In the 1980s, the 39-year-old serial killer, Christopher Wilder, preyed on teenaged girls. To entice his victims, the successful, Australian-born contractor posed as a photographer in southern Florida, flattering teens and offering to turn them into models. At least eight girls were murdered; approximately a dozen were raped. As his crimes became harder to hide, Wilder set off on a murderous cross-country rampage that culminated in his shooting death by police.

Born on March 13, 1945, in Sidney, the son of an American naval officer and his Australian wife, Wilder had a troubled youth. Sickly, convulsive, and even once given last rites, the boy became a sexually violent teenager put on probation for participation in a gang rape. His twenties charted a further descent into psychopathy. At 23, his marriage lasted only days before his bride left him alleging sexual abuse. He moved to the United States, and in 1971 pleaded guilty...