Aileen Wuornos: The Damsel of Death

By Gisela K.

Aileen Wuornos, known as “America’s First Female Serial Killer”, “The Damsel of Death”, “The Florida Highway Killer”, and “The Highway Hooker” has had movies, documentaries, books, songs, and even an opera made about her life. She was a victim and a villain all in one, the monster that everyone has had a soft spot for or sympathized with at some point, and the woman who would go down in history as the most callous female serial killer to have ever lived.

What set her apart from other female killers was the way in which she operated. She picked on strangers and murdered them with a .22-caliber pistol at point-blank range before robbing them and taking home wads of cash and shiny things to impress her lover, Tyria Moore with. Her frequent homelessness, hunger for unconditional love, and the defiant way that she faced every single day on the street with her thumb in the air is mesmerizingly sad; she had few alternatives to survive and genuinely seemed to try her best to find love and happiness, every grim step of the way in her short life.

Nonetheless, she was a serial killer with a criminal history who would do anything for love and anything to get her way, right until the end. While almost every person that she had ever encountered exploited her in one way or another, she too, manipulated and used people to meet her own needs, and discarded them when they no longer served her purposes.

Still, Bundy, Dahmer, Kemper, Ridgway, Rader, and many other serial killers that she was supposedly as evil as got a life sentence, something that was never an option for her. There are dark elements to her story, which include politics, corruption, betrayal, and the total exploitation of a new brand of serial killer. Her case was complex and her outcome, irrespective of everything that she did, felt wrong.

Let’s investigate!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Gisela K.
• Release date: May 17, 2021
• ISBN: 9781005243968

Gisela K.

Welcome to this True Crime series by Grizzly Books, where we will study the lives and minds of the world’s most prolific serial killers, including Jeffrey Dahmer, Ted Bundy, Richard Ramirez, Ed Kemper, Samuel Little, John Wayne Gacy, and many more.Each serial killer’s story is unique, and I look forward to discovering the details with you. The style of the series is in the classic cut-and-dry factual narrative that True Crime fans enjoy, leaving out distractions, opinions, and unnecessary embellishments. You can find me on anchor.fm/grizzly-books for Podcast discussions on each book!I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it!Gisela K.

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Aileen Wuornos: The Damsel of Death

A True Crime Case Study

The Serial Killer Series

Copyright © 2021 by Grizzly Books

Published by Grizzly Books

Cover Design by Raphael Eschmann

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under the copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in, or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without prior written permission from the publisher.

For permission requests, please contact: [e-mail]

While the author has made every effort to ensure that all content is as factual, accurate, and as up to date as possible, neither the publisher nor the author will be held responsible for any inaccuracies. Further, the publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for third-party websites or their content.

Warning: Graphic content only suitable for adults.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABOUT THE SERIES

