion in reparations for slavery to be paid over 10 years, gun control, education reform, and equal rights for lesbian and gay communities.

JOE SESTAK

The retired three-star Navy admiral and former congressman from Pennsylvania jumped into the race in June. Sestak, 67, highlighted his 31-year military career and said he was running to restore U.S. global leadership on challenges like climate change and China’s growing influence. Sestak said he had delayed his entry in the race to be with his daughter as she successfully fought a recurrence of brain cancer.

DEVAL PATRICK

Patrick is a late entry, launching his candidacy just days before early state filing deadlines. The 63-year-old African American and former Massachusetts governor said he was seeking to draw in Americans who felt left behind and to bridge a party he saw split between “nostalgia” or “big ideas” that left other voices out. The state’s first African American governor, Patrick was credited with implementing Massachusetts’ healthcare reform plan and tackling pension reform, transportation and the minimum wage. In 2014, Obama said Patrick would make “a great president or vice president,” although Patrick has said the former president was remaining neutral in the current race.

MICHAEL BLOOMBERG

Former New York City Mayor and billionaire media mogul Michael Bloomberg, 77, has filed as a candidate in Alabama and Arkansas, but has not yet decided whether to run.

THE REPUBLICANS

Trump is the clear favorite to win the Republican nomination, and there has been criticism among his opponents that party leadership has worked to make it impossible for a challenger. Still, the incumbent will face at least two rivals.

DONALD TRUMP

The 73-year-old real estate mogul shocked the political establishment in 2016 when he secured the Republican nomination and then won the White House. His raucous political rallies and prolific use of Twitter were credited with helping him secure victory. After running as an outsider, Trump is now focusing his message on the strong economy, while continuing the anti-immigration rhetoric that characterized his first campaign as he vies for re-election.

JOE WALSH

A former congressman, Walsh, 57, has become a vocal critic of Trump, who he argues is not a conservative and is unfit for public office. Walsh won a House seat from Illinois as a candidate of the Republican Party’s fiscally conservative Tea Party movement in 2010, but was defeated by Democrat Tammy Duckworth in his 2012 re-election bid. After leaving Congress, he became a Chicago-area radio talk-show host.

BILL WELD

The 74-year-old former Massachusetts governor ran unsuccessfully for vice president in 2016 as a Libertarian. He has been a persistent critic of Trump, saying when he launched his 2020 campaign that “the American people are being ignored and our nation is suffering.”

(Reporting by Ginger Gibson, Joseph Ax, Tim Reid, Sharon Bernstein, Amanda Becker and Susan Heavey, Editing by Rosalba O’Brien)

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thekillerblogofkillers · 7 years ago

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Rodney Alcala (1943-2021)

Rodney Alcala is a convicted rapist and serial killer that was convicted for 5 murders in California and 2 in New York. His real victim count remains unknown, but estimates run between 50-130. Alcala is said to have “toyed” with his victims, strangling them and reviving them repeatedly before killing them. Alcala has been compared to Ted Bundy and called “a killing machine” by a detective.

Rodrigo (Rodney) Jacques Alcala Buquor was born on August 23, 1943, in San Antonio, Texas, to parents Raoul Alcala Buquor and Anna Maria Gutierrez. The family moved to Mexico when Alcala was 8 and his father abandoned the family when he was 11. Following this, his mother moved the family to LA. At age 17, Alcala joined the U.S. Army, serving as a clerk. In 1964, he suffered a nervous breakdown - going AWOL and hitchhiking from Fort Bragg to his mother’s house - and was subsequently diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder by a military psychiatrist and discharged on medical grounds. Other diagnoses were made during his later trials, including narcissistic personality disorder, borderline personality disorder, and malignant narcissistic personality disorder with psychopathy and sexual sadism co-morbidities. Following his time in the Army, Alcala graduated from the UCLA School of Fine Arts, later studying film under Roman Polanski at NYU.

Alcala’s first known crime was committed in 1968, when a witness in LA called the police after seeing Alcala lure 8-year-old Tali Shapiro into his apartment in Hollywood. The girl was found, but had been beaten with a steel bar and raped, and Alcala had fled. In order to evade arrest, Alcala left the state and enrolled in the NYU film school under the name “John Berger”. In 1971 he obtained a counselling job in New Hampshire at an arts camp using the similar alias “John Burger”. The same year, 23-year-old Trans World Airlines flight attendant Cornelia Michel Crilley was found raped and strangled in her Manhattan apartment. The murder would not be solved for 40 years.

Rodney Alcala was added to the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted list in early 1971. A few months later, two children at the arts camp where Alcala worked noticed his photo on an FBI poster. He was arrested and extradited to California, but by this point Tali Shapiro’s parents had relocated to Mexico and would not allow her to testify at trial. Because they were unable to convict him of rape and attempted murder without their primary witness, prosecutors had to allow Alcala to plead guilty to the lesser charge of assault. He was given parole after 34 months under the “indeterminate sentencing” program (allowing parole boards to release offenders as soon as they showed signs of rehabilitation) in use at the time. Less than 2 months after his release, Alcala was rearrested for assaulting a 13-year-old girl that the courts identified as “Julie J.”, after she had accepted what she thought would be a ride to school. He was again paroled after 2 years.

