An Almanac of Infamy

On this day in 1984, Christopher Wilder, the man who would come to be known as "The Beauty Queen Killer," died after a scuffle with state troopers in the town of Colebrook, New Hampshire. His death put an end to a month-long killing spree that began in Florida and claimed at least eight victims. However, long before his spree began, he had already terrorized several women. Christopher Wilder was born on March 13, 1945, in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. His father was an American naval officer, and his mother was an Australian national. His early life was marked by almost dying at birth and nearly drowning at the age of two. On January 4, 1963, just two months shy of his 18th birthday, Wilder and two teenage accomplices raped a 13-year-old girl. For this heinous crime, he only received probation. As an adult, he would claim that he was also sentenced to receive electroshock therapy. If he really did undergo these treatments, they may have exacerbated his violent sexual

Margaret and Graham Backhouse A detective displays the notes that Graham Backhouse tried to implicate his neighbor with. April 9, 1984, started out as an ordinary day for Margaret Backhouse, a resident of the rural farming community of Horton, England. That day, she intended to go into town to run errands. It didn't strike her as unusual when her husband, Graham, insisted that she take his station wagon. After all, she needed the cargo space as she would be bringing back supplies for the family farm. However, Margaret Backhouse's day turned into a waking nightmare as soon as she started the car. It turns out that Graham's station wagon contained a pipe bomb filled with nitroglycerine and shotgun pellets. The pellets were so numerous that they nearly tore Margaret's legs away. While the damage to her legs was severe, most of the bomb's force was deflected away from Martha, and she was taken to the hospital by some neighbors who happened to be passing by. Alt