The Beauty Queen Killer

by Bruce Gibney

They were all attractive, vulnerable, and ambitious. They fell for his promise of a career in modeling, and they all died a slow, horrible death at his hands. This is the true American horror story of Christopher Wilder--a successful businessman, a sportsman and a convicted sex offender.

Genres: True Crime

212 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1984

Reviews

[Terry Cornell · Rating 3 out of 5]

A quick read. I didn't remember much about this case, the incidents took place in my final year in college so I was preoccupied. This was better written than some from the 'True Detective' format. The writer was factual without being too dry. I don't know why this is the only book that Gibney has written. One of the more interesting parts was an article at the end written by a free-lance writer, Judith Knight on her efforts through a psychic to find two of the missing murder victims. Also included are two reports of two psychologists that examined Christopher Wilder regarding his early sexual assault case. They determined he wasn't a threat to society, and based on their reports I can see why they reached that conclusion. There weren't any indications that Wilder would become a violent killer, and they were unaware of previous allegations in Australia.

Since Wilder's death, and the publication of the book, Wilder is suspected of several other killings where he can be tied to the crimes through physical evidence or circumstances. An interested reader can check these out via Wikipedia.

Note: Goodreads says this book is only eight pages long. The true length is 212 pages.

[J.H. Moncrieff · Rating 3 out of 5]

True story: I started reading a happy book about people who moved to Costa Rica to live the life of their dreams. I was having such a bad day that the book was making me homicidal, so I ditched it and went back to true crime. Ah, yes...people who have worse lives than me. That's better.

I'm really surprised I hadn't heard of Christopher Wilder, this particular book's Big Bad Dude. He killed a shocking number of young women during a horrifying spree, promising them fame and fortune as models before sexually torturing and murdering them. Most of his victims were under 21.

Wilder was a convicted sex offender who was released for good behaviour--a cautionary tale that society of course promptly ignored.

This book was a quick read--no trial, thankfully--and the writer tries his best to bring some humanity to the victims and their stories, but there were so many it's difficult. There's some distance between the author and the subject matter--one gets the sense that Gibney didn't want to dig too deep into Wilder. How does a brilliant, successful man become a murderer? It's an interesting question that this book didn't come close to answering.

The long epilogue of another author's experience with a psychic was odd. Doesn't seem to fit.

[zoe clouthier · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hard to read. Sickening!

[L.M. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Absolutely chilling! I vaguely remember hearing about this case when it was happening or shortly thereafter, but was far too young to understand. Although in all truthfulness we're probably none of us old enough to understand how a person could be an apparently functional member of society one day and go on a cross-country killing spree the next. The fact that he hid in plain sight both before and after his crime spree began is perhaps the most terrifying thing of all. Well... apart from the fact that a psychiatrist diagnosed him as a psychopath who was a danger to others 7 years earlier when he admitted to having committed sexual assault (and his victim a minor)... and yet he somehow walked away scot free...? That's super scary too.

[Leslie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting true account following the trail of a serial killer from coast to coast and back again. Not terrific writing but solid detective work