The innocent face staring back from an old photograph gives no hint of the darkness that would eventually unfold. This little girl, born in 1956 in Rochester, Michigan, would grow up to become one of America’s most notorious criminals.
Her story begins with tragedy. When she was just 4 years old, her mother abandoned her and her brother, leaving them in the care of their maternal grandparents.
Around the same time, her father was sentenced to life in prison for kidnapping and r*ping a 7-year-old girl. He later died by suicide behind bars.
The children believed their grandparents were their actual parents until age 11. But the home that should have been a refuge became another chamber of horrors.
She later claimed her grandfather, an alcoh*lic, physically and sex*ally abused her throughout her childhood.
By age 11, she was trading sexu*l favors for money and cigarettes. At 14, she became pregnant after being r*ped by an older man. After giving birth, she placed the baby for adoption and was kicked out of her home, forced to live in the woods and survive through s*x work.
The 1970s brought more loss. Her brother died in 1976, followed by her grandfather’s suic*de. She drifted through arrests for disorderly conduct, ass*ult, and other petty crimes.
Mental health issues plagued her constantly. Between ages 14 and 22, she attempted suic*de 6 times.
By the 1980s, she had made her way to Florida, working as a pr*stitute along the state’s highways. In 1986, she met Tyria Moore, a hotel maid, and the two began a relationship.
She supported them both through s*x work, but something dark was building inside her.
In 1989, everything changed. She sh*t and killed Richard Mallory, a 51-year-old electronics shop owner, after a sexu*l encounter in a remote area. She claimed he had brutally ass*ulted her. His body was found weeks later, shot multiple times.
What followed shocked Florida. Over the next 12 months, six more middle-aged men were found dead along central Florida highways.
All had been shot, robbed, and their cars stolen. The victims included a construction worker, a retired police chief, and a truck driver.
The killing spree finally ended in January 1991 when she confessed during a recorded phone call. She insisted every killing was self-defense, claiming each man had attempted to r*pe or ass*ult her.
However, investigators remained skeptical of her changing accounts.
The woman behind these crimes was Aileen Wuornos, who would earn the chilling nickname “Damsel of Death.”
In 1992, she was convicted of Richard Mallory’s murd*r and sentenced to de*th. Psychiatrists diagnosed her with borderline personality disorder and antisocial personality disorder.
She eventually received 6 death sentences for the murd*rs.
Filmmaker Nick Broomfield, who interviewed Wuornos extensively, offered insight into her psychology.
“I think this anger developed inside her,” he said. “And I think this anger just spilled out from inside her. And finally exploded into incredible violence.”
During her decade on death row, Wuornos became increasingly erratic. In final interviews, she made bizarre claims about being tortured by prison officials. Documentary director Emily Turner noted she became “an incredibly unreliable narrator.”
On October 9, 2002, at age 46, Wuornos was executed by lethal injection. She declined a last meal, having only coffee. Her final words were cryptic and disturbing. “I’m sailing with the rock, and I’ll be back, like Independence Day, with Jesus,” she said.
After her death, her ashes were scattered beneath a tree in Michigan by her childhood friend.
Her story has since inspired numerous documentaries, including Netflix’s recent “Aileen: Queen of the Serial Killers,” and the Oscar-winning film “Monster.”
Wuornos’s case continues to spark debate about trauma, mental illness, and justice. Some see a cold-blooded killer.
Others see a damaged woman shaped by unimaginable abuse. Director Emily Turner observed that Wuornos “is so confusing and so complex, which runs so in the face of how we like women to be.”
The innocent child in that photograph grew into someone capable of taking seven lives. Whether she was a product of her horrific circumstances or simply evil remains one of true crime’s most haunting questions. What’s certain is that her story left only victims in its wake.
