Inside the grisly crimes of America’s first female serial killer Aileen Wuornos who confessed to robbing & killing 7 men. Her biography full of crimes explored!
Homeless for most of her life, Aileen Wuornos gets into street prostitution in the early 1990s. She tries to set her life straight but when nothing works out, she starts robbing her clients and killing them.
Wuornos was charged with the first-degree murder of Richard Mallory, armed robbery with a firearm or deadly weapon, and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.
Prosecutors argued Wuornos qualified for the death penalty based on the charge of murder committed in the course of a robbery.
Wuornos was executed by lethal injection on October 9, 2002.
From being homeless, to marrying a yacht club president, then turning in a sex worker and robbing and shooting her client, below is everything to know about Aileen Wuornos.
Who is Aileen Wuornos?
The first female serial killer in America gained notoriety in the early 1990s after robbing and murdering multiple men.
Aileen Wuornos, who became known as The Damsel of Death and the Highway Hooker, was arrested in 1991 and eventually confessed to killing seven men between 1989 and 1990.
Wuornos, a sex worker from Daytona Beach, Florida, committed her first serial killer crime in 1989, after admitting to her partner, Tyria Moore, that she shot and killed a man.
Court documents revealed that Wuornos told Moore she sifted through the man’s belongings, abandoned his car near a beach, and left his body in the woods.
Who were Aileen Wuornos’ parents?
Murderer Wuornos (real name Aileen Carol Pittman) was born on February 29, 1956 in Rochester, Michigan.
Her parents were Diane Wuornos and Leo Pittman. Her mom was born in 1939 while her dad was born in 1936. Her parents got married on June 3, 1954, when they were 18 and 14 years old.
Her parents had her when her mum was 16 and her dad 20, exactly two years when they married.
After less than two years of marriage, Diane filed for divorce.
Her dad died on January 30, 1969 while in prison by suicide. He had been sentenced to life imprisonment for kidnapping and raping a 7-year-old girl. Aileen never met her father.
At almost four years old, Diane abandoned Wuornos and her sibling, leaving them with their maternal grandparents, Lauri and Britta Wuornos, both alcoholics, who legally adopted Keith and Aileen on March 18, 1960.
Under the care of her grandparents when her mom abandoned them, Wuornos said that her alcoholic grandfather had sexually assaulted and beaten her when she was a child. Before beating her, he would force her to strip out of her clothes.
She then engaged in bad behaviors like sexual activities, smoking and doing drugs.
When Wuornos was 15, her grandfather threw her out of the house, and she began living in the woods near her old home and supported herself through prostitution.
Who was Aileen Wuornos’ brother?
Serial killer Aileen Wuornos was not an only child to her parents. She had a brother named Keith Wuornos born to the same parents.
Keith was older than Aileen and was born on March 14, 1955.
When Aileen had began engaging in sexual activities at age 11, she had also engaged in sexual activities with her brother.
On July 17, her brother Keith died of esophageal cancer and Wuornos received $10,000 from his life insurance. She used the money inherited from her brother to pay the fine and spent the rest within two months buying luxuries including a new car, which she wrecked shortly afterwards.
Who was Aileen Wuornos married to?
It is known that Aileen Wuornos was married once in her entire life. When was 20 years old, she tied the knot with her spouse Lewis Gratz Fell who was a rich businessman. Her husband as a yacht club president.
The announcement of their nuptials was printed in the local newspaper’s society pages in 1976.
Wuornos and Fell annulled their marriage on July 21 after only nine weeks. She reportedly assualted her husband, Fell, with his own cane, leading him to gain a restraining order against her within weeks of the marriage.
Following her divorce, she had another partner named Tyria Moore. They were in a relationship from 1986 to 1991.
Did Aileen Wuornos have any children?
Aileen Wuornos was a mother at age 14. She became pregnant, having been raped by a family friend in 1970.
Wuornos gave birth to a boy whose name is unknown at a home for unwed mothers on March 23, 1971, and the child was placed for adoption. A few months after her son was born, she dropped out of school at about the same time that her grandmother died of liver failure.
