Community hub
Recent from talks
Knowledge base stats:
Talk channels stats:
Members stats:
Christopher Wilder
Christopher Bernard Wilder (March 13, 1945 – April 13, 1984), also known as the Beauty Queen Killer and the Snapshot Killer, was an Australian-American serial killer who abducted at least twelve young women and girls, killing eight of them during a six-week, cross-country crime spree in the United States in early 1984. Having committed numerous rapes and sexual assaults in Australia and the United States dating back to 1963, Wilder had developed his methods for victimizing attractive young women, most of whom he enticed by promising to take their photographs.
In February 1984, Wilder progressed to murder, beginning in Florida, then traveling more than 6,000 miles (9,700 km) west to California then north and east to New Hampshire, while committing murders, abductions, attempted abductions, and transportation of victims in 16 different states. After subduing his victims, he tortured and raped them before shooting, stabbing, or strangling them to death. He electrocuted two or more of his victims using a makeshift electrical cord.
After being named a suspect in the disappearances of his first two victims, both of whom were women he knew and whose bodies were never found, Wilder began to target random women, many of whom were abducted from shopping malls. During a struggle with police in New Hampshire on April 13, 1984, he accidentally killed himself, with one bullet from his gun passing through his body and seriously injuring the officer trying to disarm him. Since his death, Wilder has been suspected of the rapes, murders, and disappearances of many other women, including the 1965 Wanda Beach Murders in his native city of Sydney, as well as the suspected murder of missing 18-year-old beauty queen Tammy Lynn Leppert. The 1986 made-for-television movie Easy Prey dramatizes Wilder's crimes.
Christopher Wilder was born on March 13, 1945, in Sydney, New South Wales, the oldest of four sons to an American father, Coley Chapman Wilder, a naval officer, and an Australian mother, June Wilder (née Decker). Wilder nearly died at birth and reportedly almost drowned in a swimming pool when he was aged 2. On January 4, 1963, at age 17, Wilder raped a 13-year-old girl in a Freshwater quarry, in the company of two other men, both of whom denied being involved in the assault. Wilder was sentenced to probation and claimed later in life that he also received electroshock therapy. It has been suggested that this therapy aggravated Wilder's violent sexual tendencies. However, journalist Duncan McNab claims that there is no evidence that Wilder underwent electroshock therapy and that the story of his near-drowning was invented by Wilder.
Wilder married in 1968, but his wife, Christine, left him when Wilder was taken in for questioning over a series of sexual assaults at Manly Beach. After their divorce, Wilder's ex-wife told law enforcement that he had attempted to seduce both his mother-in-law and sister-in-law, and that she had found pictures of young women in their underwear in a briefcase inside his car. She also admitted to police that Wilder had twice attempted to kill her.
In November 1969, Wilder used nude photographs to extort sex from an Australian student nurse; she complained to police, but charges were ultimately dropped when she refused to testify in court. Wilder emigrated to the United States in 1969 and settled in Boynton Beach, Florida, in an upscale waterfront home twenty-five miles south of affluent Palm Beach, becoming successful in the real estate business. He frequently traveled to Hawaii and The Bahamas and also developed an interest in photography, which resulted in his converting a bedroom of his home into a darkroom.
Between 1971 and 1975, Wilder faced various charges related to sexual assault. He raped a young woman he had lured into his truck on the pretense of photographing her for a modeling contract. This was to become part of his modus operandi during his later crime spree. Despite several convictions, Wilder was never jailed for any of these offenses. In 1977, a psychologist deemed Wilder a "mentally disordered sex offender" and "not safe except in a structured environment and should be in a resident program" and also noted his need to dominate women and turn them into slaves for his pleasure. He expressed interest in white slavery and spoke of his sexual fantasies which involved twisting a woman's nipples during sex and slapping and kicking sexual partners.
In 1982, while visiting his parents in Australia, Wilder was charged with sexual offenses against two 15-year-old girls whom he had forced to pose nude after luring them from Manly Beach. His parents posted bail and he was allowed to return to Florida to await trial, but court delays prevented his case from ever being heard, as the eventual initial hearing date of April 1984 came after his death. Two other young girls, aged 10 and 12, later identified Wilder from mugshots as the man who had abducted them in Boynton Beach in 1983 and forced them to perform oral sex on him.
