Aileen Wuornos in Her Youth: Tracing the Life and Crimes of a Complex Figure

Aileen Wuornos is one of very few women serial killers. Her life began with sexual and physical abuse that most likely led this once innocent child on a sexually promiscuous path. Alone and abandoned, Aileen worked the streets of Florida, picking up middle aged white men. One by one, missing men were reported. They were later found dead, killed by the same gun. This gun belonged to Aileen. Aileen's method of killing wasn't gruesome, nor was it sick and twisted, though the same could not be said for Aileen. It is quite obvious that she was mentally unstable due to the faulty genetics passed down to her.

Though, mental instability was not the sole reason of her killing spree. Aileen Wuornos suffered a detrimental childhood that most likely lead to her descent into destruction. Aileen's susceptibility of this certain destruction stemmed from her mentally ill parents. Her biological father died before Aileen was even born. "Pittman was a psychopathic child molester who hanged himself in prison in 1969." (Macleod) This blood-related insanity definitely served as a precursor of Wuornos delicate mental state. Aileen's father wasn't the only parent who had a horrible background. Diane Wuornos, Aileen's mother, married Pittman at age 15, and gave birth to two children, Aileen and Keith, when she was just a teenager.

This early motherhood along with the eventual divorce of her husband led Diane to abandon Aileen and Keith, who later were adopted by their maternal grandparents. Though the treatment from her guardians didn't improve. "Childhood friends said that Wuornos' grandfather beat her and her grandmother was an alcoholic." (Capital Punishment) This mix of bad genetics and abuse led Aileen down a dark path. At just fourteen years old, she started to become very sexually promiscuous, trading sexual favors for money, beer and cigarettes. Though it wasn't Aileens promiscuous behavior that led to her pregnancy. "She had her only child at 14; neighbors claimed the father was an older adult friend of Wuornos' grandfather." (Capital Punishment)

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It is clear that Aileen was abused throughout all of her childhood. The terrible early life she lived definitely served as a reason for her crimes. Aileen's terrible circumstances of her childhood continued into her adult life. Even when she escaped from her horrible home, her troubled ways of living stuck with her. "Aileen, known to friends as Lee, dropped out of school, left home and took up hitchhiking and prostitution." (Dark Prosecutor) Aileen's failure to complete high school was not the only element that held her road to recovery hostage. Her brother died from lung cancer and her mother committed suicide after she ran away from home. (Capital Punishment)

Her life seemed to be taking a downward spiral until something unexpected happened. "Hitchhiking across America, Wuornos arrived in Florida and was presented with a potentially life-changing piece of luck: she met wealthy yacht club president, 69-year old Lewis Fell, who fell in love with her, and they were married in 1976." (Crime and Investigation) Though this glimpse of positivity didn't last too long. Aileen continued to display many destructive activities; she got into numerous bar fights and was sent to jail for assault. (Macleod) This proves that even when she had a good influence to watch over her, she did not have the ability to stabilize herself.

Their marriage ended about a month after he proposed. Again, she continued her forgery, prostitution, theft and even attempted to commit suicide. Amongst this self-destruction, she met Tyria Moore at a Daytona Gay Bar. "Together, Wuornos and Tyria Moore sold stolen items at Florida pawnshops." (Capital Punishment) Tyria Moore became her partner in crime and the love of her life. They worked off the livings of Aileen's prostitution business. Aileen's sex prowl turned into more than just a prostitution business. It became her way to scout her victims. It all started when Richard Mallory, a sex and alcohol crazed business owner, went missing. "When (Mallory) didn't show up to open his shop in early December 1989, no one thought much of it. There was no one close enough to him to notice he was gone.

It wasn't until his 1977 Cadillac was found a few days later outside Daytona that anyone knew anything was amiss." (Macleod) Eventually, two men looking for scrap metal came across the car, only to find a dead body wrapped in carpet runner. Though no one suspected Aileen just yet; the suspicion revolved around a stripper named Chasity. (Macleod) Proceeding the death of Mallory, six other men continued to appear naked and dead in several areas of Florida. All of Aileens victims were white middle aged men all shot with a 22-caliber pistol. (Crime and Investigation) It is very possible that her victims of choice might have been subliminally determined by the middle aged man who impregnated her at a young age.

The killings lasted for about a year until she was suspected and eventually caught for her crimes. "Items belonging to Mallory and Antonio were pawned near Daytona Beach and the alias names used were traced to Wuornos through thumbprints left on the pawn shop cards." Aileens sloppy and careless evidence led to her arrest in 1991. (Dark Prosecutor) Aileen was forced to come to terms with the crimes she had committed. Though, Aileen's behavior after the arrest attempted to withstand her guiltiness. "She was emphatic in her assertion that nothing was her fault, not the murders and not any circumstance that led her down the criminal path that was her life.

All the killings were done in self-defense, she claimed." (Macleod) She claimed that each of her victims attempted to rape her. Though, her self-defense claims soon fell apart as her story began to show many inconsistencies. She was often found changing and perfecting her story each time she told it. She also claimed that her girlfriend, Tyria Moore, had no part in the murders Aileen was suspected of. (Capital Punishment)

On January 14th, 1992, Aileen went on trial for the murder of Richard Mallory; about a week later she was convicted. "Wuornos was consistently in favour of execution as soon as possible, and was eventually granted permission to fire her appeal lawyers, by the Florida Supreme Court in April 2001, in order that her execution could proceed." (Crime and Investigation) Wuornos's desire to end her life was almost as powerful as the "fame" she was receiving. Her new defendant, Arlene Pralle, helped her receive that fame. "She arranged interviews for Wuornos with reporters she thought would be sympathetic, and in this forum Wuornos continued to tell and embellish her fantastic story." (Macleod)

Eventually, this chase for fame came to an end. Wuornos had a strong desire to end her life. Soon, that desire became reality. She was sentenced the death penalty on January 31st. She was executed with an electric chair. (Crime and Investigation) Aileen Wuornos suffered a horrible childhood that led to the deaths of seven men. With the lack of care from her mother, abuse from her father and grandfather, and the death of her brother, she was bound to get "off track." Her substance abuse and early age prostitution almost guaranteed a traumatizing life. Along with her detrimental early life, mental instability served as another reason for the murders. "Expert witnesses for the defense testified that Wuornos was mentally ill, that she suffered from borderline personality disorder, and that her tumultuous upbringing had stunted and ruined her." (Macleod) The resentment of her childhood was most likely taken out on the men she killed while her illness aided her to carry out those killings.

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