Alcalá

Alcalá (Spanish), Alcalà (Catalan), Alcala and the derivative Arcala are all transliterations of the Arabic word al-qal'a (القلعة), meaning "the citadel" or "fortification". Alcalá, Alcalà or Alcala may also refer to:

People

Places

Colombia

Philippines

Spain

Rodney Alcala

Rodney James Alcala (born Rodrigo Jacques Alcala Buquor; August 23, 1943) is a convicted rapist and serial killer. He was sentenced to death in California in 2010 for five murders committed in that state between 1977 and 1979.

In 2013, he received an additional sentence of 25 years to life after pleading guilty to two homicides in New York in 1971 and 1977. His actual victim count remains unknown and could be much higher.

One police detective called Alcala "a killing machine," and others have compared him to Ted Bundy. A homicide investigator familiar with the evidence speculates that he may have murdered as many as 50 women, while other estimates have run as high as 130.

Prosecutors say that Alcala "toyed" with his victims, strangling them until they lost consciousness, then waiting until they revived, sometimes repeating this process several times before finally killing them. Police found a collection of more than 1,000 photographs taken by Alcala, mostly of women and teenage boys in sexually explicit poses. They speculate that some of his photographic subjects could be additional victims.

Serial killer

A serial killer is a person who murders three or more people, usually due to abnormal psychological gratification, with the murders taking place over more than a month and including a significant break (a "cooling off period") between them. Some sources, such as the FBI, disregard the "three or more" criterion and define serial killing as "a series of two or more murders, committed as separate events, usually, but not always, by one offender acting alone".

Although psychological gratification is the usual motive for serial killing, and most serial killings involve sexual contact with the victim, the FBI states that the motives of serial killers can include anger, thrill, financial gain, and attention seeking. The murders may be attempted or completed in a similar fashion, and the victims may have something in common: age group, appearance, gender, or race, for example.

Serial killing is not the same as mass murdering, nor is it spree killing, in which murders are committed in two or more locations in a short time. However, cases of extended bouts of sequential killings over periods of weeks or months with no apparent "cooling off period" or "return to normalcy" have caused some experts to suggest a hybrid category of "spree-serial killer".

La Puerta

La Puerta is a village in Catamarca Province, Argentina. It is the head of the Ambato Department.

External links

Municipal information: Municipal Affairs Federal Institute (IFAM), Municipal Affairs Secretariat, Ministry of Interior, Argentina. (Spanish)

The Grid

The Grid are an English electronic dance group, consisting of David Ball (formerly of Soft Cell) and Richard Norris, with guest contributions from other musicians. They are best known for the hits "Swamp Thing", "Crystal Clear", "Rollercoaster" and "Floatation".

Band members

History

The Grid formed in London, England in 1988, after both Ball and Norris had worked with Psychic TV on the Jack the Tab – Acid Tablets Volume One album. They recorded the track "Meet Every Situation Head On" together as "M.E.S.H.". The Grid had their first success with their debut single, "Floatation", released on East West Records in 1990. They went on to release a string of ten UK hit singles and four albums, and toured the UK, Europe, Asia and Australia. The group's 1994 album Evolver reached No. 14 in the UK Albums Chart. The lead single from this album, "Swamp Thing", features elaborate banjo lines played by Roger Dinsdale. "Swamp Thing" proved to be a commercial success in the UK, Europe and Australia, reaching No. 3 in the UK and Australia and selling a total of one million copies.