Following a brush with death - or in this case, nearly ending up on a date with a devil - people tend to analyse every single minute detail of their ordeal to determine the exact moment when they realised they were in danger.
For Cheryl Bradshaw, it's highly likely that the red flag which she picked up on saved her life.
Because the odds of what would have happened to her if she did go to meet who she thought was simply an eligible bachelor were not in her favour.
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In September 1978, Cheryl was looking for love when she received the news that she had been selected to be a bachelorette on an episode of the US show, The Dating Game, where she would choose between three potential suitors.
She ended up taking a shine to one of the blokes who had been introduced as a 'successful photographer' and recreational skydiver by the host, before he went on to make a series of suggestive jokes on the show.
Nevertheless, Cheryl was clearly charmed by 'bachelor number one' and she decided he would be the lucky man who would get to take her on a blind date.
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But unbeknownst to the drama teacher, she had signed herself up for a rendezvous with a serial killer and convicted child predator who was on the prowl for further victims.
At the time of his appearance on The Dating Game, Rodney Alcala had already murdered at least five women in Southern California and had served three years behind bars for horrifically beating and raping an eight-year-old girl.
Shortly after he had been released, he ended up doing a second stint behind bars after assaulting a 13-year-old girl.
He'd even earned a spot on the FBI's Most Wanted list a few years earlier, but as producers on the ABC show did not conduct a background check on the contestant, nobody had a clue.
But interestingly, Cheryl had something of a sixth sense which told her that the man she'd been so excited to see again was not who she thought he was - in fact, he was a 'killing machine', according to one of the cops on his tail.
Cheryl Bradshaw's decision to cancel the date likely saved her life (ABC)
The drama teacher had initially been bowled over by Alcala's handsomeness and humour, but upon reflection, it seems he was sickeningly alluding to his crimes with his answers on The Dating Game.
When Cheryl asked him what was his 'best time', he is said to have slipped in a reference to him pouncing on his victims under the cover of darkness, and responded: "The best time is at night."
Following that, she asked: "What are you called and what do you look like?"
"I’m called the banana and I look good," Alcala laughed. "Peel me."
However, when the pair finally met face-to-face, Cheryl thankfully came to her senses after picking up on the contestant's 'weird vibes', as she told the Sydney Telegraph in 2012: "I started to feel ill. He was acting really creepy."
She had agreed to head on a date with him the following day to a tennis lesson, but her intuition urged her to cancel it.
Rodney Alcala was described as a 'killing machine' by one police officer (Ted Soqui/Corbis via Getty Images)
Cheryl called one of The Dating Game's producers, Ellen Metzger, who recalled how the bachelorette worryingly told her she simply could not go out with Alcala.
The bachelorette told Ellen: "There’s weird vibes that are coming off of him. He’s very strange. I am not comfortable. Is that going to be a problem?"
The producer said it was fine for her to turn Alcala down - especially as her husband, executive producer Mike Metzger, had also raised concerns about the man during the casting process.
Mike previously told ABC's 20/20: "No darn way was this guy going to be on my show, because I thought he had a strange personality. He had a mystique about him that I found uncomfortable."
Alcala had also told another male contestant on the show that he 'always gets his girl' while chatting in the green room.
The true number of Alcala's victims is believed to be over 100 (Ted Soqui/Corbis via Getty Images)
All of their gut feelings were right on the money - as Alcala was in fact a murderer who ended up going on another killing spree following his rejection from Cheryl.
The killer went on to murder 12-year-old Robin Samsoe in Los Angeles in 1979, as she cycled to a ballet class.
The horrific crime eventually led to his arrest, as a pair of the little girl's earrings were found in a storage locker he owned in Seattle, which was brimming with other sick souvenirs from his slayings.
He was sentenced to death for the killing and was connected to another ten homicides in the US - however, it is believed that the true total of his victims could be up to 130.
Alcala, who later became known as the Dating Game Killer, died of unspecified natural causes 42-years after his arrest for the murder of Robin on July 24, 2021.
And if this isn't a lesson to trust your gut, I don't know what is.
