In the ’60s and ’70s, before digital records, offender databases, and instantaneous background checks, it was much easier for convicted criminals to distance themselves from their sordid pasts. Take, for example, Rodney Alcala, who served 34 months in prison for sexually assaulting a 8-year-old girl in 1968. Despite having registered as a sex offender, Alcala was able to gain employment as a typesetter with the Los Angeles Times in 1977 — and in 1978, he appeared as a contestant on the classic game show “The Dating Game,” where he was selected for a date with the lovely bachelorette.
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That woman, Cheryl Bradshaw, eventually declined her date with Alcala, simply because he gave her bad vibes. Her intuition proved to be dead-on. By the time of his appearance on the show, Alcala had already committed several of the crimes he would later be convicted of — the murders of six women and an underage girl, between 1971 and 1979. Alcala, who would become infamous as the “Dating Game Killer,” was arrested and charged for the murder of 12-year-old Robin Samsoe in 1980. His conviction and death sentence were overturned on a technicality; Alcala was re-convicted in 1986, only for that conviction to be similarly overturned in 2001. Finally, in 2003, DNA evidence proved to be Alcala’s undoing. Investigators were able to tie him to a number of unsolved murders using DNA obtained from him in prison, and in 2010, he was sent to death row for the final time. He died while awaiting execution in 2021, and authorities ultimately estimated he may have been responsible for up to 130 murders.
