Aileen Wuornos reportedly killed at least seven people in Florida in 1989 and 1990. She is infamously considered as the first female serial killer in the US crime history. Engaged in street prostitution along Florida highways in 1989–90, Wuornos shot and robbed seven male clients, killing them. Law enforcement officials arrested her at The Last Resort biker bar in Volusia County on January 9, 1991.
Initially, Wuornos claimed self-defense, but she later confessed to committing the murders out of hatred for men and a desire to steal money. However, the case had many fluctuations, leading Wuornos to modify her statement for a specific underlying reason.
Aileen Wuorno’s Victims List
Aileen Wuornos earned the reputation as one of America’s first known female serial killers after a conviction for murdering seven men across Florida from December 1989 to November 1990. Her reported victims included Richard Mallory, David Spears, Charles Carskaddon, Peter Siems, Troy Burress, Charles Humprheys, and Walter Jeno Antonio.
Wournos had a troubled childhood and received a lot of abuse from her grandfather. Her father was a convicted rapist and child molester. Reports suggest she projected her harbored anger from childhood abuse by her grandfather onto her victims.
Almost two months after she killed Antonio, authorities arrested Wournos, and she agreed to confess in exchange for immunity. Later, she confessed that she had killed these men because they had either raped or attempted to rape her. Later, the convict altered her statement, citing a motive for the murders as robbery and a desire to leave no witnesses.
However, during an interview, Wournos, unaware of the cameras, confessed to filmmaker Nick Broomfield that she had acted in self-defense. She expressed her inability to tolerate being on death row, where she had spent the past ten years, and her desire for death.
The court sentenced Aileen Wuornos to death for six of the murders. On October 9, 2002, authorities executed her by lethal injection after she had spent more than 10 years on Florida’s death row.
