Add or change photo on IMDbPro. Exposed to sexual activities at a tender age, she began providing sexual favors in exchange for food, drugs, and cigarettes when she was just 11 years old. Mallory, who had been confined to a prison mental institution for ten years for a 1957 sexual assault in Maryland, picked Wuornos up along I-4 near Daytona Beach. By the end, they had become little more than hard-living traveling companions. She was born on leap day. Aileen's older brother, Keith, was born in 1955. Like"Independence Day" with Jesus, June 6, just like the movie, big mother ship and all. Having returned to high school, Wuornos dropped out after a few months. She used the money inherited from her brother to pay the fine and spent the rest within two months buying luxuries including a new car, which she wrecked shortly afterwards. Her mother, Diane Wuornos (born 1939), was 15 years old when she married Aileen's father, Leo Dale Pittman (died 1969), on June 3, 1954. He was diagnosed with schizophrenia, later convicted of sex crimes against children, and eventually hanged himself in prison on January 30, 1969, when she was just thirteen years old. While detained, Wuornos became adept at the game of pool. He administered a psychopathy test, according to his later case report, "The Role of Psychopathy and Sexuality in a Female Serial Killer." If she was able to elicit a confession from Wuornos, she would be given immunity for the crimes. Wuornos scored a 32/40 on the Hare Psychopathy Checklist. He wanted her to have the money so that she could stop hustling, but she wasnt so enthusiastic about it. [11], Wuornos never met her father, as he was incarcerated at the time of her birth. In 2003, Aileen Wuornos' story was told in the dramatic film "Monster," starring Charlize Theron. [17] She had also engaged in sexual activities with her brother. [82] The music video, featuring Gigi Gorgeous portraying Wuornos, was released on November 1, 2018. Wuornos was sexually active by eleven; she would sell sexual activities for cigarettes, drugs and food. From their first meeting, they were inseparable. Ive been evaluated so many times. Aileen Wuornos' next victim was David Spears, a 43-year-old construction worker (via Tampa Bay Times). But when the choice was put in Wuornos' hands, she insisted she knew what she was doing all along. He alleged that Wuornos had beaten him physically with his cane, prompting him to file a restraining order against her. She was penalized with six death sentences for the murders that she had committed. With Pittman away, Diane, already pregnant with Aileen, filed for divorce. However, by 1960, she grew tired. She was also a suspect in the theft case of a missing revolver. Food poisonings and other abuses worsened, she said, each time she complained, with the goal of making her appear insane, or to drive her insane. After several rebuffed attempts at rejoining her family, Diane Wuornos would remarry and have two more children. Aileen herself reportedly made this claim, but the interviewer pointed out that this was a pure case of weaving in lies with some fact. Less than two years later, and two months before Aileen was born, Diane filed for divorce. She took him and his younger sister back to stay with their grandparents and abandoned them there. It was later ascertained that the body belonged to a rodeo worker named Charles Carskaddon. I'll be back. [14] Between the ages of 14 and 22, she attempted suicide six times. I think she had a lot of awful encounters on the roads. After all, its hard to believe that she loved the old man she married, and her troubled history as a prostitute made her hate just about every man on the planet. I have hate crawling through my systemI am so sick of hearing this shes crazy stuff. [39] Police also found some of the victims' belongings in pawnshops. When Wuornos was 15, her grandfather threw her out of the house, and she began supporting herself through prostitution and living in the woods near her old home. They thus spent much of their formative years living with their grandparents. Keith Wuornos (born 14th of March 1955; died: 17th of July 1976) was an American man infamous as the elder brother of Aileen Wuornos, the notorious female serial killer who murdered about seven men between 1989 and 1990. Diane Wuornos: Leo Dale Pittman was born on March 16, 1936, in Detroit, Wayne County, Michigan United States to his parents Arthur Steward Briggs and Ellen L. Briggs-Westfall (Pittman). Diane Wuornos was just at the age of 14 years old when she married 18-year-old Leo Dale Pittman, on June 3, 1954, in Indiana according to her daughters Wikipedia. Other Works Her mother abandoned her at the age of 4, 6. Just 3 days