Christopher Wilder: The Cross Country Killer

Ask any true crime "fan" who Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer, The Green River Killer, John Wayne Gacy are and you'll get an answer.  Christopher Wilder, while just as heartless and cruel, is a forgotten killer in the annals of crime.

Born in 1945 to an American naval officer and Australian woman in Sydney, he barely survived his birth (he was reportedly given last rites by a priest) and then nearly drowned in a swimming pool two years later.  At the age of three, a sickly child, he suffered convulsions that led to fainting spells.

Despite his shaky health, his childhood appeared to have been average until his teens.  He started peeking in windows and in 1962, at the age of seventeen, he participated in the gang rape of a teenage girl on the beach in Sydney.  Pleading guilty, Wilder received a year of probation to be combined with counseling and electroshock therapy.  Rather than helping him, it seems the shock therapy fueled his violent fantasies.  He began to foster a need to dominate women and hold them against their will.

At 23, Wilder married but his new bride left him after only week, once she discovered his dark fantasies.  She had also discovered that one of Wilder's passions -- photography -- led him to have photographs of naked women in his briefcase.

In 1969, now divorced, he headed for Florida, settling in Boynton Beach.  The building boom led him to a large economic success, making a fortune in real estate and construction.  He bought himself a nice home, boat, and cars, began racing and developing his photography.  From the outset, Christopher Wilder looked every bit the successful playboy.

In 1971, he landed in hot water again.  This time he was turned in to local authorities for attempts to get various women to pose nude for him.  He received a fine.  He kept his nose clean briefly but he simply couldn't stay out of trouble.  He forced a high school student to perform oral sex on him in a house he was renovating. She turned him in, resulting in him being taken to court.  Wilder told the judge that he was masturbating at least twice a week to the image of raping a girl and did not think what he had done was wrong.   Doctors that examined him believed he was not safe in an unstructured environment and needed supervised treatment.   Efforts to make a deal fell through and the case went to trial.  The jury, somewhat amazingly, acquitted Wilder.

In 1974, Wilder approached two girls in a shopping center and, posing as a photographer, attempted to entice them into a "modeling job" with him.  One girl agreed; he drugged and raped her in his truck.  He was allowed to plea bargain those charges down to probation with therapy.  Claiming he suffered from blackouts, the sex therapist Wilder was required to see believed that he was making progress.

In 1982, on a trip home to  Australia, he was accused of grabbing two 15 year old girls and forcing them to pose nude on a beach.  He bound them into subservient positions and masturbated on them before letting them go.  Wilder's parents posted his hefty bond and Wilder was allowed to return to Florida to await trial.  That trial would be postponed multiple times before the final date was set for April of 1984.

Rosario Gonzalez

On February 26, 1984,  an aspiring model by the name of Rosario Gonzalez vanished.  Rosario was 20, a beautiful girl who was working a temporary job distributing aspirin samples at the Miami Grand Prix racetrack.  Rosario reportedly knew Christopher Wilder and had posed for a book cover with Wilder as the photographer.  Witnesses recounted that she left with an older man around noon.  She never returned; she didn't even pick up her paycheck for the day's work.  Wilder was at the race that day, racing a Porsche 911.

On March 5, 1984, Elizabeth Kenyon vanished.  Beth, 23, a Miss Florida finalist and former Orange Bowl Princess, taught emotionally disturbed students but hoped to return to modeling in the future.  She too knew Christopher Wilder; she had dated him.  She was close to her parents and drove from her home in Coral Gable to theirs in Pompano Beach every weekend.  Her last visit with them would be on March 4, where they had seen a news report on television about the missing Rosario Gonzalez.  The following day, she went to work as usual.  The school's security patrol officer watched her climb into her car and drive away.  He was the last person, save her killer, to see Beth Kenyon.

Elizabeth Kenyon

The Kenyon family hired a private investigator to search for Beth and the investigator found that Beth had recently gone out with three different men - - one being her former boyfriend, Christopher Wilder.  Wilder had even proposed marriage to Beth but she turned him down, feeling their 17 year age difference too much.   As far as Beth knew, they had remained friends.  In fact, she had told her parents on March 4 that Wilder had gotten her several modeling jobs.

Wilder claimed that he had not seen Beth in over a month and the case seemed to stall before two attendants at a local gas station where Beth frequently purchased gas recalled seeing her on March 5.  She was filling up when a man in a gray Cadillac drove up behind her and paid for her gas.  They identified the man as Christopher Wilder.  According to the two witnesses, Beth stated the pair was headed for the airport, although she had not packed nor told anyone she was leaving.  Her car would later be found at the Miami International Airport.

The Kenyons' investigator also spoke with authorities in Boynton Beach and found that Wilder had a lengthy rap sheet for sexual offenses.   The noose was beginning to tighten around Wilder.

March 13, 1984 was his 39th birthday.  On March 16, the Miami Herald reported that a wealthy contractor and racecar driver was suspected in the disappearances of Rosario and Beth.  He kept his appointment with his counselor that day, who asked him if he had anything to do with the disappearances.  He denied it.   On March 18, he dropped off his beloved dogs at a kennel and withdrew close to $50,000 from the bank.   He told his business partner he was being framed and would not go to jail.  Then he climbed into his car, a 1973 Chrysler New Yorker, and took off on a trip that would result in death for many women.

