Netflix is ready to investigate the complex story of Aileen Wuornos.
In the streaming platform’s new documentary titled Aileen: Queen of the Serial Killers, viewers are taken on a wild ride as the film explores the circumstances that shaped Wuornos’ trauma-filled life and deadly crimes.
Through interviews, archival material and Wuornos’ own words, the documentary aims to shine a light on the nation’s imperfect justice system. At the same time, it tries to find a reason as to why Wuornos chose to kill seven men across central Florida in the span of 12 months.
“The real Aileen Wuornos is not a serial killer,” she says in a trailer for the film. “I was so lost that I turned into one.”
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Although Wuornos’ execution in 2002 marked the end of a tragic and complex life, Netflix’s new documentary shines a light on her story — one that sparked headlines between 1989 and 1990 as well as the Oscar-winning film, Monster.
Aileen: Queen of the Serial Killers is streaming now on Netflix. Keep reading to learn more about the subject behind the documentary:
Who Is Aileen Wuornos?
Wuornos was the daughter of two Detroit suburb parents who split shortly before she was born.
At 15 years old, Wuornos reportedly gave birth to a boy whose father was not publicly identified, per EBSCO. She placed her son for adoption before dropping out of school.
After experiencing a childhood marked by profound abandonment and abuse, Wuornos hitchhiked to Florida in her early twenties. In order to support herself financially, Wuornos turned to sex work and other petty crimes before she was arrested for a series of murders.
“It’s so much easier to write off someone who’s done such heinous acts as a coldblooded murderer [rather than] a deeply damaged human,” director Emily Turner told Tudum. “Actually, she was made, and that’s chilling.”
What Was Aileen Wuornos Accused of?
Aileen Wuornos. Courtesy of Netflix
Wuornos was working as a prostitute along the Florida state highways when she committed her first known murder in 1989.
Wuornos shot and killed Richard Mallory after a sexual encounter. Wuornos later claimed in courtroom testimony that Mallory grew violent and allegedly raped, beat and sodomized her.
The encounter seemingly sparked a subsequent killing spree, as Wuornos murdered at least six other men, including a construction worker, a trucker and a retired chief of police.
What Was Aileen Wuornos Convicted of?
The trial for the murder of her first victim (Mallory) ended with Wuornos being convicted of first-degree murder in January 1992. She was sentenced to the death penalty four days later.
By February 1993, she had received a total of six death sentences after pleading no contest to three additional murders. She also pleaded guilty to two murders.
Wuornos spent six years on death row before her execution by lethal injection in 2002.
While she awaited her execution at Florida State Prison for nearly a decade, she told different and often conflicting versions of the events that led up to the murders, providing various reasons why she killed her victims.
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How Have You Heard of Aileen Wuornos Before?
Charlize Theron embodied Wuornos in the 2003 movie, Monster. The actress later took home the Academy Award for Best Actress in 2004 for her portrayal of the famed killer.
“I didn’t think I could do it at first,” Theron told Marie Claire in May 2019 of taking on the role of a semi-fictional Wuornos. “The thing that convinced me ultimately was that I had never had — and I get emotional thinking about it — I never had somebody believe in me like that before. I was always the person who would go into audition after audition after audition and lay myself on broken glass and not get the part. And all of a sudden, this woman [director Patty Jenkins] is sitting in front of me, and she’s like, ‘You have to. You’re the only person who can.’”
Both Monster and the Netflix documentary explore Wuornos’ claims of self-defense, particularly in the murder of Mallory. Florida courts, however, doubted Wuornos’ defense, citing her ever-changing statements.
