Convicted Serial Killer Wins “Dating Game” in 1978
Interesting and bizarre story coming out today, and I think CNN has the best first sentence: “Before he was a convicted serial killer, Rodney Alcala was a winning bachelor on “The Dating Game.”" That is correct. A contestant appearing on The Dating Game, Rodney Alcala, was convicted in February of murdering four women and a child. More quotes from CNN:
“Oh yeah, I remember it quite clearly,” said Jed Mills, the game-show contestant who sat next to Alcala in 1978. “He was creepy. Definitely creepy.”
Hearing and reading some of the descriptions of the guy, he’s definitely pretty creepy once you place the comments in context. He seems very happy in the darkness. It’s one of the answers to questions he answered multiple times. He was chosen, amazingly, but nothing happened between the couple. Months later, though, he began killing. Incidentally in 1968 he was convicted of raping an eight year old, so this guy already had a record and he got on.
The background checks they have in place now obviously were not in place then. But even now not everyone is caught. Some may remember the I Love Money and VH1 reality situation where one of the contestants killed another before killing himself. It’s tough to weed out all the crazy people. It does make you wonder what psychos they let through on these shows. And in further reasons why I love the internet, someone does have the tape of his appearance. Catch it below.
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That broad's really friggin' weird too. I can't imagine why they didn't work out.
That broad's really friggin' weird too. I can't imagine why they didn't work out.
Remind me why I never caught onto the Dating Game again?
I heard about this somewhere as well. The man's name was Kerry Ketchum, and he won over $58,000 on Super Password. While on the show, he used the pseudonym of Patrick Quinn, or something of the like. Anyway, someone recognized him when he was on the show, and called the police immediately. When Ketchum went to Mark Goodson Productions to get his winnings, the police were waiting for him. The fiasco culminated with a chase through the facility, which ended in a washroom, I believe. Ketchum was caught, and the rest, as they say, is history.
On a sort of related subject, there was someone on the run from the law on another show. There was a clip I saw from "Super Password" which I believe was from 1988 where there was a fugitive who appeared on the show using a false name. In the clip it shows him winning $55,000. I think he was on the run because he was wanted for insurance fraud somewhere. He never did see a penny of it. I'm trying to remember other details I've heard about it, but I can't think of what they were at this time.
On a sort of related subject, there was someone on the run from the law on another show. There was a clip I saw from "Super Password" which I believe was from 1988 where there was a fugitive who appeared on the show using a false name. In the clip it shows him winning $55,000. I think he was on the run because he was wanted for insurance fraud somewhere. He never did see a penny of it. I'm trying to remember other details I've heard about it, but I can't think of what they were at this time.
I heard about this somewhere as well. The man's name was Kerry Ketchum, and he won over $58,000 on Super Password. While on the show, he used the pseudonym of Patrick Quinn, or something of the like. Anyway, someone recognized him when he was on the show, and called the police immediately. When Ketchum went to Mark Goodson Productions to get his winnings, the police were waiting for him. The fiasco culminated with a chase through the facility, which ended in a washroom, I believe. Ketchum was caught, and the rest, as they say, is history.
I heard about this somewhere as well. The man's name was Kerry Ketchum, and he won over $58,000 on Super Password. While on the show, he used the pseudonym of Patrick Quinn, or something of the like. Anyway, someone recognized him when he was on the show, and called the police immediately. When Ketchum went to Mark Goodson Productions to get his winnings, the police were waiting for him. The fiasco culminated with a chase through the facility, which ended in a washroom, I believe. Ketchum was caught, and the rest, as they say, is history.
I don't wish to discuss the man or his sickening crimes here — the only thing I want to say is that the footage is from the Studio Master, which implies that the uploader has some connection to this incident.
I don't wish to discuss the man or his sickening crimes here — the only thing I want to say is that the footage is from the Studio Master, which implies that the uploader has some connection to this incident.
I watched the clip last night. How creeoy can you get? A child rapost on the Dating Game? Somebody forgot to look to see if he was a criminal. Of course, this was 1978 & the Dating Game was syndicated at the time. That meant its record was bound to ABC under S&P compliance. That was the same year The Gong Show went to syndication under the ABC guise(even though my NBC affiliate WPTZ-TV 5 out of Plattsburgh NY picked it up somehow via bicycling).
You are a disgusting piece of shit. You use a story about a convicted murderer to give us meaningless minutiae/trivia on 1970s ABC syndication?
Craig Karlberg. An annoying moron in any forum.
You're an incredible piece of work. Glad you found one more site to infect with your useless information.
You're an incredible piece of work. Glad you found one more site to infect with your useless information.
[...] Buzzerblog found the actual episode on YouTube, that never-ending fountain of “Keyboard Cat” entertainment, of Alcala competing for the heart of one Cheryl Bradshaw. CNN also talked to one of his fellow bachelors who described him as “obnoxious” and “creepy,” which incidentally is how most people describe what it feels like to watch a full episode of ‘The Dating Game.’ [...]