'Dating Game' serial killer's rise to fame was key to his downfall, arresting officer reveals for first time

The detective who caught the 'Dating Game killer' tells the true story behind a recent Netflix film inspired by the case for the first time in an interview with Fox News Digital.

"He kept these little trinkets as trophies of the things that he'd done, the murders he committed over the course of his career." Mollie Markowitz is a reporter for Fox News Digital. Email tips to mollie.markowitz@fox.com. She joined Fox in 2019 and made her way from producing live news coverage to true-crime documentaries at Fox Nation. She has interviewed Ted Bundy survivors, the children of notorious serial killers, survivor Lisa McVey, members of law enforcement and families impacted by traumatic crime.Currently, she covers national crime stories for Fox News Digital. You can follow Mollie on LinkedIn.

"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.