LOS ANGELES, Sept. 20 (UPI) -- A man jailed 25 years for allegedly killing a California girl now is accused of being a serial killer in the 1970s slayings of four Los Angeles County women.
Prosecutors said they used DNA evidence, which 62-year-old Rodney James Alcala was compelled to provide under California law, to link him to the decades-old slayings.
"He belongs right up there" in a list of serial killers, Los Angeles Police Detective Cliff Shepard told the Los Angeles Times. "Him being behind bars since 1979 probably saved a lot of lives."
The killings occurred at a time when Southern California was terrorized by serial killers. Initially, police suspected at least one of the women was linked to the Hillside Strangler.
Prosecutors said they would try to combine the four slayings with Alcala's third Orange County, Calif., trial in the 1979 killing of Robin Samsoe, 12, of Huntington Beach, Calif.
Defense attorneys said they would try to keep the trials separate.
Authorities said Alcala also is suspected in at least two slayings in New York State.
