Netflix true crime docuseries Worst Ex Ever is filled with very real horror stories
- Carla Davis
- 1 day ago
- 3 min read
I have always said that true crime is a sub-genre of horror, because there is nothing more terrifying than the things people are capable of doing to one another. Worst Ex Ever is concrete proof of that.
The Netflix docu-series just began its second season, and the stories are even more horrific than the ones portrayed in season one. The first episode (Dating the Deadpool Killer) could have been its own standalone documentary. That episode tells the story of Wade Wilson and his romantic encounters with three different people – Kelly, Chris, and Courtney.
When Kelly met first met Wilson, she knew him as Steven, and he seemed to be the perfect man: smart, charming, good looking, and he soon swept her off her feet. He moved in with Kelly pretty quickly, and she discovered that he was hiding some things.
From there the story gets really crazy, as she discovers he is talking to another woman online, he even forces her to confess to a crime he committed. Their story culminates in him kidnapping her, sexually assaulting her, and beating her.
Kelly does the right thing and goes to the police, but the detective in charge of her case is shockingly bad at his job, letting Wilson go after claiming there is not enough evidence to charge him.
Worst Ex Ever shows what happens when crimes aren't investigated properly
Wilson’s next victim is Chris, a young man who works at a carnival. The two end up in a relationship, living together in Chris’s RV until Wilson goes full-on nuts one night and ends up cutting Chris with a knife. That incident is never reported.
Courtney also becomes involved with Wilson, but is never physically assaulted, and these three are the lucky ones. His next girlfriend Mila was beaten by him in a parking lot (thankfully, she survived), and he killed two women, Kristine Melton and Diane Ruiz. Melton was a woman he met in a bar, and Ruiz was a teacher walking to work when he randomly abducted her, killed her, then sexually assaulted her.
The most fascinating part (for me) of more recent true crime documentaries is the ability to watch video footage and listen to audio of interrogations and jail house phone calls. It gives us the chance to observe the demeanor of the victims and the perpetrators alike. In a case like Wade Wilson’s, it’s a real eye opener to watch him calmly assert his innocence. It’s equally fascinating to hear him talk to his biological Dad when he visits him in prison. His cockiness is gone, and he seems to genuinely respect him, even though he knows at that point that his father is the one who turned him in.
Kelly is a total bad ass. Not only did she immediately report it when Wilson assaulted her, she later went back and sued the detective who failed her…and in doing so, may have been ultimately responsible for Mila being beaten and Melton and Ruiz being brutally murdered.
If there is a message in a story like this one, it is that women should be very careful of the men they become involved with. It’s definitely advisable to do background checks before allowing anyone into your life.
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