Blind dates are always risky. Worst case scenario? You get set up with a serial killer. L.A. Weekly has obtained footage of alleged serial killer Rodney Alcala as creepy Bachelor Number One on an episode of NBC's The Dating Game in 1978 where, yes, he actually won. Authorities believe Alcala murdered seven women and girls, raped several others, and kept their earrings as trophies in a secret locker. Watch him win a date with bachelorette Cheryl Bradshaw below.

Christine Pelisek details the murderer's “dangerous romp through polite society” in her feature, “Rodney Alcala: The Fine Art of Killing,” excerpted below.

So smooth was Alcala that he was selected to compete on the ABC prime-time show The Dating Game in 1978, where “bachelorette” Cheryl Bradshaw picked him as her date. Later, police say, she reportedly refused to go on the winning date, sensing that there was something creepy about Bachelor Number One.

Now 66, Alcala has twice stood trial in Orange County for the murder of 12-year-old ballet student Robin Samsoe of Huntington Beach. The sensational crime rocked the sleepy beachside city 31 years ago. He was twice convicted of slaying the small girl, who disappeared on her way to ballet class riding a yellow Schwinn bicycle. Two different juries said Alcala should die. But twice his convictions were reversed on different technicalities — once by the California Supreme Court in 1984 and a second time by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in 2001.

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