After Alcala’s second release in 1977, his LA parole officer took the step of allowing a repeat offender and known flight risk to travel to New York. NYPD cold case detectives believe that a week after arriving in Manhattan, Alcala killed 23-year-old Ellen Jane Hoover. Her remains were found buried on the grounds of the Rockefeller Estate in Westchester County. The following year, Alcala worked for the Los Angeles Times as a typesetter and was interviewed by members of the Hillside Strangler task force as part of their investigation of known sex offenders. Although Alcala was ruled out as being the Hillside Strangler, he was arrested for marijuana possession.

During this time, Alcala convinced hundreds of young men and women that he was a profession fashion photographer and took photos of them for his “portfolio.” A co-worker later recalled that Alcala shared his photos with workmates. “I thought it was weird, but I was young, I didn’t know anything,” she said. “When I asked why he took the photos, he said their moms asked him to. I remember the girls were naked.” A woman who modelled for Alcala in 1979 said, “He said he was a professional, so in my mind I was being a model for him.” She also said that the portfolio included “spread after spread of naked teenage boys.” Most of the photographs are explicit and most of the subjects remain unidentified. Police believe that some of the unidentified subjects may be additional cold-case victims. According to later trial testimony, in 1979 Alcala knocked unconscious and raped 15-year-old Monique Hoyt while she was posing.

In 1978, despite being a convicted rapist and sex offender, Alcala was a contestant on The Dating Game (similar to the UK’s Blind Date). By this time he had already killed at least 2 women in California and 2 in New York. The host, Jim Lange, introduced him as a “successful photographer who got his start when his father found him in the darkroom at the age of 13; fully developed. Between takes you might find him skydiving or motorcycling.”

Actor Jed Mills (Bachelor #2) later described him as a “very strange guy with bizarre opinions”. Alcala won the contest and a date with “bachelorette” Cheryl Bradshaw, who actually refused to go out with him because she found him “creepy”. Profiler Pat Brown, noting that Alcala killed at least 3 more women after his Dating Game appearance, speculated that this rejection on Bradshaw’s part might have been an aggravating factor. “One wonders what that did in his mind”, Brown said. “That is something he would not take too well. Serial killers don’t understand the rejection. They think that something is wrong with that girl: ‘She played me. She played hard to get.’”

12-year-old Robin Samsoe, from Huntington Beach, disappeared between the beach and her ballet class on June 20, 1979. Her decomposing body was discovered almost 2 weeks later in the LA foothills. Samsoe’s friends told the police that a stranger had asked to take their picture on the beach. Detectives circulated a sketch of the photographer, and Alcala’s parole officer recognised him. During a search of his mother’s house in Monterey Park, police found a rental receipt for a storage locker in Seattle. In this locker, they found Samsoe’s earrings. Alcala was arrested for the murder in late 1979 and was held without bail. In 1980, he was tried, convicted and sentenced to death for Samsoe’s murder, but this was overturned by the California Supreme Court because jurors had been improperly informed of his prior sex crimes. In 1986, after a second trial he was again convicted and sentenced to death. A Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals panel nullified the second conviction, because a witness was not allowed to support Alcala’s contention that the park ranger that found Samsoe’s body was “hypnotised by police investigators.”

While the third prosecution was being prepared in 2003, Orange County investigators learned that Rodney Alcala’s DNA matched semen left at the rape-murder scenes of two women in LA. Additional evidence, including more DNA matches, led to Alcala being indicted for the murders of four additional women: Jill Barcomb, 18, a New York runaway found “rolled up like a ball” in an LA ravine in 1977 and originally considered a victim of the Hillside Strangler; Georgia Wixted, 27, bludgeoned in her Malibu apartment in 1977; Charlotte Lamb, 31, raped, strangled and left in the laundry room of an El Segundo apartment complex in 1978; and Jill Parenteau, 21, killed in her Burbank apartment in 1979. All bodies were found carefully posed. Another pair of earrings found in Alcala’s Seattle storage locker matched Lamb’s DNA.

While in prison between trials 2 and 3, Alcala wrote and self-published a book entitled ‘You, the Jury’, in which he stated he was innocent in the Samsoe case and suggested an alternate suspect. He also filed lawsuits against the California penal system: one, for a slip-and-fall accident and another for refusing to provide a low-fat diet.

In 2003 prosecutors filed a motion to join the Samsoe charges with those of the four newly discovered victims. Alcala’s attorneys contested this by saying: “If you’re a juror and you hear one murder case, you may be able to have reasonable doubt. But it’s very hard to say you have reasonable doubt on all five, especially when four of the five aren’t alleged by eyewitnesses but are proven by DNA matches.” In 2006, the California Supreme Court ruled in the prosecution’s favour and in February 2010 Alcala stood trial on the five joined charges. For the third trial, Alcala acted as his own attorney. He took the stand in his own defence, and for 5 hours played the roles of both interrogator and witness, asking himself questions and answering them in a different voice. During this strange question and answer session he told jurors that he was at Knott’s Berry Farm applying for a job as a photographer at the time Samsoe was kidnapped. He showed the jury a portion of his 1978 appearance on The Dating Game in an attempt to prove that the earrings found in his storage locker were not Samsoe’s, but his. Jed Mills, who competed with Alcala on the show, told a journalist that earrings were not socially acceptable at that time. “I had never seen a man with an earring in his ear,” he said. “I would have noticed them on him.”

