Tue, 04 Nov 2025 22:11:16 +0000
Netflix is delving into the unsettling story of Aileen Wuornos, a notorious serial killer, with its new documentary, *Aileen: Queen of the Serial Killers*. The film examines the formative experiences that shaped Wuornos’ life and the deadly crimes she committed. Through interviews, archival material, and Wuornos’ own words, the documentary seeks to illuminate the circumstances surrounding the nation’s imperfect justice system while attempting to understand the motives behind her actions.
“The real Aileen Wuornos is not a serial killer,” she states in a trailer for the film. “I was so lost that I turned into one.”
The documentary sheds light on Wuornos’ story, which gained notoriety between 1989 and 1990, following the release of the Oscar-winning film, *Monster*, starring Charlize Theron, who received the Academy Award for Best Actress for her portrayal.
Who Is Aileen Wuornos?
Aileen Wuornos was born shortly after her parents separated in Detroit. At 15, she gave birth to an unidentified son, placing him for adoption before dropping out of school. Following a childhood marked by abandonment and abuse, Wuornos hitchhiked to Florida in her early twenties. To support herself, she turned to sex work and petty crime, ultimately leading to her arrest and the commission of murders.
Director Emily Turner explained, “Actually, she was made, and that’s chilling.”
What Was Aileen Wuornos Accused of?
Wuornos was working as a prostitute along Florida state highways when she perpetrated her first known murder in 1989, shooting Richard Mallory after a sexual encounter. She later claimed Mallory became violent, raping, beating, and sodomizing her, sparking a subsequent killing spree involving six other men, including a construction worker, a trucker, and a retired police chief.
What Was Aileen Wuornos Convicted Of?
The trial for the murder of her first victim (Mallory) resulted in Wuornos’ conviction of first-degree murder in January 1992, followed by a death sentence four days later. By February 1993, she had accumulated six death sentences after pleading no contest to three additional murders and admitting guilt to two others. Wuornos spent six years on death row before her execution by lethal injection in 2002. During her time on death row, she offered varied and often contradictory accounts of the events leading up to the murders.
How Have You Heard of Aileen Wuornos Before?
Charlize Theron embodied Wuornos in the 2003 film, *Monster*, earning her an Academy Award for Best Actress in 2004. “I didn’t think I could do it at first,” Theron stated in 2019, reflecting on taking on the role. “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. However, Florida courts largely doubted Wuornos’ defense, citing her evolving statements.