California's highest court has cleared the way for a convicted serial killer to be brought to New York to face charges in two 1970s killings.

It wasn't clear Thursday when Rodney Alcala, who's awaiting execution in California for five 1970s stranglings, might be brought to a Manhattan court, though the arrangements could take a few weeks. The California Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected his bid to block extradition, according to court records.

A former amateur photographer and TV dating-show contestant who represented himself at his latest trial, the 68-year-old Alcala has been behind bars since his 1979 arrest in California. After a convoluted trail of trials, overturned convictions and bizarre courtroom moments, he was convicted in 2010 of strangling four women and a 12-year-old girl in Southern California. Prosecutors said the killings were accompanied by sexual abuse and torture.

Then the Manhattan district attorney charged Alcala with murdering two 23-year-old women here, one in 1971 and the other in 1978. Alcala had long been suspected in at least one of the deaths. In August, New York's and California's governors signed off on bringing him to New York to face the charges.