Aileen Wuornos: Unpacking the Story of the "Queen of Serial Killers"
The name Aileen Wuornos is synonymous with female serial killers in America. Dubbed the "Queen of Serial Killers" by the media during her sensational trial, Wuornos murdered seven men in Florida between 1989 and 1990 while working as a sex worker. Her case has become a true-crime legend, exploring complex themes of self-defense, a troubled upbringing, and how society perceives female violence.
Who Was Aileen Wuornos?
Born Aileen Carol Wuornos in Michigan in 1956, her early life was marked by extreme trauma and instability. Abandoned by her mother and with a father who died by suicide in prison after a child rape conviction, she and her brother were raised by allegedly abusive grandparents. By her teens, she was a ward of the state, dropped out of school, and became a hitchhiker and sex worker, a lifestyle during which she claimed to have been raped numerous times.
The Crimes and the "Self-Defense" Debate
Between November 1989 and November 1990, Wuornos shot and killed seven men she encountered as clients along central Florida highways. The victims were:
Richard Charles Mallory, 51
David Andrew Spears, 47
Charles Edmund Carskaddon, 40
Peter Abraham Siems, 65 (body never found)
Troy Eugene Burress, 50
Charles Richard "Dick" Humphreys, 56
Walter Gino Antonio, 61
During her trial, Wuornos insisted she acted in self-defense, claiming the men had raped or attempted to rape her. While prosecutors disputed this, it was later revealed that her first victim, Richard Mallory, had a prior conviction for attempted rape, adding a layer of ambiguity to her initial encounter with him.
Media Sensation and Legacy
Wuornos was a rarity: a female serial killer, which instantly captivated the media and public. She seemed to enjoy the spotlight, at one point whispering, "You guys are going to make millions off of this" during an interview.
She was convicted of six counts of first-degree murder and received six death sentences. After a decade on death row, she was executed by lethal injection on October 9, 2002, at the age of 46. Her life story has been revisited numerous times in film and television, most famously in the 2003 film Monster, which earned Charlize Theron an Academy Award, and a recent 2025 Netflix documentary, Aileen: Queen of the Serial Killers, which utilizes rare archival footage and interviews to explore the complex woman behind the sensational headlines.
Today, Aileen Wuornos remains a fascinating and disturbing figure in true crime history, forcing a difficult conversation about nature versus nurture and the societal failures that can contribute to such a violent path.