6 Disturbing Details Queen of the Serial Killers Left Out About Aileen Wuornos’ Life By Christopher Rudolph

Aileen Wuornos led a troubled life, from a complicated childhood to the murders she committed.

The Netflix documentary Aileen: Queen of the Serial Killers gives a closer look at the life of Wuornos, using archival audio and video interviews with her, as well as conversations with friends and others.

Her infamous story has been told before, notably in the 2003 film Monster, where actress Charlize Theron played Wuornos and won an Oscar for her portrayal.

Wuornos was a sex worker in Florida who killed seven of her male clients from 1989 to 1990. She later confessed to the murders, claiming she did so in self-defense because they had either raped or attempted to rape her.

“I’m not a serial killer … I didn’t plan these murders or anything like that,” she said in Aileen: Queen of the Serial Killers.

The title, which premiered on Oct. 30, covers Wuornos’ life, murder trial and execution, but not every aspect of her story is explored.

From her troubled childhood to what happened to her ashes, here are details Aileen: Queen of the Serial Killers left out.

She was abandoned by her mom and had no relationship with her dad 

Wuornos’ parents were teenagers when she was born. According to The Tampa Bay Times, Wuornos’ mother, Diane Wuornos, was 16, and her father, Leo Pittman, was 19.

They separated months before Wuornos was born in February 1956. When she was 4, Wuornos’ mother left her and her older brother, Keith, with their grandparents, who went on to legally adopt and raise them.

“I just couldn’t cope,” Diane told the police, per The Tampa Bay Times. “The whole family came to me and, in turn, one at a time, begged me to give [Aileen and Keith] to my parents, which was probably the biggest mistake I have ever made in my life.”

Apart from being abandoned by her mom, Wuornos had no relationship with her dad, who received a life sentence in 1967 for raping a 7-year-old girl, according to Britannica.com. He died by suicide in prison two years later.

Dawn Botkins, a childhood friend, said Wuornos “had the worst life of anyone I have ever met.”

“When I first heard [of Aileen’s murder charges] it didn’t shock me,” she told The Tampa Bay Times. “If you had only been there and seen how terribly she was treated all her life, it only makes sense.”

She had a “brief sexual relationship” with her brother

According to the Los Angeles Times, Wuornos admitted to having “a brief sexual relationship” with her brother, Keith, who was three years older than her.

Per Florida court records, Sidney Shovan, who lived in the same neighborhood as Wuornos, claimed to hear Keith have “sex with his sister.”

According to the same documents, Botkins stated that Keith was a “sweet person” whom Wuornos loved “very, very much.”

Per Britannica.com, Keith died in 1976 from cancer. According to A&E, Wuornos received $10,000 from her brother’s life insurance policy, but the money quickly ran out after a few weeks when she reportedly bought a luxury car and totaled it in a crash.

She estimated that she had sex with over 250,000 men

Wuornos was a sex worker in Florida, who, according to The New York Times, claimed to have had sex with more than 250,000 men. She became a sex worker as a teenager, per The Guardian.

In Aileen: Queen of the Serial Killers, Wuornos said that over the course of her life, she was raped “30 times, maybe more.”

She listened to Natalie Merchant’s Tigerlily album while on death row

Wuornos heard rock singer Natalie Merchant’s 1995 solo debut album, Tigerlily, on repeat during her time on death row.

The artist discovered this years later, when Nick Broomfield, who directed the 2003 documentary Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer, asked Merchant’s manager to use her songs in the film.

“My answer was ‘No, under no circumstances. Why would I want my music in a film about a serial killer?’ ” Merchant told The New Yorker in April 2023. “But eventually he explained that Tigerlily was the album Aileen listened to obsessively. It gave her comfort when she was on death row.”

“So I gave permission, though I’ve never been able to watch the film,” she continued. “I’m just too sensitive to that kind of subject matter.”

She originally wanted her ashes spread in Florida

Aileen: Queen of the Serial Killers ends with Botkins explaining her plans for spreading Wuornos’ ashes.

After 10 years on death row, Wuornos received a lethal injection on Oct. 9, 2002. Botkins, who had been friends with Wuornos since the two were 15, was the last person to visit Wuornos on death row. Wuornos’ remains were cremated, and her ashes were given to Botkins.

Wuornos originally wanted her ashes spread on Flagler’s Beach in Florida, where Wuornos and her girlfriend, Tyria Moore, spent time.

Botkins was able to convince Wuorons that her final resting place should be in her home state of Michigan, as she recalled to Vice in 2016.

“‘You’re coming home here [to Michigan]. You pick out a walnut tree from pictures and your ashes are coming home with your best friend, and that’s that,’ ” Botkins wrote in a letter to Wuornos. “And she finally agreed. That’s why her ashes are here, and she has the most beautiful tree.”

According to The Ledger, Botkins spread Wuornos’ ashes under a tree on Botkins’ property in Tuscola County, Mich.

“She loved walnut trees,” Botkins told the newspaper. “I’ve been planting walnut trees for her for a few years.”

The Last Resort bar has become a tourist attraction

The Last Resort, the Florida bar where Wuornos hung out, and where she was eventually arrested in January 1991, has become a tourist destination in the years since Wuornos’ death.

“They come from all over the world,” owner Al Bulling told The Daytona Beach News-Journal in February 2025. “They just come, ordinary people, because they know it’s all here. Everything’s the same. Same pool table, everything.”

The biker bar, located in Port Orange, has become a makeshift shrine to Wuornos, with newspaper articles and other memorabilia related to the “Damsel of Death” covering the walls, per the publication.

At one point, the establishment was selling Wuornos merchandise, including T-shirts and hot sauce. Leaning further to its connection with the murderer, the side door entrance of the bar boasts the Last Resort as the home of “ice cold beer and killer women.”