Florida killer Wade Wilson tied to violent prison gang. What to know about the Unforgiven
Wade Wilson, the Fort Myers man facing the death penalty in the murders of two Cape Coral women, has reputed ties to a violent Florida prison gang.
Wilson was found guilty in June of the 2019 murders of Kristine Melton, 35 and Diane Ruiz, 43.
The jury recommended the death sentence for each of the homicides, and sentencing is scheduled for later this month. Wilson's attorney has filed a motion seeking a new trial.
While awaiting trial, Wilson was charged with masterminding an escape attempt from the Lee County Jail.
Court records in that case connect Wilson to the Unforgiven, a white supremacy prison gang.
Wilson sports several swastika tattoos, including on the right side of his head and below his right eye.
The swastika was adopted in 1920 as the symbol of Adolf Hitler's Nazi party, and since 1945 has "served as the most significant and notorious of hate symbols, anti-Semitism and white supremacy," according to the Anti-Defamation League.
Here's what to know about Wade Wilson's crimes and the Unforgiven gang:
What did Wade Wilson do?
Kristine Melton, 35, grew up in Illinois and moved with a friend to Cape Coral where she worked as a waitress.
Melton and her friend Stephanie Sailors met Wilson, then 25, at a Cape Coral bar on Oct. 7, 2019. That morning, the trio ended up at Melton's duplex.
After Sailors left, Wilson strangled Melton to death as she slept in her bed and stole her car.
Diane Ruiz, 43, was a mother, engaged to be married and worked as a bartender.
A short time after killing Melton, Wilson saw Ruiz walking along a Cape Coral street and asked her for directions to a nearby school.
Wilson lured her into the car and when she tried to leave he beat and strangled her before pushing her out of the car and running her over 10 to 20 times.
Her body was found in a field three days later, as vultures circled overhead.
Wade Wilson's father Steven Testasecca's played key role in his capture
After the murders, Wilson called his biological father several times confessing to the crimes in gruesome detail.
"I am a killer," Wilson said, according to Testasecca's testimony.
Testasecca said Wilson confessed to choking Melton after she went to sleep and stopping Ruiz for directions before she got into the car, choking her while he drove.
According to Testasecca's testimony, Wilson said Ruiz was still breathing before he repeatedly ran her over.
After initially dismissing the calls and attributing the admissions to Wilson being a "good storyteller," Steven Testasecca, 46, put his phone on speaker with Wilson's biological mother listening in and relaying information to police.
Testasecca asked Wilson for his location and told him he would send an Uber to him. Instead, his whereabouts were provided to police who arrested Wilson on Oct. 8, 2019.
Wade Wilson sentence
On June 12, 2024, Wilson was found guilty of two counts of first-degree murder, grand theft, battery, burglary and petty theft.
During the penalty phase of the trial, the jury voted 9-3 and 10-2 in favor of the death penalty for the murder convictions.
Judge Nicholas Thompson will decide whether to impose the death sentence or life in prison without the possibility of parole.
On July 3, Wilson's legal team filed a motion for a new trial or acquittal on the murder, burglary and grand theft charges. Trial judge Nicholas Thompson has not ruled on the motion.
Sentencing is scheduled for July 23.
Unforgiven gang
According to the Anti-Defamation League, the Unforgiven gang was founded in the Florida prison system in 1986 and is the largest white supremacist prison gang in the state.
Unforgiven seeks to expand its power, territory and reputation – in and out of prison – by systematically recruiting members and indoctrinating them in a vicious form of white supremacist ideology that permeates everything they do, court documents in a 2021 federal racketeering case involving 16 Unforgiven members show, according to USA TODAY.
It requires its members to study and propagate “Aryan philosophy,” to pay dues and to perform violent acts to join and remain in the group, prosecutors said.
Tattoos of swastikas, Iron Crosses, SS bolts and other Nazi symbols allegedly are also required.
Members must enrich the broader enterprise through distribution of weapons, narcotics and contraband – and by creating a united front to “resist and rebel” against the perceived “constant and almost brutal victimization of Whites” in the Florida penal system, according to a 2021 federal indictment examined by USA TODAY.
The Unforgiven gang's main symbol consists of an interlocking Iron Cross and swastika, with SS lightning bolts in the center, according to the ADL, and the group reportedly uses the numeric symbol 21-2-12, substituting letters for numbers.
The number 21 stands for U ("Unity"), 2 for B ("Brotherhood") and 12 for L ("Loyalty").
Contributing: Tomas Rodriguez, Fort Myers News-Press; Josh Meyer, USA TODAY
This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Wade Wilson: FL killer tied to Unforgiven, white supremacy prison gang
