Terrifying & True | The Dating Game Killer - Unmasking a Serial Predator

On a seemingly normal Wednesday, September 13, 1978, Cheryl Bradshaw found herself at the center of attention on "The Dating Game," a show bringing together bachelorettes and charming bachelors. Among the hopefuls, she was drawn to bachelor number one, a good-looking man named Rodney Alcala.

Little did anyone know, behind his inviting smile, Alcala was hiding a horrifying secret. He wasn't just another eager bachelor looking for love; he was a murderer, soon to be infamously dubbed “The Dating Game Killer.”

What happened after the show could have led to tragedy. Bradshaw and Alcala went backstage, where he tried to win her over with an offer for a date unlike any other. 

But something about Alcala made Bradshaw uneasy. She later shared with the Sydney Telegraph in 2012 that he made her feel uncomfortable and sick. His presence was creepy enough that she declined his offer, deciding she never wanted to see him again.

Jed Mills, another bachelor from the show, also noted Alcala's odd behavior. He remembered him as quiet, strangely good-looking but unsettling. Alcala wouldn't make eye contact, looking down, contributing to the eerie feeling Mills had about him.

"The Dating Game" never ran background checks on their contestants. If they had, they would have stumbled upon Alcala's dark past: a three-year prison stint for the rape and beating of an eight-year-old girl. He had also attacked a 13-year-old, which landed him on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives List. 

But even a thorough check might not have revealed everything. By that time, Alcala had already committed at least four murders, none of which had been conclusively tied to him yet.

Bradshaw’s instinctual rejection of Alcala might have stoked his murderous inclinations. Before and after his television appearance, the "Dating Game Killer" chillingly boasted he had taken the lives of anywhere from 50 to 100 people.

And so unfolds the eerie tale of Rodney Alcala, "The Dating Game Killer," a man who turned a quest for love into his macabre playground.

The Dark Chronicles of Rodney Alcala

Once upon a time in 1943, in a town called San Antonio, Texas, a boy named Rodney Alcala was born. His life began to twist in unexpected ways when he turned eight and his family, led by his father, moved to Mexico. But suddenly, three years later, his dad left them behind. His mother packed up young Rodney and his sister and headed to the suburbs of Los Angeles.

When he was 17, Rodney joined the Army, working as a clerk, but things didn't go as planned. He had a nervous breakdown and was sent home because of his troubled mind. Rodney was smart; he had an IQ of 135 and got into UCLA for his studies. Unfortunately, Rodney had a dark side that school and smarts couldn't fix.

Rodney developed his own way of doing terrible things. He liked to hurt people, especially by biting, attacking, and nearly choking them until they passed out, only to let them wake up and start all over again. His first known target was a little eight-year-old girl named Tali Shapiro, whom he lured into his Hollywood apartment in 1968.

Tali was lucky; she survived his awful attack because a kind stranger saw something wrong and called the police. When the cops came, Rodney ran away and hid for many years. He changed his name to John Berger and went to film school in New York, of all places, under the tutoring of the famous director Roman Polanski.

Rodney's face ended up on an FBI poster and that's how they finally caught him for what he did to Tali. In 1971, they arrested him, but since Tali couldn't speak in court, they couldn't fully make him pay for his crime. He only went to jail for assault and, after three years, was back out. Not too long after that, he hurt another young girl, who was just 13 and got locked up for two more years.

Despite his past, Rodney convinced the authorities to let him go to New York to see his relatives. Right after he got there, a college student named Elaine Hover went missing. Elaine had famous friends; her dad owned a cool nightclub and she was close to stars like Sammy Davis Jr. and Dean Martin. Many believe Rodney took her life during that visit.

Eleven months after her death, her remains were discovered in Westchester, close to the Rockefeller home.

Rodney got a job at the Los Angeles Times in 1978. He’d go to work during the day, setting up the words for the next day's paper, but at night, he had a hobby. He'd pretend to be a photographer and trick young girls, asking them to pose for him, and some of these girls never came back.

Alcala's Endless Sequence of Sinister Acts

Rodney Alcala’s cold-hearted actions claimed the lives of more than five innocent souls, ranging from a young 12-year-old girl named Robin Samsoe to women in their twenties and thirties. 

Each had a name, a story, and dreams unfulfilled: 18-year-old Jill Barcomb, 27-year-old nurse Georgia Wixted, 31-year-old legal secretary Charlotte Lamb, 21-year-old typist Jill Parenteau, and the young Robin, who was simply heading to her ballet class when Alcala deceitfully promised to capture her innocence on camera.

The story took a bewildering turn when Rodney Alcala appeared on “The Dating Game” in 1978, an appearance that stands as a haunting intersection of fame and horror. Among the potential dates was a woman who felt a disturbing unease that she couldn't shake off. She confided in her friend, Ellen Metzger, expressing fears that the man behind the charming facade was not what he seemed. Trusting her gut, she chose safety over-politeness, a decision that might well have saved her life.

Ellen recalled the conversation vividly to “20/20,” the apprehension and unsettling aura that surrounded Alcala being too intense to ignore. This feeling of dread proved prophetic when, just a year later, Alcala was arrested and charged with the murder of Samsoe. 

Found guilty in 1980, his conviction was a brief glimmer of justice, although the verdict faced several retrials. Despite the legal seesaw, Alcala was never a free man again, a shadow caged behind bars where he could no longer harm.

