An American serial killer sentenced to death for killing a series of young women has died in prison, NBC News reported.



The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said 77-year-old Rodney James Alcala, who was sentenced to death and imprisoned, died of natural causes early this morning at a hospital in San Wakin Valley.



Alcala was sentenced to death in 2010 for the murder of five young women, including 12-year-old Robin Samso.



Alcala was charged with the abduction and murder of a man named Samso in 1979 and was sentenced to death twice, but both were overturned by a supreme court.



However, with advances in DNA analysis technology in the early 2000s, the serial killers who murdered 18-year-old Jill Bacham and 27-year-old Georgia Wixted in 1977, Charlotte Lam, 32 in 1978, and 21-year-old Jill Perrento in 1979, were discovered. It turned out to be a color.



As a result of the investigation, Alcala sexually assaulted them, then brutally murdered them and mutilating their bodies.



A graduate of the University of California, Los Angeles, Alcala worked as a printer for the Los Angeles Times as an amateur photographer and approached young women to take pictures for contests or assignments.



In particular, in 1978, he appeared in 'The Dating Game', a popular American TV show, and was chosen by a female participant for his humorous and attractive appearance.



This earned him the nickname 'The Dating Game Killer'.



After being sentenced to death in 2010, Alcala was sentenced to life in prison without parole for 25 years in 2013 after being charged with the murder of two women in New York in the 1970s.



Alcala, however, has been imprisoned without execution due to the state government's policy of suspending executions.



Investigators raised the possibility of additional victims by releasing photos of more than 100 young women seized from Alcala in 2010.



Investigators estimate that Alcala may have killed up to 130 people across the United States, the British daily The Guardian reported.



(Photo=YouTube channel 'Serial Killer Worldwide Ⅱ', Yonhap News)