1972 -- Alcala is convicted in the 1968 rape and beating of an 8-year-old girl.
Nov. 10, 1977 -- The body of 18-year-old Jill Barcomb is found in the Hollywood Hills. She had been sexually assaulted, bludgeoned and strangled with a pair of blue pants.
Dec. 16, 1977 -- Georgia Wixted, 27, a registered nurse, is found beaten to death at her home in Malibu. She had been sexually assaulted and strangled.
1978 - Alcala appears in an episode of "The Dating Game" as Bachelor No. 1.
June 24, 1978 -- Charlotte Lamb, 32, a legal secretary from Santa Monica, is found in the laundry room of an El Segundo apartment complex. She had been sexually assaulted and strangled with a shoelace.
June 14, 1979 -- Jill Parenteau, 21, of Burbank is found raped and strangled on the floor of her Burbank apartment.
June 20, 1979 - Robin Samsoe, 12, disappears near the Huntington Beach Pier. Her body is found 12 days later in the Sierra Madre foothills.
July 24, 1979 -- Rodney James Alcala, an unemployed photographer, is arrested at his parents' Monterey Park home.
June 20, 1980 -- Orange County Superior Court Judge Philip E. Schwab sentences Alcala to death after he is convicted of murder in the Robin Samsoe case.
July 11, 1980 -- The Los Angeles County district attorney's office files murder, burglary and sexual assault charges against Alcala in the slaying of Parenteau.
September 1980 - Alcala is convicted of the 1978 rape of a 15-year-old Riverside girl and sentenced to nine years in state prison.
April 15, 1981 -- The D.A.'s office tells a judge that prosecution of Alcala in the Parenteau case can't proceed because a key witness admitted that he had committed perjury in another case.
Aug. 23, 1984 -- The state Supreme Court reverses Alcala's murder conviction in connection with Robin, ruling that the jury was improperly told about Alcala's previous sex crimes.
June 20, 1986 -- For the second time, Alcala is convicted of Robin's murder and sentenced to death in Orange County Superior Court.
Dec. 31, 1992 -- The California Supreme Court unanimously upholds Alcala's death sentence.
April 2, 2001 -- A federal appellate court overturns Alcala's conviction, ruling that the Superior Court judge precluded the defense from presenting evidence "material to significant issues."
June 5, 2003 -- The L.A. County district attorney's office files murder charges against Alcala alleging that he killed Wixted during a burglary and rape.
October 2003 -- The Orange County district attorney's office refiles murder charges in the Robin Samsoe case.
Sept. 19, 2005 -- Additional murder charges are filed against Alcala in connection with the deaths of Barcomb, Wixted and Lamb.
Jan. 11, 2010 -- Alcala's trial in the five murders begins.