later, on July 17, her brother Keith died of esophageal cancer and she received a huge check (at that time) of $10,000 from his life insurance policy. She was raised in a dysfunctional family. By the age of 11, Wuornos began engaging in sexual activities in school in exchange for cigarettes, drugs, and food. She became a teenage mother but her son was adopted, 8. Her troubled childhood and subsequent teenage years couldnt simply be erased. [25] In August 1976, Wuornos was given a $105 fine for drunk driving. In her final interview, she stated that the police had allowed her to kill to "turn [her] into a serial killer" and that she was being tortured with "sonic waves." [4] In 19891990, while engaging in street prostitution along highways in Florida, she shot dead and robbed seven of her male clients. She was born to Diane Wuornos and Leo Dale Pittman. She was later charged with failure to appear. Just weeks after they got married, she caused trouble and beat Fell with his own cane, resulting in him acquiring a restraining order against her. In truth, Aileen and her brother Keith were the children of Lauri and Britta's daughter Diane. Miami police officers found a .38-caliber revolver and a box of ammunition in the stolen car. The product of a highly dysfunctional marriage, Aileen was subjected to horrific tortures as a young girl. She also developed sexual relations with her brother. After discussing price, Mallory and Wuornos drove to a secluded, wooded area. His wife, Britta, was a loving mother to children Lori and Barry Wuornes, who would later romanticize their childhoods as idyllic. As such, before his death, he named her as the sole beneficiary of his $10,000 life insurance check. Thrown out of her grandparents home as a teenager, she began eking out a living as a prostitute. Samples of interviews with Wuornos feature prominently throughout Dragged into Sunlight's 2009 album Hatred for Mankind, and Lingua Ignota's 2017 album All Bitches Die at the beginning of the songs "For I Am the Light (and Mine is the Only Way)" and "Holy is the Name (Of My Ruthless Axe)". [30] They moved in together, and Wuornos supported them with her earnings as a prostitute. [77], In 2015, Lily Rabe portrayed a fictionalized version of Wuornos as part of a Halloween storyline in American Horror Story: Hotel in the fourth episode of the show's fifth season, and later in the season finale. Moore had her suspicions, but they were too horrible to contemplate. As documented by filmmaker Nick Broomfield, Tyria Moore, the arresting police officers, her lawyer, and Arleen Pralle, a self-proclaimed born again Christian who "adopted" Wuornos in prison, had attempted to sell her story to Hollywood or otherwise make a quick buck on their association with the case. Homeless, she turned to illegal sex work and theft to support herself. Her father died in prison after being charged with child molestation ( Arrigo & Griffin, 2004 ). Although she was given to flights of paranoid thinking, she was correct on this point. It has, however, been claimed that Keith Wuornos was engaged in an incestuous relationship with his sister. That was her way of surviving. Theron's spot-on portrayal of Wuornos garnered her the 2004 Academy Award for Best Actress. As detailed in "Lethal Intent," by Sue Russell, Wuornos spent the first decade of her life believing that her grandparents, Lauri and Britta Wuornos, were her birth parents. [2][16] This sexual abuse resulted in the fact that Aileen was sexually mature at a very young age, and figured out to use this for her benefit while entering high school. "After that, she always said, 'All men are out to use women,'" Wuornos' sister Lori Wuornos Grody told the press at the time of her murder trial. Labeled "America's first female serial killer" by a press motivated by sensationalism and exploitation, Wuornos was unique in the annals of crime. Aileen would also claim and later deny that her grandfather sexually abused her. We and our partners use data for Personalised ads and content, ad and content measurement, audience insights and product development. Moore agreed to elicit a confession from Wuornos in exchange for immunity from prosecution. Keith Wuornos died at the age of 21. In 1974, she was arrested for driving under the influence, disorderly conduct, and firing a .22-caliber pistol from a moving vehicle. Once Aileen was arrested for murder, he threw water on her defense narrative, which claimed she suffered abuse at the hands of her adopted father. Her parents divorced and her mother deserted her together with her brother Keith soon afterward. The poem "Sugar Zero" by Rima Banerji (appears in the 2005, The poem "Aileen Wuornos" by Doron Braunshtein (appears