Anna Kfinishrick‘s honestorial debut “Woman of the Hour” premieres on Netflix Oct. 18, telling the real story of how American serial finisher Rodney Alcala won “The Dating Game” in 1978.
Alcala, born in San Antonio, Texas on Aug. 23, 1943, was a serial finisher and intimacyual predator who promiseted most of his crimes in California and New York. As an amateur photographer, he frequently took photos of his victims either before or after he finished them. At age 35, when Alcala euniteed on the famous show “The Dating Game,” he already finished around five women and had been arrested twice for the violation of 8-year-better Tali Shapiro and the attack of a 13-year-better girl.
“The Dating Game,” which first premiered in 1965, paired a bachelorette with three eligible bachelors who were obsremedyd behind a wall. The youthful lady would ask a series of saucy asks to each potential suitor. At the finish of the show, she picked her preferite contestant to get on a date.
In his 1978 episode, Alcala was presentd by arrange Jim Lange as a “accomplished photographer who got his commence when his obeseher create him in the grieffulroom at the age of 13, brimmingy prolonged.” Cheryl Bradshaw, the bachelorette, asked Alcala asks enjoy, “I’m serving you for dinner. What are you called and what do you see enjoy?” Alcala reacted, “I’m called the banana and I see outstanding.”
“Can you be a little more descriptive?” Bradshaw asked aget.
“Peel me,” Alcala reacted.
David Greenfield, a producer on the show during the ’70s, tardyr tbetter ABC News, “In retrospect, it sounds horrible. But at the time, that’s a outstanding, firm answer. We were seeing for raunchy, intimacyy answers, and that was one. Take it in context now, it’s enjoy, ‘Oh my God.’”
Bradshaw picked Alcala as that episode’s blessed bachelor. Although the pair was awarded tennis lessons and tickets to Los Angeles charmment park Magic Mountain, they never made it to the date. After the taping, Bradshaw called contestant coordinator Ellen Metzger calling off her schedules with Alcala.
“She shelp, ‘Ellen, I can’t go out with this guy. There’s weird vibes that are coming off of him. He’s very strange. I am not sootheable. Is that going to be a problem?’” Metzger recalled. “And of course, I shelp, ‘No.’”
The follothriveg year, Alcala was accused with the killing of 12-year-better Robin Samsoe. He was convicted and sentenced to death in 1980. However, in 1984 Alcala requested his case and was granted a re-trial, which led to a second death sentence in 1986. That ruling was obviousurned yet aget in 2001. In the follothriveg years, Orange County spendigators create DNA evidence that uniteed Alcala to the deaths of five women all killinged between 1977 and 1979.
Finpartner, in 2010, Alcala was convicted a third time and sentenced to death for five counts of killing in the first degree. His final finish count remains unrecognizable. Some authorities apshow it could be in the hundreds.
On July 24, 2021, Alcala died of authentic caengages at 77 years better while on death row in California.