Terry Ferguson

On March 18, 1984, 21 year old Terry Ferguson had gone shopping at a mall close to home in Satellite Beach, roughly two hours from where Wilder had fled.  When Terry didn't return home, her stepfather located her car in the mall parking lot.  About an hour after she had been last seen at the mall, a tow truck was called to a state road by Canaveral Groves to pull a car out of sand.  Wilder, claiming he had gotten lost, had placed the call.  He paid for the tow with his business partner's credit card, which he had stolen.

On March 20, 1984, Wilder had moved on to Tallahassee, where he had grabbed 19 year old Linda Grover.  Like Terry Ferguson, Linda had been shopping close to Florida State when Wilder approached her.  He conned her into accompanying him to his car by telling the pretty blonde he could get her on the cover of Vogue.  Once at his vehicle, he clubbed her and headed north, into Georgia.  He pulled off once to bind her hands and tape her mouth.  At another stop, he placed her in the trunk of his car.  In the town of Bainbridge, Wilder checked into a motel and removed Linda from the trunk, wrapped in a blanket.  Once inside, he glued her eyes shut, shocked her with electrical wires, raped and throttled her.  Linda managed to get into the motel bathroom, where she locked the door and began beating on the walls and screaming, hoping to awaken other guests.  Panicked, Wilder grabbed his belongings and beat a hasty retreat, leaving nothing of himself behind.  Terrified, Linda Grover waited for over half an hour before she would even venture out.  She then wrapped herself in a bedsheet, as her abductor had also taken her clothes, and hurried to the manager's office, where the police were called.

Linda Grover proved to be an excellent witness, as she remembered her kidnapper's car and his appearance perfectly.  As Wilder had used his own Florida driver's license to register at the motel, he was quickly identified.  An APB was put out immediately for both Wilder and his vehicle.

Despite the quick action, Wilder slipped out of Georgia and headed west.

Terry Walden

On March 21, 1984, Terry Walden, a 24 year old nurse, wife and mother from Beaumont, Texas, informed her husband that an older, bearded man had approached her and asked if she would model for him.  He pressed her, asking if she would go to his car to see samples of his work.  She refused and firmly told him to leave her alone.  Two days later, on March 23, Terry vanished.  A friend had seen her around 11:30 that morning, at the student union on campus where she took classes, but Terry was not seen after that.  Her orange Mercury Cougar was also missing from the parking lot.

Also on March 23, a female body was found in a snake-infested canal 70 miles west of Satellite Beach.  It would take dental records to identify it as that of Terry Ferguson.  The local newspaper reported the finding and a witness came forward saying that she had seen Terry talking to an older man the day she disappeared.  Looking through mug shots, and without hesitation, she picked out Christopher Wilder as the man she saw.

Suzanne Logan

On March 25, 1984, Wilder abducted 21 year old Suzanne Logan from the Penn Square Mall in Oklahoma City.  Suzanne's husband, whom she had dropped off at work on her way to the shopping center, reported her missing when she didn't turn up for an appointment or to pick him up.  Suzanne was driven more than 180 miles north into Kansas, where he checked into the I-35 Inn in Newton.  As with Wilder's previous victims, she was tortured and raped.  He also cut her long blonde hair, leaving the locks in the motel room's trashcan.  After breakfast on the  morning of March 26,  Wilder drove to Milford Reservoir, just outside of Junction City, Kansas, where he stabbed Suzanne to death and left her body under a tree.  She would be found an hour after her death; some of her clothing had been removed and her face was badly bruised.  Suzanne wouldn't be identified for a week.

On that same day, March 26, 1984, the body of Terry Walden was discovered floating facedown in a canal.  She was fully dressed, tied with rope and her mouth covered by tape.  She had been stabbed multiple times.  There was no evidence of sexual assault.

Forty detectives were assigned to the case and by this point, the FBI had also entered the search for Wilder.

They found he had stayed at a motel near Beaumont, where Terry Walden went out, and a credit card in Wilder's partner's name was used for payment.  Wilder's abandoned Chrysler, without plates, was found; the assumption was that he was traveling in Terry Walden's Cougar.  They had a description of the car and a plate number but Wilder had a head start.  And they didn't know where he was headed.

Sheryl Bonaventura

On March 29, Wilder was in Grand Junction, Colorado when he spotted 18 year old Sheryl Bonaventura at a mall.  The pretty blonde teen, who had already done some modeling, was chatted up by Wilder and likely an easy mark for him.  Like the others, she was simply gone after speaking with him; her car remained locked and in the parking lot.

Unlike his previous victims, though, Sheryl was seen dining with Wilder in Silverton, where they told staff they were headed to Vegas with a quick stop in Durango.   On March 30, he and Sheryl were seen at the Four Corners Monument before he checked into a motel in Page, Arizona.

On March 31, Wilder was back in Utah, where he shot and stabbed Sheryl Bonaventura to death, leaving her body near the Kanab River.

Michelle Korfman

On April 1, 1984, Wilder arrived in Las Vegas and wasted no time heading to the Meadows Mall, where 17 year old Michelle Korfman was competing in a Seventeen magazine cover model contest.   Another photographer caught a photo of Wilder watching Michelle intently, with a broad smile on his face.  Witnesses would recall Michelle leaving with him, as well as Wilder approaching other women throughout the day with his modeling propositions.  Some of those he approached had agreed to meet him later in front of Caesar's Palace; he never showed.  Michelle's car was found in the center parking lot but Michelle was gone.

It's not known exactly when he killed Michelle Korfman but he disposed of her body near a rest stop by the Angeles National Forest in southern California.

