She looked so innocent — but grew up to become one of the most notorious female killers
Aileen Wuornos, one of America’s most notorious female serial killers, endured a deeply traumatic childhood that foreshadowed her violent future. Born in 1956, she was abandoned by her mother at age four, after her father died by suicide in prison.
She and her brother were then raised by their grandparents in a destructive environment marked by alcoholism and alleged abuse. By her early teens, she was engaging in survival sex and became pregnant after an assault, later giving the baby up for adoption.
After her grandparents died, Wuornos became a ward of the state and eventually turned to prostitution and petty crime. She drifted to Florida, where her life of violence escalated dramatically.
Between 1989 and 1990, she was linked to the murders of seven men. Wuornos claimed she killed in self-defense while working as a prostitute, stating each victim had assaulted her.
Prosecutors, however, argued she was a calculated robber and killer. The media sensationalized her case, dubbing her the “Damsel of Death” and labeling her as America’s first female serial killer.
At her trial, Wuornos was convicted and received six death sentences. She was executed by lethal injection in 2002, offering a cryptic final statement about returning one day.
Her life leaves a haunting question: was she a born monster, or was she a product of a profoundly abusive and neglected childhood? Her story remains a grim case study in the making of a murderer.
