In a closed bedroom with a guy who had lured her and two friends to his home in Los Angeles, Morgan Rowan, who was 16 years old at the time, was absolutely confident that she would pass away. She was terrified and completely alone.
The guy removed his belt and encircled his fist with it before putting it back on.
Rowan, who is now 72 years old, recounts that night in August 1968 that changed his life forever by saying, “I watched his transformation.” The color of his face changed to a purple hue. The belt buckle he was wearing was used to hit me between the eyes. It was then that I fell to my knees and saw the stars flying upward.
In addition to removing his trousers and raping Rowan, the guy shackled her wrists with a necktie, pummeled her until her ribs fractured, and then removed his pants.
“All I wanted was for it to be over,” Rowan said. “I wasn’t praying to be able to survive. I was pleading with God to take my life.
To get access to the building, a buddy smashed through a window.
Rowan raced out from the home, just wearing a shredded shirt, and made her way to an alley nearby, where she and her pals hid in a shed that was made out of a garbage.
Rowan had just managed to get away from a dangerous predator, although she was unaware of it at the time.
Rodney Alcala, a smooth-talking professional photographer who is suspected to have murdered dozens of women in the 1960s and 1970s, was finally convicted of seven murders. He is known as the “Dating Game Killer” because he once appeared on the legendary television program of the same name that aired in the 1970s.
Rowan’s harrowing story of being viciously attacked by him as a teenager and, years later, finding a healing friendship with another survivor in whom she could confide is told in “Surviving the Dating Game Killer” on People Magazine Investigates: Surviving a Serial Killer, which will start airing on May 5 at 9/8 C on ID and will be available to stream on Max.
Rowan had relocated to Upstate New York with her family a few weeks after her assault. She got a letter from a friend in Los Angeles that included a newspaper clipping. The letter said that Alcala, the guy who had attacked her, was sought by the police for the abduction and rape of another child who was only eight years old.
On the morning of September 25, 1968, Tali Shapiro was strolling on Sunset Boulevard. She was wearing a white dress and Mary Jane shoes, and she was ready for school. Alcala convinced her to get into his vehicle and took her to his home, where he knocked her unconscious.
The police arrived at the incident after receiving a tip from a witness who had observed Shapiro get into Alcala’s vehicle. This forced him to depart despite the fact that he was abusing her at the time.
Shapiro, 64, who was discovered by the police in a pool of blood near loss, says that the authorities had the option of either helping him or pursuing him.
After spending more than a month in a coma, Shapiro awakened from her coma. She had no recollection of the assault, and she went on to live for decades without coming to terms with the gravity of what had occurred to her.
In 2010, she provided testimony during Alcala’s trial for the killings of five women, which contributed to his conviction and ensured that he would be incarcerated for the rest of his life. In 2021, he passed away while incarcerated.
That was the moment that Rowan found out that the eight-year-old girl she had read about many years before had managed to live.
Rowan, who eventually reached out to Shapiro on Facebook, says, “I had always felt responsible for her.” Rowan expressed her feelings to Shapiro. “I just wanted to express my deepest regret and say that I should have taken action about it,” she said.
In his statement, Shapiro adds, “I told her there is nothing to forgive.” This is the exclusive responsibility of a single individual, and that individual is a complete and utter evil.
A few hours apart in California, the two ladies started getting together every few months and now consider themselves to be good friends. They reside in different parts of the state.
“Neither of us want to be defined by it,” Rowan adds, despite the fact that their chats initially centered on the traumatic experience that they both had in common. The last time she and Shapiro spoke about Alcala was many years ago. “Tali never considers herself to be a victim, and with her example, I am gaining the ability to see myself as a strong individual as well.”
Shapiro continues by saying, “She is the sister I have always wished I had.” “Our family has been chosen.”
