However, prosecutors had a different perspective: they viewed her as a cold, calculating killer who enticed men, murdered them, and took their possessions.
By the time her trial commenced, she faced accusations of murdering seven men within a single year. The media dubbed her “America’s first female serial killer.”
She was Aileen Wuornos — the “Damsel of Death.”
A media spectacle
“Wuornos is a killer who robs, not a robber who kills. She certainly fits the profile of a serial killer,” stated chief investigator Steve Binegar in 1991.
Wuornos’ trial rapidly turned into a media spectacle. She insisted that each murder was a self-defense act against men who had attempted to harm her. However, the jury did not accept her claims. In January 1992, she was convicted and sentenced to death.
After receiving six death sentences upon her conviction, Wuornos declared in court: “I am as guilty as can be. I want the world to know I killed these men, as cold as ice. I’ve harbored hatred for humanity for a long time. I am a serial killer. I killed them in cold blood, real nasty.”
While waiting for her execution on death row at Broward Correctional Institution in Florida, she frequently expressed her frustration over the postponement of her fate.
“There’s no reason to spare me,” Wuornos stated in July 2001. “It’s just wasting taxpayers’ money. I killed those men, robbed them. And I’d do it again, without hesitation.
“There’s no possibility of keeping me alive or anything, because I would kill again. I have hate coursing through my veins.”
Final words
Wuornos’ execution was ultimately conducted through lethal injection on October 9, 2002. Before the sentence was executed, the 46-year-old uttered her last statement, which was:
Although her actions shocked the world, her sorrowful history still poses a chilling question: Was Aileen inherently a monster — or was she shaped into one?
