Monster or Victim? The Aileen Wuornos Story — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:11Before we start, content note. This
2. 0:13episode covers childhood sexual abuse,
3. 0:16sex work, violence, and execution.
4. 0:20We'll handle everything with care, but
5. 0:21please look after yourself. This one is
6. 0:24different from our other serial killer
7. 0:25episodes. It's more complicated, and we
8. 0:28want to say that up front rather than
9. 0:30pretend otherwise. Cindy, is Aileen
10. 0:33Wuornos a monster? That is the question,
11. 0:36isn't it? She killed seven people.
12. 0:39She was convicted of six of those
13. 0:41murders. She was executed in 2002.
14. 0:44The state of Florida called her a
15. 0:46monster. The media called her America's
16. 0:48first female serial killer, which is not
17. 0:51even accurate, but we'll get to that.
18. 0:53And yet And yet, her childhood reads
19. 0:56like a case study in every way a society
20. 0:58can fail a child. Abandoned, abused,
21. 1:02homeless at 15, surviving on the streets
22. 1:05of Florida for decades, and she claimed
23. 1:07consistently that the men she killed had
24. 1:10attacked her first. Did they?
25. 1:13We don't know. We will never know for
26. 1:15certain, and I think sitting with that
27. 1:17uncertainty, honestly, is the only
28. 1:19responsible way to cover this case.
29. 1:22Welcome to Hill Larry's Media. I'm
30. 1:24Dylan. I'm Cindy. Episode 18.
31. 1:28Buckle up. This one is going to make you
32. 1:30think.
33. 1:31Aileen Carol Pittman was born on
34. 1:33February 29th, 1956
35. 1:36in Rochester, Michigan. Leap year baby,
36. 1:38born once every 4 years, which feels
37. 1:41almost symbolic given how little the
38. 1:43world seemed to notice her.
39. 1:45Her father, Leo Dale Pittman, was in
40. 1:47prison for child molestation when she
41. 1:49was born. He was later diagnosed with
42. 1:51schizophrenia and hanged himself in
43. 1:53prison in 1969. She never met him.
44. 1:57Her mother, Diane Warneous, was 15 when
45. 2:00Aileen was born. She abandoned Aileen
46. 2:02and her brother Keith when Aileen was 4
47. 2:04years old.
48. 2:064 years old. Aileen and Keith were taken
49. 2:09in by their maternal grandparents, Lowry
50. 2:11and Britta Warneous. And this is where
51. 2:14it gets worse. Lowry Warneous was an
52. 2:16alcoholic who beat the children
53. 2:18regularly. There is substantial evidence
54. 2:20that he also sexually abused Aileen,
55. 2:23though this was never prosecuted. So,
56. 2:25she went from abandonment to abuse.
57. 2:28There was no safe place.
58. 2:30No safe place.
59. 2:32By her early teens, Aileen was being
60. 2:34sexually exploited by multiple men in
61. 2:36the neighborhood, some of whom gave her
62. 2:38food or money in exchange, which she
63. 2:40needed because home was not safe. She
64. 2:43became pregnant at 13.
65. 2:4513.
66. 2:46She gave birth in a home for unwed
67. 2:48mothers in 1971.
68. 2:50The baby, a boy, was given up for
69. 2:52adoption. She was sent home. Her
70. 2:55grandmother, Britta, died of liver
71. 2:57failure shortly after, and then her
72. 2:59grandfather, who had been abusing her,
73. 3:01threw her out of the house.
74. 3:03She was 15.
75. 3:0515 years old, no mother, no grandmother,
76. 3:08thrown out by an abusive grandfather,
77. 3:10having just given up a baby. She dropped
78. 3:13out of school and began living in the
79. 3:14woods near her childhood home, surviving
80. 3:17by sex work. I want to pause here
81. 3:19because I think it's important to say
82. 3:21clearly, a 15-year-old child selling sex
83. 3:24to survive is not a choice. It is a
84. 3:27child in a survival situation that every
85. 3:30adult in her life and every institution
86. 3:32around her failed to prevent. Completely
87. 3:35agree. And this pattern of exploitation
88. 3:38and survival continued for her entire
89. 3:41adult life. She drifted across the
90. 3:43country. She had multiple arrests for
91. 3:45minor offenses. She married briefly in
92. 3:481976, a 69-year-old man named Lewis
93. 3:52Fell, who she met in a bar in Florida.
