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NetflixA captivating new TV series has recently been released《Woman of the Hour》Directed and starring by Anna Kendrick. She drew inspiration from a series of horrifying serial murders in the 1970s and used a modern perspective to re-examine this shocking real crime case.
The story goes back to 1978 in the United States, in a place called《The Dating Game》In the dating show, contestant Cheryl Bradshaw threw a series of explicit sexual innuendos and pun jokes at three potential dates. After a confrontation, Cheryl developed a liking for the first contestant and decided to date him.
After the show ended, Cheryl instinctively told herself that she shouldn’t have met this man, so she called the production team and said she didn’t want to attend the appointment. She had no way of knowing that this seemingly inexplicable decision unexpectedly saved her life.
The charming man selected by the program, named Rodney Alcala, appears to be flawless. He has thick brown hair, a tall figure, and is full of charm, easily defeating other contestants. However, it is shocking that this charming photographer is actually a highly violent serial killer. Behind his smiling face, there are multiple murders hidden. Between 1971 and 1979, he was accused of murdering at least 8 women, including children and pregnant women. However, due to the lack of modern technology and the internet in that era, his identity has never been exposed, and he has been released on parole multiple times.
Cheryl’s intuition about Alcala is quite accurate. When she called the production team, she said anxiously, “I can’t date him. He has a strange aura that really makes me uneasy.” Fortunately, the production team agreed to Cheryl’s decision, otherwise Alcala’s victim list might have been longer.
Alcala claims to be a photographer, and this statement is true. He studied film under the pseudonym John Berger at New York University in 1977 and even studied under renowned director Roman Polanski. During his time working at The Times in Los Angeles, he often showed his colleagues nude photos he had taken, and they were impressed by his charm and the artistic atmosphere of his photos. However, in fact, he used his identity as a photographer to seduce the victims. This disguise was exposed in Pamela Jean Lambson’s attack.
The most terrifying scene in Alcala’s case is《The Dating Game》The filming location. Contestant Jed Mills recalled Alcala’s bold statement at the scene: ‘I always get my girl.’ This sentence, when heard as a joke, was chilling afterwards. After years of tracking and trial, Alcala was arrested in 1979 for kidnapping and murdering 12-year-old Robin Samsoe, and was ultimately convicted again in 2010 and sentenced to death. Alcala spent her entire life in prison and passed away in a California prison in 2021.
The story of Alcala has become synonymous with horror and tragedy. Although《Woman of the Hour》Presenting this history in an entertaining way, we should not forget the cruelty experienced by the victims and their families in reality. It is our duty to remember the harm caused by sexual violence and crime while watching.