Aileen Wuornos
Female Serial Killer
Aileen Wuornos was born Aileen Carol Pittman on February 29th, 1956 to Diane Pratt and Leo Pittman. The couple divorced in less then two years after having two children, Keith and Aileen.
Leo was a habitual child molester and felon and was imprisoned for rape and attempted murder and committed suicide while in prison. Diane abandoned both her children and left them in the care of their maternal grandparents Lauri and Britta Wuornos, who adopted them.
Horrible Childhood
Aileen had a truly terrible childhood and the scars from this early time in her life would have ramifications that would ultimately lead her to fall off the deep end and to place no value on human life.
She and her brother learned the painful truth of their real parentage as adolescences and rebelled by using drugs, refusing to attend school, and by engaging in early sexual activities. Aileen got pregnant and was forced to give her child up for adoption, the father was never identified.
Homeless and Wandering
By 1971 Britta Wuornos had died and both Aileen and Keith were wards of the state. At the age of 15 Aileen ran away and became a petty criminal and prostitute. Over the next several years she was arrested for drunk driving, disorderly conduct, and charged with weapons violations.
In 1976 she hitched to Florida, met and married a well-off elderly man (Lewis Fell) whom she assaulted and abused until he filed a restraining order against her and had their marriage dissolved after just nine weeks of marriage.
Life of Crime
After her divorce Aileen continued to tangle with the law. She was charged with assault and disturbing the peace in Michigan in July of 1976. She continued to work as a prostitute and her crime continued and began to escalate in their violent nature.
Wuornos was arrested in Edgewater, Florida in 1981 for armed robbery and was sent to prison where she served a little over a year. In 1984 she was arrested for forgery and in 1985 suspected of involvement in the theft of weapons. Her criminality continued with arrests in Miami in 1986 for grand theft auto and possession of firearms and incidents involving assault and bar room brawling.
Female Serial Killer
By November of 1989 Aileen had progressed from a career criminal to a fatal, calculating, serial murderess. Her first victim was a 51-year-old man from Clearwater whose body was found on December 13th.
She used her feminine wiles to attract “Johns” with the sole intent of robbing and murdering them for their money, possessions, and automobiles. During this period of time Wuornos was living with her lesbian lover Tyria Moore and using the money and stolen articles to pay rent and support their lifestyle.
Over the next year Aileen would commit seven similar murders by shooting her victims multiple times and dumping their bodies in remote locations. All the victims were middle-aged men who had picked her up with the notion of sex for money, but all seven men got far more then they bargained for.
Forensic Evidence
As with most serial killers, forensic evidence usually catches up with them in the end, and it was no different for Aileen Wuornos. Florida police had fingerprints on file for Wuornos due to her many arrests and prints were taken off one of the victims stolen cars that were recovered, and they perfectly matched Wuornos.
Wuornos was arrested on January 9th, 1991 for outstanding warrants and police convinced Aileen’s lover Moore to trick a confession out of her in exchange for immunity. Although Moore had not participated directly in the murders, she had direct knowledge of the crimes. On January 16th Wuornos confessed to the crimes.
Florida’s Death Row
Aileen Wuornos was convicted of six counts of murder and sentenced to death. There were many appeals based upon her mental capacity and competency but eventually her sanity was confirmed by three psychiatrist appointed by Florida Governor Jeb Bush and Wuornos got her wish for the execution to proceed and all final appeals be ended.
During her incarceration she made many wild statements and accusations about her treatment and although it was clear that she was delusional and suffered from mental disorders she was also a remorseless killer who proclaimed she would murder again if given the chance.
Wuornos was executed on October 9th, 2002 by lethal injection. She was only the second woman to ever be executed in the state of Florida. Her short but violent killing spree that lasted just over a year had claimed seven victims and her sad and pathetic life of hate, rage, abuse, and murder was over at the age of 46.
Learn about vintage serial killer JOE BALL here!
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