The Dating Game Killer Pt. 1

It was September 13, 1978, "Dating Game" host, Jim Lange, introduced Bachelor No. 1, Rodney Alcala as 

"a successful photographer who got his start when his father found him in the darkroom at the age of 13, fully developed. Between takes,you might find him skydiving or motor-cycling."

Out of all three bachelors, the bachelorette on the show, Cheryl picked Alcala and if it wasn't a jolt of intuition, she might have been one of his victims.

After the show ended, she conversed with Alcala backstage. He offered her a date she’d never forget, but a weird feeling was stirring in the pit of Cheryl's stomach.

“I started to feel ill,”  

claimed Cheryl.

“He was acting really creepy. I turned down his offer. I didn’t want to see him again.”

Cheryl wasn't the only one that felt that way. Contests and the host alike, stated that he was different back stage. That he was creepy, didn't make eye contact and was quiet. When he did speak he was condescending and argumentative. He acted like he was right and that everyone else was wrong.

It's too bad the popular dating show hadn't performed background checks on their bachelors. Had they done so they would have discovered Alcala's disturbing past.  Alcala had already spent three years in prison for raping and beating an eight-year-old girl. He’d also done the same to a 13-year-old, which landed him on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives List.

Other scary fact, Alcala’s was the perpetrator for four prior murders that he hadn’t been definitively linked to yet.

Cheryl's rejection probably only fueled the fire of his devious mind.

Alcala, in total, before and after his television appearance, the sadistic “Dating Game Killer” claimed that he killed between 50 and 100 people.

A Monster Is Born