Alcala made no attempt to deny the four added charges, other than to say he could not remember killing any of the women. In his closing argument he played the section of the Arlo Guthrie song “Alice’s Restaurant” in which the protagonist tells a psychiatrist that he wants to “kill.” After less than 2 days of deliberation the jury convicted him on all five counts of first-degree murder. A surprise witness during the penalty phase of the trial was Tali Shapiro, Alcala’s first known victim. Psychiatrist Richard Rappaport, the only defence witness, testified that Alcala’s borderline personality disorder could explain the statement that he had no memory of committing the murders. The prosecutor argued that Alcala was a “sexual predator who knew what he was doing was wrong and didn’t care.” In March 2010 Alcala was sentenced to death for the 3rd time. He died of natural causes in Corcoran, California on July 24, 2021.

#rodney #alcala #serial killer #murder #rape #strangled #death sentence #rodney alcala #dating game killer

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Jennifer’s memories were scattered and fleeting. They came suddenly, triggered by a smell or a glimpse of light dappled through stained glass. The aroma of freshly baked mince pies repulsed her nostrils. Scented candles, like the ones in the small San Antonio, Texas church she attended as an elementary school girl, made her gag with disgust. Credit: Jimmy Chalk Jennifer’s mother couldn’t understand these abrupt fits of revulsion, or the angry outbursts that accompanied them. For years, her daughter had been slipping into chaos, flunking classes, running with a bad crowd. The once happy-go-lucky child had changed beyond all recognition. Then, one day, years after her life began unraveling, it all came pouring out. “She finally came and told me that he had raped her,” the girl’s mother told GlobalPost. Therapy had dragged up Jennifer’s memories: a sudden blacking out, possibly from a drug she had been slipped, then dizzily regaining consciousness on a bed in the rectory. “I remember when I came to, it was just him and me and he was on top of me and I remember that stained-glass window and he did it in front of the Blessed Sacrament,” Jennifer told her mother. ***** Jennifer — who is identified only by her first name because she still suffers trauma from the alleged incident — is by no means the only parishioner to accuse Father Federico Fernandez Baeza of abuse. Fernandez arrived in San Antonio in the early 1980s. By 1983, prosecutors had charged him with exposing himself to two young girls in a local swimming pool. A year later, he had begun ritually abusing and raping two young boys in his care, according to a 1988 lawsuit filed by a local family. The abuse continued for two years, the lawsuit claimed. The priest was never convicted of a crime. Instead the church negotiated a large cash settlement, and Fernandez promptly relocated to Colombia, where he continued working for the Catholic Church. In May, GlobalPost traced him to the picturesque seaside city of Cartagena. He’s currently a senior administrator and priest at a prestigious Catholic university, enjoying all the privilege, respect and unfettered access to young people that comes with being a member of the clergy. ***** Fernandez is just one of scores of Catholic priests who have been accused of abusing children in the United States and Europe, but who have avoided accountability simply by moving to a less-developed country. Boats bob next to the tiny fishing village of Puerto Huarmey, Peru. Credit: Jimmy Chalk/GlobalPost Even as Pope Francis has touted reform of the Vatican’s safeguards against child abuse, GlobalPost has found that the Catholic Church has allowed allegedly abusive priests to slip off to parts of the world where they would face less scrutiny from prosecutors and the media. In a yearlong investigation, we tracked down and confronted five such priests. All were able to continue working for the church despite serious accusations against them. When we found them, all but one continued to lead Mass, mostly in remote, poor communities in South America. Some of these men faced criminal investigations, but went abroad without charges being brought against them. One of the priests admitted to GlobalPost that he had molested a 13-year-old boy, and acknowledged that he can never work again in the US. He continues to preach in a small Peruvian fishing village. Another is currently under investigation by authorities in Brazil for a string of alleged molestations, including accusations in the poor neighborhoods where for two decades he ran a home for street children — with the support of the Catholic Church. Inside the office of Vicar General Juan Roger Rodriguez Ruiz, the one diocese leader who agreed to an interview. Credit: Jimmy Chalk/GlobalPost GlobalPost interviewed one diocese leader in these communities, but was otherwise not granted interviews with local church officials. And despite protracted efforts and discussions with church press officers, neither the Vatican nor the chairman of a new papal commission set up specifically to tackle church child abuse would speak with us. For advocates and attorneys who have studied abusive Catholic priests for decades, the flight of these fathers overseas represents just the latest chapter in a long story of deceit, collusion and church-sponsored impunity for child abusers. “As developed countries find it tougher to keep predator priests on the job, bishops are increasingly moving them to the developing world where there’s less vigorous law enforcement, less independent media and a greater power differential between priests and parishioners,” said David Clohessy, national director and spokesman for the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP. “This is massive, and my suspicion is that it’s becoming more and more pronounced.” “I’m a pedophile, in the real sense” The boy runs along the trash-strewn potholed dirt street, his long copper-colored hair flowing behind him. Father Jan Van Dael, 76, reaches out to touch his arm, moving close. “He reminds me of a boy who