At first glance, she looked like any other little girl \u2014 bright eyes, blonde hair, a shy smile.<\/p>\n
But behind that innocent face was a childhood filled with pain, neglect, and secrets dark enough to twist anyone\u2019s soul.<\/p>\n
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Her mother disappeared
\nBorn in 1956 in a quiet Michigan town, her life began with chaos. When she was just four years old, her 20-year-old mother packed up and disappeared, leaving her and her brother behind.<\/p>\n
The mother later said that it was probably \u201cthe biggest mistake\u201d she have ever made in her life.<\/p>\n
Almost at the same time, her 23-year-old father, already behind bars for the kidnapping and assault of a young girl, took his own life in prison.<\/p>\n
From that moment, the children were left in the care of their grandparents. But instead of safety, their new home became another nightmare.<\/p>\n
Her grandmother struggled with alcoholism, and her grandfather was said to be violent, even predatory.<\/p>\n
\u201dI should have . . . adopted them to strangers. We, in our family, suffered a form of child abuse. My father was verbally abusive. My mother was verbally abusive, and we were always told we were no good,\u201d the girl\u2019s mother later told The Tampa Bay Times.<\/p>\n
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Table of Contents
\nBecame wards of the state
\n\u201cDamsel of Death\u201d
\nA media circus
\nLast words
\nBecame wards of the state
\nBy the age of 13, she was pregnant after being assaulted. Some even whispered that her own brother might have been the father. But according to many others, she was allegedly assaulted by a friend of her grandfather.<\/p>\n
Family members later told The Tampa Bay Times that no one believed her at the time. No police report was ever filed.<\/p>\n
She gave the baby up for adoption, hoping to give him a better life than the one she\u2019d been handed.<\/p>\n
Soon after, tragedy struck again. Her grandmother passed away, and it was a tough blow for her. She described her as a \u201creally clean and decent\u201d woman who didn\u2019t drink or swear. Soon after hat, her grandfather took his own life.<\/p>\n
She and her brother, Keith, became wards of the state. By age 11, she began engaging in sexual activity at school in exchange for cigarettes, drugs, and food. Alone and desperate, the teenage girl then dropped out of school and began living on the streets, surviving through petty crime and prostitution.<\/p>\n
Over the next decade, she racked up arrests for theft, assault, and disorderly conduct \u2014 the kind of rap sheet that seemed to grow longer with each passing year.<\/p>\n
By her mid-20s, she had drifted to Florida, a state that would soon learn her name in the worst possible way. In 1989, a man\u2019s body was found deep in the woods near Daytona Beach, shot multiple times. Two weeks later, police linked the murder to a woman who had recently been seen hitchhiking nearby.<\/p>\n
When they found her, she confessed, not just to one killing, but to several. One after another, men across central Florida were turning up dead.<\/p>\n
She claimed she was defending herself and that every man had tried to assault her, that she\u2019d been fighting for her life.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not a man-hater,\u201d she told the Orlando Sentinel in March 1991. \u201cI\u2019ve been through so many traumatic experiences that either I\u2019m walking in shock or I\u2019m so used to being treated like dirt that I guess it\u2019s become a way of life.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\u201cDamsel of Death\u201d
\nBut prosecutors saw something different: a cold, calculating murderer who lured men in, killed them, and stole their belongings.<\/p>\n
By the time her case went to trial, she was accused of killing seven men in just one year. The press called her \u201cAmerica\u2019s first female serial killer.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her name has become infamous ever since, her story retold in books, documentaries, and even Hollywood films.<\/p>\n
She was Aileen Wuornos \u2014 the \u201cDamsel of Death.<\/p>\n
A media circus
\n\u201cWuornos is a killer who robs, not a robber who kills. She indeed appears to be very much a serial killer,\u201d said chief investigator Steve Binegar in 1991.<\/p>\n
Wuornos\u2019 trial quickly became a media circus. She maintained that every killing was an act of self-defense against men who had tried to harm her. But the jury didn\u2019t believe her. In January 1992, she was found guilty and sentenced to death.<\/p>\n
Having been handed six death sentences upon being found guilty, Wuornos said in court: \u201cI am as guilty as can be. I want the world to know I killed these men, as cold as ice. I\u2019ve hated humans for a long time. I am a serial killer. I killed them in cold blood, real nasty.\u201d<\/p>\n
Confined to death row at Broward Correctional Institution in Florida while she awaited her execution, she regularly complained about the decision to delay her fate.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is no point in sparing me,\u201d Wuornos said in July 2001. \u201cIt\u2019s a waste of taxpayers\u2019 money. I killed those men, robbed them. And I\u2019d do it again, too.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s no chance in keeping me alive or anything, because I\u2019d kill again. I have hate crawling through my system.\u201d<\/p>\n
Last words
\nWuornos\u2019 execution was eventually carried out via lethal injection on October 9, 2002. Prior to the sentence being carried out, the 46-year-old muttered her final statement, which was as follows:<\/p>\n
\u201cI would just like to say I\u2019m sailing with the rock, and I\u2019ll be back, like Independence Day, with Jesus. June 6, like the movie. Big mother ship and all, I\u2019ll be back, I\u2019ll be back.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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