By Mia Shea
Correspondent
“Aileen: Queen of the Serial Killers” follows the true story of Aileen Wuornos, a female serial killer who killed six men between the years of 1981 to 1990. Netflix released a documentary covering these murders from the point of view of Wuornos which began streaming on Oct. 30.
The documentary opens on a sunny day in August 1990 when the police found victims Troy Burress and Charles “Dick” Humphreys shot to death in the woods in various parts of Florida. Both were found separately, however the police knew they were correlated because the same bullets were used.
The first victim that was discovered was Richard Mallory in December 1989. The authorities were able to get leads on this case because some of Mallory’s belongings were found sold at a pawn shop.
Movie producer Jackie Giroux interviewed Wuornos herself where she shared that she was adopted by her very Catholic grandparents when she was a child. When she was 14 years old, she was raped by a friend of her grandfather and ended up pregnant and put the baby up for adoption immediately.
Wuornos discusses how after her grandmother passed away when she was a teen. She began getting involved with a troubled crowd and was on the road hitchhiking and running away for most of her teen life.
While on the run, she experienced great hardship and sexual abuse from various men that she encountered. In order to make money during this time, she worked as a prostitute, where she met her victims.
Each of Wuornos’ victims’ cars were left on the side of the road near the woods. All six of the victims were white, middle aged men. The police released a sketch of two women that they believed to be affiliated with these murders. One of the women had long blonde hair which was found at several of the crime scenes. The other woman had short, brown hair and was later found to be Wuornos’ lesbian lover, Tyria Moore.
Wuornos only confessed to the murders after Moore had asked her to. Wuornos takes full responsibility for the murders and claims that Moore was innocent.
During her trial, she is referred to as “a killer who robs” due to the nature of her crimes and how the victim’s various belongings were found in her possession or pawn shops. The media also frequently referred to her as the “Queen of the Serial Killers” because there was nobody else like a lesbian, prostitute luring men to their deaths.
In her time in prison, Wuornos claims to have found God. In her post-conviction hearing in July 2001, she shared that she knew being put to death would be the right thing to do because she knew she would kill again if she were free. Wuornos was sentenced to death on six counts of first degree murder.
She was executed on Oct. 9, 2002 at the Florida State Prison by lethal injection. Her death was the talk of the town and was celebrated by the community of people who cared for her victims.
In her last hours, it was reported that her demeanor was very calm but she was ready for her execution. In her one minute final statement, Wuornos shared that she would “be back with Jesus Christ like on Independence Day. On June 6, just like the movie. I’ll be back, I’ll be back.”
“Aileen: The Queen of Serial Killers” is now streaming on Netflix.
