Christopher Wilder: The Beauty Queen Killer

Killer Psyche

Wondery | Treefort Media

True Crime, Exhibit C

4.6 • 4.2K Ratings

🗓️ 1 April 2025

⏱️ 57 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Retired FBI agent and criminal profiler Candice DeLong dives into the case of Christopher Wilder. In 1984, Wilder went on a terrifying cross-country rampage that lasted 47 days and claimed the lives of at least eight young women, who believed that Wilder would help them achieve their modeling dreams. Known as the “Beauty Queen Killer,” he used his charm and wealth to manipulate and control his victims before subjecting them to horrific violence. Candice examines how Wilder’s deeply rooted fantasies and past criminal behavior escalated into a nationwide killing spree – and how a relentless manhunt brought his reign of terror to an end.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Want to get more from Killer Psyche?
0:02.3	Subscribe to Wondery Plus for early access to new episodes, ad-free listening, and exclusive content you cannot find anywhere else.
0:12.8	Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts.
0:19.0	A listener note, this episode contains adult content and is not suitable for everyone. Please be advised.
0:33.1	In the chilling novel by John Fowles, The collector, the main character Frederick Clegg, was a quiet man.
0:43.7	Invisible, really.
0:46.0	A lonely butterfly collector, Clegg spent his days obsessing over a woman named Miranda Cray.
0:54.5	He watched her from afar, convinced that if only he could possess her,
1:00.7	she would grow to love him.
1:03.0	So, Clay did what came naturally to him.
1:07.0	He collected her.
1:08.9	He trapped her in his cellar, treating her like one of his prized specimens, controlling her every move.
1:17.8	He believed that if he was patient enough, if he provided for her, eventually she would see the goodness in him.
1:26.9	Eventually, she would love him back.
1:30.4	But Miranda did not love him.
1:33.5	She never would.
1:35.2	Because what Clegg mistook for love was really just domination.
1:40.5	And in the end, his need for control destroyed her and left Clegg yearning for his next
1:50.3	specimen. The collector is a work of fiction, a chilling study of obsession, entitlement, and twisted
2:00.6	love.
2:01.6	But for the notorious killer Christopher Wilder,
2:06.0	it was more than just a novel.
	...

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