On April 4, 1982, Wilder noticed 16 year old Tina Risico at a shopping mall in Torrance.  Tina had  just filled out a job application at Hickory Farms and he approached her as she left the store.  He told her he was scouting for models for a billboard and offered her $100 if she would pose for him.   She agreed and accompanied him away from the mall for her "test shots."  He took some photos before she told him she had to go home, at which time he became angry and pulled a gun on her.  He bound her, put her in Terry Walden's car, which he was still driving, and headed south to El Centro, just outside of San Diego and not far from the Mexican border.   He had already acquired a motel room, where he took Tina, tied her to the bed and assaulted her.  Unlike the unfortunate females before her, however, Wilder did not kill her.  A problematic childhood and sexual assault had left Tina more robotic after Wilder's assault, giving him no hysteria and panic to feed on.  It's possible he may also have considered that the young girl could help him to acquire other victims.

Tina was reported missing almost immediately.  The manager at the Hickory Farms in Torrance had seen Wilder loitering outside the store while she was inside; the manager identified Christopher Wilder from a mug shot.

By now, Wilder's image and dirty deeds were being reported on television and in the newspapers and the FBI had added him to their Ten Most Wanted list.  Knowing he had to get out of California, he headed east.  The two drove through Prescott, Arizona; Taos, New Mexico; Joplin, Missouri; and Chicago, Illinois.  In Merrillville, Indiana, he would spot his next victim.

Dawnette Wilt

Dawnette Wilt, like Tina Risico, was 16 years old and filling out a store application at the Southlake Mall when Tina approached her and, identifying herself as "Tina Marie Wilder," asked her to step outside the store to speak to the manager.  Wilder was waiting with his gun; he forced Dawnette into the car where, after putting tape on her eyes and mouth, he repeatedly assaulted her in the backseat while Tina drove east.   The trio would stop in Ohio for the night, where Wilder would terrorize Dawnette further, before driving across Pennsylvania and into New York the next day, stopping at Niagara Falls.  That night, Dawnette was once again repeatedly assaulted and both girls were threatened with death if they attempted to escape or make a sound.

It was while they were staying in the Niagara Falls area that Wilder saw a televised plea from Tina's mother for her daughter's safe return.  He bundled both his hostages in the car and directed Tina to drive to Penn Yan, stopping outside some woods.  He marched Dawnette into the woods, where he attempted to suffocate her but the girl struggled too much.  He then stabbed her once in the front and once in the back.  She pretended to be dead while he returned to the car and had Tina drive away.  Once she knew he was gone, she dragged herself to the roadside where a passing motorist saw her and called for help.

Dawnette Wilt told the police that Wilder was headed for the Canadian border in Terry Walden's car and had told her and Tina that he would not be taken alive.

Beth Dodge

Christopher Wilder, as always, was still hunting for victims.  On April 12, 1984 at Eastview Mall in Victor, New York, he laid eyes on 33 year old Beth Dodge, who was getting out of a gold Pontiac Trans-Am.  He had Tina persuade the woman to come over to their car, where he took her keys and forced her inside the Cougar.  He had Tina follow him in Beth Dodge's Trans-Am.

After a short drive, Wilder pulled in to a deserted gravel pit, where he had Beth get out of the vehicle and then shot her twice in the back.  The Mercury Cougar was then abandoned, with Wilder and Tina leaving the scene in Beth's car.

Wilder directed Tina to drive to Boston - - Logan Airport, more specifically where he told his captive that he was going to send her home.  After nine harrowing days, he bought Tina a ticket to Los Angeles and set her free.  So traumatized was the teen, she waited for him to shoot her in the back as she walked away to board the plane.  She told no one at the airport or on the plane of her ordeal. When she landed in L.A., she caught a cab to a boutique, where she purchased lingerie with money Wilder gave her.  She told the clerk that Wilder had cut her hair to resemble Jennifer Beals, the star of Flashdance.  She was spotted by friends, who took her to the police.  She told the police that Wilder had expressed a desire that she not be with him when he died.

Wilder, meanwhile, seemed to know that his time was running out.  After dropping off Tina Risico, he once again headed north toward Canada.

On Friday, April 13, Wilder attempted to grab another victim when he saw a 19 year old whose car had broken down on the side of the road.  He offered to give her a lift to a service station; when he began passing available service stations, she quickly realized what was up, threw open the door and leapt out of the car.  After she escaped, he threw out all of his belongings, including his camera and items of his victims' he had kept.  Then he drove into New Hampshire.

It was in Colebrook, about 12 miles from the Canadian border, that two state troopers spotted him at a service station.  They either recognized the car from BOLOs or Wilder's supposed erratic behavior.  His tan definitely indicated he was not from the area.  Although he had shaved off his beard, the troopers believed he resembled the FBI's wanted posters and so they pulled in.

New York Times article with photo of Wilder in death

When the troopers called out to him, Wilder dove into the Trans-Am, reaching for the .357 Magnum he kept handy.  A scuffle ensued with two shots ringing out.  Trooper Leo Jellison, who had jumped on Wilder's back, attempting to obtain the weapon, was hit as the first bullet passed through Wilder's body and into Jellison's chest.  The second shot decimated Christopher Wilder's heart, killing him instantly.  Leo Jellison would survive and recover.

Forty-seven days after Rosario Gonzalez disappeared and twenty-six days after his cross country spree began, it was over.