A POEM ABOUT AILEEN WUORNOS

INTRODUCTION

PART 1: CASE FACTS

CAPTURE

TRIAL & SENTENCING

DEATH ROW

EXECUTION

MODUS OPERANDI

PART 2: VICTIMS

RICHARD MALLORY

DAVID SPEARS

CHARLES CARSKADDON

PETER SIEMS

TROY BURRESS

CHARLES HUMPHREYS

WALTER GINO ANTONIO

PART 3: FAMILY

MOTHER: DIANE WUORNOS

FATHER: LEO ARTHUR PITTMAN

GRANDMOTHER: AILEEN BRITTA WUORNOS

GRANDFATHER: LAURI JACOB WUORNOS

BROTHER: KEITH WUORNOS

UNCLE: BARRY WUORNOS

AUNT: LORI (WUORNOS) GRODY

SON: KEITH ARNOLD WUORNOS

PART 4: SIGNIFICANT PEOPLE IN AILEEN’S LIFE

LEWIS GRATZ FELL

TONI

TYRIA MOORE

DAWN BOTKINS

ARLENE PRALLE

STEVEN GLAZER

NICK BROOMFIELD

PART 5: PSYCHOLOGY

DIAGNOSES

CHILDHOOD

ADOLESCENCE

ADULTHOOD

PART 6: QUOTATIONS BY AILEEN WUORNOS

PART 7: MOVIES, DOCUMENTARIES, BOOKS & MUSIC

MUST-SEE MOVIES

MUST-SEE DOCUMENTARIES

NOTEWORTHY BOOKS

POETRY

SONGS THAT MENTION/REFERENCE AILEEN WUORNOS

PART 8: FAQ’S

PART 9: SOURCES

OTHER BOOKS YOU MIGHT LIKE IN THIS SERIES

ABOUT THE SERIES

Welcome to the Grizzly Books True Crime book series, where each serial killer featured will be meticulously studied and presented to you as a comprehensive book in a variety of formats (paperback, e-book, audiobook), as well as a podcast season. While there is an abundance of information available online about each subject, rarely is all the information available in one convenient location. This book series strives to offer you a tell-all, myth-busting, deep dive experience where you will learn as much information as one could possibly absorb about each case.

This is the fourth book in the series and follows John Wayne Gacy: The Killer Clown, Jeffrey Dahmer: The Milwaukee Monster, and Ted Bundy: The Campus Killer. Please note: This is not crime fiction, a novel, or a story with twists and turns. It is a structured work of facts for you to easily access distinct sections if and when you want to. All the links to the books, podcast, artwork, and more can be found at https://grizzly-books.com

There are many titles planned for the years ahead- follow Grizzly Books to stay up to date with all the new releases, special announcements, and other exciting projects.

I hope you enjoy reading this book as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Stay Safe,

Gisela K.

A POEM ABOUT AILEEN WUORNOS

SCUMBAGS, by Gisela K.

A somber beginning

A notorious end

Her life was not well spent.

Although, there were some good times:

The bowling alley, the mall, those times with her friends

The other kids in the Pits

Who gave her cigarettes

And gum. And got her on her way

To freedom.

She realized then what she was worth.

That all she needed was her thumb

Her willingness to please

And someone to love

If she had all of the above, she’d be set.

So, off she went to get it.

But not without a fight,

Seven men, six corpses

The crooked cops who set her up

Just her luck!

Society, the scum,

Just look at what everyone else has done!

Why would anyone put to death

A woman who acted in self-defense?

Unless

She didn’t.

INTRODUCTION

Aileen Wuornos was many things, but a monster was not one of them. She did not have the inherent evil that we typically see in serial killers, but make no mistake, she was a serial killer.

While many women have committed serial murder throughout history, Aileen was the first to be recognized by the FBI as America’s first female serial killer because she murdered complete strangers at a steady pace without any sign of stopping. Statistically, women had been known to murder only their partners, lovers, or people who were in their care, and were usually not motivated by sexual or psychological gratification like male killers were. But Aileen had always been one of the boys and would find herself ranked amongst the worst of them in America.

Dubbed The Damsel of Death, The Florida Highway Killer, and The Highway Hooker, she became a source of inspiration for several books, movies, songs, and other works of art, including an opera, and even motivated some feminists to confront the violence that women face every day, particularly in the sex industry. In January 2011, Phyllis Chesler, a feminist leader, wrote: As the so-called first female serial killer, you’ve made headlines, not for what has been done to you, but for what you’ve done. Your bullets shattered the silence about violence against prostituted women, about prostitutes fighting back, and about a prostitute’s revenge. No small feat. Rarely, if ever, has a serial killer been portrayed as both a villain and a hero at the same time and seldom have they been empathized with as much. Aileen had a tough life and was a deeply traumatized and dysfunctional person, but aren’t all serial killers? Perhaps the sincerest form of empathy that we all have for her was that on top of all her abuse and everything she got up to, she was also mostly homeless. When we think of 15-year-old Aileen standing on the side of the road after a night of sleeping in the snow, her frost-bitten thumb glistening in the morning light, hoping that someone would give her a ride so that she could sell herself for a warm shower or a small meal, we inevitably feel sorry for her. And if things had stayed that way, our pity would be valid. However, in this book you will learn that as much as she tried to portray herself as a reasonable, well-intended, victim of abuse with a softer, smaller voice than one might have initially imagined (based on how she conducted herself), Aileen was a felon with an expansive rap sheet, a violent temper, and an inflated ego, which she used to her advantage in every situation. She had physically assaulted several men, committed armed robbery, stolen cars, and possessions, and spent time in prison before she graduated as a serial killer in her criminal career. Her alcohol addiction, manipulative personality, and all the quick fixes that she had come up with to get cash in her hands as fast as possible ultimately led her to the execution chamber, where, still then, she threatened the world with the delusions that her mind had been holding onto as a coping mechanism. Perhaps the quality that many people can give her credit for, despite her terrible circumstances throughout her life, was her courage. Aileen was fiercely courageous, deeply determined, and had admirable resilience. In her letters, she wrote: I’m like a Marine, you can’t hurt me. If you hurt me, I can wipe it out of my mind and keep on truckin’.

