In 1978, Cheryl Bradshaw appeared on matchmaking show The Dating Game as she searched for love.
She would later go on to learn that the man she chose to go on a date with – Rodney Alcala – was in fact a notorious serial killer.
Unearthed video footage shows the chilling moment she picked Alcala, who would go on to be dubbed as ‘The Dating Game Killer.’
Rodney Alcala was part-way through a killing spree when he made his TV appearance, having raped and assaulted multiple people and committed several murders.
Then, in 1978, he went on The Dating Game and ended up winning a date with Bradshaw.
During the episode, Bradshaw questioned three eligible bachelors, who were hidden from her view.
At the end of the questioning period, she chose ‘bachelor number one’ – aka Alcala – to accompany her on an all-expenses-paid date.
As Bradshaw made her choice, the audience applauded, and Alcala broke out into a wide grin.
The pair then met face-to-face and embraced, before being told that they’d be heading off to tennis and a trip to a theme park together.
Cheryl Bradshaw met serial killer Rodney Alcala on The Dating Game in 1978 (ABC)
But, a creepy backstage encounter led to Bradshaw ulimately declining the date with Alcala, a move that may have saved her from becoming his next victim.
“I started to feel ill,” she told the Sydney Telegraph in 2012. “He was acting really creepy. I turned down his offer. I didn’t want to see him again.”
At the time, she reportedly called up producer Ellen Metzger and said: “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?”
Fortunately, Metzger agreed, and the whole thing was called off.
Alcala’s chilling crimes are retold in Netflix’s Woman of the House (Netflix)
After his appearance on The Dating Game, Alcala would go on to commit at least three other murders, before being arrested on 24 July, 1979 and being sentenced to death.
The killer died of natural causes in 2021, 42 years to the day he was arrested, and has since been linked to around 130 other cold cases.
Netflix’s latest true crime thriller Woman of the Hour, which was released on the streaming platform last week (18 October), tells the story of Alcala’s victims and their lives, which he brutally ended.
Brian Tallerico of RogerEbert.com has called the film ‘a confidently made thriller that’s not just a true crime story but an unpacking of systemic misogyny and how it encourages violence’.
