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Homeless at 14, feared at 35Seven dead men in one year – how did Aileen Wuornos become a serial killer?
Aileen Wuornos was one of the few known female serial killers (archive photo)
picture alliance / Everett Collection | ©Netflix/Courtesy Everett Collection
Even as a child she had no chance.
Mistreated, rejected and completely alone. An episode of the new documentary “Born To Kill – Born as a Murderer?”, which you can now watch on RTL+, tells the disturbing story of Aileen Wuornos, who would later become known as one of the most notorious serial killers in the USA. But how could it come to this?
A life full of rejection
When Aileen Wuornos learns that her supposed parents are actually her grandparents, her world collapses. Even before that, her childhood was marked by violence, fear and loneliness. She never gets to know her biological father; her mother abandons her two children at an early age. They grow up believing that their grandparents are their parents. Friends remember in the RTL+ documentary “Born To Kill – Born as a Murderer?” to a quiet girl who often sat alone in front of the classroom. While other children played, Aileen mostly kept to herself.
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Things are said to have been hardly better at home. Her grandfather is considered violent and alcoholic. The family is struggling with problems, and Aileen can hardly find support. She is said to have had a close bond with her brother Keith, but also an incestuous relationship. At just 14 years old, she lost her grandmother, the person with whom she had the closest bond. Shortly afterwards, her grandfather throws her out of the house.
From one day to the next, the teenager lives in the forest, sleeps in cars and tries to somehow survive. From an early age she sells her body to get money, food or cigarettes. At 15 she left school and moved across the country. Friends say Aileen was desperate for recognition. But the more she wanted to belong, the more she was excluded.
Great love becomes a turning point
After years on the streets, Aileen finally ends up in Florida. There she continues to make ends meet with odd jobs, prostitution and minor crimes. She repeatedly comes into conflict with the law.
Then in the mid-1980s she met the chambermaid Tyria Moore. The documentary describes their encounter as love at first sight. For the first time, Aileen seems to have found someone for whom she would do anything. But the relationship also brings new problems. Money becomes a constant topic. Aileen focuses her entire life on her partner and apparently tries everything not to lose her.
At the end of the 1980s, mysterious violent crimes increased in Florida. Dead men are found again and again. The crime scenes are far apart and the investigators are not initially looking for a single perpetrator. Only gradually did the authorities realize that the cases might be connected.
While the police frantically search for answers, no one suspects that the trail could lead to a woman. The investigation only really gains momentum when a crucial mistake is made.
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Perpetrator or a victim of her past?
After her arrest, Aileen Wuornos caused a stir with her statements. She claims the seven men raped her and that she acted in self-defense. A psychologist formulates a remarkable assessment in the documentary. He doesn't think Wuornos is fundamentally evil. Rather, it is the result of a life full of violence, neglect and hopelessness.
Years after her conviction, Aileen Wuornos seems to have come to terms with her life. After a decade on death row, she finally confesses to having murdered in cold blood. At the same time, she makes it clear that she no longer wants to live. On October 9, 2002, at the age of 46, she was executed by lethal injection.
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Despite her crimes, some people also remember the vulnerable side of the woman they once knew. In the documentary, her childhood friend Dawn not only talks about the shocking actions, but also about the good moments she experienced with Aileen. After her death, Dawn even scattered their ashes on her property in her hometown. “It belongs here and nowhere else.”
The case also became known worldwide through the film “Monster” (2003) with Charlize Theron. You can see how Aileen Wuornos is finally convicted and what role her great love Tyria Moore plays in the documentary “Born To Kill – Born as a Murderer?” on RTL+.
Sources used: own RTL research
