This is an accepted version of this page Aileen Carol Wuornos (/ˈwɔːrnoʊs/; born Pittman; February 29, 1956 – October 9, 2002) was an American serial killer.

[6] Her mother, Diane Wuornos (born 1939), was 14 years old when she married Aileen's father, 18-year-old Leo Pittman (1936–1969), on June 3, 1954.

[21] Wuornos gave birth to a boy at a home for unwed mothers on March 23, 1971, and the child was placed for adoption.

[2] On May 27, 1974, at age 18, Wuornos was arrested in Jefferson County, Colorado, for driving under the influence (DUI), disorderly conduct, and firing a .22-caliber pistol from a moving vehicle.

She returned to Michigan[23][24] where, on July 14, 1976, she was arrested at Bernie's Club[25] in Mancelona, Antrim County and charged with assault and disturbing the peace for throwing a cue ball at a bartender's head.

She used the money inherited from her brother to pay the fine and spent the rest within two months buying luxuries including a new car, which she wrecked shortly afterwards.

[29] On June 2, 1986, Volusia County deputy sheriffs detained Wuornos for questioning after a male companion accused her of pulling a gun in his car and demanding $200.

Wuornos was found to be carrying spare ammunition, and police discovered a .22 pistol under the passenger seat she had occupied.

[30] In 1986, 30-year-old Wuornos[31] met 24-year-old Tyria Moore, a motel maid,[32] at a Daytona Beach gay bar called Zodiac.

[34] On July 4, 1987, Daytona Beach police detained Wuornos and Moore at a bar for questioning regarding an incident in which they were accused of assault and battery with a beer bottle.

Rhonda Bailey, who witnessed the accident, provided police with a description of two women,[42] which later led to a media campaign to locate them.

[44][2] On January 9, 1991, Wuornos was arrested at The Last Resort biker bar in Volusia County on the pretext of an outstanding warrant in the name of Lori Grody.

Although previous convictions are normally inadmissible in criminal trials, under Florida's Williams Rule, the prosecution was allowed to introduce evidence related to her other crimes to show a pattern of illegal activity.

[49][50] Wuornos' defense made efforts during the trial to introduce evidence that Mallory was previously convicted for attempted rape in Maryland and served a sentence in a maximum security correctional facility providing remediation to sexual offenders.

[51] Records obtained from the correctional institution showed that from 1958 to 1962, Mallory was committed for treatment and observation resulting from a criminal charge of assault with intent to rape.

On March 31, 1992, Wuornos pleaded no contest to the murders of Charles Richard Humphreys, Troy Eugene Burress, and David Andrew Spears, saying she wanted to "get right with God".

During an interview with documentarian Nick Broomfield, when Wuornos thought the cameras were off, she told him that it was, in fact, self-defense, but she could not stand being on death row—where she had been for ten years at that point—and wanted to die.

In a 2001 petition to the Florida Supreme Court, she stated her intention to dismiss her legal counsel and terminate all pending appeals.

"[54] While her attorneys argued that she was not mentally competent to make such a request, Wuornos insisted that she knew what she was doing, and a court-appointed panel of psychiatrists agreed.

She also complained of strip searches, tight handcuffing, door kicking, frequent window checks, low water pressure, mildew on her mattress, and "cat calling ... in distaste and a pure hatred towards me".

[55] In the weeks before her execution, Wuornos gave a series of interviews to documentarian Nick Broomfield and talked about "being taken away to meet God and Jesus and the angels and whatever is beyond the beyond".

[58] Dawn Botkins, a childhood friend of Wuornos, later told Broomfield that her verbal abuse was directed at society and the media in general, not at him specifically.

It wasn't until I was told that Aileen spent many hours listening to my album Tigerlily while on death row and requested "Carnival" be played at her funeral that I gave permission for the use of the song.

[13] Her traumatic upbringing, including her physical and sexual abuse, have been partially linked to the development of her borderline personality disorder.

[13] Such severe trauma can also disrupt the structuralization of the mind at various developmental points and result in "primitive, dissociative, and splitting defenses to ward off the intensity of emotional and sexual stimulation that cannot be integrated as a child.

[82] The antagonist of the 2002 Law & Order: Special Victims Unit episode "Chameleon" — Maggie Peterson (Sharon Lawrence), a prostitute who murders her johns — is based on Wuornos.

[86] An operatic adaptation of Wuornos' life premiered at San Francisco's Yerba Buena Center for the Arts on June 22, 2001.

Entitled Wuornos, the opera was written by composer and librettist Carla Lucero, conducted by Mary Chun, and produced by the Jon Sims Center for the Performing Arts.

Japanese doom metal band Church of Misery released the song "Filth Bitch Boogie (Aileen Wuornos)" on their 2004 studio album The Second Coming.

[89] A parody cover version of Dolly Parton's song "Jolene" called "Aileen", dedicated by Wuornos, is featured on Willam Belli's third album.