Who was Rodney Alcala? Dating Game killer murdered girls and youngsters

As Woman of the Hour becomes a global sensation on Netflix, viewers are now turning their attention to the antagonist of the thriller: Rodney Alcala. 

Anna Kendrick‘s chilling new film, which premiered on October 18, is based on the harrowing true story of the Dating Game Killer, who participated in a dating game show on national television in the midst of his murder spree. 

In the late 1970s, Rodney Alcala appeared on the popular TV series The Dating Game, and instantly drew viewers in with his charm and charisma.

However, unbeknownst to the cast, crew, and audience, the smooth-talking man had murdered and brutally raped multiple women before he participated in the show – crimes that had landed him on the FBI‘s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list at the time. 

Woman of the Hour focuses on Dating Show contestant Cheryl Bradshaw (Kendrick), who meets Alcala (played by Daniel Zovatto) and narrowly misses going on a date with the serial killer after ultimately getting a ‘strange vibe’ from him on the show. 

As the horrific events are retold in the new Netflix hit, FEMAIL explores the twisted killer behind the polished dating show contestant and the brutality of his crimes. So, who is Rodney Alcala?

Who was Rodney Alcala? 

Rodney Alcala was born Rodrigo Jacques Alcala-Buquor on August 23, 1943, in Mexico, before his family relocated to Los Angeles when he was eight years old. 

Shortly after joining the Army at the age of 17, Alcala was discharged in 1964 following a nervous breakdown and allegations of sexual misconduct.

He went on to graduate from the University of California before attending film school at New York University in 1971. 

What dating show did Rodney Alcala appear on?

On September 13, 1978, Alcala appeared as a contestant on The Dating Game, a popular TV show that featured three eligible bachelors competing for a date with a bachelorette. 

He was introduced by the host as ‘a successful photographer who got his start when his father found him in the darkroom at the age of 13, fully developed,’ as reported by the Independent. 

Alcala managed to secure a date with bachelorette Cheryl Bradshaw, who, during the show, asked him to describe what kind of meal he would be. 

The serial killer answered: ‘I’m called “The Banana” and I look really good… Peel me.’ 

It was later reported that an executive producer on The Dating Game tried to stop the serial killer from appearing on the show because he had a strange personality – but eventually gave in to colleague who said he was handsome. 

Prior to his appearance on the show, Alcala had served a 34 month prison sentence for sexually assaulting and beating eight-year-old Tali Shapiro. 

However, with standardised background checks far beyond the norm during that era of reality television, producers of the show were unbeknownst to the crime that landed the killer on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives List. 

What crimes did Rodney Alcala commit and who were his victims? 

Alcala’s first recorded crime was in 1968, when a stranger called the police after they witnessed him lure an eight-year-old girl named Tali Shapiro into his Hollywood apartment.

When law enforcement arrived, they found the little girl laying in a pool of her own blood.

She had been beaten and raped with a metal bar, and spent 32 days in a coma due to the injuries.

But Alcala had already fled by the time they got there. He immediately went on the run, changing his name and moving to the east coast – where he landed a job at a New Hampshire children’s camp as a counselor.

In 1971, his secret was exposed after the FBI added him to its list of 10 Most Wanted Fugitives and some of his campers noticed his picture on the wall in the post office.

He was ultimately arrested and convicted of child molestation, but only spent 17 months in prison before he was released on parole.

Months after he was back on the street he struck again, this time assaulting a 13-year-old girl after he offered her a ride to school. 

This crime landed him back behind bars for another two years, but by 1976, he was free once more.

After that, Alcala moved back to Los Angeles, where he touted himself as a professional fashion photographer while secretly committing a string of gruesome murders.

It’s been said that he lured his victims into his home by inviting them to pose for his ‘portfolio.’

He would then strangle them until they passed out, and when they would reawaken, he would torture, rape, and ultimately kill them – before rearranging their limbs into explicit positions and photographing their naked dead bodies.

One victim was Jill Barcomb, who was brutally murdered aged 18 on November 9, 1977. 

Ms Barcomb had just relocated to the Los Angeles area from New York, and had only been living in Southern California for roughly three weeks before being found on a dirt path near Mulholland Drive in Los Angeles. 

Just one month later, on December 16, 1977, Georgia Wixted was murdered by Alcala. 

The registered nurse’s battered and bruised body was found on the floor of her Malibu studio apartment near her brass bed, alongside a hammer, after being sexually assaulted, tortured, bludgeoned and strangled by the sadistic killer.

On June 24, 1978, 32-year-old legal secretary Charlotte Lamb’s naked body was found in the laundry room of a large apartment complex in El Segunda after being sexually assaulted and strangled with a shoelace by Alacala. 

In 1978, he participated in The Dating Game, during which he competed for a chance to go out with that episode’s bachelorette, Cheryl Bradshaw, and won.

One year later, Alcala was arrested for the murder of a 12-year-old girl named Robin Christine Samsoe, who had been found beaten, raped, and stabbed to death near her home in Huntington Beach, California.

Her friends told law enforcement that a stranger had approached them on the beach before she vanished and asked to take photos of them.

Officers released a sketch of the man – and when Alcala’s parole officer recognized him, he turned him in.

Alcala was ultimately found guilty for the murder, and received the death penalty – but he launched two successful appeals resulting in three different trials.

In 2003, in the midst of his third trial, prosecutor Matt Murphy decided to re-examined evidence that had been found in a storage locker own by Rodney years prior.

He made a shocking discovery – DNA that linked Alcala to four other murders that had occurred in the 1970s.

Where is Rodney Alcala now? 

In 2010, over three decades after his initial arrest, an Orange County jury convicted Alcala on five counts of first-degree murder, for which he was sentenced to death.

He was given an another 25 years in 2013 after he pled guilty to two more murders, and was charged again in 2016 after DNA evidence connected him to the 1977 death of a 28-year-old woman.

While the exact number of people he killed is unknown, the Associated Press has reported that he may have murdered up to 130 people across the country.

He died in 2021 at age 77 from unspecified natural causes while on death row.