Found in Wilder's possessions when he died was the .357 Magnum, which would kill him, rolls of duct tape, handcuffs, rope, the electrical cord he had designed to shock his victims, a sleeping bag, his business partner's credit card and a copy of the 1963 book The Collector.  Written by John Fowles, it tells the story of a man who captures and imprisons a pretty young girl, keeping her in his basement and believing that because he treats her well, he will eventually win her love and loyalty.  Wilder had been so obsessed with The Collector, he had practically memorized in in its entirety.

Christopher Wilder's body was returned to Florida, where it was cremated.  Many questions remained though.  Did Wilder commit suicide?  Was he trying to escape?  Where were his victims that had not been found?  And how many victims did he truly take?

On May 3, 1984, the body of Sheryl Bonaventura was discovered under a tree in Utah.

On May 11, 1984, the body of Michelle Korfman was discovered.  She was so badly decomposed that it took a month to make a firm identification.

At his death, Wilder left an estimate reported to be somewhere between $2 and $7 million.  In 1986, a court appointed arbitrator ruled that the balance of the estate, after taxes, was to be divided between the families of his victims.

Rosario Gonzalez and Beth Kenyon have never been found.

Marianne and Christine

Over the years, Wilder's name has been connected to cases of other missing and murdered women.  It's impossible to say how many disappearances and homicides he's responsible for but it's entirely likely that he could have begun killing before February of 1984.

On January 11, 1965, Marianne Schmidt and Christine Sharrock, both 15, were murdered at Wanda Beach in Sydney, Australia.  They were discovered the following day, partially buried in the sand.  The girls had been bludgeoned, stabbed and slashed and their killer had cut their clothing and attempted to rape both.  These murders came just over two years after Wilder had been charged in the gang rape.  He was one of three potential suspects in the killings and he closely resembled the sketch of the suspect.  The murders remain officially unsolved.

Mary Opitz

On January 16, 1981, 17 year old Mary Opitz went to the Edison Mall in Fort Myers, Florida with her mother and brother.  Growing tired, she had grabbed a bag of pretzels and headed to the parking lot, to wait in the car for her family.  Roughly an hour later, her mother returned to the car to discover packages Mary had been carrying, and the bag of pretzels, sitting on the trunk.   Police initially believed Mary to be a runaway, although her family disputed this from the beginning.

On February 11, 1981, Mary Elizabeth Hare, an 18 year old who eerily resembled Mary Opitz, disappeared from the same parking lot at the Edison Mall.  Like the case of Mary Opitz, no clues were left behind.  Mary Elizabeth Hare's car was undisturbed.

In June of 1981, Mary Elizabeth Hare's body was located in a field in a relatively undeveloped area of Lehigh Acres, Florida.  She was fully clothed and had been stabbed in the back.

The murder of Mary Elizabeth Hare remains unsolved and Mary Opitz is still missing.

In May of 1982, two sets of skeletal remains were unearthed in Loxahatchee, Florida.  The bodies, both females, were found close to property that Wilder owned in Palm Beach County.  One woman had been dead for several months at the time of discovery.  The other victim, found in a green nylon bag, had been dead for anywhere from one to three years and her fingertips were missing -- sliced off by her killer in a probable attempt to keep her from being identified.  It would take just over 30 years but in July of 2013, she was identified as 17 year old Tina Marie Beebe.

Shari Lynne Ball

On June 27, 1983, 20 year old Shari Lynne Ball left her home in Boca Raton, Florida, telling her mother she was going to New York to model.  Two days later, she called her boyfriend to say she was in Virginia.  That was the last contact Shari had with her friends and family.  On October 29, 1983 a decomposed female body, partially sunk in swamp water, was discovered in Shelby, New York.  No identification was found and cause of death could not be determined.  She was buried as a Jane Doe.  In 2014, after the body was exhumed to be tested against other missing woman, it was finally identified as Shari Lynne Ball.

Tammy Lynn Leppert

On July 6, 1983, 18 year old Tammy Lynn Leppert disappeared some time after 11:30 a.m. from Cocoa Beach, Florida, after getting into a heated argument with a male friend.  Tammy was already an established model and an actress, having appeared in such films as Little Darlings, Scarface, and Spring Break.  It was after shooting of Spring Break had concluded and she had gone to a weekend party by herself that she returned home "different."  She left the set of Scarface unexpectedly after four days and was reportedly fearful for her life in the days leading up to her disappearance, as well as possibly pregnant.  Tammy's mother, a modeling agent, filed a wrongful death suit against Wilder before his death; she later dropped the case, citing that she never truly believed her daughter was Wilder's victim.  Tammy has never been found and remains missing.

Broward County Jane Doe

On February 18, 1984, the body of a young woman was found face-down in a canal in Broward County, Florida.  She was somewhere between the ages of 18 and 35, had curly blonde or strawberry blonde hair, hazel eyes and a gap between her front teeth.  It was estimated she was strangled to death around February 16, 1984.  She remains unidentified today, known only as "Broward County Jane Doe."

Colleen Orsborn

On March 15, 1984, 15 year old Colleen Orsborn left her Daytona Beach home and vanished.  Wilder was staying in a motel in Daytona Beach on the same day.  Despite intense searches, Colleen could not be located.  In 2001, Colleen's brother received an anonymous letter detailing where her body could be found.  The letter was postmarked from Manchester, N.H.  No body was found where instructed and the lead turned out to be a dead end.  In 2007, there was a DNA match on a body that had been discovered in April of 1984 in Orange County, Florida.  The body, which had been partially buried near a lake, had been unidentified for more than thirty years before it was determined that Colleen had been found.

