GEORGIA Wixted was only 27 years old when she was murdered by the Dating Game Killer Rodney Alcala.
The serial killer’s appearance on The Dating Game has been dramatized in Netflix’s film Woman of the Hour, which is set a year after Georgia’s death.
Mysterious disappearance
Not much is known about Georgia’s life before her death but it is widely reported that she was working as a nurse in December 1977.
She was last seen when she drove fellow nurse, Barbara Gale, home from a bar.
Barbara grew concerned when Georgia didn’t show up for work the next day so she reported her friend’s disappearance to the police.
An investigation at Georgia’s home in Malibu found there were signs of forced entry into the apartment.
Then, the police found Georgia’s body which showed signs of sexual assault.
Unbeknownst to the police, serial killer Rodney Alcala had been behind the murder and he was still at large in California and New York.
The Dating Game Killer
Rodney was born in Texas to a high-achieving mother named Anna Maria Gutierrez and her husband Raul Alcala Buquor in 1943.
The family moved to Mexico when Rodney was eleven years old, but, within three years of the move, Raul abandoned the family.
His crime spree began in August 1968 when he kidnapped and sexually assaulted Morgan Rowan, who was rescued by her friends.
Then, in September 1968, he attacked an 8-year-old girl named Tali Shapiro with a metal bar.
Tali was saved though when a passerby named Donald Haines became suspicious when she got into Rodney’s car, which prompted him to phone the police.
The authorities rushed to the scene and rescued Tali from the killer.
Rodney then fled to New York and began to use the alias “Jack Berger”, sometimes spelled “Burger”.
Once there, he murdered the 23-year-old flight attendant Cornelia Crilley before being arrested in 1971 for attacking Tali.
However, when he was released from serving his child molestation sentence, his crime spree began again which included his murder of Georgia.
Then, Rodney appeared on national television intending to kill another victim.
He tried to charm a bachelorette Cheryl Bradshaw on the Dating Game show in 1978 and succeeded in getting her to choose him as her date.
Cheryl backed out of the date at the last minute, when Rodney’s sinister humor made her grow suspicious of him.
This suspicion, unknowingly, saved her life though Rodney went on to kill three more women because of his fury at her rejection of him.
He had developed a new tactic for luring in victims by this time, which involved tricking people into thinking that he was a photographer.
Under the pretense of taking photographs for his portfolio, he would take them to a remote location and kill them.
Rodney faces justice
Rodney was eventually caught after murdering 12-year-old Robin Samsoe.
Some friends of Robin’s had described his face to the police, who circulated a sketch of the suspect.
Rodney’s old parole officer recognized him and reported him to the police, beginning a chain of events that saw a mountain of evidence brought against the killer.
He was arrested in July 1979 and sentenced to death in 1980, but that verdict was overturned in 1984.
Instead, Rodney remained in prison until he died in 2021.
Woman of the Hour
The Dating Game Killer’s appearance on the show of the same name is dramatized in Netflix’s Woman of the Hour.
Anna Kendrick stars as Cheryl Bradshaw, the woman who narrowly escapes being Rodney’s next victim, alongside Tony Hale who plays the show’s presenter.
Woman of the Hour is available to stream on Netflix from October 18, 2024.