was in my house in Rio de Janeiro,” Van Dael says, referring to the orphanage he used to run in the 1980s. The boy wriggles free and lines up to fill his pot from the containers of soup that Van Dael and his volunteers have brought to this small slum just outside the rough-and-tumble city of Caucaia, in Brazil’s northeast. Van Dael, an avuncular, slightly doddery Belgian priest, seems deeply affectionate toward pre-adolescent boys. He loves to take their photographs. He reaches for children he barely knows, like a father hungry for attention. Back in the late 1980s, Van Dael moved from Europe to Brazil, first settling in Rio de Janeiro. After a falling out with the local diocese (Van Dael says church officials objected to his working with poor street children whom they deemed criminals), the Belgian was asked to leave, and ended up in windswept Caucaia, a few miles from the crime-ridden city of Fortaleza. Taking advantage of Brazil’s extraordinary exchange rates at the time, which greatly favored the US dollar and European currencies, the “gringo priest” set up a new orphanage for abandoned and troubled street kids. He called it “Esperança da Criança,” or Children’s Hope. But the home's whitewashed walls — which Van Dael hung with dozens of photographs he took of young boys — appear to have borne witness to plenty of misery, along with any hope. According to Brazilian prosecutors, Van Dael is currently under investigation by both the Belgian and Brazilian federal authorities, an inquiry that adds to a litany of child abuse accusations against Van Dael on two continents. Last year, a Dutch television station interviewed two men who claimed Van Dael fondled them at church and at a Catholic summer camp in Belgium in the early 1970s. A federal prosecutor in Fortaleza told the station that there had also been several complaints of sexual abuse against Van Dael over the last 10 years. Father Jan Van Dael shows off his collection of portraits — most of young boys — on the veranda outside his home. The building once housed orphans, but Van Dael closed that operation down two years ago. Credit: Jimmy Chalk/GlobalPost In 2011, two former interns at Van Dael’s orphanage told the Belgian media that children there said the priest had abused them. And the head of a local government child protection agency in Caucaia told GlobalPost he had received a complaint about Van Dael back in 2008. The complaint languished, the official said, because the agency didn’t have the staff or resources to investigate it. Van Dael has been suspected of pedophilia for years. Meanwhile, his career as a priest has flourished in the Archdiocese of Fortaleza. His services are in constant demand. He said he sometimes celebrates Mass six times a weekend in the poor neighborhoods of Caucaia. When we visited, Van Dael led services at two different churches and handed out soup to children, something he said he does every day. Everywhere he went, Father Jan was met with reverence and respect. In a lengthy interview, he told GlobalPost he has never been sexually attracted to children. He said all the accusations against him are lies, drummed up by abusive parents, envious competitors, or university students who don’t understand the world. He compared himself to Jesus Christ, saying he was a rebel, a trailblazer and a true humanitarian. “Literally, pedophilia comes from the Greek, 'pidos' meaning child and 'philia' meaning friendship with children,” Van Dael said. “In the real sense of the word I’m a pedophile.” The archbishop of Fortaleza, who has control over which priests celebrate Mass within the archdiocese, initially agreed to an interview. But after we confronted Van Dael about the accusations against him, the archbishop said he couldn’t meet with GlobalPost. The Catholic Church has a long history of secrecy in matters related to sex abuse allegations, reaffirmed by a 2001 confidential apostolic letter written by Pope John Paul II. The letter clarified that all cases of sexual abuse by priests were to be handled by the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, an internal affairs unit of the Catholic Church, which was then headed by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (who became pope in 2005). The letter also reasserted that all such cases must be kept strictly confidential under the “pontifical secret,” a move that has been heavily criticized ever since. In August, Livia Maria de Sousa, a federal prosecutor in Fortaleza, told GlobalPost that her staff had interviewed three people who formerly lived in Van Dael’s orphanage, as part of an ongoing investigation against the priest. She said the interviews had uncovered no new evidence against Van Dael, and added that investigators were also scheduled to interview the priest in September. De Sousa lamented that abusive priests too often come to Brazil in search of prey. She said investigating child sex abuse within the church can be frustratingly slow and difficult — especially when suspects are revered as moral icons, and victims are too young to understand sexual contact. Children play soccer outside the city of Caucaia, in northeastern Brazil. Credit: Jimmy Chalk/GlobalPost “Brazil is a country where Catholicism is very strong and present, and where the people really respect the church, priests, bishops and all religious authorities,” she said. “So it’s very difficult for a child to understand an act, a touch, that might have a sense of exploitation and abuse, and that is in fact abuse.” Van Dael closed down Esperança da Criança a couple of years ago, when the Brazilian authorities changed their policies for housing troubled children. But he continues to come into daily contact with vulnerable children. In doing so, Van Dael draws his legitimacy from the Archdiocese of Fortaleza and, ultimately, the Vatican. Despite years of accusations and investigations, Van Dael said he has never faced a formal investigation by the church. Zero tolerance, double standard Father Paul Madden is an admitted child molester. In the 1970s, Madden, who was then a priest in the Diocese of Jackson, Mississippi, took a trip to Ireland with