While we have all at some point speculated about why she murdered, it seems most plausible that she wiped out anyone who challenged her worth or who withheld money- that is what set off her uncontrollable rage and left her beating, bruising, and eventually shooting those ‘scumbags’ (as she liked to say). When she realized that she had gotten away with it, gained the things she needed to make her girlfriend happy, and was, for once, not abandoned or neglected, she put that cycle on repeat and would never have stopped if she were not caught. Her crimes, while quite chaotic and disorganized, certainly had an element of premeditation, where she carefully chose isolated locations up to 100 miles apart to carry out her intentions, which was to rob and murder unsuspecting loners. Once they had been stripped of their cash, cars, and personal belongings, she either pawned the items off or gave it to her girlfriend, something that Bundy also liked to do with his trophies. In an interview, Aileen was asked if she felt remorse and if she would consider apologizing to the family members of her victims. In response, she said that she was sorry that her victims were all sexually defunct and deranged, that their families were not innocent, and that their sexual depravity is what got them killed. Much like Gacy, Aileen was a professional at shifting the blame.

The difference in her case compared to other prolific serial killers was that she got the maximum sentence without ever having the option of a life sentence- even Ted Bundy was given the option of a life sentence, as was Dahmer, Kemper, Ridgway, Rader, and many more. It was almost as if Aileen served as an example to other women for what would happen if they followed in her footsteps. Despite it all, she was an unforgettable ‘gal’ (she loved to say gal, royal, and to the max) who will forever garner sympathy from onlookers, even decades beyond her time on earth, where she trudged along the highways of the USA, thirsty for a Budweiser.

How did she become so famous and why did so many people want a little piece of the pie?

Let’s investigate!

PART 1: CASE FACTS

CAPTURE

Between November 1989 and November 1990, the police discovered the bodies of six men who had all been murdered in the same way: shot, seemingly robbed, and left in the dust of their stolen car in most cases. While a seventh victim’s body was never found, the crime scene was the same, with the addition of a smudgy palm print on the interior of the abandoned car and a few strands of blonde hair on the seat. There was clearly a pattern and suspicion grew that the murders were committed by a serial killer in the area. All victims were white, middle-aged men from low to middle-income backgrounds who were traveling alone on the highways in Florida. Never had it entered the investigator’s minds that the murders were committed by one woman by herself- at that point, they were toying with the idea of a killer couple, a female accomplice of a male serial killer, or a variety of crimes committed by various people that just seemed to fit a pattern.

That is until they scanned the palm print and fingerprints found in the car, which brought up the picture of a female with a criminal history, Miss Aileen Carol Lee Wuornos, a 5’4" (162cm), 137lb (62kg) woman who had frequent run-ins with the law in the years leading up to these crimes. She had previously been arrested for driving under the influence (DUI’s), disorderly conduct, armed robbery, forgery, theft, resisting arrest, and firing a .22 caliber pistol from a moving vehicle. The victims were all murdered with a .22 caliber pistol at point-blank range and their belongings were stolen and pawned off in the area. A search for some of the items resulted in the link that police needed to arrest her: the receipt for the items from victim Richard Mallory that she had sold still had her thumbprint on it, which matched the prints found at the crime scene and directly tied her to the murder. She had used several aliases, including ‘Susan Lynn Blahovec’, ‘Cammie Marsh Greene’, and ‘Lori Kristine Grody’. Witnesses who had spotted two women driving, crashing, and abandoning a 1988 Pontiac Sunbird were able to offer the police a physical description of them, one