A Date With Death

Dating can be dangerous. Especially when your date ends up being a serial killer.

Case in point. Here’s a video of Rodney James Alcala on that quintessential 1970s game show “The Dating Game.”

You would think the producers did background checks on their contestants. On the contrary. Alcala already had a criminal record. He was a convicted rapist and registered sex offender. Yet somehow he was deemed acceptable for a national game show. After this episode aired, he was accused of murdering at least 50 victims. Mostly women and few teenage boys. Even today as he sits inside a jail cell, the body count continues. Investigators still continue to link other grizzly murders to Acala.

Luckily “bachelorette” Cheryl Bradshaw did not go on the date. By listening to her gut instincts, she refused to carry through because he was ‘creepy.’ Wonder what ever happened to her?

This isn’t new. Many other websites have already reported this crime tidbit. So while there’s nothing new to add, consider it a cautionary tale.

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You Light Up My Life And Then Some…

Okay, this is weird. The weird part was not ’70s Punk icon Patti Smith singing “You Light Up My Life” on a late 70s/early 80s children show. Not her, nor her choice of song or her choice of appearance.

The guy accompanying her on the piano? That’s Joseph Brooks, who wrote the Oscar winning tune. The weird, and ultimately sad part was, despite the fact that Joe Brooks had composed the biggest selling love song in the 1970s, the man was an accused rapist who just committed suicide earlier this week.

That’s not all. His own son stands accused of murder, currently at Rikers Island without bail. Apparently Nicholas Brooks killed his girlfriend Sylvie Cachay, an up-and-coming swimsuit designer.

A modern day story worthy of Kenneth Anger’s Hollywood Babylon book series.

When I was a kid, we used to sing this song during music class.

New York Times article about Joseph Brooks
Case continues beyond the grave
NY Mag article about both Joseph and Nicolas Brooks.

Wikipedia entry about children program “Kids Are People Too”