The Dating Game Killer: The True Story Behind Woman of the Hour

Woman of the Hour, Anna Kendrick's directorial debut in which she also stars, just hit Netflix, renewing interest in the “Dating Game Killer.”

The chilling thriller, about a woman named Sheryl Bradshaw who crosses paths with a serial killer on a dating show, is based on a true and gruesome story. Read on to find out everything that happened. Spoilers for the movie, obviously.

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. According to one of the prosecutors in the case, he was not a victim of abuse or a social outcast, but a sadist with a genius-level IQ.

By the time he went on The Dating Game in 1978, he had already served two terms for molesting girls under the age of thirteen, which producers did not know as they apparently failed to conduct background checks on contestants.