NEW YORK CITY — Convicted California serial killer and onetime "Dating Game" contestant Rodney Alcala has pleaded guilty to murdering two New York women in the 1970s, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. announced Friday.
Alcala, 69, was serving time in California on separate murder charges, but he was brought to New York in June after investigators reopened the murder cases of Cornelia Crilley and Ellen Hover and determined Alcala was the most likely suspect.
"Rodney Alcala's victims were never forgotten," Vance said in a statement. "I hope today's guilty plea provides some measure of closure for the victims' families and loved ones."
Alcala admitted that in 1971 he raped and strangled Crilley, a 23-year-old flight attendant, in her Upper East Side apartment, according to the DA.
Alcala also said that in 1977 he killed Hover, another 23-year-old living in Manhattan, whose body was found in Westchester.
Both murders went cold until 2010, when investigators reopened the cases and released hundreds of portraits taken by Alcala in hopes of finding new leads.
Alcala was on death row in California for murdering four women and a 12-year-old girl.
Alcala's sentencing hearing is expected to occur on Jan. 7, 2013.