in his 2011, This page was last edited on 25 February 2023, at 17:44. Lauri and Britta Wuornos soon adopted Aileen and Keith and rarely spoke of Diane, considering her the family's shame. Keith and his sister had to grow up without many of their needs being met. [1] Her last words were, "Yes, I would just like to say I'm sailing with the rock, and I'll be back, like Independence Day, with Jesus. After an arrest, Fell had enough of her behavior. She would get into a screaming black temper about it. They divorced a few months before Aileen was born after only two years of marriage (Manners, 121.) [40] Wuornos had a criminal record in Florida, and samples of her prints were in a database. But thats not all, he was also a convicted child abuser who was sent to prison and ended up hanging himself in his cell on January 30, 1969. Although previous convictions are normally inadmissible in criminal trials, under Florida's Williams Rule, the prosecution was allowed to introduce evidence related to her other crimes to show a pattern of illegal activity. Both of them were severe alcoholics, proven by the fact that her grandmother drank herself to death and died of liver failure just 10 years after she adopted Aileen. Its hard to judge whether or not she was a born psychopath or she became one due to the extremely harsh conditions during her youth. Famed FBI profiler Robert K. Ressler, the man credited with coining the term "serial killer" as well as establishing the patterns found in serial murder, described Wuornos as an anomaly in his extensive research. To say that her parents werent ready to become a parent is an understatement. Whichever it was, all this dysfunctionality played a significant part in the person Aileen eventually became. And I'd do it again, too. [14] Using the Psychopathy Checklist, Wuornos was found to have a psychopathic personality with a PCL-R score of 32[14] with the cutoff score for psychopathy being 30 in the United States. She was sentenced to prison on May 1982, and got released on June 1983. Aileen Wuornos led a tortured, torturing life that is beyond my worst nightmares. Entitled Wuornos, the opera was written by composer/librettist Carla Lucero, conducted by Mary Chun, and produced by the Jon Sims Center for the Performing Arts.[79]. What makes it worse is that Aileen wasnt their first child as her mother gave birth to her brother Keith 2 years earlier in 1954. [56], Wuornos's execution by lethal injection took place on October 9, 2002. At any rate, an annulment soon followed, but Fell should consider himself lucky that it didn't escalate. Kester, Lisa; Gottlieb, Daphne (eds.). In 1986, she met Tyria Moore, a lesbian who Aileen claimed was the love of her life. [27] On June 2, 1986, Volusia County deputy sheriffs detained Wuornos for questioning after a male companion accused her of pulling a gun in his car and demanding $200. She was the tenth woman in the U.S. to be executed since the re-introduction of the death penalty in 1976, and the second woman in Florida to be executed. Her mother Diane Wuornos, married Pittman when she was just 15. [46], Assessed using the Psychopathy Checklist, Wuornos scored 32/40[14][47] with the cutoff score of 30 for determining psychopathy. WebAileen was born on February 29, 1956 in Rochester Michigan. The third body was severely decomposed and could not be identified immediately. For Pralle, the allegations against Wuornos were beside the point; she believed that Wuornos needed an ally. Rhonda Bailey, who witnessed the accident, provided police with a description of two women,[38] resulting in a media campaign to locate them. Another body was discovered within days of finding Spears body. That year, she was charged with car theft, providing false identification, resisting arrest, and threatening a male companion with a gun. Soon after, Volusia County policetraced items belonging to murder victim Richard Mallory to a Central Florida pawn shop. Keith Wuornos was born on the 14th of March 1955 in Rochester, Michigan. June 6, like the movie. Nevertheless, at some point in their three-year relationship, the couple had exhausted any remaining spark of romance. Keith Wuornos spent much of his formative years in Michigan. At her sentencing, psychiatrists for the defense testified that Wuornos was mentally unstable and diagnosed her with borderline personality disorder and antisocial personality disorder. [12] Leo Dale Pittman was diagnosed with schizophrenia. As documented in Michael Reynolds' "Dead Ends," Moore was a regular at the Zodiac. The marriage was annulled on July 21, 1976, the very same year, and she returned to Michigan. [26] On May 1, 1984, Wuornos was arrested for attempting to pass forged checks at a bank in Key West. It's very odd to think of the places my music can go once it leaves my hands. [31] On July 4, 1987, Daytona Beach police detained Wuornos and Moore at a bar for questioning regarding an incident in which they were accused of assault and battery with a beer bottle. Theron won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in the film.