Before the days of careful vetting and extensive background checks, Rodney Alcala appeared on
The Dating Game in the middle of his killing spree in the late ’70s. While Alcala became known as the
Dating Game killer, his involvement in the reality TV show was but a brief moment in his deadly history. Investigators believe that he killed at least eight people and some suspect that he murdered more than 100 others. In a recent special,
20/20 took on Alcala’s terrifying story, which has often been compared to Ted Bundy’s. Ahead, we’ve pulled together what you need to know about the
Rolling Stone ‘Dating Game’ Helps Catch Serial Killer in Clip From ’20/20′ Special
By chance, a detective caught episode of Rodney Alcala as contestant on game show, which ultimately led to serial killer’s arrest
By
The Dating Game, is the focus of Friday’s two-hour episode of ABC’s
20/20. The show airs at 9 p.m. ET.
In this exclusive clip from the 20/20 special, the now-adult friend of 12-year-old Robin Samsoe one of Alcala’s murder victims who also helped provide a sketch of Samsoe’s killer recounts being shown
The Dating Game episode, which a detective on the case randomly caught on TV soon after Alcala was named a suspect.
| Credit: Walt Disney Television via Getty Images Photo Archives/Walt Disney Television via Getty
Alcala was convicted in 1980 for the murder of 12-year-old Robin Samsoe, who vanished on her bicycle on her way to ballet class and whose remains were found in the foothills above Sierra Madre, a city in Los Angeles County.
But his conviction was overturned twice on different technicalities before he was finally sentenced to death in 2010 for her murder as well as the 1970s rapes and murders of Georgia Wixted, Jill Parenteau, Charlotte Lamb, and Jim Barcomb.
While on California s death row, Alcala pleaded guilty in 2012 to the rape and murder of TWA flight attendant Cornelia Crilley and Ciro s nightclub heiress Ellen Hover, whose remains were found on the Rockefeller Estate in Westchester County in New York.
REVEALED: The Dating Game producer tried to stop serial killer Rodney Alcala appearing on show in 1978 because he had a strange personality - but colleagues oblivious to his murder spree said the audience will love him
Serial killer Rodney Alcala infamously appeared on the The Dating Game in September 1978, when he was in the midst of a brutal killing spree
Then-executive producer Mike Metzger told ABC he didn t want Alcala on the show because he had a strange personality and unsettling mystique
He was convicted by contestant coordinator Ellen Metzger, whose now his wife, to allow him on the show because she said woman would love him