Wilder, at the Meadows Mall in Las Vegas, immediately prior to abducting Michelle Korfman

After Wilder had gone on the run, some of his employees in Florida came forward to say that he was the best boss they ever had - - a nice, understanding man who always paid his employees on time and what they were worth.  It's hard to marry the image of a kind, generous business owner with a vicious rapist, torturer and murderer but it appears that Christopher Wilder had two sides to his personality.  Even Beth Kenyon, who went missing in March of 1984, after dating Wilder and turning down his marriage proposal, had told her parents that he was a real gentleman.

Christopher Wilder, unlike other killers, including Ted Bundy, did not have the same sense of self-preservation.  Many, including Officer Leo Jellison who attempted to apprehend Wilder and was shot in the process, believe that the killer took his own life rather than face prison time and/or the death penalty.  Others believe that Wilder was going for the gun to shoot his way out of the situation and would have fled.  Tina Risico's statements seems to indicate that Wilder knew his freedom was coming to an end and he was going to choose how he would end his story.  Controlling to the very last.

His death, while sparing many from a public trial in which their daughters and loved ones' last moments would be painfully rehashed, also kept other families from knowing where their daughters were.   Had Wilder been taken alive, would he have talked?  I think it's possible that he would have been like Bundy, discussing his crimes, if at all, in a vague third person account before possibly disclosing details only when his own life hung in the balance.

Christopher Wilder is an enigma.  Like Ted Bundy, he was attractive to women, charming, intelligent, and successful.  He managed to sweet talk his victims exactly where he wanted them; appearing well-dressed and congenial, like Bundy, they trusted him until the monster awoke.

Wilder traveled great distances; although Bundy did so to widen his victim pool, Wilder took to the road because he knew authorities were on his trail.

He seemed to have multiple methods of death -- he would bludgeon, strangle, shoot, and stab -- although his victim type rarely waivered.  Some of his victims were taken due to proximity, opportunity and appearance; some, like Beth Dodge, merely as a means to an end (in her case, for her vehicle.)

Unlike Bundy, who once he had a victim firmly in his grasp, under his control and assaulted, he never intentionally let go, Christopher Wilder not only kept one -- Tina Risico -- alive but gave her spending money and put her on a plane back home.  Why?  Why demonstrate near compassion for one victim and show only cold, cruel brutality to others?  Was it her non-reaction to his assaults and promises of being killed?  Or did he see something in Tina that he recognized in himself?  A painful childhood or a question of where to fit in and belong?  Only Wilder could know, if he was even capable of recognizing it.

Did something happen to Wilder when he was forced to undergo shock treatments, which merged sexual desire and violence?  Did it start much earlier -- when he was having convulsions at three or a near drowning at two?  Or was he simply born void of conscience?

Headlines after Wilder's death; the male figure in the far left of the picture was Wilder

Photo:  Murderpedia

Curtis and Marjorie Chillingworth: West Palm Beach's Crime of the Century

In Palm Beach County, Florida in 1955, there was perhaps no greater admired person than Judge Curtis Chillingworth.  His family had transplanted from New York; his father serving as the first city attorney.  With law and justice running in the family, Curtis graduated from the University of Florida, was quickly admitted to the Florida bar and, in 1921, became the youngest person (at 24) to hold the circuit judge position.  It was a title he would hold until his death.

Curtis also joined the United States Naval Academy and served in both World War I and World War II.  Between the two wars, he married and had three daughters.   He was considered local royalty and rightfully so.

He had a solid reputation as a fair and honest judge.  He was also a stickler for punctuality and was known to stand outside the courtroom, watching the hand on the clock, to enter at precisely the exact time.  He was reliable and dependable.

So when he didn't show up for an 8 a.m. appointment at his beachfront cottage in Manalapan on June 15, 1955, nor in his courtroom, there was immediate concern.  The two carpenters that had been hired to build a playground for the Chillingworths' grandchildren, and who had arrived at the Chillingworth residence at the agreed upon time and date, found the door open and the house vacant.  They waited for a period and then decided to take a swim in the ocean, taking the footpath that wound around the home and to the beach.  They spotted what they took to be blood.  Upon close inspection, they also noted that the home's floodlight was shattered.  They immediately contacted the authorities.

At the courthouse in West Palm Beach, Judge Chillingworth's 10 a.m. calendar came and went, with no appearance or word from him.

Police responded quickly, given the missing man's notoriety in the area.  There wasn't a lot to go on.  They had the glass shards from the broken floodlight, two empty spools of tape -- one in the living room and one in the sand, signs of a scuffle in the sand and blood found on the front porch.  No one at the time could know this was the start of West Palm Beach's crime of the century.

In tracing the judge's steps, detectives found out that he and his wife Marjorie attended a dinner the evening of June 14, departing for their home around 10 p.m.  Nothing untoward happened at the dinner.  The couple had arrived home and gone to sleep, as their bed indicated.

Robbery was ruled out as the judge's billfold was found in the residence with cash inside, along with Marjorie's pocketbook which held $40.  Both their vehicles were still in the garage; the judge's Plymouth still had the keys in the ignition.

Accidental drowning during a morning swim was considered but also ruled out as dry swimsuits were located in the home and no bodies had surfaced.

