Who was Rodney Alcala? The true story of the “Woman of the Hour”

When Cheryl Bradshaw appeared on The Dating Game in 1978, she didn't know that the bachelor she was dating, Rodney Alcala, was a serial killer.

Bradshaw survived her brief altercation with Alcala on the show unscathed, but many women he encountered weren't so lucky. Alcala was convicted of murdering six women and a girl in the 1970s, although authorities suspect he actually killed more than 100 people.

The story of Bradshaw's encounter with Alcala in “The Dating Game” inspired “Woman of the Hour,” a new thriller coming to Netflix October 18, starring Anna Kendrick as Bradshaw and Daniel Zovatto as Alcala.

The film, which marks Kendrick's directorial debut, examines Alcala's horrific crimes while focusing on the stories of his victims.

Kendrick said it was frightening to research Alcala and learn how many times he escaped punishment.

“The hard part is diving into the history and the research and just realizing how many times this person was allowed to slip through the cracks of the system because the system really wasn't designed to prioritize victims,” ​​she told TODAY. com. “It makes me angry sometimes… I was hoping to capture that feeling: 'I can't believe he keeps getting away with this. I can't believe no one is looking for him.'”

Read on to learn more about the true story of Rodney Alcala.

Who was Rodney Alcala?

Alcala was a convicted murderer and sex offender. Although he was convicted of murdering six women and a girl, authorities suspect he may be responsible for the killings of up to 130 people in several states, according to the Associated Press.

Alcala was born in San Antonio in 1943 and enlisted in the U.S. Army at age 17. She was later fired amid allegations of sexual misconduct and a mental breakdown, according to CBS News' “48 Hours.” Alcala went on to study fine arts at UCLA and worked as a typesetter for the Los Angeles Times, according to a 2010 Alcala profile in LA Weekly.

Alcala's first known criminal conviction resulted from an incident in 1968. According to court documents, in September of that year, he lured an eight-year-old girl, Tali Shapiro, into his car, then took her to his Los Angeles home, brutally beat her and sexually abused her. According to ABC's “20/20,” Shapiro survived thanks to a good Samaritan who alerted authorities after seeing Alcala bring the little girl into his home.

Alcala fled to New York after the attack and enrolled at NYU, an Orange County deputy district attorney told “48 Hours” in a 2018 investigation of Alcala. He later got a job as a counselor at an arts and theater camp for girls in New Hampshire under the false name John Berger, 48 Hours reported.

Authorities tracked him down after two girls from the camp recognized Alcala's face on an FBI Most Wanted poster. Alcala eventually took a deal, pleaded guilty to child molestation and registered as a sex offender, former LAPD detective Steve Hodel said on “48 Hours.”

Alcala was ultimately convicted of seven murders committed in California and New York in the 1970s.

He was sentenced to death in Orange County in 1980 in connection with the 1979 murder of 12-year-old Robin Samsoe, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. The conviction was overturned in 1984 and he was granted a new trial. In 1986 he received a second death sentence.

That conviction was overturned again in 2003, but he was ultimately sentenced to death for a third time in 2010 in Orange County.

This year, Alcala was convicted of five counts of first-degree murder for the killing of Samsoe, as well as four other counts: the 1977 killings of Jill Barcomb, 18, and Georgia Wixted, 27, the killing of Charlotte Lamb, 32, ) in 1978, the murder of Jill Parenteau, 21, in 1979, according to CDCR.

According to CDCR, Alcala was convicted of two other murders in New York in 2012: the murder of Ellen Jane Hover in 1977 and the murder of Cornelia Crilley in 1971. Crilley's murder occurred before Alcala's move to, according to the “48 Hours” timeline New Hampshire.

In 2010, authorities announced that they had found more than 100 photos of unidentified women and children in a Seattle locker linked to Alcala.

The Orange County District Attorney's Office and Huntington Beach Police released the images publicly in a call to identify other possible victims of the convicted killer.

“In deciding to release these images, we considered the privacy concerns of those depicted,” District Attorney Tony Rackauckas said in a 2010 press release. “While we hope that the individuals depicted are not victims, we believe that their release may help solve some unsolved cases and reassure victims’ families.”

The release of these photos sheds new light on the disappearance of Christine Ruth Thornton, a woman who disappeared in 1977 at the age of 28 and was later found strangled in Wyoming. According to her family, she was six months pregnant at the time of her disappearance, prosecutor Daniel Erramouspe told People.

Thornton's family recognized her picture in the collection of photos from Alcala's locker, and in 2016 Alcala was charged with her murder in Wyoming. According to The Associated Press, that case did not move forward because Erramouspe said Alcala was too sick to be extradited from California to Wyoming.

“This all happened before appearing on 'The Dating Game' in 1978,” Erramouspe told People. “I think the last thing he would have thought was that a case like this would be solved somewhere up in Wyoming.”

What happened when Rodney Alcala was on “The Dating Game”?

In 1978, Alcala participated in an episode of “The Dating Game.” The long-running show featured three bachelorettes vying for the affections of a bachelorette. She chose the winning bachelor without seeing it based on how they answered her questions on the other side of a screen.

Alcala, whose criminal history was apparently unknown to the series when he was cast in “The Dating Game,” was introduced on the show as a “successful photographer” who enjoyed skydiving and motorcycling.

Following the show's usual tone, the exchange between Bradshaw and Alcala was full of flirtatious innuendo.

“What's your best time?” Bradshaw asked Alcala, who replied, “The best time is at night, at night.”

“I’ll serve you for dinner. What is your name and what do you look like?” Bradshaw also asked Alcala.

“I'm called 'the banana' and I'm really good looking,” he replied.

When asked to elaborate, he added: “Peel me.”

Bradshaw ultimately chose Alcala, and the two were promised an exciting date that included tennis lessons and a trip to California's Magic Mountain amusement park.

However, their date never took place. Bradshaw later said she was frightened by Alcala's behavior and withdrew from their meeting, according to the show's participant coordinator Ellen Metzger in a “20/20” interview.

Jed Mills, the Bachelor contestant who sat next to Alcala during the episode, also said he found Alcala “creepy.”

“I noticed that right away,” Mills said on ABC’s “20/20” in 2021. “In the green room, he jumps in and says, 'I always get my girl.' I immediately disliked this guy.”

What happened to Rodney Alcala?According to a press release from the CDCR, Alcala died of natural causes at a hospital in Kings County, California on July 24, 2021 at the age of 77. He was on death row at the time.

According to the CDCR, investigators had suspected him or linked him to other murders in California, Washington, New York, New Hampshire and Arizona.