a 13-year-old boy in his parish. During that trip, according to a lawsuit filed by the victim in 2002, Madden “repeatedly molested and raped” the boy. Father Paul Madden offers communion to a congregant in Puerto Huarmey, Peru. Credit: Jimmy Chalk/GlobalPost An earlier lawsuit, in 1994, ended with a $50,000 payout from the diocese and an apology letter to the victim’s parents, signed by Madden. “Since 1973 I have been plagued with remorse and guilt for my molestation of your son,” reads the letter. “There is no excuse for my actions and I assume responsibility for them as a humble penitent.” In 2003 — soon after the victim’s second lawsuit was dismissed because too much time had passed — Madden joined the Diocese of Chimbote, Peru. In April, GlobalPost found him celebrating his weekly Mass in the tiny, scruffy fishing village of Puerto Huarmey. Approached after the service, Madden again admitted the abuse, though he wouldn’t elaborate on what occurred. “Something happened, I was drunk, and I had never drank before in my life, it was the first time ever, and I woke up in the middle of the night, and … yeah, well, something happened,” he told GlobalPost. Madden expressed remorse for his actions, but said that, in keeping with church teachings, God has forgiven him for his sins. “I feel quite confident in the mercy of God, and I feel quite confident that God forgives all sin,” he said. “If I’m guilty, I’m forgiven.” Still, he’s under no illusions that he’s been pardoned in the eyes of the American public, or even the American Catholic Church. Asked if he could return to work as a priest in the US, Madden, who is originally from Ireland, was clear. “I don’t think so, no, because of this ‘zero policy.’ And this was before — that’s not just from Pope Francis, this came out years before in the US.” Madden was referring to a “zero tolerance” policy on child sex abuse that was approved by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops in 2002. The policy aimed to remove any and all priests who have abused children, no matter how long ago. The small fishing village of Puerto Huarmey, Peru, a few hours drive north of Lima. The church where Father Paul Madden celebrates mass is on the right. Credit: Jimmy Chalk/GlobalPost “When even a single act of sexual abuse by a priest or deacon is admitted or is established after an appropriate process in accord with canon law, the offending priest or deacon will be removed permanently from ecclesiastical ministry,” reads one of the rules approved by the Vatican after the conference. Last year, Pope Francis ostensibly took the US church’s policy global when he wrote a letter to every Catholic bishop in the world stating that they must abide by the zero tolerance rules. But victim advocates say the pope’s message was an exercise in public relations, and that meaningful change is still a long way off. Anne Barrett-Doyle is a founder of BishopAccountability.org, which tracks abusive priests around the world. She said that despite the pope’s letter, it’s still entirely unclear what standards bishops worldwide are now being held to. She said the rules in the US, though far from perfect, remain much more stringent than church doctrine elsewhere. “It’s a lie, it’s absolutely false that there’s anything approaching zero tolerance in the emerging abuse policies around the world,” Barrett-Doyle said. In Peru, Madden’s church superior acknowledged that the new zero tolerance paradigm requires the diocese to act in this case. The church where Father Paul Madden celebrates Mass, in Puerto Huarmey, Peru. Father Madden admitted to molesting a 13-year-old boy, and told GlobalPost he could never again work in the US. Credit: Jimmy Chalk/GlobalPost Interviewed in the city of Chimbote, Vicar General Juan Roger Rodriguez Ruiz, the diocese' second-in-command, said that Bishop Angel Simon Piorno was shocked to learn from GlobalPost about Madden’s past, and would scrutinize the priest in light of the zero tolerance policy. “Some may find it hard, even painful, that the bishop has to investigate a priest, but it has to be done,” Rodriguez said. He added that Madden would be suspended if necessary. However, in mid-August a member of Madden’s parish confirmed to GlobalPost by phone that the priest continued to preach every Sunday. We attempted to confirm this with Rodriguez, but our email and phone calls went unreturned. Disgraced in Minnesota, welcomed back to Ecuador To find Father Francisco “Fredy” Montero, one has to negotiate a deadly, precipitous mountain pass — so high that wisps of cloud sweep past — searching for a village that locals describe vaguely as “very remote” and “out there somewhere in the tropics.” The road, gouged in places by great landslides, weaves down from chilly highlands to the steamy, banana-stuffed interior of central Ecuador’s Bolivar province. Here, an hour’s drive from the nearest small town and several hours from the nearest big city, is the hamlet of Las Naves. The road to Las Naves snakes through unpaved mountain passes littered with rocks. Credit: Jimmy Chalk/GlobalPost On Google Maps, Las Naves appears as a ring of green jungle. There are no streets, landmarks or homes. It’s wildly different from the broad avenues of Minneapolis, Minnesota, where not long ago Montero made a name for himself as a gregarious priest, church journalist, part-time radio DJ and accused child molester. Montero, then in his mid-30s, had been a popular addition to the Archdiocese of Minneapolis. A quick talker with an easy smile, he charmed the local Hispanic population, helped to found a Spanish-language church newspaper and installed himself as a fixture in his adopted homeland. Father Francisco “Fredy” Montero's mugshot. Credit: Courtesy of Global Post But five years after arriving in a Minnesota blizzard, Montero’s cheerful façade fell apart. In 2007, an official at the archdiocese reported to the Minneapolis Police Department that Montero had been accused of abusing a 4-year-old girl. Detectives arrested the young priest, seizing his computer and other possessions. “Father Fredy,” as he was known to parishioners, was hardly