The terrifying true story behind Woman of the Hour: ‘He was born with half a soul’

Netflix thriller looks back at the stranger-than-fiction tale of a serial killer who was a contestant on a 1970s dating show

“I am serving you for dinner,” said Cheryl Bradshaw, “What are you called and what do you look like?” Bachelor number one, Rodney Alcala, replied: “I’m called the banana and I look really good … Peel me.” Bradshaw burst into laughter and so did the studio audience.

This was a seemingly innocuous episode of the television show The Dating Game in 1978. Bradshaw, able to put questions to three contestants but unable to see them, selected Alcala, a longhaired photographer who enjoyed skydiving and motorcycling in his spare time. What she could not know was that she had booked a date with one of the most prolific serial killers in American history.