Who are Aileen Wuornos’ victims?
Since Aileen Wuornos engaged in street prostitution along highways in Florida from 1989 to 1990, her victims were her male clients. She shot dead and robbed seven of her male clients.
The names of her the men she killed include Richard Charles Mallory, David Andrew Spears, Charles Edmund Carskaddon, Peter Abraham Siems, Charles Richard “Dick” Humphreys, and Walter Jeno Antonio.
How did and when did Aileen Wuornos commit her murders?
On December 1, 1989 – police found Richard Mallory’s car, and later, on December 13, they found his body. Wuornos alleged that Mallory raped her and she believed he was going to try to kill her.
She had a gun on her at the time and claimed that a fight for the weapon ensued but she won. Mallory was shot to death, with two bullets having pierced his left lung causing hemorrhaging and death, according to court documents.
Six other victims of Wuornos were discovered in 1990, per Oxygen.
David Spears, 43, was found shot six times on June 1. His truck was also found nearby.
Days later on June 6, the body of Charles Carskaddon, 40, was found in the woods. Carskaddon had been shot nine times. His car was found in another location.
Then, on July 4, 65-year-old Peter Siems’ abandoned car was discovered with blood stains on the interior and door handles. But Siems’ body has never been found.
A group of picnickers found the body of 50-year-old Troy Burress a month later on August 4. He had been shot twice, and his truck was found miles away.
On September 12, the body of Charles Richard Humphreys, 56, was found by two young boys. Humphreys’ body was found with six gunshot wounds. His car was found abandoned near a gas station in a different county.
The final victim’s body was found on November 19. Walter Jeno Antonio, 62, had been shot four times, and his car was found days later in a different county.
The victims were all found to be robbed, according to The Chicago Tribune, and their vehicles were abandoned.
Investigators determined that the shootings were committed with a .22 caliber pistol, the outlet also reported.
How was Aileen Wuornos caught?
Wuornos was caught thanks, in part, to Moore.
She was arrested on January 9, 1991, as a result of her being seen with Moore inside victim Peter Siems’ car and her palm print was found on the interior. Also, the investigators found some of the victims’ possessions in various pawnshops with Wuornos’ fingerprints on them.
When police released sketches of two women fleeing the scene after crashing Siems’ car, Moore left Wuornos and fled to Pennsylvania.
After officials tracked her down, she began to cooperate.
She then returned to Florida where investigators recorded her conversations with Wuornos for four days.
In one conversation, Wuornos was recorded as saying: “I will not let you be involved in the picture. You’re not the one. I am the one who did everything. I did it all myself.”
Wuornos’ attorneys tried to appeal but Florida Supreme Court stated that Wuornos “freely waived her rights and confessed, contrary to advice of counsel both before and during the first confession and later,” per Oxygen.
The suspect was arrested on January 9, 1991, at a Florida bar on a warrant for weapons possession dating back to 1986, The New York Times reported at the time.
Days later, on January 16, Wuornos confessed to the seven murders once Moore tells her she was being investigated.
She claimed self-defense and pleaded not guilty to the murder of Mallory.
But Wuornos was found guilty of first-degree murder on January 27, 1992, after facing trial for the death of Mallory.
Where is Aileen Wuornos now?
She was sentenced to death on January 31, 1992.
Wuornos pleaded no contest to five of the six other murders.
As Siems’ body was never recovered, she was not charged in his death.
How was Aileen Wuornos put to death?
On October 9, 2002, Aileen Wuornos who was 46 years old was executed by lethal injection at Florida State Prison, Raiford, Florida, U.S. In her last statement, Wuornos said, “I’d just like to say I’m sailing with the rock, and I’ll be back like Independence Day, with Jesus June 6.
Her Resting place and remain were Cremated, ashes scattered in Fostoria, Tuscola County, Michigan.
What are the movies about Aileen Wuornos?
A movie, Monster, was later made about Wuornos’ life and starred Charlize Theron, who won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her portrayal of Wuornos.