[6]. Vice notes that Wuornos is the subject of news articles, tabloid TV programs, books, documentaries, and a made-for-TV movie. "Earthly words cannot describe how I felt about Tyria." Wuornos never met her father, Leo Pittman. Aileen grew up in a WebAileen Carol Wuornos was a serial killer who had killed seven men. Society, and the cops, and the system! He left for basic training in 1955. The young man had battled cancer bravely for several months, during which he was hospitalized at places such as the Ann Arbor Medical Center and the Lettermans Army and Medical Center. Aileen aka Lee was born on February 29, 1956, into a poor family. Aileen suffered frequent beatings from her grandfather. She was raped and became pregnant when she was just 14she claimed that her brother was the father of her child. [1][2] In January 1960, when Wuornos was almost four years old, Diane abandoned her children, leaving them with their maternal grandparents, Lauri and Britta Wuornos, both alcoholics,[15] who legally adopted Keith and Aileen on March 18, 1960. And finally exploded. That crime landed her in a Florida prison for a year. [61] The damage was then made worse because both Wuornos and her brother believed that their grandparents were their biological parents, but at the age of 11 they learned that this was not the case, which further damaged the relationship between Wuornos and her adoptive parents. Pittman was also a petty thief who graduated to more serious crimes. She claimed the men had tried to rape her and she killed them in self-defense. The pregnancy had embittered an already volatile teenager. 1976 United States Supreme Court decision, Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer, Aileen Wuornos: The Selling of a Serial Killer, List of people executed in the United States in 2002, List of serial killers by number of victims, List of serial killers in the United States, List of women executed in the United States since 1976, "Charlize Theron 2004: Oscars Red Carpet Fashion Through the Years", "The world's first female serial killer, Aileen Wuornos of the US", "Suspect in serial killings has long, troubled past", "The Role of Psychopathy and Sexuality in a Female Serial Killer", "The Phenomenon of Serial Murders and Women", University of North Carolina at Charlotte, "Notorious Crime Profiles Aileen Wuornos", "A Look At Aileen Wuornos' Tragic Love Affair", "The True Story Of Serial Killer Aileen Wuornos", "Aileen Wuornos Was Terrifying, But Fascinating", "Wuornos v. the State of Florida, 676 So. Wuornos then drove Mallory's car home. Just a week after being arrested, and after several phone calls with her girlfriend, Aileen confessed to all murders on January 16, 1991, claiming she had killed all men in self-defense as they attempted to rape her. [45] Records obtained from the correctional institution showed that from 1958 to 1962, Mallory was committed for treatment and observation resulting from a criminal charge of assault with intent to rape and received an overall eight years of treatment from the facility. The prosecution constructed a portrait of a calculating, man-hating killer who, under the guise of being distressed and stranded, lured seven innocent men to their deaths. As detailed in "Dead Ends," investigators from Florida located Moore in Scranton, Pennsylvania. We and our partners use cookies to Store and/or access information on a device. Then, tragedy struck as the alcohol finally got the better of her grandmother and she passed away the same year, resulting in Aileen being kicked out of the house at the age of 15. However, life for Aileen and Keith Wuornes in their grandparents' home was anything but ideal. [53] In her final interview, she once again charged that her mind was "tortured" at BCI, and her head crushed by "sonic pressure". Wuornos' defense made efforts during the trial to introduce evidence that Mallory was previously convicted for attempted rape in Maryland and served a sentence in a maximum security correctional facility providing remediation to sexual offenders. It wasn't until I was told that Aileen spent many hours listening to my album Tigerlily while on death row and requested "Carnival" be played at her funeral that I gave permission for the use of the song. She adopted a life of crime from an early age. Wuornos scored a 32. A native of Cadiz, Ohio, Moore