Anna Kendrick’s directorial debut, Woman of the Hour, seems like the kind of story that’s too far-fetched to be believed. Ironically, the story of The Dating Game killer, Rodney Alcala, is actually based on a real-life serial killer who is believed to have killed over 100 women in the 60s and 70s.
Alcala, who as the Netflix movie depicts, would appear on The Dating Game while he was actively raping and killing women, was eventually convicted of killing seven women and sentenced to death. He died of natural causes in 2021, while on death row.
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Woman of the Hour centers on Alcala’s multiple victims and attempts to give voice to the women he killed. But, as a fictional story — even if one with a true crime element, the movie changes the name of the contestant in the game show that picked Alcala as the winner, as well as the names of his victims. However, two women survived Alcala’s attacks and lived to tell the tale. What happened to the two women and where are they now?
Where are Rodney Alcala’s runaway victims now?
Two girls survived Rodney Alcala’s attacks. Morgan Rowan and Tali Shapiro were attacked by Alcala when they were 16 and 8, respectively, and both managed to escape him. Rowan never reported what Alcala did to her to the police, and Shapiro was so young her parents wouldn’t allow her to testify in Alcala’s trial for fear of re-traumatizing her. That means Alcala only served time for child molestation after Shapiro’s attack and went on to rape and murder more women after he was released.
Morgan Rowan encountered Alcala for the first time in 1965 when she was 13 years old. When Alcala attacked her in an alley behind a teen nightclub, Rowan was helped by the owner of the club and his wife. But Alcala would cross paths with Rowan again three years later, and manage to grab her, rape her and almost murder her before her friends found them and intervened.
Tali Shapiro, meanwhile, was only 8 when Alcala convinced her to get in the car with him claiming to be a friend of her parents. He took her to his house, where he raped her and almost killed her. She was only saved by a bystander who saw her get in the car and followed her, calling the police, who got to Alcala’s house before he could kill Shapiro. Alcala escaped while the police were providing medical assistance to her.
Alcala was finally arrested in 1979, though it would take three trials before his conviction finally stuck. Shapiro went on to finally testify in Alcala’s 2010 sentencing. “I didn’t have any feelings except of duty, of justice,” she told PEOPLE Magazine Investigates. “I never once looked his way. I consciously didn’t want to give him any energy whatsoever. I didn’t glance at him, I didn’t acknowledge him, I never spoke his name. I didn’t give him any satisfaction.”
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That was when Rowan first got in touch with Shapiro, after spending years feeling guilty she did not report Alcala. But when she finally reached out through Facebook and apologized, Shapiro forgave her right away. “Tali saying she forgave me changed everything,” Rowan said on PEOPLE Magazine Investigates. “It was definitely a huge step to my recovery.”
Rowan and Shapiro now live a few hours apart in California and make sure to see each other at least every few months. They don’t discuss Alcala much, though. For both, it is important to not be defined by what he did to them.
“She’s the sister I always wish I had,” Shapiro also told PEOPLE. “We’re chosen family.”
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