Marian Anderson was the first African American to perform with the New York Metropolitan Opera.

Marian Anderson was one of the most celebrated American singers of the twentieth century. She became an important figure in the struggle for black artists to overcome racial prejudice in the United States. She was recognized and adored for her talent as a recitalist and for the warmth, grace, and dignity that she embodied professionally and personally.

Marian Anderson was born on February 27, 1897, in Philadelphia, to John Berkley Anderson and Annie Delilah Rucker. Her father died when Marian was only ten. He had been accidentally struck on the head while at work at the Reading Terminal, just a few weeks before Christmas of 1909, dying of heart failure a month later at age 34.

Marian's mother went to work cleaning and doing laundry to support her three daughters. Marian was determined to give something back to her mother and began with the very first $5 she earned singing. 

The Union Baptist Church in Philadelphia, her family belonged, gave Marian her start as a singer in the choir, and continued to support her throughout her early career. Marian could not afford lessons with a professional voice teacher, so the church gave a concert to raise the money for her lessons. Her early career as a soloist grew from her performances at the invitation of other churches and church groups who had heard her sing at her church in Philadelphia.

Marian won first prize in the New York Philharmonic voice competition in 1925, and was immediately signed by a concert manager.

In 1939, the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR), refused permission for Anderson, to sing to an integrated audience in their Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C. Thousands of DAR members, including First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, resigned from the organization because of this.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Walter White, executive secretary of the NAACP, helped arrange an open-air concert on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial for Anderson. The concert had a crowd of more than 75,000 people and a radio audience was in the millions.

During World War II and the Korean War, Anderson entertained troops in hospitals and bases.

Later in 1955, she became the first African American to perform with the New York Metropolitan Opera. This was the only time she sang opera on stage.

In 1957, Anderson sang at the inauguration of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who later made her a goodwill ambassador. Anderson worked for several years as a delegate to the United Nations Human Rights Committee giving concerts all over the world.

She participated in the civil rights movement in the 1960's. Anderson sang at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. The same year, she was one of the original 31 recipients of the newly re instituted Presidential Medal of Freedom. Anderson began her farewell tour at Constitution Hall on October 24, 1964. It ended at Carnegie Hall on April 18, 1965.

Anderson died of congestive heart failure on April 8, 1993, at age 96. She had suffered a stroke a month earlier. She died in Portland, Oregon, at the home of her nephew, conductor James DePreist. She is interred at Eden Cemetery, in Collingdale, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Philadelphia.

The Dating Game Killer: Pt. 3 Long Rode To Justice

With the trial in 1984, the jury found Alcala guilty of first-degree murder in Robin's death. He received the death penalty, which was overturned by the California Supreme court. They felt, by learning of Alcala’s past sex crimes, that the jury was prejudiced. It took six years put him back on trial.

After after Alcala's first was overturned, he was tried and convicted a second time in 1986. He was sentenced to death, but once again, the verdict was overturned by Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals panel in 2001.

31 years after the murder, Orange County Senior Deputy District Attorney Matt Murphy, who in 1979, was about the same age as Robin Samsoe, had the task of putting together the case again. 

“The ’70s in California was insane as far as treatment of sexual predators. Rodney Alcala is a poster boy for this. It is a total comedy of outrageous stupidity,”

Murphy said in 2010.

Alcala announced that he would be his own lawyer in his third trial.

He asked himself questions, referring to himself as “Mr. Alcala”, in a deep voice, which he would then answer. This would continue for five hours. He used an Arlo Guthrie song as part of his closing argument.

This time investigators had concrete evidence against him on four different murders from decades past, thanks to the prison’s DNA swabs. The prosecution was able to combine these new murder charges along with Robin Samsoe.

There was also a surprise witness at his sentencing,Tali Shapiro, the girl that Alcala had raped and beaten within an inch of her life about 40 years before.

The court handed Alcala the death penalty again, for the third time. Justice for Robin Samsoe, 12; Jill Barcomb, 18; Georgia Wixted, 27; Charlotte Lamb, 31; and Jill Parenteau, 21, had finally been achieved.

Investigators have continued to link the “Dating Game Killer” to many other cold case murders.

Rodney Alcala has not been executed and sits on death row in Corcoran State Prison, California, planning an appeal for his third death sentence.

"I want it carried out," 

Robin's mother says.

"I wanna live one day longer than him. I wanna live one day without feeling or hearing the name Rodney Alcala in my mind. I could die a happy woman."

Will the third time be the charm?

The Dating Game Killer Pt. 2: A Killer Is Born

Rodney Alcala was born Rodrigo Jacques Alcala Buquor in San Antonio, Texas, to Raoul Alcala Buquor and Anna Maria Gutierrez. In 1951, Alcala's father moved the family to Mexico. He abandoned them there three years later. His mother then moved Alcala and his sister to suburban Los Angeles.

In 1960, at age 17, Alcala entered the Army as a clerk. After a nervous breakdown, he went AWOL and hitchhiked to his mother's house. He was diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder by a military psychiatrist and discharged on medical grounds. 

