I'm one who seriously hates human life and would kill again -Aileen Wournos
Of the more than 2,500 hundred individuals classified as serial killers, only 7.5 percent are female [1]. Aileen Wuornos, who was the subject of the 2004 hit movie, Monster, is widely believed to be the United States’ first serial killer and is arguably one of the most infamous women in this small group. The following takes a look at her life, which began on Leap Day, 1956 and ended at the time of her execution on October 9, 2002 at Florida State Prison.
The Early Years
Born Aileen Carol Pittman, Aileen was born into a dysfunctional family completely devoid of normal family relationships. Her father, Leo Pittman, was a convicted molester who committed suicide and is usually referred to as a psychopath, while her teenage mother, Diane Wuornos, abandoned Aileen and her brother by the time she was 4. The pair was adopted by their maternal grandparents, which likely started her on the path to serial killer. Sexually and physically abused from a young age by her pedophile grandfather, Aileen, developed a sexual relationship with her brother and began engaging in sex for food and drugs by the time she was nine. When she became pregnant at 14 with a baby, who according to some reports was fathered by her brother, she opted to put the baby up for adoption. At 15, her alcoholic grandmother died and her grandfather threw her out.
Living as a Teen on the Streets of Rochester, Michigan
Although she was made a ward of the state, Aileen quickly ran away and began living in the woods near the home she has been forced out of. For money and to support a growing drug habit, she turned to prostitution before she started hitchhiking across the United States. Before she was 20 years old, she had been arrested numerous times for everything from firing a weapon from a vehicle to DUI, assault, and disturbing the peace, which stemmed from an attack on a bartender.
Marrying a Wealthy Yacht Club President
By 1976, Aileen had managed to hitchhike all the way from Michigan to Florida, where she met 69-year old Lewis Fell, who almost immediately fell in love with and married her during the same year. While she could have used this as an opportunity to completely change the direction of her life, she, instead, brought chaos to his high society lifestyle. After just a few months, Lewis had the marriage annulled. Before the year was out, she had lost her brother to throat cancer, inherited a $10,000 insurance policy, which she blew through, and continued down her self-destructive path.
Building Up to the Murders
From 1977 to 1986, Aileen wandered aimlessly around the state of Florida, primarily living off money she made as a prostitute or stole. During this time, she was arrested for several offenses, including forgery, theft, assault, and armed robbery, which resulted in her incarceration for slightly more than a year.
In 1986, Aileen met Tyria Moore who she soon started a lesbian relationship with and was supporting with the money she earned prostituting. Their relationship, which is most often described as intense and volatile, lasted just over four years, though it didn’t end until Aileen had started her murder spree.
The Murders
In December 1989, the naked body of 51 year-old Richard Mallory, a convicted rapist, was found along I-95 in Volusia County, FL. He had been shot three times with .22 caliber pistol. Police made very little progress trying to identify his killer before a second body was found in Citrus County, FL in June 1990. 43-year old David Spears had been shot with a .22 pistol six times. Before they could positively identify Spears, the naked body of a badly decomposed male was found in Pasco County, FL. Eventually identified as 40-year old Charles Carskaddon, he had been shot nine times with .22 caliber pistol. By this time, police saw a pattern, but they didn’t know who was behind the killings.
