“THE BEAUTY QUEEN KILLER: 9 DAYS OF TERROR” is a new, true-crime docuseries that delves into the harrowing stories of the women who survived rampaging killer Christopher Wilder. Over 47 days in 1984, Wilder unleashed shocking violence on young women who were often aspiring models, earning him the moniker “The Beauty Queen Killer.”
This gripping three-part series, by 101 Studios and Ample Entertainment for ABC News Studios, weaves the stories of Wilder’s victims with those of the survivors of his violence, including Tina Marie Risico, who at 16 years old was kidnapped by Wilder from a California mall.
Ari Mark, executive producer and founder of Ample Entertainment discusses the series, which starts streaming exclusively on Hulu on Thursday, May 16.
Mark described Christopher Wilder:
“Wilder was a pretty well-to-do wealthy Australian guy. He was a sports car driver, a real estate mogul. And incredibly, he got away with photographing these young girls. He would even stalk them at Beauty Queen pageants and develop real relationships with them.
But essentially it was 1984 so he appealed to their sense of wanting to be famous and would approach them and say to them, ‘Hey, let me photograph you. You’re beautiful. You have a modeling career ahead of you,’ and make all sorts of empty promises. And that sort of became his M.O. of luring these women to trust him and to get them into his car and then not be able to escape.”
Tina Marie Risico, who at 16 years old was kidnapped by Wilder from a California mall, agreed to be interviewed for the first time, 40 years after her abduction.
“Tina’s unlike anyone I think we’ve ever interviewed for some of these true crime shows that we do, just because number one, she’s never spoken before,” Mark said. “And the reason she’s never spoken before is because when she was abducted at a young age and she was forced by Chris Wilder to drive and to take him across the country.”
He added, “She was really skewered by the press at the time, and even while she was on this trip, she didn’t know she was in the car with a spree killer.”
