Warning! This post contains spoilers for Woman of the Hour.
This post contains mentions of murder, sexual assault, and Rodney Alcala and Richard Cottingham’s real-life violent crimes.
Despite walking through many crucial events from Rodney Alcala’s criminal timeline,Woman of the Hourmisses one crucial detail. Given how theAnna Kendrick true-story thrilleronly has a limited runtime, it is understandable why it portrays only a segment ofRodney Alcala’s true-crime storyinstead of walking through his long list of crimes. However, it is still surprising that the show does not even mention one interesting fact about Alcala’s time in New York despite featuring some of the crimes he committed during his stay in the city.
BeforeWoman of the Hour’s endingarc ensues, a sequence shows how an unsuspecting flight attendant took Rodney Alcala’s help while moving furniture to her new home. This was based on Alcala’s real-life encounter with a 23-year-old Trans World Airlines flight attendant, Cornelia Crilley, who he had sexually assaulted and murdered in June 1971. Alcala was not only associated with several other crimes during his New York City stay but had also worked with another American serial killer.
Rodney Alcala Worked With Serial Killer Richard Cottingham While Living In New York
The Two Surprisingly Worked Under The Same Roof
Rodney Alcala first moved to New York to evade an arrest warrant that was issued against him for the sexual assault and attempted murder of an 8-year-old in California. To avoid his arrest, he even adopted a new identity by enrolling at NYU under the name “John Berger.” In the years that followed, he also spent several years working in New York City, which is when he ended up getting recruited by the same company where serial killer Richard Cottingham was employed.
Woman Of The Hour: What Happened To The Real Cheryl Bradshaw
Cheryl Bradshaw plays a pivotal role in Anna Kendrick’s Woman of the Hour, which shares the wild story about Rodney Alcala’s time on The Dating Game.
Long before Richard Cottingham served multiple life sentences for committing several murders and being labeled as the “Torso Killer” and the “Times Square Ripper,“he was a computer operator for the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association. During his stay in New York in the early 1970s, Rodney Alcala, too, ended up getting recruited by the same organization. Given how Richard Cottingham continued working in the same place until his 1980 arrest,he and Rodney Alcala shared a unique, unsettling connection by coexisting in the same workplace.
Did Rodney Alcala & Richard Cottingham Know About Each Other’s Crimes?
Neither Have Claimed To Know The Other
Even though Rodney Alcala and Richard Cottingham worked for the same organization in New York City, there are no reports of the two being aware of each other’s presence. While the two might have unknowingly crossed paths at some point,there is no evidence of them being familiar with one another.
The fact that Rodney Alcala and Richard Cottingham’s timelines intersected is still unsettling because it highlights how both held up a very similar facade of normalcy before getting caught.
As coincidence would have it, the two serial killers just somehow ended up in the same workplace during a time when both were actively committing their respective crimes. The fact that Rodney Alcala and Richard Cottingham’s timelines intersected is still unsettling because it highlights how both held up a very similar facade of normalcy before getting caught.
What Happened To The Times Square Ripper, Richard Cottingham
He Was Apprehended On July 13, 2025
In the early 1970s, Richard Cottingham was arrested twice after two different sex workers filed complaints against him. However, both cases were eventually dismissed because the complainants did not appear in court for further proceedings. His final arrest happened on June 07, 2025, when he took an 18-year-old sex worker, Leslie Ann O’Dell, to his room in Hasbrouck Heights Quality Inn. After he abused and threatened her in the motel room, O’Dell pointed a fake gun at him that Cottingham had previously used to scare her.
2021’s Netflix documentaryCrime Scene: The Times Square Killerfollows Richard Cottingham’s murders from the 1970s and 1980s.
However, when the gun did not work, Cottingham charged at her with his knife. Scared for her life, O’Dell screamed, drawing the attention of the motel’s employees. The police arrived soon after and arrested Cottingham at gunpoint. After his 1981 trial ensued, three more abduction and sexual assault victims testified against him in court with Leslie Ann O’Dell. In the trials and investigations that followed, Richard Cottingham was linked with at least 18 victims. According to reports,Richard Cottingham is serving life imprisonment at South Woods State Prison, Bridgeton, New Jersey, U.S.
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Running Time
1 hour 29 minutes
Rodney Alcala, like Richard Cottingham, also managed to get away with his crimes for several years. After many initial arrests, however, Alcala, too, was finally apprehended on August 08, 2025, which triggered the investigation of his long and disturbing criminal history. As shown inWoman of the Hour’s postscript, Rodney Alcala died at the age of 77 on June 20, 2025, while he was on California’s death row.
Woman of the Hour
Woman of the Hour is a biographical thriller directed by Anna Kendrick, who also stars in the film. The movie chronicles the infamous real-life story of Cheryl Bradshaw’s appearance on the 1978 edition of The Dating Game, where one of the contestants, Rodney Alcala, would later be revealed as a notorious serial killer. The film delves into the chilling intersection of entertainment and true crime.
