His "portfolio" is filled with photos of young, attractive women. Participants of beauty contests and models. He promised them a career and then brutally murdered them.
Christopher Wilder was born in Sydney on March 13, 1945, the son of an Australian and a US naval officer. He was a difficult child. He was prone to aggression and mythomania. He built around himself the myth of a man who was in contact with death from an early age. One of his favorite stories was about how, at the age of two, he almost drowned in a swimming pool.
He committed his first serious crime as a 17-year-old . He and his friends were to assault and rape a 13-year-old girl. Unfortunately, the punishment for the act was not adequate to the committed crime. Christopher received a suspended sentence and one year of police surveillance. He came under the observation of a psychologist. He later claimed that was additionally treated with electroconvulsive therapy which, instead of weakening it, aggravated his murderous and sexual desires . This story, as well as several others preached by Wilder (including the imminent drowning in childhood), was dealt with by Duncan McNab in Christopher's biography. According to him, they were all mere figments.
When Wilder turned 23, he got married. According to his relatives, it was to herald the transformation of a man and entering a better path. Unfortunately, the relationship didn't even survive the honeymoon. Already after 7 days, the wife left Christopher. She later claimed her husband was aggressive towards her and sexually abused.
Collector
After that, Wilder moved to Florida where he became successful in the real estate business. He made a fortune quickly. He bought a villa in a trendy neighborhood and invested in professional photography equipment to develop a hobby that fascinated him for years. Taking pictures of beautiful women and then… bullying them.
Wilder read the novel The Collector by John Fowles. It told the story of a young man unhappily in love with a woman who did not love him. Emotions tormenting the main character finally pushed him to kidnap her. He held his beloved in the basement and sexually abused her until she died of pneumonia. Christopher's obsessively consumed novel only fed his unhealthy fascinations. Eventually he decided to put them into practice.
Wilder hunted for attractive young women, which is why he was hailed as a murderer of beauty queens (illustrative photo).
Posing as a professional photographer, he began luring young and attractive women into his snares for sexual exploitation. He was tried many times for these crimes in 1971–1975. Among the charges against him there was also the rape of a girl which he lured to his truck under the pretext of taking photos for a modeling agency. Unfortunately, he was not sentenced to prison for any of the crimes he had committed. This open impunity only aroused his appetite.
In 1982, he visited Australia. During this short stay, he was said to have attempted to rape two 15-year-olds. Fortunately, the girls managed to escape. They told the parents who reported the matter to the police. Wilder was arrested, but did not stay long in custody. His parents bailed quickly and Christopher was free again. Ba! He even got permission to leave the country and return to Florida. All he had to do was promise to fly to the court hearing scheduled for April 1984. He did not keep his word. By the time the case went to trial, Wilder was already dead.
Murderous tour
In early 1984, after his return to the US, Christopher decided to go on a US tour. This trip was not, however, a sightseeing trip, but a murderous tour that cost the lives of at least 8 women. Wilder's first victims were possibly model Rosario Gonzalez and Elizabeth Kenyon, Miss Florida. Both women went missing at the turn of February and March. Their bodies have never been found, but it is known that they knew Christopher. Shortly after their disappearance on March 18, Wilder abducted and murdered 21-year-old Theresa Wait Ferguson whose body was discovered 5 days later.
The next victim was 19-year-old student Linda Grover, who was kidnapped and held by Christopher at the Glen Oaks Motel in Georgia. There he abused her, raping and torturing her (including electrocuting her and gluing her eyes). The girl managed to escape to the toilet and barricade in it. She started screaming for help. Fortunately, this one came, but the torturer managed to escape.
Christopher was still out of reach of the police, even though he was placed on the list of the Top 10 Wanted Criminals.
Wilder continued his journey. In Texas and Kansas, he kidnapped and killed two more women in their twenties, and an 18-year-old and 17-year-old in Utah and California. Each was seen in his company shortly before disappearing. However, Christopher himself was still out of the reach of the police, even though was placed on the list of the Top 10 Wanted Criminals. He lured his victims with the "photographer" method. He told women he was looking for new faces for modeling agencies.
Death pursuit
On April 4 in California, Wilder abducted 16-year-old Tina Marie Risico. After sexually abusing her, the man concluded that the girl took it quite well - and decided to leave her alive. She was supposed to help him attract new victims on his way to Canada. Another on the murder list was 16-year-old Dawnette Wilt, who was first raped repeatedly in the back of a Risco-driven car, then stabbed and abandoned . The teenager miraculously survived. After the operation, she told police about Wilder's plans to escape to Canada. The race against time has begun.
The last known victim of the beauty queens' murder was 33-year-old Beth Dodg. After her murder in New York State, Christopher traveled to Boston, where he put Risico on a plane to Los Angeles. Sam continued his journey. On the way, he made one more kidnapping attempt, fortunately unsuccessful.
Floyd Clarke of the FBI during a conference discussing the possible shooting of Christopher Wilder [04/13/1984, Washington] - Ron Edmonds / ASSOCIATED PRESS / East News
On April 13, Wilder stopped at a Vic's Getty gas station in New Hampshire, and was spotted by two policemen. A shootout ensued between them and the hunted one did not come out alive. He has not been tried for the crimes committed. Christopher's fortune, estimated at $ 7 million after his death, was divided among the families of his known victims. To date, the true number of women he killed - both those in the US and Australia - has not been established.Bibliography
- McNab, The Snapshot Killer , Hachette Australia, 2019.
- Christopher Wilder, Murderer of the beauty queens - never stood trial | CATCH THE BEAST, youtube.com (accessed:November 26, 2021).
- Rosewood, Christopher Wilder:The True Story of The Beauty Queen Killer , Createspace Independent Publishing Platform, 2016.
- Bovsun, 'Beauty Queen Killer' and race car driver Christopher Bernard Wilder takes a bloody ride through the states, kidnapping, raping and murdering 8 women in short 1984 span , web.archive.org (accessed:November 26, 2021).