94. 3:54He filed a restraining order against her
95. 3:56within weeks. The marriage was annulled.
96. 3:59She married a 69-year-old when she was
97. 4:0220.
98. 4:03She was looking for stability in the
99. 4:05only way she knew how. It didn't work.
100. 4:08She continued working as a sex worker
101. 4:10along Florida highways through the 1970s
102. 4:13and 1980s.
103. 4:14And then in 1986, she met Tyria Moore.
104. 4:19She met Tyria Moore, and for a period,
105. 4:22she had something that looked like
106. 4:24stability and love. Tyria Moore.
107. 4:27Aileen met her at a biker bar in Daytona
108. 4:29Beach in 1986.
109. 4:32Tyria was younger, in her early 20s.
110. 4:34They fell in love and began a
111. 4:36relationship that lasted several years.
112. 4:38By all accounts, Aileen was devoted to
113. 4:41Tyria. She supported them both
114. 4:43financially through sex work, and later
115. 4:45described Tyria as the love of her life.
116. 4:48And Tyria? Was she aware of what was
117. 4:51happening? This is contested.
118. 4:54Tyria later cooperated with police and
119. 4:56testified against Aileen. She claimed
120. 4:59she had not known about the killings
121. 5:01until after they happened.
122. 5:03Aileen's account was different. She said
123. 5:05Tyria knew.
124. 5:07The truth is probably somewhere
125. 5:08complicated in the middle. Okay, the
126. 5:11killings. Walk me through them. Between
127. 5:13November 1989 and November 1990, seven
128. 5:18men were shot and killed along Florida
129. 5:20highways. All were middle-aged men. All
130. 5:23had encountered Aileen while she was
131. 5:25working as a sex worker. Their bodies
132. 5:27were found in remote areas, mostly in
133. 5:29Central Florida. And Aileen's account of
134. 5:32why she killed them? Self-defense.
135. 5:35Consistently and from the beginning, she
136. 5:37said that each man, or nearly each man,
137. 5:40had attacked her, attempted to rape her,
138. 5:42or threatened her life during what was
139. 5:44supposed to be a transaction. She said
140. 5:46she fought back. Was there any evidence
141. 5:49to support that? Some.
142. 5:51One of the victims, Richard Mallory, had
143. 5:53a prior conviction for violent sexual
144. 5:55offense in another state, a conviction
145. 5:58that was not introduced at trial, which
146. 6:00became a significant point of
147. 6:01controversy later.
148. 6:03If jurors had known that the first man
149. 6:05she killed had previously been convicted
150. 6:07of rape, the self-defense claim might
151. 6:09have landed differently. The prior
152. 6:12conviction wasn't introduced at trial?
153. 6:14It was not. Her attorney did not present
154. 6:17it. Whether that was incompetence,
155. 6:19strategy, or something else has been
156. 6:21debated ever since. That is a
157. 6:24significant omission. A potentially
158. 6:27case-changing omission. Now, to be
159. 6:30clear, Aileen was tried for six murders.
160. 6:34The self-defense argument is more
161. 6:35plausible in some cases than others.
162. 6:38Some of the victims showed evidence
163. 6:39consistent with a struggle, others less
164. 6:42so.
165. 6:43The prosecution argued she was a
166. 6:44predatory killer who targeted men for
167. 6:47money. The defense argued she was a
168. 6:49survivor killing in self-defense. And
169. 6:52the jury chose the prosecution's
170. 6:54version. Unanimously and quickly. How
171. 6:57was she caught? Police had identified
172. 6:59her from fingerprints and physical
173. 7:01descriptions from surviving clients and
174. 7:03witnesses. In January 1991, they
175. 7:06arrested her at a biker bar, The Last
176. 7:08Resort, which is a very Florida name for
177. 7:11the location of a serial killer arrest.
178. 7:13Cindy, The Last Resort, okay.