The only items, besides the Chillingworths themselves, that appeared to be missing were a pair of men's pajamas, a ladies' nightgown and two pairs of slippers.

The Palm Beach Air Force Base sent in boats, divers and a helicopter to scan the waters, hoping to find . . . something.  No luck.

The Chillingworth family offered a $25,000 reward for information in solving the disappearances.  The local legislature offered $100,000.

The case quickly went cold, with no leads and no further evidence.

In 1957, Curtis and Marjorie Chillingworth were both declared legally dead.

In 1959, the legislature voted to keep the $100,000 reward on the books indefinitely, or until the case was solved.

Authorities continued to work the case, determined to solve the mystery of the missing couple.  Judge Chillingworth's background was considered and investigated, as well as those cases he had presided over.  The brother of one of his friends was considered a potential suspect for a  while -- the judge had presided over the man's murder trial.  That avenue fizzled.

All seemed quiet until 1959 when a man by the name of Floyd Holzapfel bragged to a friend that he knew who had killed the judge.  Holzapfel, known as "Lucky," had earned a Purple Heart as a paratrooper in the Battle of the Bulge.  Following the war, he had become a fingerprint technician for the Oklahoma City police and one of the organizers for the West Palm Beach Young Republican Club, as well as being a Jaycee and Cub Scout leader.  He was also a bootlegger who had served time for bookmaking and armed robbery and had been arrested for attempted rape.  Married three times, one former wife claimed he had beaten her so badly, she had landed in the hospital for five days.

That friend he blabbed to -- James Yenzer -- along with an ex-Palm Beach police officer by the name of Jim Wilber lured "Lucky" Holzapfel to a hotel in Melbourne, Florida and got him good and drunk.  Lucky was then more than willing to discuss the details of what he knew of the Chillingworth disappearances. A member of the Florida Sheriff's Bureau, tipped off by Yenzer and Wilber, the ex-cop, sat in an adjacent room recording the conversation.

According to Lucky, he was hired by Joseph Peel to murder Curtis and Marjorie Chillingworth.  On the night of June 14-15, 1955, he took an accomplice and fellow bootlegger named George "Bobby" Lincoln to Manalapan by skiff.  They arrived at the Chillingworth residence around 1 a.m.  Lincoln hid in the bushes while Lucky knocked at the door and pretended to be a stranded boater.  Judge Chillingworth answered the door in his pajamas and was greeted by a pistol.  Lucky and Bobby fastened nooses around the necks of the judge and Marjorie, tied their hands behind their backs and forced them on the sand.  Marjorie screamed and one of the men, likely Lucky, hit her with the pistol, cutting her head and causing blood to spatter on the sand.  Judge Chillingworth offered his abductors $200,000 to let him and his wife go.  The couple were then gagged with adhesive tape and hustled onto the boat and taken out to sea.  The quartet in the skiff drifted for about an hour before lead weights were strapped to the Chillingworths' legs.  With the jaunty comment of "Ladies first!" Lucky picked up Marjorie and threw her overboard.  When he and Bobby went for Judge Chillingworth, he jumped overboard.  Despite his bound wrists and weighted legs, Judge Chillingworth managed to stay afloat until Lincoln hit him over the head with a shotgun.  The blow was so strong, the barrel broke.  Lincoln and Holzapfel then dragged Judge Chillingworth back to the boat, where they fastened an anchor around his neck and then threw him back in the water, watching him sink.

After snuffing out two lives, Lucky placed a phone call to Joseph Peel, uttering only four words:  "The motor is fixed."  With that, Peel knew that his problems with Chillingworth had been taken care of.

Joseph Peel was a well-known name not only to authorities but to the community in general.  Like Curtis Chillingworth, Joseph Peel was a judge and had grown up down the street from Curtis and Marjorie Chillingworth and their daughters.

He had become an attorney in 1949 and in 1952, was named the city's only municipal judge.  He was married and had children, like Judge Chillingworth.  Unlike Judge Chillingworth, however, Peel was a dishonest playboy who manipulated the law into his favor.  Rather than seeing the legal field as a calling, he saw it as a means to make money and live a flashy lifestyle.

In 1953, the unethical Peel represented both the husband and wife in a divorce suit.  This clear violation of ethics landed him in front of Judge Chillingworth.  Considering his youth, Judge Chillingworth gave Peel a warning rather than a disbarment but said it would be the only one.

Rather than being scared straight, Peel -- along with Lucky Holzapfel and Bobby Lincoln -- ran a protection racket.  Peel easily played both sides of the law, signing warrants and orders for the police and then giving the criminals a heads-up they were coming.  Criminals paid him big money for this benefit and it wasn't long before Peel was making his annual $3,000 judge's salary in a week.

The racket may never have been discovered if Peel did not once again get caught for unethical behavior while acting as an attorney in a divorce case.  This time, he represented to his client that he had filed all necessary paperwork on her behalf and she was divorced.   She found it was untrue when she remarried and had a baby, finding out instead that she was a bigamist.

Once again, Peel was scheduled to go before Judge Chillingworth.  He knew this time the honest and kind Chillingworth would disbar him.  Disbarment would end his lucrative set-up with the local criminals and put paid to his excessive lifestyle.  It was early June of 1955.  And it was then that Joseph Peel put his murderous plan into action.

Curtis and Marjorie Chillingworth would only have days left to live.

On October 1, 1960, Lucky Holzapfel was arrested.  On December 12, 1960, he pleaded guilty to both murders and was sentenced to death.