the archetypal pious priest. For months, according to a police report, he had been sleeping with at least one adult churchgoer — a witness to the abuse — who later told police she and the priest would have sex on Montero’s desk on a daily basis. The little girl, who is not being identified at the request of her mother, was interviewed by a forensic psychologist and by other experts with the Hennepin County Child Protection Services. They concluded Montero had, indeed, abused the girl. Later, when Montero appealed that finding, the agency upheld it, according to a diocese document obtained by GlobalPost. Police investigators searched through Montero’s computer, looking for evidence of child pornography. But prosecutors eventually decided there simply wasn’t enough evidence to charge the priest with a crime. Almost immediately, Montero flew back to Ecuador. Sgt. Darren Blauert, the Minneapolis detective who investigated Montero, said although there were no charges brought, something happened to the child that was “very inappropriate.” He expressed serious concern that Montero had been allowed to continue to work with children. “There was enough that I would be very concerned that this person was continuing what he was doing,” Blauert said. GlobalPost's trip to far-flung Guaranda, where Montero is now based, serves as a reminder of what a huge, sprawling institution the Catholic Church is, and how challenging it might seem to police priests who span the globe. The city of Guaranda, Ecuador, the capital of the mountainous Bolivar Province. Credit: Jimmy Chalk/GlobalPost But thanks to the internet, for many priests a background check is only a few clicks away. BishopAccountability.org maintains a database of more than 6,400 clerics who have been credibly accused of child sexual abuse in the United States. The database contains extensive information about Montero, Madden, Van Dael and many other priests who have avoided scrutiny by simply getting on a plane and flying to a new country. In Montero’s case, there was no need to even double-check the priest’s background in those online records. Court documents show that the Minnesota accusations followed him to Ecuador. A dossier sent from the Archdiocese of Minneapolis to Guaranda warned the South American diocese of Montero’s past. Archdiocese officials also reported the alleged abuse to the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican’s internal investigators. But Montero was apparently able to shrug off his past once he arrived back in his native Ecuador. After a brief hiatus, during which he said he was employed as a journalist, Montero was placed in a succession of remote local parishes in the diocese of Guaranda, where he continued to celebrate Mass and interact extensively with young people. He eventually stopped working as a priest a couple of years ago — not because of the accusations against him or the potential harm he might inflict on children, but because he decided to run for mayor of Las Naves. The local bishop decided politics and priesthood weren’t a good mix, he said. One of the main streets of Guaranda, a city in central Ecuador and the home diocese of Father Montero. Credit: Jimmy Chalk/GlobalPost Bishop Angel Sanchez, who welcomed Montero back to Guaranda, now heads a different diocese in Ecuador. He said in a telephone interview that at the time Montero returned to Ecuador he was aware of the accusations against the priest in the US. But Sanchez said he was confident of Montero’s innocence, since the case against him was “not concrete,” and the priest was never criminally charged. The bishop also confirmed that, to his knowledge, Montero was not investigated further by the Vatican after arriving in Ecuador. Victim advocates say Montero’s case is a textbook example of how the Catholic Church is shirking its responsibility to protect children. Zero tolerance policies are one thing, but without meaningful implementation by local bishops — the Vatican’s footmen and enforcers in communities — church doctrines make little difference, according to Clohessy, the director of SNAP. “There’s no checks and balances,” Clohessy said. “It’s like having speed limits with no cops.” A reporter confronts Montero after spotting him driving by with a truck full of young people. Credit: Jimmy Chalk/GlobalPost Minneapolis attorney Jeff Anderson agrees. Anderson, who has spent three decades suing priests and church officials for covering up child abuse, brought a lawsuit against Montero in 2007 and has kept track of the Ecuadorean priest in recent years. Anderson said the onus to protect children was on the bishops of Guaranda and Minneapolis, whom he claims let Montero flee to Ecuador without being held accountable. And the ultimate responsibility for protecting children from predator priests, he says, lies with the Vatican. “Until this pope removes top officials in these crimes and sends a message that he is serious, nothing seems to change,” Anderson said. “Until this pope turns over all the documents and all the offenders who they know are offenders and are in ministry and turn them over to law enforcement across the globe, there seems to be little that is being done or changed.” David Joles, the father of the young girl whom Montero allegedly abused, finds it hard to talk about his disgust for the Catholic Church, and the pain Montero’s actions brought him and his family. David Joles. Credit: Jimmy Chalk/GlobalPost “Sometimes she would bring him up out of the blue,” he said. “She’d be riding in the car, sitting in the back seat and say things like, ‘Father Fredy kissed me on the lips.’” In 2011, Joles’ daughter died from an inoperable brain tumor. She was 8 years old. In the pain and anguish he’s had to endure since her passing, Joles is sickened that the man he says so bruised his daughter’s short life is still walking free, and could return to the pulpit at any time. “I began to see the way [church officials] operate,” Joles said. “It was big business and from their point of view it seemed like the individual was always secondary to the business, and [my daughter] was just but one kid, one