Rodney Alcala was a dating show contestant who became a serial killer

Andodney Alcala was tall, charming and handsome – exactly what producers were looking for in a bachelor to compete on their dating game show.

He won because of his charm and witty banter with the show's Bachelorette, Cheryl Bradshaw.

But there was something about her behavior that made Bradshaw uncomfortable, and she ultimately turned down the date—a decision that would have saved her life.

Alcala was 35 years old when he appeared The dating gamee in 1978. By then he had killed at least five people, including a child and a pregnant woman.

doomsday woman A film directed by and starring Anna Kendrick and inspired by appearances on the dating show Alcala, was released on Netflix on Friday.

Before Alcala's arrest in 1979, dating show producers had no idea about his chilling double life as a sadistic serial killer or that he had served time in prison for sexually assaulting and beating an eight-year-old girl.

Between 1971 and 1979, Alcala murdered eight women in New York, California and Wyoming.

His exact death toll is unknown but investigators believe the man dubbed the “Dating Game Killer” killed at least 100 people.

Bradshaw was a drama school teacher when she was selected to be a contestant The dating game In 1978, and chose Alcala.

She was initially smitten by Alcala, but after the show, she turned down the date, telling pageant coordinator Ellen Metzger, “I can't go out with this guy. He's giving off weird vibes. He's so weird. I'm not comfortable.”

“Something about him,” Bradshaw later said in an interview. “I could tell something was wrong.”

Who was Rodney Alcala?

Alcala was born Rodrigo Jacques Alcala-Bucor on August 23, 1943 and lived in Mexico before moving to Los Angeles with his family at the age of eight.

He joined the Army at age 17, but was discharged in 1964 after a nervous breakdown and allegations of sexual misconduct, according to CBS News.

After graduating from the University of California, he attended New York University's film school in 1971.

On September 13, 1978, Alcala appeared dating game, A show that was heavy on innuendo, where three eligible bachelors compete for a date with a bachelorette.

The host introduced him as a “successful photographer” who got his start when his father found him in the darkroom at age 13, fully developed.”

When Bradshaw was asked what kind of food he would be, he replied, “I'm called 'The Banana' and I look so good… peel me.”

Even before he went on the show, Alcala served 34 months in prison for sexually assaulting and beating eight-year-old Tali Shapiro.

But without standard background checks, the show's producers were unaware of his crimes that landed him on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list.

Alcala was finally arrested in July 1979 for the rape and murder of 12-year-old Robin Samso.

His DNA was found in four other Orange County murders.

Victims and convictions

The list of women and girls killed by Alcala is long — and often includes brutal violence, rape and stabbing. Robin Samso, 12, was walking to ballet class in Huntington Beach in 1979 when Alcala kidnapped her, according to Huntington Beach police.

In 2010, Alcala was convicted of five counts of first-degree murder and sentenced to death for Samso's murder as well as the 1977 deaths of 18-year-old Jill Barcomb and 27-year-old Georgia Wixted, a 32-year sentence in 1978, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. the death of aged Charlotte Lamb, and the 1979 death of 21-year-old Jill Parenteau.

Barcombe was an 18-year-old New York transplant who had moved to Los Angeles with aspirations of becoming a Hollywood actress when she was killed on Nov. 10, 1977, former prosecutor Matt Murphy told A&E True Crime.

“She was found brutally assaulted with multiple ligatures,” he said. “His face was smashed with stones.”

That same year, Alcala sexually assaulted, tortured, and strangled Georgia Wixted, a 27-year-old pediatric cancer nurse who had moved into her apartment in Los Angeles.

In New York, Alcala was sentenced in 2012 to 25 years to life in prison for the 1970s murders of Cornelia Creeley and Ellen Jane Hover.

According to New York media reports, in June 1971, Alcala raped, beat, and strangled 23-year-old TWA flight attendant Cornelia Creeley in her Manhattan apartment.

At the time, he was a film student at New York University studying under film director and producer Roman Polanski.

Investigators would later learn that Alcala's work as a photographer gave him easy access to women and girls, some of whom later determined to be his victims.

In 1977, Alcala killed 23-year-old Ellen Jane Hover, an aspiring music conductor who disappeared after leaving her Manhattan apartment on July 15 of the same year.

A year later, her remains were found in the grounds of the Rockefeller estate in Westchester County, near an area where Alcala often photographed women.

In 2016, Wyoming prosecutors charged Alcala with murdering 28-year-old Christine Ruth Thornton, who was six months pregnant when she disappeared from her Wyoming ranch in 1977. His remains were found four years later.

Alcala was finally executed in 2010 for five murders in California between 1977 and 1979, though authorities estimate he may have killed dozens more across the country.

Prosecutors said Alcala stalked women like victims and took earrings from some of his victims as trophies.

“You're talking about a guy who's hunting through Southern California looking to kill people because he enjoys it,” Orange County, Calif., prosecutor Matt Murphy said during his trial.

Awesome storage locker

After Alcala was convicted, authorities released more than 100 photos of young women and girls found in the killer's storage locker in Seattle in hopes of linking him to other unsolved murders across the country.

Some of the images, which have not been released, depict women, men and children in sexual positions and are believed to have been kept as trophies of Alcala's crimes.

The photos were uploaded to a Flickr album and the Huntington Beach Police Department asked people to contact them if they recognize anyone.

On July 24, 2021, Alcala died of natural causes while on death row. He was 77 years old.

When Tali Shapiro, the surviving victim, heard the news, she said “The planet is a better place without him, that's for sure. I've moved on with my life, so it doesn't really affect me. It's been a long time coming, but he's doing his work.” received.”