The Capture of the Dating Game Killer

Not long after he charmed audiences on "The Dating Game," Rodney Alcala lured seventeen-year-old Liane Leedom into what seemed an opportunity to feature in his photography portfolio. 

She escaped his clutches unharmed, yet she couldn't shake off the eerie chill she felt when she noticed that his collection wasn't just innocent pictures—it included many troubling images of young boys.

In a quiet move that would have significant consequences, police shared parts of Alcala's haunting photo collection with the public. The goal was to identify his victims, but what it also did was unearth memories. One by one, brave souls began surfacing to tell tales of terrifying encounters with the man behind the lens, confirming the worst fears of many.

The collapsing of Alcala's web of terror began with one young soul named Robin Samsoe. Twelve years old, full of life, and on her way to ballet class in sunny Huntington Beach, she was intercepted. At the beach that day, Robin and her friends were approached by a stranger—an offer to capture their youth in photos was made and politely refused. But as Robin cycled away to her ballet class on a borrowed bike, she vanished into thin air.

It was almost two weeks of silence and searching before nature revealed her dreadful fate. Robin's remains, tragically disfigured by wild animals, were discovered hidden in the woods near the Sierra Madre. Not a trace was left of her innocence, apart from a tragic echo of that sunny day on the beach.

A composite sketch, created from Robin's friends' descriptions, became the critical clue. It caught the eye of Alcala's former parole officer, who recognized the illustrated face. It was like a puzzle falling into place: the drawing, Alcala's disturbing history, and the find that sealed his fate—the earrings belonging to Robin found in Alcala's possession far away in Seattle.

As the case moved to court in 1980, a jury declared Alcala guilty. Punishment was swift and severe: the death penalty. Yet this was not the end. The California Supreme Court found fault; they decided the jury had been unfairly swayed on learning of Alcala's dark past. So, despite the conviction, justice remained on hold, and it would be six long years before Alcala would face trial again, prolonging the anguish for those who sought closure.

The Unyielding Search for Justice Against the Dating Game Killer

As years unfolded with Rodney Alcala behind bars, a strange chapter in his life began. Alcala took it upon himself to pen a book titled You, the Jury, where he loudly declared his innocence in the case of Samsoe. 

He passionately opposed the practice of taking DNA samples from prisoners to aid police investigations. Alcala's confrontations with the prison system didn’t stop there; he also initiated lawsuits over a slip-and-fall incident and the denial of a low-fat diet by the prison authorities.

In an unexpected move, Alcala decided to represent himself at his third trial. This decision came 31 years after the tragic end of young Samsoe. By then, advancements in DNA technology had linked him unmistakably to four additional murders from years past, evidence that was to be included in the 2010 proceedings.

The trial that ensued was nothing short of surreal. With Alcala acting as his counsel, he engaged in an eerie self-dialogue, addressing himself as "Mr. Alcala" in a grave tone, only to answer his questions. This odd performance stretched over five hours, during which Alcala tried to convince the jury he was at Knott’s Berry Farm on the day Samsoe was murdered, feigned ignorance about the other charges, and peculiarly cited a song by Arlo Guthrie in his final argument.

Regarding the accusations of murdering four other women, Alcala's defense was simply that he had no memory of such heinous acts. The sole person to testify on his behalf, psychologist Richard Rappaport, suggested that Alcala's claim of memory loss could be attributed to borderline personality disorder.

Unsurprisingly, the jury was not swayed by these defenses. They convicted Alcala on all counts, affirming his guilt in both the murder of Samsoe and the other four cases supported by DNA evidence.

A moment of profound significance arrived during his sentencing. Tali Shapiro, whom Alcala had brutally assaulted and left for dead four decades earlier, stood in the court. Her presence underscored the long-awaited justice for not only Samsoe but also for Jill Barcomb, Georgia Wixted, Charlotte Lamb, and Jill Parenteau, as Alcala was sentenced to death once more.

Since that landmark trial, the grim legacy of the so-called "Dating Game Killer" has only expanded. Investigators have linked him to additional cold cases, and in 2013, Alcala admitted to two more murders in New York. 

The true scope of his crimes, chillingly, might remain unknown!

The Final Chapter of the Dating Game Killer"

On July 24, 2021, while awaiting his sentence on death row in California, Rodney Alcala succumbed to natural causes, at the age of 77. His demise marked the end of a dark, decades-long saga of fear and justice.

Upon hearing of Alcala's death, several of his victims found solace in the fact that the infamous "Dating Game Killer" was finally no more. Tali Shapiro, Alcala's survivor from the 1970s, voiced her sentiment -- the world was, without a doubt, a better place without him. She stated his demise was long overdue but was rightly retribution for his monstrous deeds.

A veteran investigator, Jeff Sheaman, who had been relentlessly pursuing a cold case linked to Alcala in Wyoming, responded to the news with a stark statement, "He's where he needs to be, and I'm sure that's in hell."

Sheaman, looking back at his interactions with Alcala, recollected a chilling detail. During police interrogations, Alcala had a disturbing habit of running his finger over the faces of his victims in front of him, seemingly intending to provoke the detectives. 

Throughout his investigation, Sheaman was ceaselessly struck by Alcala's chilling indifference, eventually acknowledging the possibility that Alcala’s reign of terror may have claimed many more victims whose stories remained undiscovered.

Sheaman's statement after Alcala’s death was grim yet resigned, "Hell, there might be a plethora of other victims out there. I just have no idea." 

Thus, even after Alcala's death, the shadow of his terrible legacy continues to instill fear and questions!