Aileen Wuornos

Aileen Carol Wuornos was an American serial killer who murdered seven men along Florida highways between 1989 and 1990. She claimed each killing was an act of self-defense against men who had raped or attempted to rape her while she worked as a sex worker. Her case attracted enormous media attention and became the subject of the 2003 film "Monster," for which Charlize Theron won the Academy Award for Best Actress. [BBC](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-54569065)

Born on February 29, 1956, in Rochester, Michigan, Wuornos had an extraordinarily troubled childhood. Her father was a convicted child molester who committed suicide in prison; her mother abandoned the family when Wuornos was six. She was raised by her maternal grandparents, became pregnant at 14 after being raped by her grandfather's friend, and gave up the baby for adoption. She dropped out of school and began supporting herself through sex work and petty crime as a teenager.

Her first confirmed murder occurred on November 30, 1989, when she shot Richard Mallory, a 51-year-old electronics store owner, on a remote road in Volusia County, Florida. Wuornos later claimed Mallory had raped and sodomized her. Court records later confirmed that Mallory had previously been convicted of rape in Maryland, lending partial credibility to her account.

Between November 1989 and November 1990, Wuornos killed six more men: David Spears, Charles Carskaddon, Peter Siems, Troy Burress, Charles Humphreys, and Walter Jeno Antonio. All were shot with a .22-caliber pistol, and most were found partially naked or undressed in remote locations. [CNN](https://www.cnn.com/2013/08/27/us/aileen-wuornos-fast-facts/index.html)

She was identified through fingerprints and a composite sketch, arrested on January 9, 1991 at a biker bar in Port Orange, Florida. Her partner, Tyria Moore, cooperated with police and helped investigators get Wuornos to confess. [AP News](https://apnews.com/article/aileen-wuornos-executed-florida-2002)

Wuornos was tried separately for each murder. Her first trial, for the murder of Richard Mallory, began January 14, 1992. Despite her claims of self-defense, the jury convicted her of first-degree murder after deliberating for 91 minutes. She was sentenced to death on January 31, 1992. [CNN](https://www.cnn.com/2013/08/27/us/aileen-wuornos-fast-facts/index.html)

She subsequently pleaded guilty to five additional murders and received additional death sentences. In total, she received six death sentences for six of the seven killings (the body of Peter Siems was never found, and she was not charged in his death).

Wuornos spent over a decade on death row. She initially appealed her convictions but later dismissed her remaining appeals, saying she wanted to be executed. She told the court: "I killed those men, robbed them as cold as ice. And I'd do it again, too." Her mental state was repeatedly questioned. [Washington Post](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1992/02/28/wuornos-pleads-guilty-to-sixth-murder/4f3c0d0b-7bef-4b50-8d29-70fcf7e1c77b/)

Florida Governor Jeb Bush ordered a psychiatric evaluation of Wuornos in 2002 after she fired her lawyers and waived appeals. Three state-appointed psychiatrists found her competent to be executed.

On October 9, 2002, Aileen Wuornos was executed by lethal injection at Florida State Prison in Starke, Florida. Her last meal was a cup of coffee. She was 46 years old. [The Guardian](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2003/oct/31/5)