Serial killer indicted in '70s NYC slayings

A cold-case unit at Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr.'s office Thursday indicted a serial killer already serving a life sentence for five California murders.

Rodney Alcala, 67, was indicted in the 1970s slayings of Cornelia M. Crilley and Ellen J. Hover, both 23.

Crilley, a Trans World Airlines flight attendant, was living in Manhattan when she was found dead - raped and strangled - in her East Side apartment in 1971. Hover also was living in Manhattan; her body was found in Westchester County in 1977.

"These two victims were smart, bright and lively women," Vance said.

Alcala was a person of interest in the women's deaths from the start, and again was suspected by detectives in the early 2000s, investigators said. He's been in prison in California since the 1970s, and is known as the "Dating Game Killer" because he appeared on the television game show amid the initial probe.

Vance's cold-case unit is reviewing 3,000 cases that may include unsolved homicides on Long Island. The office would not say if it included the case of four women found dead near Gilgo Beach.

The unit, which includes the nation's leading DNA experts in new forensic technology, will review cases from the early 1970s, with New York City Police Department detectives and other law-enforcement agencies that may include Nassau and Suffolk police.