had fled her small, conservative hometown in search of more gay-friendly environs in Florida at 26. An outcast among her peers, Aileen was trading sex for pocket change and cigarettes by age 12. Many of his relatives abandoned him during this period, except his younger sister, Aileen. She later started robbing and killing men, earning the notoriety of being the first female American serial killer. The horror-thriller film Aileen Wuornos: American Boogeywoman was released as Video-on-demand on October 8, 2021, and on DVD on October 15, 2021. Keith was her biological brother, son of Diane Wuornos, and like Aileen, he was adopted by their grandparents once their parents were out of the picture, details Sue Russell's "Lethal Intent." WebWuornoss father, Leo Dale Pittman, was a child molester and a sociopath who was strangled in prison in 1969. He was in jail for [9] After less than two years of marriage, and two months before Aileen was born, Diane filed for divorce. Finally, in November 1990, Moore told Wuornos she was leaving Florida to see her family in Ohio. Moore was listed as a witness to the incident. Writing in 1992, he said he often does not discuss female serial killers because they tend to kill in sprees instead of in a sequential fashion. Wasnt A Good Idea, Top 10 Despicable Facts about Luis Garavito, 12 Evil Facts About Son of Sam David Berkowitz, 12 Mysterious Facts About Clementine Barnabet. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. She became pregnant when she was 14, and was moved to a home for unwed mothers; her baby was given up for adoption. "[55] Dawn Botkins, a childhood friend of Wuornos, later told Broomfield that her verbal abuse was directed at society and the media in general, not at him specifically. [14], Much of Wuornos' childhood sexual abuse and career in sex work are said to have irrevocably damaged her,[61] and it could be seen that traumatic experiences throughout most of her young life could play a part in Wuornos's psychological state, including her biological mother's departure as well as her grandmother ignoring the abuse she endured from her grandfather, thus leading to the lack of development of a motherdaughter bond for Wuornos as a young girl. Her mother abandoned Aileen and her brother who were adopted by her maternal grandparents. Moore returned with the police to Florida, where she was put up in a motel. | Using an outstanding warrant for an earlier Colorado weapons charge, the police were forced to keep any mention of murder charges under wraps until they could find Tyria Moore. Aileen Wuornos murdered 7 men within a year, 13. She died in 2002. This concludes the ultimate list of Aileen Wuornos facts. Her girlfriend helped the police to make her confess, 16. "[54] Her final on-camera words were "Thanks a lot, society, for railroading my ass. [14] Such severe trauma can also disrupt the structuralization of the mind at various developmental points and result in "primitive, dissociative, and splitting defenses to ward off the intensity of emotional and sexual stimulation that cannot be integrated as a child. Carskaddon, described in "Lethal Intent" as the kind of man who wouldn't hesitate to help a stranded motorist, ran afoul of Wuornos on his way to pick up his fiance. Manage Settings Pittman, bent on controlling his young wife's life, forbade Diane from leaving home while he worked a variety of jobs, ranging from gardening to making chrome car bumpers. She visited him multiple times during this period. Diane was afraid of Pittman and with good reason. It would be Moore's testimony in exchange for immunity from prosecution that would send Aileen Wuornos to the death chamber. The TV movie Overkill: The Aileen Wuornos Story (1992) starred Jean Smart as Wuornos. On January 14, 1991, Wuornos phoned Moore from jail. After years of living as a transient and supporting herself as a teenager, Aileen Wuornos decided to marry rich and in 1976, she settled for a 69-year-old Floridian Lewis Fell, a wealthy retired businessman living near Daytona Beach. "[51] While her attorneys argued that she was not mentally competent to make such a request, Wuornos insisted that she knew what she was doing, and a court-appointed panel of psychiatrists agreed. The consent submitted will only be used for data processing originating from this website. By the age of 18, Aileen Wuornos had graduated from truancy, petty theft, and shoplifting to burglary and more serious crimes with greater consequences. Two children were produced during their marriage; Keith was born in 1955 and Aileens mother Diane Wuornos was fifteen when she married Leo Pittman in 1954. Wuornos, Aileen; Berry-Dee, Christopher (2004). Her execution took place on