Then Alcala, with an IQ of 135, went on to attend UCLA School of Fine Arts.

It wouldn't be long before Alcala dove into a dark path.

At his first known attempt at killing, the victim was Tali Shapiro, an eight-year-old girl he’d lured into his Hollywood apartment in 1968. Shapiro barely survived her rape and beating with a steel bar.

Her life saved by a passing motorist, who’d reported a tip to police on a possible abduction. Alcala had fled and moved to New York where he used the alias John Berger to enroll in film school at New York University.

In June 1971, Cornelia Michel Crilley, a 23-year-old TWA flight attendant, was found raped and strangled in her Manhattan  apartment. Her murder went unsolved until it was connected to Alcala in 2011.

In 1971, he obtained a counseling job at a New Hampshire arts camp for children using a slightly different alias, "John Burger". After being recognized by kids from the arts camp, from an FBI poster, Alcala was finally identified and arrested in 1971,  only sent to prison on charges of assault due to Shapiro's parents not letting her testify. After spending three years behind bars, he soon spent another two years in prison for assaulting a 13-year-old girl identified in court records as "Julie J."

He was paroled again and flight risk Alcala traveled to New York to “visit relatives.”

This is where he killed a college student named Elaine Hover who was the daughter of a popular Hollywood nightclub owner and goddaughter of both Sammy Davis Jr. and Dean Martin.
Her remains were found buried on the grounds of the Rockefeller Estate in Westchester County.

Soon after, Alcala got a job at the Los Angeles Times as a typesetter, in 1978, under his real name. At night he lured in young girls and boys to be part of his professional photography portfolio. Some of them were never to be heard from again. 

“The best time is at night.” 

Alcala told Cheryl on "The Dating Game."

A year after his Dating Game appearance, 17-year-old Liane Leedom walked away unscathed from a photo shoot with Alcala. He showed her his portfolio. Police have since released parts of it  to the public to aid in victim identification. The photos are still available to view HERE.

During this time, he was interviewed by members of the Hillside Strangler task force, but was later ruled out.

The case that would finally put an end to Alcala’s killing spree was that of 12-year-old Robin Samsoe.

Robin Christine Samsoe was a 12-year-old girl from Huntington Beach, California. She was born on December 13th, 1966. Robin loved ballet, she loved dancing and gymnastics.

"She was probably the most loving child a mother could have. Everything she did, she did to please me," 

her mother said.

"I loved her warmth."

Robin's friend, Bridget, said that a stranger approached them on the beach and asked if they’d want to do a photo shoot. Bridget recalled,

"And all of a sudden, out of nowhere, pops up Jackie Young, my neighbor. She goes, 'Bridget, is everything OK? Are you girls alright?' And man, he took that camera, turned his head down, and you could almost see, like, smoke comin' off his dress shoes. He just - he was gone." 

Shaken, Robin borrowing Bridget's bike, hurried to get to ballet.That was the last time anyone saw Robin alive. When her ballet teacher called to say she hadn't made it to class, her family immediately called 911.

Nearly 12 days later, a fire crew conducting routine fire prevention maintenance, had found Robin Samsoe's animal-ravaged remains in a remote location more than 40 miles from where she was last seen.

The pressure was on to find the killer.

Upon questioning Bridget, a police sketch artist drew up a composite.

Alcala’s former parole officer recognized the face. Between the sketch, Alcala’s criminal past, and the discovery of Robin’s earrings in Alcala’s Seattle storage locker, police felt confident that they had the right guy.

It had been nearly 11 years since Alcala had left 8-year-old Tali Shapiro for dead. Alcala was easy to find this time. He lived with his parents in Monterey Park, close to the mountains where Robin's remains were located.

Beth Kelleher was Alcala's girlfriend at the time. She said that,

"Rodney Alcala is an intelligent - well-mannered, pleasant, fun, outgoing, great individual."

She also talked about how much she loved him.

The Road To Justice

The Dating Game Killer Pt. 1

It was September 13, 1978, "Dating Game" host, Jim Lange, introduced Bachelor No. 1, Rodney Alcala as 

"a successful photographer who got his start when his father found him in the darkroom at the age of 13, fully developed. Between takes,you might find him skydiving or motor-cycling."

Out of all three bachelors, the bachelorette on the show, Cheryl picked Alcala and if it wasn't a jolt of intuition, she might have been one of his victims.

After the show ended, she conversed with Alcala backstage. He offered her a date she’d never forget, but a weird feeling was stirring in the pit of Cheryl's stomach.

“I started to feel ill,”  

claimed Cheryl.

“He was acting really creepy. I turned down his offer. I didn’t want to see him again.”

Cheryl wasn't the only one that felt that way. Contests and the host alike, stated that he was different back stage. That he was creepy, didn't make eye contact and was quiet. When he did speak he was condescending and argumentative. He acted like he was right and that everyone else was wrong.

It's too bad the popular dating show hadn't performed background checks on their bachelors. Had they done so they would have discovered Alcala's disturbing past.  Alcala had already spent three years in prison for raping and beating an eight-year-old girl. He’d also done the same to a 13-year-old, which landed him on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives List.

