The Case of the Beauty Queen Killer

Welcome to chapter 2 of "The Case of." In this post we will take a look at Mr. Wilder, or more known as The Beauty Queen Killer.

Christopher Wilder was born March 13, 1945 in Sydney, Australia. From a young age, Wilder was a child of problems. He pled guilty to gang-rape on a beach and was sentenced to probation. In this time, he also underwent electroshock therapy. This was said to drive his sexual urges and desires. Wilder got married in 1968, at the age of 23. A week later after his wife found lingerie and naked photos of women in a briefcase inside his car, she left him.

This is what the police would call a stressor, or trigger, something that started the initial urge to kill.

Described as a tall, handsome man with fair hair, on a cold December night in 1982, Wilder approached two young women and asked to take their pictures. Now these women thought nothing less of it because Wilder said he was a photographer. Saying these young women could become models, Wilder took them to Mosman, where he forced them to pose naked, before driving them to Kings Cross where he indecently assaulted them.

Rather than a model scout, Christopher Bernard Wilder was a dangerous predator.

Not only did he kill in Sydney, Australia, he killed in Florida, Georgia, Texas, Kansas, New York, Utah, and California. Each police department can only work in their designated jurisdiction. As these cases crossed jurisdiction lines, cops couldn't connect these murders to one another. But it wasn't long until the same signature popped up several times, so that the cops knew they were dealing with a serial killer.

We know for a fact that Wilder killed between eight to nine victims but there are still several out there to be identified and run through autopsies to see if they were the Beauty Queen's kills or someone else's.

By the time April 13, 1984 rolled around, it was clear that the serial killer the cops were looking for was Christopher Wilder. He had stopped at Vic's Getty service station at the corner of Main and Bridge Streets in Colebrook, New Hampshire, and was noticed by two New Hampshire state troopers, Leo Jellison and Wayne Fortier. When the troopers approached Wilder, he retreated to his car to arm himself with a Colt Python .357 Magnum. Jellison had gotten the jump on Wilder. Yes! While in the scuffle, Trooper Jellison's gun fired twice. Wilder received the first bullet and it exited through his back and into trooper Jellision. The second bullet went into Wilder's chest. Due to being hit twice with the bullets, Wilder was killed.

Wooo! He's dead! We should cheer, right? We can for a solid second but in all reality, what Wilder did, what serial killers do now—well, killers in general—it's not right. Socially and morally, it's wrong. Us cheering for the death of someone, even if it was brutal and they probably deserved it, doesn't make us any better than they are. But who am I to judge?

Just because someone had a bad childhood doesn't mean they should end up becoming killers. There are other options in getting help. Understanding the problem and the situation is the first step. A lot of people go into denial. They just believe it's a "phase." 20 years later, does it still seem like a phase to you now?

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There will be a mix in "The Case of" chapters between serial killers and unsolved murders/mysteries, so if you would like to read more or even just liked this chapter, please, please leave a generous donation. Everything you provide means a lot, so thank you.

Happy Reading,

Nikki