The new Netflix docuseries Aileen: Queen of the Serial Killers, which premiered Thursday, reexamines the story of Aileen Wuornos, one of America’s most notorious female serial killers, more than two decades after her execution for killing at least six men in Florida between 1989 and 1990 while working as a sex worker.
What is ‘Aileen: Queen of the Serial Killers’ about?
Director Emily Turner said the docuseries aims to give viewers an intimate look at Wuornos’ life, her identity as a person and a woman, and the factors that led her to become a killer, according to Netflix’s Tudum. The film features new audio conversations, archival footage of Dateline reporting, and in-depth conversations Wuornos had while she was on death row, allowing people to make their own “conclusions” about her.
“She is so confusing and so complex, which runs so in the face of how we like women to be,” Turner told Tudum. “And something that felt really important to me was that we weren’t here to make an apology piece about what she’d done. I hope that people come to really different conclusions.”
Turner insisted that Aileen: Queen of the Serial Killers is not a typical serial killer documentary. Instead, it draws viewers into the investigation, allowing them to review raw footage, analyze witness reactions and unpack contradictions in real time.
“[We] wanted it to feel like you were watching the rushes of the story unfolding with the people who were on the inside,” Turner explained. “So when you’re seeing that police officer, he’s actually watching the stuff that you are watching, and those are his reactions [to things] he hasn’t seen in 30 years.”
Here’s everything to know about Wuornos, including her life, the killings that made her a serial killer, her relationship with her girlfriend, her death and her place in history.
Who was Aileen Wuornos?
Wuornos was born in 1956 in Michigan to parents Diane Wuornos and Leo Pittman. During the earlier stages of her childhood, she endured trauma, abandonment, abuse and sexual assault. Her parents had divorced before she was born, her father was sentenced to life in prison for kidnapping and raping a 7-year-old girl, and her mother left her when she was 4 years old to live with her grandparents, where she was allegedly physically and sexually abused, according to People and a 2005 article from the Journal of Forensic Sciences.
Wuornos was between 14 and 15 years old when she got pregnant and later gave birth to a baby boy that she was forced to give up for adoption, according to the Journal of Forensic Sciences. She eventually dropped out of school, turned to sex work and committed several criminal offenses, EBSCO reported.
She was arrested multiple times and charged with driving under the influence, disorderly conduct, assault, car theft and armed robbery, per the Journal of Forensic Sciences. During that time, Wuornos also experienced mental health issues through adolescence and early adulthood, and she attempted suicide several times from the ages of 14 and 22, according to People.
Who were the seven men Wuornos killed?
Wuornos began her killing spree in late 1989, with her first murder being 51-year-old Richard Mallory from Clearwater, Florida, whom she claimed had raped, beaten and sodomized her, according to her trial testimony, The Associated Press reported, according to People. Wuornos shot Mallory several times and twice in the lungs, killing him.
Over the next year, she killed six more men: David Spears, a 47-year-old construction worker in Winter Garden, Florida, who was shot six times and killed; Charles Carskaddon, a 40-year-old rodeo worker; Peter Siems, a 65-year-old retiree from Jupiter, Florida; Troy Burress, a 50-year-old sausage salesman from Ocala, Florida; Charles “Dick” Humphrey’s, 56-year-old former police chief and retired Air Force major; and Walter Antonio, a 62-year-old security guard. All of these men were found near highways, per People.
Wuornos’ arrest came on Jan. 9, 1991, after investigators linked her palm print and fingerprints to Siems’ vehicle. At the time, police used her girlfriend, Tyria Moore, to help them with the investigation. Wuornos confessed to killing all seven men but said she committed the crimes in self-defense, claiming that they either raped or tried to rape her, according to People.
Wuornos’ sentencing, death and legacy explained
She was charged with first-degree murder in the deaths of six men, according to People. Although she confessed to all seven, Wuornos was not charged with Siems’ death because his body could not be found. She was later convicted on six death sentences. More than a decade later, Wuornos died by lethan injection on Oct. 9, 2002.
“I’d just like to say I’m sailing with the Rock and I’ll be back like Independence Day with Jesus, June 6, like the movie, big mothership and all. I’ll be back,” Wuornos said as her last words before her death, according to People.
Since then, several docuseries and other projects have been created to tell different stories about Wuornos and her being a notorious female serial killer. According to Turner, the docuseries helps viewers to decide which side they would be on based on the facts that they already know about Wuornos, in addition to new ones they gained through the project.
“We want her to be either the hapless victim where society created her, and life just happened to her — or she’s this cold-blooded murderer. I don’t think either of them does her justice. She’s charismatic, and she’s a killer. … It’s just so much easier to be categorical,” Turner said. “But that’s not life, is it?”