Other scary fact, Alcala’s was the perpetrator for four prior murders that he hadn’t been definitively linked to yet.

Cheryl's rejection probably only fueled the fire of his devious mind.

Alcala, in total, before and after his television appearance, the sadistic “Dating Game Killer” claimed that he killed between 50 and 100 people.

A Monster Is Born

Missing Kelsey Berreth's Parents File Wrongful Death Suit Against Her Accused Killer

Kelsey Berreth has not been seen since surveillance video captured her entering a Safeway grocery store with the couple's 1-year-old daughter on Thanksgiving, 2018. 

On December 21st, 2018, the father her child, Patrick Frazee, was arrested in connection with her disappearance and her possible death.

Now Kelsey's parents, Cheryl-Lee and Darrell Berreth, have filed wrongful death lawsuit against Patrick. According to the lawsuit, "Upon information and belief, Frazee committed and/or collaborated to commit the murder of Kelsey Berreth. This action seeks damages against Frazee for his actions to murder and/or collaboration to murder Kelsey Berreth."

Berreth's parents request a trial by jury in the lawsuit, which does not mention a specific dollar amount.

Idaho Nurse Questioned In Kelsey Berreth's Disappearance

Kyrstal Kenney Lee is a registered nurse at St. Lukes Health System in Twin Falls County, Idaho. Kyrstal reportedly knew Kelsey's fiance, Patrick Frazee, who has been accused of Kelsey's murder. 

Now Kyrstal is possibly connected to the death of a missing 29-year-old Woodland Park woman.
Krystal was placed on administrative leave at the hospital where she works.

Frazee met Kyrstal, a divorced mother of two, at a rodeo and the two were romantically involved.

Tonya Harding Finally Admitted She Had Prior Knowledge Of The Attack On Nancy Kerrigan

On January 6th, 1994,  after a practice session at Cobo Hall in Detroit and just one day before the Olympics, Ice skater Nancy Kerrigan is attacked by Tonya Harding's bodyguard.

Tonya has long denied she knew about a plan to injure Nancy at the 1994 U.S. Figure Skating Championships.

Last year Tonya came clean in Truth and Lies: The Tonya Harding Story that aired on ABC. She still denied having any involved in the assault against Nancy. Tonya did say however, that she overheard her ex-husband Jeff Gillooly and his friend, Shawn Eckard talking about "taking somebody out" to ensure that Tonya would make the 1994 U.S. Olympic team.

"It popped in my head two or three days after we got back that Gillooly and Eckardt were involved," 

Tonya said in the interview.

Princess Diana Broke With Tradition and Upset the Queen.

Queen Elizabeth II was “so upset” over Princess Diana’s decision to move Prince William and Harry away from Balmoral, according to royal author Katie Nicholls.

In the book Katie wrote back in 2010 "William and Harry,: Behind the Palace Walls", she describes how the Prince and Princess of Wales often took William and Harry to the Queen’s estate at Balmoral, especially during the New Year’s holidays.

It was usual for all the royal family to stay in the main house at Balmoral together, however Princess Diana broke with that tradition and moved a mile away into Craigowan Lodge.

She write about Princess Diana allegedly complained secretly to Prince Charles about feeling suffocated at Balmoral and needing space.

And how the the Queen had “obliged”, “knowing it was best not to antagonize her daughter-in-law”, and offered the use of the lodge.

In the Book Katie also write about how the Queen's cousin said that the Queen was crestfallen and upset and wondered why Princess Diana wanted to moved the children when they seemed so happy at Balmoral.

O.J. Simpson Punked by Sacha Baron Cohen

On last years finale episode of HBO's "Who Is America?"
Sacha Baron Cohen, heavily disguised as a fictional Italian playboy named "Gio", met with O.J. in a Las Vegas Hotel room with hidden cameras rolling. 
Sacha tried to get O.J. to admit that he killed his deceased wife, Nicole Brown Simpson.

Inside Edition

Fashion Designer Marc Jacobs Is Getting Sued By The Band Nirvana

In 1992, Marc Jacobs was 29 years old designer for the American sportswear label Perry Ellis. He seemed unable to find a clear vision for the brand, or for himself. One runway show changed his life.

His 1993 spring “grunge” collection referenced the music scene that had sprung up in the US Pacific Northwest. Critics hated the plaid shirts, striped knits, and floral maxi dresses, accessorized with beanies and Converse sneakers that looked like it came from a thrift store. Perry Ellis let Jacobs go soon after. Oddly, the show elevated his career.

Last November reissued the collection under his own label with the use of Nirvana's "Smiley Face” logo drawn by Kurt Cobain.

This has landed him at the receiving end of a lawsuit.

On Dec. 28, 2018, Nirvana filed a complaint in a California court accusing the Marc Jacobs brand of copyright infringement.
The suit concerns a graphic in the reissued grunge collection with a strong resemblance to the Smiley face logo that was trademarked some time around 1992.