October 9, 2002. According to their description, the police suspected one of the women to be Aileen Wuornos. She was devastated by the level of his suffering and pressured his doctors to come clean about his actual fate. Using the alias Sandra Beatrice Kretsch, Wuornos was charged with disorderly conduct, driving under the influence, and, in a bit of ominous foreshadowing, firing a .22-caliber pistol from the window of a moving vehicle. While not the first, she was one of only a few female serial killers who used a gun as their weapon. Despite this love and unquenchable support, Keith later died at the age of 21. During her education she had academic, social or discipline problems. Aileens older brother Keith was born in February of 1955. June 6, like the movie. Wuornos continually involved herself in confrontations at their local bar and went to jail briefly for assault. Her mother, Diane Wuornos, was sixteen when she had her. Her grandfather was a pedophile and sexually abused the girl from a young age. Although never positively identified, it has been alleged that the father was a friend of Lauri Wuornos. After her execution, she was cremated with her bible and her ashes were taken to her native Michigan and spread around a tree by her friend, Shared birthday with fellow serial killer. Her parents married at a very young She was sentenced to prison on May 4, 1982, and released on June 30, 1983. Expelled from the family home, Aileengave birth in a home for unwed mothers in Detroit, and the child was put up for adoption. Although she recanted and reaffirmed her self-defense plea several times, Mallory's past has left lingering doubts about the motive behind Wuornos' first murder. When it comes to the most cold-blooded female serial killer in history, the results answered some questions and filled in some holes. [84][83] In 2020, rapper Sadistik released the song "Aileen Wuornos", dedicated to the serial killer, on his Delirium EP.[85]. His mothers name is Diane Wuornos, while his father was the late Leo Dale Pittman. In the spring of 1986, Wuornos at last found the love she had spent a lifetime looking for when she met Tyria Jolene Moore at the Zodiac Bar in South Daytona. Her mother and father abused alcohol and/or drugs. Several musicians have written songs about Wuornos, including Jewel ("Nicotine Love"), the New York-based metalcore band It Dies Today ("Sixth of June"), and Pablo Hasl ("Inditas por culpa de Aileen Wuornos"). When Aileen was two, Diane Wuornos abandoned her children, leaving them in the care of friends. Who is Jose Stemkens? The family conducted a funeral for him, which saw several of their relatives, including their biological mother, in attendance. When Aileen was just 4 years old, her mother had enough of raising her two children and she dropped them both off at her grandparents house. It was apparent that they were dealing with a serial killer or pair of serial killers, and, to their shock, they were likely women. WebDiane Wuornos was born on 12 August 1939 in Detroit, Michigan, USA. In all, Wuornos received six death sentences. Diane abandoned Wuornos and her brother, Keith, when Wuornos was only 4 years old. Wuornos's father, Dale Pittman, was in prison when she was born, having been convicted of sex crimes against children. EDT. You have to kill Aileen Wuornos, because she'll kill again, View agent, publicist, legal and company contact details on IMDbPro. To give some reference to this number, somebody is considered to be a psychopath with a score of 25 in the United Kingdom and 30 in the United States. All the men were drivers between the ages of 40 to 65. After relieving Mallory of his ID and cash, she covered his lifeless body with a discarded piece of red carpet. This means that the two teenagers had two children at a very young age. Wuornos claimed that her clients had either raped or attempted to rape her, and that all of the homicides were committed in self-defense. For decades, the gruesome crimes of such repeat killers as Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy, and David Berkowitz seemed to establish a basic profile of the serial killer as white, often motivated by sexual dysfunction, and exclusively male. Although never positively identified, it has been alleged that the father was a friend of Lauri Wuornos. She is widely believed to be the United States first female serial killer. One of the most tragic Aileen Wuornos facts is that she literally became homeless and a full-time prostitute in this period! This is the horrifying, true story of Aileen Wuornos. A convicted sex offender, he committed suicide in prison. Aileen was raised solely by her mother, Diane, who gave birth to Aileen when she was only 17.