individual who had been harmed by a priest, but that Catholicism and the church was more important than people like [her].” Back in Ecuador, GlobalPost confronted Montero. After waiting for hours in Las Naves, we eventually spotted him on the narrow road leading into town. His Chevy pickup truck was overflowing with children, whom he had just taken to a local soccer tournament. Initially reluctant, Montero eventually agreed to an interview on the side of the street in Las Naves. He stressed that he wasn’t hiding from anyone, and said he’d spent years working with children without any other accusations. He denied that the alleged abuse took place. “There was an accusation, but there was no evidence,” he said. A shady departure, a new commission, and a new tribunal The Catholic Church has suffered grievously from the child sex abuse crisis in the US. The scandal has coincided with a decline in US Catholics' Mass attendance, and church officials acknowledge that it has contributed to a sharp global decline of young people joining the ministry. While the portion of Americans identifying themselves as Catholic has remained relatively stable, these days only about 27 percent say they are “strong” Catholics, down more than 15 points since the mid-1980s. Over the past 50 years, the number of US priests has also declined by about a third, according to the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate, a Georgetown University-affiliated research center. In contrast, the worldwide Catholic population has remained consistent at about 17 percent. Early in Pope Francis’s papacy, there’s hope that the church is ready for meaningful change to protect children. Still, there’s already evidence that the pope appears unwilling to publicly confess to the church’s sins. Consider the case of Father Carlos Urrutigoity, once one of the four most powerful churchmen in Paraguay. Urrutigoity had a big problem: He’d been accused of sexually abusing young men in two different dioceses in the US. In 2014, following reports by BishopAccountability.org, GlobalPost traveled to Paraguay to confront Urrutigoity, who had been promoted to second-in-command of the diocese of Ciudad del Este in the country's east. GlobalPost found Urrutigoity celebrating Mass in the lavish surroundings of a major church there. He answered questions without hesitation, claiming that the accusations in his past were all lies. The enigmatic vicar general shrugged off with a smile the public claim by the bishop of Scranton, Pennsylvania that he posed a “serious threat to young people.” One month after GlobalPost published its investigation on Urrutigoity, the Vatican sent a cardinal and a bishop to Paraguay on a well-publicized visit. The purpose of the trip was shrouded in secrecy, but a few weeks later, both Urrutigoity and the bishop of Ciudad del Este who had sheltered and promoted him were removed from the diocese by the Vatican. Occurring just a year after Pope Francis rose to power, the move gave observers hope that the Vatican was finally getting serious about condemning and stamping out child abuse across the Catholic Church. South American activists in particular were hopeful that the Argentine pope was sending a signal by dismissing Urrutigoity, a fellow Argentine. But a Vatican spokesman was quick to tell reporters that these dismissals had more to do with internal church politics than cleaning up abuse. Urrutigoity’s apparent wrongdoing has so far gone unacknowledged by the church, and his alleged victims continue to suffer without the solace of justice. There have been some positive steps, however. Last year, in addition to holding a well-publicized meeting with victims of abuse by priests, Pope Francis announced the creation of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors. And in June the Vatican announced it was setting up a new system of tribunals to hear cases of bishops accused of protecting or covering up child abuse by priests. GlobalPost tried for weeks to interview Boston’s Cardinal Sean Patrick O’Malley, who chairs the commission and proposed the new tribunals to the pope. His staff insisted that our story was outside the cardinal’s, and the commission’s, purview. Numerous calls and emails to the Vatican press office went unreturned. Pope Francis talks with Cardinal Sean Patrick O'Malley as they arrive at the Vatican on Feb. 13, 2015. Credit: Tony Gentile/Reuters Peter Saunders, a lay member of the new pontifical commission and an advocate for victims of sexual abuse by priests, said the priests GlobalPost tracked down are exactly the sort of cases the Catholic Church, and new commission, need to be focusing on. “Zero tolerance is meaningless unless it applies to the whole institution,” he said. “Arguably, some of the biggest problems are in the less well-off parts of the world, South America, Africa, the Far East. This is where we know many priests flee to in order to carry on their abuse, which is an absolute outrage.” Saunders acknowledged that the commission’s remit is still a little fuzzy. “We’re all scratching our heads a bit,” he said. But he also expressed new optimism that a crisis he’s been sounding the alarm about for decades will be addressed. “I have to remain hopeful until my hopes are dashed,” he said. “This is a new future for the church.” When the church does nothing: “I wanted to kill him” Throughout her early adulthood, Jennifer had terrible nightmares. “She just kept dreaming of this man chasing her and chasing her. She kept spiraling down into a black hole,” her mother recalled in a recent interview with GlobalPost in San Antonio, Texas. The man hunted her down, into the depths of the hole, until she woke up screaming, Jennifer’s mother said. Eventually, the mother told her daughter to try to keep the dream going, and to spin around inside it and confront the man who chased her through her nights. Then the daughter had a startling revelation. The man in the dream was the same man she says sexually abused her in front of a stained glass window years before. “She said it was Father Fred,” the mother said: Federico Fernandez Baeza. Federico Fernandez