What Happened to Aileen Wuornos? Inside the Female Serial Killer's Life After Her Gruesome Crimes By Caroline Blair

Aileen Wuornos was a female serial killer who was sentenced to death for murdering seven men.

She was a sex worker who confessed to killing seven of her male clients in Florida from 1989 to 1990. During her trial, Wuornos alleged that she killed the men in self-defense because they had either raped her or tried to rape her, per the Associated Press.

Despite her claims, Wuornos was found guilty of murdering six of the men. She received six death sentences, escaping the seventh because one victim’s body was never found. After a decade on death row, she was executed by lethal injection on Oct. 9, 2002. Her case quickly gained nationwide attention because female serial killers were, and still are, uncommon.

Wuornos’ life and crimes were first depicted in the 2003 film Monster, in which Charlize Theron portrayed the killer, and later won an Academy Award for her performance. In addition, the Netflix documentary Aileen: Queen of the Serial Killers, which premiered on Oct. 30, reexamined the story and shared the grizzly details of her crimes.

So, who was Aileen Wuornos, and what happened to her after her killing spree? Here’s everything to know about the late female killer and her brutal crimes.

Who was Aileen Wuornos?

Wuornos was born in a Detroit suburb in 1956 to young parents, Diane Wuornos and Leo Pittman. They divorced shortly before she was born, and Pittman was later arrested and sentenced to life in prison for kidnapping and raping a 7-year-old girl, according to a 2005 article in the Journal of Forensic Sciences.

Diane later left Aileen and her older brother, Keith, with her parents. Aileen continued having a troubled upbringing and later alleged that she was sexually assaulted and physically abused by her grandfather, per the Journal of Forensic Sciences.

When Aileen was 15 years old, she gave birth to a boy whose father was not identified, per EBSCO. She gave her son up for adoption and dropped out of school before becoming a sex worker.

Prior to starting to commit murders, Aileen was arrested several times for driving under the influence, disorderly conduct, assault, car theft and armed robbery, per the Journal of Forensic Sciences. In addition to her legal troubles, Aileen also suffered from mental health struggles and reportedly attempted suicide six times, from the ages of 14 to 22.

When did Wuornos commit her first murder?

Wuornos was working as a prostitute along the Florida state highways when she committed her first known murder in 1989. Richard Mallory, a 51-year-old electronics shop owner in Clearwater, picked her up on Nov. 30, 1989, according to the Clark County Prosecuting Attorney.

During their time together, Wuornos alleged that Mallory raped, beat and sodomized her, according to her testimony, and per the Associated Press. She shot him several times, including twice in the lungs, which killed him.

Two days after the murder, Mallory’s abandoned car was found, and his body was later discovered in Volusia County, Fla. During her trial, Wuornos maintained that she killed him in self-defense.

Although trial evidence contradicted Mallory’s claims, it was later revealed that Mallory had been convicted of sexual assault when he was 19 years old, per The Washington Post.

How many people did Wuornos kill?

After her first murder in 1989, Wuornos is believed to have shot and killed six more men while engaging in sex work in Florida.

Her second murder took place a few months after Mallory’s when she shot David Spears, a 47-year-old construction worker in Winter Garden, six times, according to the Clark County Prosecuting Attorney. His body was found in Citrus County in June 1990.

On May 31, 1990, Wuornos committed her third murder when she killed Charles Carskaddon, a 40-year-old rodeo worker. His body was found shot nine times and wrapped in a blanket on June 6, 1990.

Wuornos’ fourth victim was believed to be 65-year-old retiree Peter Siems after he disappeared from Jupiter in June 1990, but his body was never found. However, investigators linked Wuornos to the murder after she and her partner, Tyria Moore, were seen abandoning Siems’ car. Wuornos’ palm print was later found on the inner door handle.

Troy Burress was a 50-year-old sausage salesman from Ocala who was reported missing in July 1990. His body was later found with two bullet wounds along a highway in Marion County.

Wuornos’ sixth known murder was a former police chief and retired Air Force major, Charles Richard “Dick” Humphreys. The 56-year-old was found shot six times in the head and torso in Marion County in September 1990.

Her final known victim was 62-year-old security guard Walter Jeno Antonio. His body was found with four shots to the back and head in November 1990 in Dixie County.

How was Wuornos caught?

Wuornos was first suspected of murder after her palm print was found in Siems’ car and her prints were matched in a database connected to her past crimes.

She was arrested on the pretext of an outstanding warrant at a biker bar in Harbor Oaks, Fla., on Jan. 9, 1991, per the Clark County Prosecuting Attorney.

The following day, police located Moore and granted her immunity if she could get a full confession from Wuornos. On Jan. 16, 1991, Wuornos confessed to all seven murders but also claimed that she did so in self-defense after all the men had allegedly tried to rape her.

What was Wuornos charged with and what was her sentence?

Wuornos was charged with first-degree murder in the deaths of six men. Although she confessed to Siems’ murder, she was not charged, as his body was never found.

Her trial for the murder of her first victim, Mallory, began in January 1992. Wuornos testified and maintained that she killed him in self-defense after he had raped her. Meanwhile, her former partner, Moore, testified against her.

She was convicted of first-degree murder on Jan. 27, 1992, and was sentenced to death four days later.

In March 1992, Wuornos pleaded no contest to the murders of Spears, Humphreys and Burress and was given three more death sentences. A month later, she pleaded guilty to Carskaddon’s and later to Antonio’s murder. By February 1993, she had received a total of six death sentences.

During her time in custody, Wuornos told various stories about her murders and went back and forth on her motive and whether or not she acted in self-defense.

“I wanted to confess to you that Richard Mallory did violently rape me as I’ve told you. But these others did not. [They] only began to start to,” she said in March 1992, per the Clark County Prosecuting Attorney.

How did Wuornos die?

Wuornos awaited her execution at the Florida Department of Corrections, Broward Correctional Institution, and later the Florida State Prison. She attempted to appeal her conviction with the Florida Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court, but they were both denied.

Prior to her death, Wuornos maintained her guilt and said, per CNN, “I killed those men, robbed them as cold as ice. And I’d do it again, too. There’s no chance in keeping me alive or anything, because I’d kill again. I have hate crawling through my system.”

“I am so sick of hearing this ‘she’s crazy’ stuff,” she said. “I’ve been evaluated so many times. I’m competent, sane, and I’m trying to tell the truth, and I’ll take a polygraph on every single word on those pages.”

In footage from Nick Broomfield’s 2003 documentary Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer, Wuornos could be heard off-camera, saying that she actually did kill the men in self-defense and only wrote the former statement because she was tired of being on death row and wished to be executed.

On Oct. 9, 2002, Wuornos was executed by lethal injection. She said in her last words, “I’d just like to say I’m sailing with the Rock and I’ll be back like Independence Day with Jesus, June 6, like the movie, big mother ship and all. I’ll be back.”