The True Story of Serial Killer Rodney Alcala’s Crimes

Rodney Alcala is one of America’s most notorious rapists and serial killers, but audiences and producers of The Dating Game had no idea of his crimes when he appeared on the hit game show in 1978.

The serial killer, who died in incarceration in 2021, was confirmed to have murdered at least seven women across California, New York and Wyoming, but authorities suspect his body count to be even higher. In 1978, he appeared on the popular TV show The Dating Gamein which a bachelorette interviewed three bachelors (whom she couldn’t see) and ultimately chose one to go on a date with at the end of the program. While his appearance on the hit show didn’t lead to his demise, the eerie moment — and Alcala’s crimes — are the subject of Netflix’s Woman of the Hourwhich is streaming now.

In the film, Anna Kendrick plays real-life Dating Game bachelorette Cheryl Bradshaw, while Daniel Zovatto portrays killer Alcala.

Here’s everything to know about the true story of Woman of the Hour and where Cheryl Bradshaw is today.

Is Woman of the Hour based on a true story?

Yes, Woman of the Hour is based on the real-life crimes of serial killer Alcala and his infamous appearance on the popular ’60s and ’70s TV show The Dating Game. In 1978, Alcala was one of three bachelors to appear on an episode of the show in which aspiring actress Cheryl Bradshaw was a contestant.

During the taping, Bradshaw asked questions to Bachelor No. 1 (a.k.a. Alcala) “What’s your best time?” and “I’m serving you for dinner. What are you called and what do you look like?” According to 20/20, Alcala replied to the latter question, “I’m called the banana and I look good.” Bradshaw and Alcala proceeded to exchange cheeky banter back and forth before she ultimately chose him as the lucky winner.

Did Rodney Alcala and Cheryl Bradshaw ever go on a date?

Although Bradshaw chose Alcala as the lucky bachelor on The Dating Gamethe two never went out after the taping.

The Dating Game contestant coordinator Ellen Metzger recalled during an episode of 20/20 in 2021 that Bradshaw told producers she couldn’t go on a date with him. “She said, ‘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 comfortable. Is that going to be a problem?’ ” Ellen said. “And of course, I said, ‘No.’ ”

Ellen had initially urged her husband, executive producer Mike Metzger, to get Alcala on the show because he was tall, dark and handsome, but Mike said on 20/20 that Alcala had a “strange personality,” noting, “He had a mystique about him that I found uncomfortable.”

Jed Mills, another contestant on the same episode, recalled Alcala telling him in the green room, “I always get my girl,” adding that he found Alcala “creepy.”

Who were Rodney Alcala’s victims?

Alcala is confirmed to have murdered at least seven women and girls, but authorities suspect he may have killed as many as 130 victims across the country, according to the Associated Press. Tall, dark and handsome in his youth, Alcala would often lure victims by offering to photograph them.

A decade before appearing on The Dating GameAlcala attacked 16-year-old Morgan Rowan. A week later, he lured a second grader named Tali Shapiro into his van, then raped and brutally beat her with a metal bar in his Hollywood apartment. When a passerby saw Alcala luring the girl, they called the police, who took nearly three years to find him after he fled from California to New Hampshire. Alcala was placed on the FBI Most Wanted list for the rape and attempted murder of Shapiro in 1969, but his crimes didn’t end there.

In 1971, he murdered flight attendant Cornelia Michael Crilley, 23, in her New York City apartment, but he wasn’t a suspect in that slaying. After the Crilley murder, Alcala was apprehended for the attack on Shapiro but only served 34 months behind bars for the crime. He also had to register as a sex offender.

Alcala went back to California after his release and worked as a typesetter for the Los Angeles Times. In 1974, merely two months after his first release from prison, he abducted a 13-year-old girl, but was only charged with giving marijuana to a minor and a parole violation. He served two years in prison.

After his second release from prison, Alcala’s parole officer in Los Angeles let him go to New York City to visit relatives, LA Weekly reported. In July 1977, while in New York, Alcala murdered nightclub heiress Ellen Hover. Her bones were discovered a year later on the Rockefeller Estate in Westchester, N.Y., where he frequently liked to photograph his subjects.

On June 20, 1979, Alcala approached Robin Samsoe, a 12-year-old ballet student from Huntington Beach, Calif., and offered to take her picture. She was never seen alive again. Her remains were found 12 days later in a remote location 40 miles from where she was last seen.

Alcala was arrested for Samsoe’s murder in July 1979. By this time, he’d murdered at least seven women and girls, though many of his victims wouldn’t be discovered until later.

How did Rodney Alcala get caught?

Alcala got caught several times on his murder spree, but it took decades for him to finally be brought to justice.

Shortly after murdering Crilley in New York in 1971, Alcala was living New Hampshire, where he went by the name John Berger once more and worked as a counselor at a girls’ theater camp. Two campers recognized Alcala in a photo on the Most Wanted list at their local post office, and they reported it to their dean, who then called the police, per CBS News. Alcala served less than three years for the attack on Shapiro.

After the abduction and murder of Samsoe, Alcala’s Los Angeles parole officer recognized a police sketch matching Alcala and advised authorities to look into him as a suspect. He was arrested in July 1979 for Samsoe’s murder, after which investigators found earrings belonging to Samsoe’s mother in a storage locker Alcala was renting, according to CBS News. Authorities also found photo albums of dozens of young boys, girls and women in compromising and vulnerable positions.

In February 1980, Alcala went on trial for Samsoe’s murder and was convicted and sentenced to death. The case was overturned on appeal in 1984, with the California Supreme Court ruling that he received an unfair trial because jurors were informed of his prior sex crimes and attacks. He received a new trial in 1986, in which he was once more convicted and sentenced to death, but that case was overturned in 2003.

By this time, DNA evidence and testing had advanced enough to connect Alcala to four other murders from 1977 through 1979, including those of Jill Barcomb, 18; Jill Parenteau, 21; Georgia Wixted, 27 and Charlotte Lamb, 32. Orange County prosecutors charged Alcala with five counts of murder — for the four murders, plus Samsoe’s slaying — and he was sentenced to death for each in 2010.

DNA would lead to more convictions for Alcala in what may have otherwise remained cold cases. In 2012, Alcala was sentenced to 25 years to life for murdering Hover and Crilley, and in 2016, Alcala was charged with the first-degree murder of Christine Thornton in Wyoming. Since Alcala was already in prison and sentenced to death, he was never extradited to Wyoming for a trial in Thornton’s murder, CBS News reported.

What happened to Rodney Alcala?

Alcala died in a San Joaquin Valley, Calif., hospital on July 24, 2021, while he was awaiting execution. He was 77 years old and was previously housed in San Quentin prison near San Francisco.

Where is Cheryl Bradshaw now?

Following her Dating Game appearance, Bradshaw left California and retreated from the spotlight to start a family. Not much is known about Bradshaw’s life today.