Who was ‘America’s first female serial killer’ Aileen Wuornos?
Known as America’s first female serial killer, Aileen Wuornos carried out a string of notorious and brutal murders along the dark highways of Florida in late 1989 and 1990.
A victim of child abuse herself, in adult life Wuornos was a petty criminal who worked as a sex worker.
It was during this work that she shot and killed six – possibly seven – men, typically dumping their bodies in remote wooded areas and stealing their possessions.
Wuornos claimed she killed her victims in self-defence when the men became violent towards her.
She was arrested in 1991 the following year, being handed six death sentences.
