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Convicted Serial Killer Rodney Alcala Fighting Extradition To New York

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- A convicted cross-country serial killer is fighting a trip back to New York.

Rodney Alcala, a former amateur photographer who once appeared on "The Dating Game," is facing the death penalty for five grisly murders on the West Coast in the 1970s.

The 68-year-old was indicted in January for two other murders in Manhattan -- the 1971 strangling of Cornelia Crilley, a Trans World Airlines flight attendant, and the death of Ellen Hover, the daughter of comedy writer Herman Hover -- a former Hollywood nightclub owner.

Crilley was found raped and strangled with a pair of stockings in her Manhattan apartment. Hover's remains were found in the woods on a suburban estate in 1978, a year after she disappeared. Both women were 23.

Alcala is arguing that he needs to stay in California to work on his appeal.

Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance is determined to bring Alcala to New York.

"The ends of justice require the arrest and return of Alcala to this state,'' Vance wrote in an extradition request in May which was signed off on by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and California Gov. Jerry Brown in August.

Alcala was originally arrested in 1979 and was convicted twice in one of the California killings. He had both verdicts overturned before his latest conviction in the five California murders last year.

He was found guilty of strangling four women and a 12-year-old girl.

Following the verdict, authorities released over 100 photos of young women and girls found in Alcala's storage locker to determine whether he was involved in cases in New York and other states.

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