Hub AI
Christopher Wilder AI simulator
(@Christopher Wilder_simulator)
Christopher Wilder
Christopher Bernard Wilder (March 13, 1945 – April 13, 1984), also known as the Beauty Queen Killer and the Snapshot Killer, was an Australian-American serial killer who abducted at least twelve young women and girls, killing eight of them during a six-week, cross-country crime spree in the United States in early 1984. Having committed numerous rapes and sexual assaults in Australia and the United States dating back to 1963, Wilder had developed his methods for victimizing attractive young women, most of whom he enticed by promising to take their photographs.
In February 1984, Wilder progressed to murder, beginning in Florida, then traveling more than 6,000 miles (9,700 km) west to California then north and east to New Hampshire, while committing murders, abductions, attempted abductions, and transportation of victims in 16 different states. After subduing his victims, he tortured and raped them before shooting, stabbing, or strangling them to death. He electrocuted two or more of his victims using a makeshift electrical cord.
After being named a suspect in the disappearances of his first two victims, both of whom were women he knew and whose bodies were never found, Wilder began to target random women, many of whom were abducted from shopping malls. During a struggle with police in New Hampshire on April 13, 1984, he accidentally killed himself, with one bullet from his gun passing through his body and seriously injuring the officer trying to disarm him. Since his death, Wilder has been suspected of the rapes, murders, and disappearances of many other women, including the 1965 Wanda Beach Murders in his native city of Sydney, as well as the suspected murder of missing 18-year-old beauty queen Tammy Lynn Leppert. The 1986 made-for-television movie Easy Prey dramatizes Wilder's crimes.
Christopher Wilder was born on March 13, 1945, in Sydney, New South Wales, the oldest of four sons to an American father, Coley Chapman Wilder, a naval officer, and an Australian mother, June Wilder (née Decker). Wilder nearly died at birth and reportedly almost drowned in a swimming pool when he was aged 2. On January 4, 1963, at age 17, Wilder raped a 13-year-old girl in a Freshwater quarry, in the company of two other men, both of whom denied being involved in the assault. Wilder was sentenced to probation and claimed later in life that he also received electroshock therapy. It has been suggested that this therapy aggravated Wilder's violent sexual tendencies. However, journalist Duncan McNab claims that there is no evidence that Wilder underwent electroshock therapy and that the story of his near-drowning was invented by Wilder.
Wilder married in 1968, but his wife, Christine, left him when Wilder was taken in for questioning over a series of sexual assaults at Manly Beach. After their divorce, Wilder's ex-wife told law enforcement that he had attempted to seduce both his mother-in-law and sister-in-law, and that she had found pictures of young women in their underwear in a briefcase inside his car. She also admitted to police that Wilder had twice attempted to kill her.
In November 1969, Wilder used nude photographs to extort sex from an Australian student nurse; she complained to police, but charges were ultimately dropped when she refused to testify in court. Wilder emigrated to the United States in 1969 and settled in Boynton Beach, Florida, in an upscale waterfront home twenty-five miles south of affluent Palm Beach, becoming successful in the real estate business. He frequently traveled to Hawaii and The Bahamas and also developed an interest in photography, which resulted in his converting a bedroom of his home into a darkroom.
Between 1971 and 1975, Wilder faced various charges related to sexual assault. He raped a young woman he had lured into his truck on the pretense of photographing her for a modeling contract. This was to become part of his modus operandi during his later crime spree. Despite several convictions, Wilder was never jailed for any of these offenses. In 1977, a psychologist deemed Wilder a "mentally disordered sex offender" and "not safe except in a structured environment and should be in a resident program" and also noted his need to dominate women and turn them into slaves for his pleasure. He expressed interest in white slavery and spoke of his sexual fantasies which involved twisting a woman's nipples during sex and slapping and kicking sexual partners.
In 1982, while visiting his parents in Australia, Wilder was charged with sexual offenses against two 15-year-old girls whom he had forced to pose nude after luring them from Manly Beach. His parents posted bail and he was allowed to return to Florida to await trial, but court delays prevented his case from ever being heard, as the eventual initial hearing date of April 1984 came after his death. Two other young girls, aged 10 and 12, later identified Wilder from mugshots as the man who had abducted them in Boynton Beach in 1983 and forced them to perform oral sex on him.