Ever wondered what it would be like to dodge a bullet, one that was aiming right for your heart? Meet Cheryl Bradshaw, a woman whose intuition and a sprinkle of cosmic luck saved her from a ghastly fate. You might want to reconsider that last blind date you were talked into going on.
Love and Games: When Dates Turn Deadly
Picture this: It’s September 1978, and Cheryl Bradshaw is ready to flirt her way into love on the US show The Dating Game. She’s all set to pick from three charming bachelors. Spoiler alert—one of them isn’t just charming; he’s downright alarming.
Cheryl, starry-eyed and hopeful, zeroes in on Bachelor Number One, announced as a ‘successful photographer’ and recreational skydiver. He’s got jokes, she’s got laughs, and soon, they’ve got a date. What Cheryl didn’t know then was that this charmer, Rodney Alcala, wasn’t just a man with a camera. He was a predator with a past darker than the deepest night.
Red Flags, Blind Dates, and Keen Intuitions
Sweet, unsuspecting Cheryl had no idea her flirty game show appearance would pair her with a serial killer. Rodney Alcala had already brutally ended the lives of at least five women in Southern California. His rap sheet included jail time for assaulting and raping an eight-year-old girl and a thirteen-year-old girl. You’d think a background check would be a given, right?
But luck, or maybe fate, was on Bradshaw’s side. It turned out she had a sixth sense sharper than Alcala’s camera focus. She noted some ‘weird vibes,’ as she later recounted to the Sydney Telegraph in 2012, “I started to feel ill. He was acting really creepy.”
Alcala’s behavior wasn’t just odd; it was sinister. During the game, he dropped disturbing hints camouflaged as innocent banter. When Cheryl quizzed him on his ‘best time,’ Alcala leered, ‘The best time is at night.’ Cringe. Major cringe.
Digging deeper into his unsettling quirks, Cheryl asked what he called himself, to which Alcala replied amusingly yet unsettlingly, ‘I’m called the banana, and I look good. Peel me.’
A Gut Feeling Saves a Life
Thank the stars Cheryl listened to her gut. She called off their arranged date, claiming those ‘weird vibes’ were too much to ignore. She rang up The Dating Game producer Ellen Metzger, expressing her discomfort and asking if bailing on the date would cause any problems. Fortunately, Ellen complied, as even her husband, executive producer Mike Metzger, had flagged Alcala during casting due to his uneasy ‘mystique.’
Turns out, Cheryl’s gut was right on the money. Soon after being dumped on national TV, Alcala recommenced his killing spree. One heart-wrenching casualty was 12-year-old Robin Samsoe, murdered while cycling to ballet class in 1979. Her earrings were later discovered amongst Alcala’s “trophies” in a storage locker in Seattle.
These grisly memorabilia included keepsakes from numerous victims, more than enough to tie Alcala to more heinous acts.
