A Twisted Childhood
Born on February 29, 1956 in Rochester, Michigan, Aileen Wuornos lived a troubled life from the beginning. Her father enlisted in the army before she was born in order to avoid jail-time; he was arrested less than 5 years later for raping a seven-year-old girl, and he hung himself in prison. Soon after her birth, Aileen’s mother abandoned her and her brother, Keith, at their grandparents’ house. There, bother her grandmother and grandfather struggled with drinking– her grandfather was especially known for being a violent drunk. Around the age of 10, Aileen and her older brother Keith began incestually experimenting with their sexualities, reportedly having sex multiple times. By the age of 11, Wuornos was having sex with many different boys around town, and eventually learned that she could make money by having the boys pay her in loose change for her services. During this time, she became pregnant by one of her “customers,” who she later stated had raped her. She was sent away to a home for un-wed mothers to have the baby (which was immediately put up for adoption); after returning home, she immediately ran away filled with anger and hatred. The young girl then took to life on the road, living wherever she could and making money off of prostitution, but eventually ended up being arrested on disorderly conduct and assault charges. She was married to a young man named Lewis Fell for a short time, but he soon annulled the marriage after Wuornos had another altercation with the law. These altercations continued for another 10 years before Aileen met and began a relationship with Tyria Moore in Dayton, Florida.
Aileen Wuornos as a young girl
A Hateful Crime Spree
On November 30, 1989, Aileen got into a car with Richard Mallory, 51, under the pretenses of her offering her services; Mallory was a convicted rapist at the time. She had the man pull over to a secluded spot on the road where she shot him 4 times in the chest before dumping his body in the woods and abandoning the car. She would later plead that this act was in self defense given Mallory’s questionable character. Wuornos continued to use her life of prostitution to lure men in and murder them. Nearly 6 months later, the naked body of David Spears, 43, was found along a highway in Florida with six bullets lodged in his body. Almost two months later, the body of Charles Carskaddon was found in Pasco County, Florida with 9 bullet wounds. Men continued to be found dead covered in gunshot wounds; the rest of her victims were as follows: Peter Siems, 65, whose body was never found; Troy Burress, 50; Charles Humphreys, 56; Walter Jeno Antonio, 65.
A Back-Stabbing Conviction
In January of 1991, Aileen Wuornos was arrested at a biker bar, The Last Resort, for an outstanding warrant. The police found her lover, Tyria Moore, in Scranton, PA and convinced her to elicit a confession from Wuornos in exchange for immunity from prosecution. After much pleading for her to clear Moore’s name, she finally confessed to the murders under the claim of self defense to avoid rape. A year later, Aileen Wuornos went on trial for the murder of Richard Mallory and pleaded that she was mentally unstable. Despite this, she was soon convicted for the murder of Mallory and sentenced to death. Two months later, she pleaded no contest to the murders of Humphreys, Burress, and Spears, and was given 3 more death sentences. In June, she pleaded guilty to the murder of Carskaddon; in February of 1993, she pleaded guilty to the murder of Antonio, but she was never convicted of Siems’ death because there was no body. All together, Aileen Wuornos received 6 death sentences– she asked for several appeals leading up to her execution, but eventually revoked them all stating that she “killed those men… and [would] do it again.” On October 9, 2002, Wuornos was finally executed.
Tyria Moore, girlfriend of Aileen
A Diagnosis
It was stated in reports that Aileen Wuornos scored a 32/40 on the Psychopathy Checklist– a score above a 25 or 30 is considered consistent with diagnoses of being a psychopath. While that gives an official diagnosis, I also want to give my own opinion. I think Aileen’s anger from her abusive childhood and the disrespect she received from everyone around her during her early years of prostitution all culminated in a dangerous desire for revenge. She wanted to punish the same kinds of people (men) that essentially took away her childhood and her innocence. These killings were ones of angry passion and sadness, a desperate woman trying to take back the life she felt that she had lost. While I will not take the blame completely off of Wuornos for starting her early life of prostitution in the first place, I will say this– respect all women, no matter what they do, or it may come back to bite you in the butt.
http://www.biography.com/people/aileen-wuornos-11735792#killing-spree-and-arrest
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aileen_Wuornos
Kathryn Lynn Mayberry says
Sierra,
This is such a twisted case. It was interesting to see how her upbringing really affected her murders later. The fact that she was sexually active at such a young age just makes my stomach turn. Once again you made a well-organized case post that kept me enthralled through to your diagnosis. In this diagnosis it’s interesting that you included her score for Psychopathy. In past cases you haven’t, and that may have been because the results were not available, but seeing the results confirm your diagnosis really adds credibility to you as a source. In general I had no idea that there was even a Checklist for something like this so that in itself was cool. I agree with your diagnosis that her childhood had a lot to do with how she reacted later in life. I also like how you added a bit of social commentary by urging your readers to respect women. Although you twisted it in an unexpected, creepy way at the end, you are spot on. People really do need to respect women and see them not as objects but as equals. I really enjoyed this case, as creepy as it was, and you did a fantastic job outlining it for your readers.
Robert Al-Moustafa says
Sierra,
I don’t think reading this after eating a huge breakfast was one of my better ideas; there’s no doubt that Aileen was one twisted lady. Once again it all starts with the rough childhood – one that may have been worse than some of the others put combined. Her father was a rapist who committed suicide, her mother abandoned the family; her grandparents struggled with alcoholism; and her own brother as well as the neighborhood boys was having sex with her on the regular. These experiences no doubt had a traumatic effect on her life, especially prostitution and pregnancy at such a young age. It’s sad that when she was finally condemned for her behavior, it was already too late. By then she had become the poster child for a life-course persistent offender and society had already tagged her as an un-wed mother and a prostitute. If there’s one thing criminology has taught me thus far, it is that tagging often leads to more criminal activity among the offender.
I wonder why she went about killing men seeking prostitutes. Was it because she was traumatized from her life as a prostitute? Whatever the case may be, the manner in which she went about these murders was downright systematic. She must have done some recon on some of the people she would be getting in the car with – Mallory for example. How could she have pleaded self-defense given his character had she not known about his rape conviction? I think she must have used this information as justification for his death, especially since she was “raped” during her childhood. But I wonder how one can claim self-defense in these murders when there are 4+ bullets in the man’s body. That’s not self-defense by any means. If six bullets are weaved into the chest of a man, then it’s pretty deliberate that you want to kill that person.
I liked the way you organized this post, especially the way you wrapped up the post. The “respect all women, no matter what they do, or it may come back to bite you in the butt” is a very accurate statement that should be relayed to society. Once again, there is a correlation between tagging and criminal behavior so it’s important that we impede these factors so one psychopath doesn’t go biting you in the ass. Great post!