George "Bobby" Lincoln

Bobby Lincoln, already in prison for a moonshine-related conviction, cut a deal with prosecutors who, with no bodies, needed eyewitness testimony.  Lincoln testified against Holzapfel and Peel in exchange for immunity.  He would finish his federal sentence in Michigan and in 1962, went to Chicago where he converted to Islam and changed his name to David Karrim.   He later returned to Florida and was a free man when he died in 2004, never having served a day for his part in the murders of Curtis and Marjorie Chillingworth.

Confronted with Bobby Lincoln's eyewitness testimony, on November 7, 1960, Lucky chose not to fight and admitted his part in the murders.  He also told the courtroom that Joseph Peel had wanted him to commit one more murder to help him out - - that of the prosecutor himself.

Floyd "Lucky" Holzapfel

On December 12, 1960 Floyd "Lucky" Holzapfel plead guilty to the Chillingworth murders and was sentenced to death.  In 1966, his death sentence was commuted and he received a parole date of May 3, 2009.  In 1992, he suffered a stroke that resulted in partial paralysis.  In 1996, he died.  He had never received a penny of the $2,500 he was promised to kill the Chillingworths.

The mastermind of the murder plot, Joseph Peel, was alerted as to Holzapfel's arrest and Lincoln's deal and took off running from the state of Florida.  He was apprehended in Chattanooga, Tennessee.  While awaiting trial, twice he had attempted to have Holzapfel killed.  He also planned a failed attempt at a jail escape.

Joseph Peel

Justice that had long evaded Peel finally caught up with him.  On March 30, 1961, jurors took less than six hours to find him guilty of accessory to murder.  His life was spared only due to two jurors who would not vote guilty unless the death penalty was taken off the table.  He received a life sentence for each of the Chillingworths and was sent to the Florida State Prison in Raiford where, over the next 18 years, he would attend church regularly and work on the prison newspaper.  He was paroled in 1979 to begin serving an 18 year federal charge on mail fraud in Missouri.  He served only three years of that sentence when, suffering from ill health, he was paroled and returned to Florida.  His wife having divorced him while he was incarcerated, at the time he gave an interview in 1982, he was engaged to a woman who had been the flower girl at his first wedding.  During the interview he claimed guilt only in that he knew of the murders, had not planned them, but did nothing to stop them.  Few people believed his statement.  Nine days after he was paroled, Peel died.

The bodies of Curtis and Marjorie Chillingworth were never recovered.  Their family installed a double grave in West Palm Beach's Oak Lawn Cemetery.  The graves remain empty.

The house at 211 Dyer Road in Manalapan, where the Chillingworths had gone to sleep that last night of their lives, was sold.  It still stands today.

June 15, 1955, the day that he and his wife were killed, was the 32nd anniversary of his appointment as circuit judge.


I've read a lot of true crime over the years.  All the cases are sad and horrifying in their own ways but this is one of the most gut-wrenching I've researched.  The torture Curtis and Marjorie Chillingworth must have gone through, sitting on that boat for well over an hour, with their hands tied and mouths taped up, as they went further out to sea, I can't begin to imagine.  For Judge Chillingworth to fight so valiantly to live, for this Navy veteran to stay afloat even with his hands bound and weights on his ankles and after watching his beloved wife being thrown over the side of the boat . . ,  It's something that pains me to contemplate.  Some of the sources I looked up stated that their killers later reported that the Chillingworths exchanged final words ("I love you") to each other before the end (which would mean that the tape was removed from their mouths, at least briefly, before they were killed.)

All this for a measly $2,500.  The hired killer, Lucky Holzapfel, and his buddy, Bobby Lincoln, didn't know Curtis or Marjorie.  Neither had laid eyes on the Chillingworths before they abducted them and were perfectly okay with murdering them in such an inhumane manner.  What went wrong with Holzapfel and when?  He had served his country, like his victim, and at one point, had gainful employment with a law enforcement agency.  He also gave his time and energy to his  community.  When, and why, did that change?

As far as Bobby Lincoln, he appeared to have no violent offenses on his record before jumping on that skiff to head to Manalapan.  He had run-ins with the law but as a moonshiner, not a cold killer.  Yet, he still struck Judge Chillingworth with the shotgun so fiercely that it resulted in a broken barrel.  And he helped Holzapfel restrain both victims and toss Curtis Chillingworth overboard, watching as he drowned.

Joseph Peel is less of a mystery to me.  His type have been around for years and, sadly, will continue to be.  He seems a classic narcissist, opportunist and sociopath.  No conscience to guide him, only lust and greed.  Given a second chance, he squanders it and then, upon getting caught once again, turns his anger to the person who will be required by law to take it away from him.  The same person who, not coincidentally, showed him compassion and mercy the first time he set foot in Judge Chillingworth's courtroom.  Instead of gratitude, Peel showed Curtis Chillingworth contempt and disdain.  Marjorie Chillingworth was merely collateral damage.  Later in his life, Peel was given more compassion by the judicial system, that paroled him due to his failing health, than he allowed his hitmen to give their victims.

Of the three, only Floyd "Lucky" Holzapfel received the death penalty.  Was it deserved?  In my opinion, yes.  But I also think Joseph Peel was just as deserving.  Without him, the seed to kill the Chillingworths would not have been there.  And while there could be an argument for Bobby Lincoln to be spared, it infuriates me that he did not even spend 24 hours behind bars for his role in the abduction and murders.  I understand the prosecution wanted an eyewitness, especially during a time when convictions without bodies was rare, but complete immunity seemed insane.  Lincoln knew they were going to Manalapan to abduct and murder at least one person.  He should have had to spend at least seven years behind bars for that, if not more.

