Wilder, known as the Beauty Queen Killer, led the FBI on a 47-day cross-country chase, posing as a fashion photographer and picking up victims at racing events, beauty pageants and shopping malls. He drove 8,000 miles -- to California, then to New Hampshire -- kidnapping 12 women and killing nine of them.
His spree ended 28 years ago today, when Wilder tried to abduct a young woman in Massachusetts. Police recognized his Pontiac Trans Am and confronted him outside a gas station in New Hampshire.
Wilder grabbed his .357 Magnum, as a trooper grabbed him from behind. In the scuffle, Wilder fatally shot himself in the chest.
-Scott McCabe
