Anna Kendrick's new Woman of the Hour made the top 10 films in the UK on over the weekend thanks to its raving success among viewers. But the real story behind the film is even darker than portrayed on-screen.

Woman of the Hour, directed by Anna Kendrick, depicts the crimes of Rodney Alcala, who became known as the "" after appearing on an American TV show in the midst of his crimes. Alcala was featured as a bachelor on the Blind Date-style show in 1978, two years before he was convicted of the murder of a 12-year-old girl.

He was eventually found guilty of eight murders in total, but some suggest the real figure could be as high as 130. Here, we take a look at his , and how he managed to evade police for nearly a decade.

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Rodney Alcala was a serial killer in the US who was found guilty of eight murders across New York, California and Wyoming between 1971 and 1979. He posed as a fashion photographer, often targeting women by complimenting them and asking to take pictures of them.

Alcala was born in Texas, the third of four children to parents Raul Alcala Buquor and Anna Maria Gutierrez. In 1951, Alcala's father moved the family to Mexico, before abandoning them three years later.

In 1954, aged 11, his mother moved him and his two sisters to Los Angeles. He was described as an academically gifted student who was popular among his peers.

He attended various private schools, eventually joining the army aged 17 in 1961. During his service, he was noted by his commanding officer as being manipulative, vindictive, and insubordinate.

He was also disciplined on multiple occasions for assaulting young women. In 1964, he went missing and hitchhiked from Fort Bragg, North Carolina, to his mother's home in California.

Alcala was later diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder and subsequently discharged from the army on medical grounds. He went on to study film at New York University.

On September 25, 1968, Alcala lured eight-year-old Tali Shapiro into his Hollywood apartment while she was walking to school. Alcala approached Shapiro in his car, offering her a lift to school and claiming he knew her parents.

Having initially refused, Shapiro eventually got into the car where she was driven to his apartment and sexually assaulted and beaten with a steel bar. Thankfully, a passing motorist had seen Shapiro get into the vehicle and alerted the police, who arrived at his apartment shortly after.

Alcala had fled the scene, with Shapiro left in a coma for 32 days. An arrest warrant was issued for Alcala, who fled to New York and enrolled at NYU under the name John Berger.

On June 12, 1971, a 23-year-old flight attendant was found raped and murdered in her Manhattan apartment. It's thought Alcala approached Cornelia Crilley to offer her help in moving furniture into her new apartment.

Alcala strangled her with her own nylon stockings, leaving her dead in her apartment at 427 East 83rd Street. Her case remained unsolved until 2011.

In 1974, Alcala assaulted a 13-year-old girl who had accepted what she believed was a lift to school. In 1977, Alcala killed Ellen Jane Hover, a 23-year-old daughter of a nightclub owner.

Hover was last seen at her New York apartment on July 15, 1977. Her datebook showed that she had an appointment to meet with one "John Berger" that same day.

Alcala admitted to knowing Hover under questioning, but investigators could not arrest him since they had not found her body. Her remains were eventually discovered buried under heavy rocks on a hillside overlooking the Hudson River, near a location on the John D. Rockefeller Estate where an aspiring model would later report that "Berger" had taken photos of her.

He also took part in what has been dubbed a 'California crime spree' between 1977 and 1979, where he murdered 18-year-old Jill Terry Barcomb, 27-year-old nurse Georgie Marie Wixted, 31-year-old legal secretary Charlotte Lee Lamb, 21-year-old computer keypunch operator Jill Marie Parenteau, and 12-year-old Robin Christine Samsoe.

In the midst of his crimes, Rodney Alcala was a contestant on a popular game show The Dating Game in 1978. Host Jim Lange introduced him as a "successful photographer", adding, "Between takes, you might find him skydiving or motorcycling."

Jed Miles, a fellow "bachelor" contestant on the episode, later described Alcala as a "very strange guy" with "bizarre opinions". Alcala won the competition and a date with the episode's bachelorette, Cheryl Bradshaw, who subsequently refused to go out with him because she found him "creepy".

Frustratingly, Alcala was caught after his first assault. In early 1971, he was added to the FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives following his crime against eight-year-old Tali Shapiro.

A few months later, two children attending an arts camp noticed his photo on an FBI poster at the post office. Alcala was arrested and extradited to California.

By then, Shapiro's family had relocated to Mexico following the traumatic incident, refusing to allow the minor to testify in court. The authorities were unwilling to charge him with rape and attempted murder without their primary witness and convicted him of child molestation instead.

He was sentenced to three years but paroled in 1974 after seventeen months. Less than two months after his release, he was re-arrested for assaulting a 13-year-old girl on her way to school.

Alcala was paroled again in 1976 after serving two years. In 1977, his parole officer took the unusual step of allowing him to travel to New York.

New York Police Department investigators now believe that a week after returning to Manhattan, Alcala killed Ellen Jane Hover. In July 1979, Rodney was caught through DNA evidence, including blood and handprints, as well as the discovery of items like earrings taken from the victims in Rodney’s storage locker. Eye witness testimony also connected Rodney to the victims.

He went on trial for Samsoe's murder, was found guilty in May 1980 and sentenced to death in June. While in custody, the true extent of his crimes began to unravel.

As shown in the film, Rodney Alcala kept a portfolio of his crimes in the form of a photo album. Authorities released more than 100 photos of young women and girls that were found in the killer’s storage locker in Seattle in hopes of linking him to other unsolved murders around the country.

Some photos, which were not released, depicted women, men and children in sexually explicit positions, and were believed to have been kept as trophies of Alcala’s crimes. The photos were uploaded to a Flickr album and Huntington Beach Police Department have asked for people to contact them if they recognise anyone.

On July 24, 2021, Alcala died of natural causes while on death row. He was 77 years old.

When surviving victim Tali heard the news, she said, "The planet is a better place without him, that’s for sure. I’ve moved on with my life, so this doesn’t really affect me. It’s a long time coming, but he’s got his karma."

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