Aileen Wuornos Biography

Serial killer. Born Aileen Carol Wuornos on February 29, 1956 in Rochester, Michigan. Wuornos' childhood was a troubled one. She and her brother were raised by their grandmother after her father, a child molester and a psychopath, hanged himself in prison and her mother abandoned them in 1960.

After Wuornos got pregnant at 14 (claiming her brother as the father), she gave the baby up for adoption and left home to hitchhike across America working as a prostitute. She soon fell in love with a young waitress, Tyria Moore, and the couple stayed together for four years. Wuornos and Moore barely survived on Aileen's meager income from prostitution, a vocation that was all too frequently coupled with violence. She and Moore decided that she would have to rob her johns -- and then shoot them -- to make ends meet.

The corpse of Richard Mallory was found on December 13, 1989 in a wood near Daytona Beach; he had been shot three times. Six months later, another man was found shot six times with the same gun. Before the body could be identified, the third victim was found. Four other men were also found shot by November.

Police received four calls identifying the killers as Wuornos and Moore, and detectives arrested both women in January 1991. At Moore's request, Wuornos confessed to six of the killings, all allegedly performed in self-defense. After a lengthy trial, she was found guilty and sentenced to death. While on death row, Wuornos feverishly read the bible, created drawings, helped others with their appeals, and began writing about her life. But on October 9, 2002, her life was ended by lethal injection. She is considered America's first female serial killer.

Aileen Wuornos' story was turned into a Hollywood film titled Monster in 2004. Wuornos was played by Charlize Theron, who earned a Best Actress Oscar for the role.

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