Wuornos had been the victim of abuse and neglect prior to her life of crime. Her parents split before she was born, and her father, who had been arrested for child molesting, killed himself while awaiting trial in a mental institution. When her mother abandoned her at a young age, Aileen was sent to live with her grandparents; she was later kicked out of their home when she got pregnant at age 14.
From 1974 to 1976, Wuornos operated under several aliases and amassed an arrest record for offenses including drunk driving, assault and armed robbery. In 1986, she became romantically and criminally involved with a woman named Tyria Moore.
In late 1989, Wuornos began committing her infamous string of murders in Florida. Five months after Richard Mallory was killed, David Spears was found dead, shot six times with a .22 caliber gun in the woods of Citrus County. At around the same time, another male body turned up nearby that appeared to have been killed with the same type of gun. Three additional men met the same demise during the summer of 1990.
When the seventh victim was found in November, the media was alerted to the possibility of a serial killer. After receiving several tips, detectives caught Wuornos in a seedy biker bar in January 1991. With Moore assisting police, Wuornos decided to confess to the killings but claimed that they had all been done in self-defense. When a jury found Wuornos guilty on January 27, 1992, she screamed out, “I’m innocent! I was raped! I hope you get raped! Scumbags of America!”
Wuornos was sentenced to death and was executed on October 9, 2002.
Her life and crimes have fueled additional documentaries and movies since then. Notably, Charlize Theron won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her portrayal of Wuornos in the 2003 film Monster. For the 2026 Netflix limited series “Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story,” Sarah Paulson appears as Wuornos.
