The Dating Game Killer: The Real Life Story of the Woman of the Hour

The Dating Game Killer was recently revived again when Anna Kendrick, who directed and acted in Woman of the Hour, uploaded the show on Netflix.

The thriller is based on a real and very cruel story: a girl named Sheryl Bradshaw meets a psycho on the set of a dating show. Read on to find out all that happened. Of course, this means spoilers for the movie.

Who is the Dating Game Killer?

Rodney Alcala was a typesetter at the LA Times who was on a murder “spree” across New York, California, and Wyoming in the months leading up to his brush with reality television. One of the prosecutors in the case said he was not an abused kid or a social pariah, but a sadist with an IQ of 135.

When he went to The Dating Game show in 1978, he had been discharged from jail two times for sexually abusing girls who were below 13 years, but the producers never researched the background of their contestants.

Who Did He Kill?

Most of the victims of Alcala were young women whom he would take to a dangerous area under the pretext of taking their photograph. He was also a rapist, and the number of his victims could be as high as 131, as the techniques of forensic science developed over the years linked him to more crimes.

How Was He Caught?

As seen in the movie, his first arrest after Dating Game was when a would-be teenage victim escaped and called the police. However, this was not the last of his criminal activities, his mother bailed him out and he went on to kill again.

What Was His Sentence?

He was given a death penalty for murder in California in 1980 and despite of the fact that the case has been appealed and reversed severally the conviction still stands. He wrote a book in 1994 stating his innocence but was convicted of other murders in New York in 2012. He died a natural death in 2021.

What Happened To The Character, Cheryl Bradshaw?

The movie altered the spelling of the first name of the character Bradshaw to avoid confusing her with the real life person; although the character is called Sheryl in the movie, in real life she is Cheryl.

In real life, Bradshaw did go out with Alcala and it only took her one conversation with him backstage to decide he was ‘creepy.’ as the BBC reported. In the movie they sit down to eat together before she actually comes to realize it.

In the movie and in real life Bradshaw left California to live a simple life and raise a family; she is now gone.

Is Amy A Real Person?

Yes and no. The film has a strong teenage character played by Autumn Best, based on a real-life survivor, but her name has been changed for the movie. The real survivor later stated in 2010 that Alcala had “ruined her life.”

Elizabeth Logan is the writer of pop culture for the website Glamour.com. Prior to that she has written for Vulture, The Awl, Reductress, Above Average, Indiewire and NoBudge.

This talented lady was lucky to attend NYU Tisch School Of The Arts and she has one black cat. You can (and should!) follow her on twitter at @BBCNews03.