The Ellen Hover murder was the 1977 killing of a 23-year-old Manhattan woman by serial killer Rodney Alcala, who lured her from her apartment using the alias “John Berger.” Her skeletal remains were found nearly a year later on a wooded hillside in Westchester County, New York. Investigators suspected Alcala almost immediately, but the case stayed officially unsolved for 33 years, until he pleaded guilty in a Manhattan courtroom in December 2012.
Who Ellen Hover Was
Ellen Jane Hover grew up in Hollywood’s orbit. Her father, Herman Hover, owned Ciro’s, the famous Sunset Strip nightclub, and her godfathers were Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr.1CBS News. Serial Killer Rodney Alcala: The Killing Game She attended Arcadia University, studied biology, and by 1977 was living on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.2Arcadia University. Honoring a Dear Friend
The Day She Disappeared
On July 15, 1977, Hover left her apartment to meet a man she had written down on her calendar as “John Berger.”3ABC News. Dating Game Serial Killer Connected to Victims Decades After Deaths She never came home. When police searched her apartment, they found that calendar entry, and it became the thread that ran through everything that followed.
The FBI recognized “John Berger” right away. Rodney Alcala had used the name in 1971 while working as a camp counselor in New Hampshire, at a time when he was on the FBI’s Most Wanted list.3ABC News. Dating Game Serial Killer Connected to Victims Decades After Deaths Agents tracked him to Los Angeles and questioned him. He admitted meeting Hover on July 15 but denied seeing her afterward. Without a body and without forensic evidence, they could not arrest him.
Finding Her Remains
On June 14, 1978, almost eleven months after Hover vanished, NYPD detective Donald Tasik found her remains on a hillside overlooking the Hudson River, about half a mile west of Phelps Memorial Hospital in North Tarrytown. The site sat on the grounds of the former Rockefeller estate. Tasik had spent nearly three months searching hundreds of acres of rugged woodland before locating the burial.4The New York Times. Skeleton of East Side Woman Found in Westchester
The remains were skeletal and had been buried under heavy rocks. She was identified through dental records and personal items recovered at the scene: two rings, an ankle bracelet, and a barrette.4The New York Times. Skeleton of East Side Woman Found in Westchester A witness had reported seeing a man matching Alcala’s description near the Rockefeller estate with a woman resembling Hover; the man was carrying a camera bag.1CBS News. Serial Killer Rodney Alcala: The Killing Game The burial site was roughly 100 feet from a spot where Alcala was known to have brought another woman for a photography session.5CBS News. Rodney Alcala Case: NYPD Refuses to Release Photos
Why the Case Stalled
Suspicion was one thing. A prosecutable case was another. The advanced decomposition of Hover’s remains meant DNA testing was never possible, so investigators lacked the forensic backbone a jury would expect.6Marie Claire. Rodney Alcala: Dating Game Killer Meanwhile Alcala was arrested in 1979 for the kidnapping and murder of 12-year-old Robin Samsoe in California, and his prosecution there consumed decades of appellate back-and-forth. He was ultimately convicted in 2010 of five California murders and sentenced to death.7Britannica. Rodney Alcala
How the Case Was Finally Solved
The New York cases moved in stages. In 2003, NYPD cold case detectives flew to California with a warrant and took a dental impression from Alcala in prison.8ABC News. Dating Game Killer Alcala Charged With NYC Murders Charges did not follow immediately.
After Alcala’s 2010 California conviction, the Manhattan District Attorney’s cold case unit, led by prosecutors Martha Bashford and Melissa Mourges, opened a full reinvestigation of Hover’s murder and a second Manhattan killing, that of TWA flight attendant Cornelia Michael Crilley in 1971.9New York Post. Manhattan DA Indicts Cold Case Killer Rodney Alcala Investigators interviewed more than 100 witnesses across the country and drew on evidence that had come out at the California trial, including photographs from a storage locker Alcala had rented in Shoreline, Washington.10New York Daily News. Serial Killer Rodney Alcala Linked to Old Slayings in Manhattan That locker held roughly 2,000 photographs of women and children.11Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Three Missing Women Appear in Killer’s Seattle Photos
Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. announced the indictment on January 27, 2011, describing the effort as building the case “one brick at a time.”10New York Daily News. Serial Killer Rodney Alcala Linked to Old Slayings in Manhattan
Guilty Plea and Sentence
Alcala was brought to New York in June 2012 and initially pleaded not guilty.12CNN. Dating Game Killer Case On December 14, 2012, he reversed course and admitted killing both Hover and Crilley.13DNAinfo. Dating Game Killer Rodney Alcala Pleads Guilty to Two NYC Murders He later said he pleaded guilty to speed his return to California, where he wanted access to a laptop and legal records to appeal his death sentence.14CBS News. Serial Killer Rodney Alcala Admits to Two NYC Killings
On January 7, 2013, a Manhattan judge sentenced him to two concurrent terms of 25 years to life, one for each murder, on top of his California death sentence.15CNN. New York Game Show Killer Sentenced He was returned to San Quentin.
What Happened to Rodney Alcala
Alcala died of natural causes on July 24, 2021, at age 77, at a hospital near Corcoran State Prison in California.16California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Condemned Inmate Rodney Alcala Dies of Natural Causes His execution had already been postponed indefinitely under a 2019 moratorium imposed by California’s governor.17ABC News. Dating Game Serial Killer Rodney Alcala Dies on Death Row He was convicted of seven murders in all and suspected in many more.7Britannica. Rodney Alcala A first-degree murder charge for the 1978 killing of Christine Ruth Thornton was still pending in Sweetwater County, Wyoming, at the time of his death; prosecutors there had decided he was too ill to extradite.18The New York Times. Rodney Alcala, the Dating Game Killer, Dies at 77
At Arcadia University, Hover’s college friend Anita Feinberg, fellow alumna Teresa Williams Defilippis, and her former boyfriend Bruce Ditmes established the Ellen Jane Hover Memorial Fund in 2010, now an endowed grant for piano study carrying her name.2Arcadia University. Honoring a Dear Friend