Baeza. Credit: Universidad de San Buenaventura Cartagena In 1987, Fernandez was indicted by a grand jury on two second-degree felony charges of indecency with a child. The charges stemmed from his alleged abuse of two boys over two years. A year later, Fernandez was negotiating a plea bargain with prosecutors, the family’s lawyer told local media. He had offered to plead guilty to the two counts of indecency in exchange for a 10-year suspended sentence and the promise that he would stay away from children and seek psychiatric help, the attorney told reporters. But Fernandez and the Diocese of San Antonio’s lawyers were also negotiating a cash settlement with the family on the side, for more than $1 million, according to media reports. Just before the plea bargain was to be heard in court, the cash settlement was finalized. Its terms were sealed and remain a secret. A few days later, a district judge rejected Fernandez’s plea bargain. She told reporters that she rejected the deal because she did not believe the defendant should get special treatment because he was a priest. But Fernandez never faced a trial. After his plea deal was rejected, the San Antonio prosecutors suddenly dropped their case against him. The United Press International news agency quoted Bexar County District Attorney Fred Rodriguez as saying that prosecutors were looking out for the best interests of the victims, and that their family “had already been victimized once.” In asking for a dismissal, prosecutors told the judge that a trial would have been too traumatic for the children, the agency reported. Fernandez, so close to pleading guilty to child sexual abuse, was free. This judicial snafu so incensed one Texas state legislator that he introduced a bill that would bar victims of sexual abuse who receive cash settlements from later refusing to testify in criminal cases. "State laws need to be changed so the guilty offender will not be able to buy off the victim and go free," state Rep. Jerry Beauchamp told a San Antonio newspaper in 1989. But the bizarre story of Federico Fernandez Baeza wasn’t yet over. In 2011, Humberto Leal, a Mexican national on death row in Texas for raping and bludgeoning to death a 16-year-old girl in 1995 (a crime he denied committing), suddenly told his attorneys he had been molested as a child by Fernandez. Leal told a forensic psychologist that the abuse began with inappropriate touching, and ended with anal rape when he was in 5th grade. The abuse revelations inspired a campaign for clemency from others who said Fernandez had abused them as well. Leal’s legal team then found several more alleged victims of the priest. One was Jennifer. Months later, Leal was executed by lethal injection in Huntsville, Texas. In GlobalPost’s investigation, finding Fernandez wasn’t particularly difficult. We tracked him down at the Universidad de San Buenaventura in Cartagena, where he holds the position of secretary, the second-highest administrative rank according to the university’s website. Fernandez had been serving as a high-profile priest in Colombia since leaving the US in disgrace. He regularly posts “Sunday Reflections” on the website of a large church in Bogota, and when he joined the university in 2014, the appointment was announced online, complete with a photo of a grinning Fernandez. After flying to Cartagena to meet him, GlobalPost discovered that speaking to Fernandez would be far harder than finding him. This map shows the paths traveled by the priests we tracked after sex abuse allegations were made against them in US and European dioceses. Credit: GlobalPost A guard at the university’s front gate called someone in Fernandez’s office, then informed us the priest was traveling, and prevented us from entering. During a game of cat-and-mouse that lasted several days and included hours of staking out the university entrance, three university officials confirmed that the priest had indeed been there when we asked to interview him. One of those officials, University Vice President Jorge Valdez, informed us the priest had not left town until the second morning. We also received several anonymous emails and phone calls from someone identifying themselves as “Limpieza Unidos” (which translates roughly to “Cleaning Together”) who claimed to be a university employee. The messages started arriving shortly after GlobalPost emailed Fernandez’s colleagues at the university. “I understand that you’re looking for Father Federico Fernandez and he’s hiding from you,” one email read. “I can tell you that he’s here at the university.” After two brief phone conversations, Limpieza Unidos stopped answering the phone or responding to emails. Calls to the cellphone number for Fernandez that the source provided were also not picked up. Outside the university gates, students expressed disgust and disbelief that an accused child abuser was employed as a top administrator at their school. “Just like in the United States, that’s a crime here too. Sadly, they haven’t told us any of this, they’re showing us a different façade,” said 21-year-old microbiology student Jessie Palomino. “It just makes you think, what is the church doing about these cases?” added her friend, 20-year-old Ena Acosta. Back in San Antonio, other Catholics were wondering the same thing. Jennifer’s father told GlobalPost he remains deeply distressed by the nightmares that haunted his daughter. He said his family life has long revolved around the local church. (He asked not to be identified out of concern about backlash from parishioners.) A former military man, he said he thought many times about taking matters into his own hands. He said he had tried to get postings near Fernandez, so he could slip across the border into Colombia in pursuit of the priest. “I was going to kill him,” Jennifer’s father said. “I think the whole Catholic Church has failed us, especially around this community. And I’m talking about the orders, the bishops, the cardinals, everybody involved in the Church. They know they have a problem, but they continue to let these things happen.”

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