By Dustin Rowles | Film | October 23, 2024 |
Anna Kendrick’s directorial debut, Woman of the Hour, is currently doing very well on Netflix. It’s also a rare find among Netflix films in that it’s genuinely good. Based on a true story, the film explores Cheryl Bradshaw’s experience on the 1970s game show The Dating Game, where one of the bachelors was Rodney Alcala—a serial killer later dubbed “The Dating Game Killer.”
Alcala was eventually convicted of murdering seven women and girls, though the total number of his victims may have been as high as 130. The unsettling message of the film is that Alcala could have been stopped earlier if authorities (men in power) had heeded the warnings of women who had encountered him.
Cheryl Bradshaw is central to the film’s story, though, fortunately, she played only a minor role in Alcala’s actual crimes. I was especially struck by the account of Monique Hoyt, a 15-year-old runaway, who is fictionalized as “Amy” in the movie (played by Autumn Best). I wish her real-life story had been as simple as depicted in the film—where she escaped while Alcala used a gas station restroom, called the police, and had him arrested on the spot. In reality, although she did escape and report Alcala to the police, his mother posted bail, allowing him to go free and murder at least two more women.
Another key figure in the story is Tali Shapiro, Alcala’s first known victim. She was just eight years old in 1968 when 25-year-old Alcala approached her on her way to school, pretending to be a family friend, and lured her to his apartment. Eight years old.
There, Alcala raped Shapiro and was in the process of strangling her with a metal bar when a passerby — who had noticed something suspicious when Alcala picked up Shapiro and followed them to Alcala’s apartment — alerted the police, who arrived in time to save Shapiro’s life. However, Alcala escaped through a back door while the police officer provided Shapiro medical attention.
Shapiro spent 32 days in a coma and endured a long recovery. Alcala wasn’t caught until 1971, and although he was extradited to California, Shapiro’s family had relocated to Mexico to help her heal. They refused to allow their daughter—then 11—to return to testify. As a result, Alcala was charged with child molestation instead of rape and attempted murder. He served only three years before being released, free to kill again.
In the title card, Woman of the Hour states that Monique Hoyt appeared to testify against Alcala when he had “a final chance for acquittal” after 31 years. This is mostly correct, though it wasn’t a question of acquittal. Alcala had already been convicted and sentenced to death, but the death penalty was overturned on a technicality. Hoyt testified at a hearing to determine whether he would again receive the death penalty.
Another person to testify at that hearing was Tali Shapiro. She wasn’t ready to do so when she was 11, but she bravely testified against him when she was 50. Hoyt, meanwhile, was so shaken, even at the age of 46, that a detective needed to sit with her in the courtroom. The hearing was successful, and Alcala was again sentenced to death. However, he died in prison at the age of 77 in 2021 before the sentence could be carried out. I hope every moment he spent on death row was miserable.
There are more details about Tali Shapiro’s horrifying ordeal in this segment of an episode of 20/20.