Aileen Wuornos (1956-2002) was an American serial killer and sex worker who murdered seven men in Florida. Her story became widely known after it served as the basis for the award-winning film Monster starring Charlize Theron.
Aileen Wuornos (1956-2002) was an American serial killer who murdered seven men.
This month, we're talking about troublemakers — from women who made “good trouble” to women who thrived in illicit industries to villains in the truest sense of the word.
History classes can get a bad wrap, and sometimes for good reason. When we were students, we couldn’t help wondering... where were all the ladies at? Why were so many incredible stories missing from the typical curriculum? Enter, Womanica. On this Wonder Media Network podcast we explore the lives of inspiring women in history you may not know about, but definitely should.
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Hello! From Wonder Media Network, I’m Jenny Kaplan. This is Womanica.
This month, we’re talking about Troublemakers. We’re covering stories across the spectrum of women who made “good trouble”, to women who thrived in illicit industries, to villains in the truest sense of the word. All of the women we’re covering had a major impact on the societies in which they lived.
Today’s episode contains mentions of sexual assault. If you’re listening with young children you may want to sit this one out.
Today we’re talking about an American serial killer. Not only was she a villain, she was also a victim, her violence reflecting a lifetime of abuse. ‘
Let’s talk about Aileen Wuornos.
Aileen Wuornos was born on a leap year -- February 29, 1956 -- in Rochester, Michigan. From the start, her life was tumultuous. Her parents were both very young when they got married and began having children. By the time Aileen was born, her father was serving time in prison for molesting a child. He later died by suicide. When Aileen was four years old, her mother left, too, abandoning her and her older brother.
The siblings were sent to live with their grandparents,who were also not equipped to raise children. During this period of her life, Aileen encountered horrific abuse. Her grandmother was an alcoholic. Her grandfather, along with other family members and local men,sexually abused her. It completely altered Aileen’s view of what affection meant.. By the age of 11, she’d started trading sexual favors for cigarettes, beer, and money.
When Aileen was 14,, she gave birth to what would be her only child, and gave the baby up for adoption. Around this same time, she spent extended periods away from home, often hitchhiking around the country. Fed up with her constant disappearances, Aileen’s grandparents kicked her out of the house. She was left her to fend for herself.
Aileen lived in the woods for years before moving to Florida in the mid-1970s to work as a sex worker. She had her fair share of run-ins with the law, for things like assault and disorderly conduct.. At one point, Aileen married 69-year-old Lewis Fell, a yacht club president. The marriage lasted just nine weeks. And after it ended, Aileen went back to sex work.
In 1986, Aileen began a romantic relationship with Tyria [Tie-rah] Moore. She supported them both with sex work. For extra money, Aileen and Tyria sold stolen items at pawnshops across Florida. Compared to what came next for Aileen, this was a petty crime.
Between December 1989 to November 1990, Aileen murdered seven men. Each man, except for one whose body was never recovered, was found in the woods off the Florida highway.The cause of death was always the same -- gunshot wounds to the torso. The only victim who suffered a gunshot to the head was Charles Humphreys, a former State Child Abuse Investigator and Chief of Police. Their backgrounds were similar, too. They were all white men between the ages of 40 and 65. And they all stalked the Florida highways looking for women to pick up and solicit for sex.
Police eventually caught up with Aileen in Port Orange, Florida.. Tyria, Aileen’s partner, got Aileen’s confession in exchange for her own freedom. But Aileen’s story toed the line between fact and fiction.
Throughout her trial, Aileen’s testimony continuously changed. But the one consistency was this: in every case, she said, whether she was attacked or not, she was acting in self defense..
It was clear that Aileen was unstable and deeply troubled. But the news portrayed Aileen as a temptress, who gleefully murdered these men.
The truth is much more complicated. Aileen killed seven people. She was also a victim. She’d spent a lifetime watching men control and abuse women and get away with it. While in prison, she wrote in a letter to feminist academic and psychologist Phyllis Chesler, “I am a female who has been raped and the male dominant world is laughing. They’ve succeeded to putting me in the chair to prove that men can and will do as they want to us women of America.”
Aileen’s case pulled back the curtain on the dangerous lives of sex workers, women often neglected by the mainstream. She knew her situation was shared by many, and believed in using her story to call attention to violence against women.
On January 27, 1992, a jury found Aileen guilty of first-degree murder. She received the death penalty.
A decade later, on October 9, 2002, Aileen Wuornos was executed by lethal injection.
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Special thanks to Liz Kaplan, my favorite sister and co-creator.
We’ll be back on Monday with a brand new theme!