The man who arrested serial killer Rodney Alcala, whose case inspired the recent Netflix special “Woman of the Hour,” detailed the true story behind the popular film and how Alcala’s appearance on a 1970s dating show led authorities to his capture. 

Alcala has been dubbed the “Dating Game killer” because he appeared on the television show “The Dating Game” as Bachelor No. 1 in 1978 during his killing spree.

“He had a very high IQ… but the problem with a guy like that, I think, is most of his IQ isn’t focused on developing personal relationships…and things like that… it’s all focused on my next victim and how to exploit women and girls,” Craig Robison, the lead detective in Alcala’s investigation with the Huntington Beach police, told Fox News Digital in his first public interview on the case. “He would still be doing it if we didn’t catch him.”

Robison is also a retired California prosecutor and judge. Since judges in the state are not permitted to speak on “pending” cases, he has never spoken publicly about the investigation previously and was even prohibited from testifying during the serial killer’s third trial. Robison said the case was considered “pending” from Alcala’s arrest up until he died in prison in 2021. 

In this March 30, 2010 file photo, convicted serial killer Rodney Alcala listens as victim-impact statements are read in a Santa Ana, Calif. (AP)

Alcala died of natural causes on July 24, 2021, while awaiting execution in California. He was 77 at the time of his death. 

Though it took over 30 years to sentence Alcala for his crimes, he remained incarcerated from the time Robison arrested him in 1979 up until his death. 

“Huntington Beach back at the time, I think maybe they had 150 police officers, but it was a small, much smaller community than it is today…locals were able to catch this guy with all of this intelligence and put him behind bars,” Robison said. “That’s what started his complete undoing, was his arrest that we made in July of 1979.”