Do you think justice was done in the Chillingworth case?  Would you have agreed to give Bobby Lincoln complete immunity for his testimony?

What Happened to Tiffany Sessions?

Much like the case of Julie Love (which I wrote about here), the disappearance of Tiffany Sessions is etched in my mind as an indelible memory from the 80s, helped in part by the fact that Tiffany Sessions and I were the same age and both college students at the time.

Tiffany would disappear from Gainesville, Florida, the same town that would be rocked by serial killer Danny Rolling a year and a half after her disappearance.  The Gainesville Ripper's (as Rolling was dubbed by the overzealous media) crimes and capture would take much of the national news away from Tiffany.

Tiffany had been a student at the University of Florida, majoring in finance.  She was twenty years old that February of 1989, a pretty girl with blonde hair and brown eyes.  She left her residence at the Casablanca East Condominiums, dressed in red sweatpants, a long sleeved white pullover sweatshirt, and Reeboks, carrying a Walkman, and telling her roommate she was going to take a walk.  The only other item Tiffany had with her was her ladies silver and gold Rolex watch.

Witnesses would later come forward to say they had seen Tiffany that Friday evening, some saying she had been speaking to several unidentified individuals in a vehicle. and possibly entering the vehicle.  Authorities have never been able to confirm or deny these reports or whether that woman was Tiffany Sessions.

The case went cold until 1994, when a missing child's hotline received a tip about Tiffany, the caller claiming that Tiffany was being held against her will in Austin, Texas, with two other missing young women (Tracy Kroh and Elizabeth Miller) and the three were being forced to work as prostitutes.  Tracy had disappeared from Pennsylvania in 1989 and Elizabeth from Colorado in 1983 but the police departments from all three states (including Florida) got together to investigate before determining the tip was nothing but an elaborate hoax and the case went cold again.

Inmate Michael Knickerbocker, sentenced to life for a 1989 rape of a Gainesville college student the same age as Tiffany, and the 1989 shooting death of a 12 year old Starke girl, told fellow inmates that he had chained Tiffany to a tree the night of her disappearance and then murdered her shortly thereafter, disposing her body in the Calosahatchee River near Fort Myers.   Authorities searched the area but found nothing of note (which is not surprising given that the waterway could have taken any evidence quite a distance away and enough time had passed to destroy any remaining evidence.)  In August of 2002, investigators searched an area outside of Gainesville where he claimed to have buried her sweatshirt and recovered a piece of bloodstained material.  Tests were run to determine if the blood matched Tiffany's DNA but the results have never been announced.  It's been said that the material does not match that of a sweatshirt.

Finally, in February of 2014 the biggest break in the case happened as Alachua County named Paul Rowles as Tiffany's abductor.  Rowles appeared to have been a career criminal, sentenced to prison in 1976 for the 1972 Miami rape and murder of his neighbor, released in 1985 and then sentenced again in 1994 for sexual battery, kidnapping and lewd and lascivious molestation against a 19 year old woman who escaped.  Rowles was such a sociopathic and terrifying individual that his first wife, the one who came home one day to find out that her husband murdered their neighbor, refused to sign a sworn statement against him, forty years after the crime and even as he lay dying in prison of cancer. After his death, DNA linked him to the unsolved 1992 homicide of Santa Fe College student Elizabeth Foster whose body was found in a shallow grave only a mile from where Tiffany disappeared.  He was also known to have worked at a construction project along Tiffany's normal jogging path.  Furthermore, a day planner Rowles kept in prison had the notation "#2" written in on February 9, 1989 . . . the date of Tiffany's disappearance.  Serial killers are notorious for remembering the dates of specific events in their "careers."  If Paul Rowles killed Tiffany Sessions, she would indeed have been his second victim.

Tiffany Sessions is still missing and her case officially unsolved.  What do I think happened?  I believe she went for what was a normal walk that late afternoon of February 9, 1989.  On this day she went by herself rather than with her roommate, with sad consequences.  I believe Paul Rowles was at the construction site and saw Tiffany, a pretty victim of opportunity. He likely lured her with some type of ruse, abducted and assaulted her and then killed her.  I think he buried her, wearing the Rolex watch that has never turned up despite its serial number being on a hot list, in the area where he would dispose of Elizabeth Foster three years later.  Rowles would angrily deny to investigators shortly before his death that he had anything to do with Tiffany Sessions but killers lie.

What about Michael Knickerbocker, who claimed to have chained Tiffany to a tree and killed her?  More lies.  Knickerbocker was not even in the Gainesville area when Tiffany disappeared so I believe that rules him out completely.

Paul Rowles was a known and convicted sex offender and murderer.  Tiffany was the right age and in his "territory."  Tiffany's father Patrick believes that Rowles killed his daughter but so far, Tiffany hasn't been found.  A search of the 10 acre area where Elizabeth Foster was found has been conducted but finding human remains nearly thirty years after being buried or placed there is a long shot.  The Sessions family would like to find Tiffany and bring her home.

Anyone with information is urged to contact Det. Kevin Allen of the Alachua County Sheriff's Office at (352) 384-3323 or by email at kallen@alachuasheriff.org.

Find out more about Tiffany and her case at www.tiffanysessions.org.