Aileen Wuornos was a woman whose thoughts were undoubtedly nonsensical. For instance, she claimed the reason she killed seven men was so she and her girlfriend could stay together. Surprisingly, none of the men she killed had any connection to the couple and were not interfering in their relationship. Wuornos’ crimes caused quite a bit of stir in America due to there being no other female serial killer before her. All of her killings earned her the title “Damsel of Death.”
A Criminal Origin Story Like Many Others
Unfortunately, like many other serial killers, Wuornos had a childhood no one dreams of. Soon after her birth in Michigan, Aileen’s teenage mother divorced her years-older husband and abandoned Aileen and her older brother, Keith. The two were then legally adopted by their grandparents, whom they believed to be their actual parents for many years. Aileen’s birth parents were seldom in the picture due to her mother being shunned from the family/moving, and her father killing himself in prison after being convicted as a child sex offender.
Life with the Wuornos grandparents was reportedly traumatic. The grandmother was a heavy drinker who was, therefore, largely (mentally) absent most of the time. But she was nowhere near the worst in the household. Aileen’s Grandfather, Lauri, was a monster disguised as a man. When Aileen was young, he made her watch as he drowned a baby cat. Others who lived in the house considered him to be the “disciplinarian” of the house. Aileen claims that he physically and sexually abused her. It is also alleged that one of Lauri’s friends, whose consentless assault on Aileen resulted in pregnancy as a 14-year-old child.
School was not a reprieve from the battleground at her house. Aileen was isolated for various reasons. One reason was her “explosive temper” that she had shown since childhood. Another was because she would frequently trade sexual favors for cigarettes. Eventually, she would drop out of school and get kicked out of her grandparents’ house following the death of Aileen’s grandmother. Because of this, Aileen was forced to support herself and did so through sex work. Her life declined into further darkness, including drugs and crime.
Aileen Wuornos Meets her True Love
In the early summer of 1986, Wuornos met a woman named Tyria Moore in Florida. They seemed to immediately click, and their relationship continued for over four years. During this time, Aileen Wuornos continued her sex work along Florida highways while Tyria worked as a cleaning lady. Unfortunately, Wuornos was quite a possessive partner and did not like it when Tyria went to work or interacted with anyone but her. It may have been due to this that Wuornos began her killing spree.
For almost a year between 1989 and 1990, Wuornos killed and buried seven different men. Some victims were frequent consumers of Wuornos’s line of illicit work, while others seemingly had nothing to do with it, such as Charles Humphreys, who investigated child abuse. Aileen was not bashful or secretive about her kills and told Moore about at least one of them. In addition, Aileen frequently brought home ‘loot’, which were the previous possessions of the men she killed.
Aileen Wuornos’s spree did not last much longer as investigators matched her fingerprint on the car of her latest victim, Peter Siems. Tyria attempted to flee the state while the police arrested Wuoronos. Though they quickly caught Moore and offered a deal in exchange for Aileen’s confession. This was achieved through a phone call in which the murderer claimed that the reason she killed all those men was “she was desperately in love and wanted them to stay together,” according to Sara Kettler. Wuornos was later charged with the murder of six men (since Siem’s body could not be found) and sentenced to death.
Concluding Thoughts
Aileen Wuornos was a highly troubled woman. Born to a pedophilic father and an underage mother, her life was not set up for success. That, coupled with her adoptive grandparents’ issues, is no wonder that she started developing issues. Even though her grandmother’s alcoholism, grandfather’s wrath, and other factors do not excuse her behavior, it may help to explain why Wuornos became so twisted that she resorted to murdering people out of the “love” she had for her long-time partner.