179. 7:17Dolan was back in Florida. Just before
180. 7:19Aileen's execution, she did an interview
181. 7:22where Aileen explained her feelings for
182. 7:23Tyria and explained what had transpired
183. 7:26with police.
184. 7:27Tyria Moore had already been located by
185. 7:29police, and here is the part that Aileen
186. 7:32described as the deepest betrayal of her
187. 7:34life.
188. 7:35Police arranged for Tyria to call Aileen
189. 7:37from a hotel room. The calls were
190. 7:39recorded.
191. 7:40Tyria told Aileen she was scared, that
192. 7:43the police were after her, that she
193. 7:44needed Aileen to confess so that Tyria
194. 7:47could go free. And Aileen confessed?
195. 7:50Aileen confessed to protect Tyria. She
196. 7:53said repeatedly in those calls and
197. 7:55afterwards that she didn't want Tyria to
198. 7:57go to prison, so she took full
199. 7:59responsibility. She confessed to murder
200. 8:02charges to protect the woman she loved.
201. 8:05Who had cooperated with police to put
202. 8:08her there.
203. 8:09Tyria Moore was never charged. She was
204. 8:11granted immunity in exchange for her
205. 8:13testimony and cooperation. She moved
206. 8:15back to Pennsylvania and has largely
207. 8:18stayed out of public life since. And
208. 8:20Aileen? Aileen went to trial in 1992,
209. 8:24convicted of first-degree murder in the
210. 8:25Mallory case, sentenced to death.
211. 8:28She eventually pleaded guilty to five
212. 8:30more murders to avoid additional trials,
213. 8:32saying she wanted to get it over with.
214. 8:34She sat on death row for 10 years. What
215. 8:37was that decade like? Turbulent. Her
216. 8:40mental state deteriorated significantly.
217. 8:42She gave multiple interviews, changed
218. 8:44her account of events, at various points
219. 8:46recanted her self-defense claims, and
220. 8:48then recanted the recantation.
221. 8:51A documentary filmmaker named Nick
222. 8:52Broomfield made two documentaries about
223. 8:55her. Aileen Wuornos: The Selling of a
224. 8:57Serial Killer in 1992 and Aileen: Life
225. 9:00and Death of a Serial Killer in 2003.
226. 9:03The titles alone are doing a lot. The
227. 9:05titles are doing enormous work.
228. 9:08Broomfield's first documentary was
229. 9:09particularly damning of the people
230. 9:11around Aileen, her legal team, her
231. 9:13adopted born-again Christian mother
232. 9:15figure Arlene Pralle, who had inserted
233. 9:17herself into Aileen's life and then
234. 9:19signed over media rights.
235. 9:21It painted a picture of people profiting
236. 9:23from Aileen's story while she awaited
237. 9:25execution. Was she competent to be
238. 9:27executed? Mentally? This was a serious
239. 9:30question raised by many people,
240. 9:32including Broomfield. In her final
241. 9:34interviews, Aileen spoke about being
242. 9:36tortured by sonic pressure and
243. 9:38government mind control. Her mental
244. 9:40state was clearly severely compromised.
245. 9:43Whether she was legally competent to
246. 9:44make the decision to waive her remaining
247. 9:46appeals, which she did, is something
248. 9:48legal scholars and advocates have
249. 9:50debated since. She waived her own
250. 9:52appeals. She said she wanted to die. She
251. 9:55said the world was not worth living in.
252. 9:58On October 9th, 2002, Aileen Wuornos was
253. 10:01executed by lethal injection at Florida
254. 10:03State Prison. She was 46 years old.
255. 10:06Her last words were,
256. 10:08"I just like to say I'm sailing with the
257. 10:10rock and I'll be back like Independence
258. 10:12Day with Jesus June 6th. Like the movie,
259. 10:15big mothership and all. I'll be back."
260. 10:17That is not the statement of a well
261. 10:20person. It is not. And I think that's
262. 10:22the last data point in a very long case
263. 10:25for how thoroughly every system failed
264. 10:27Aileen Wuornos from birth to death. The
265. 10:302003 film, Monster, Charlize Theron,
266. 10:33Academy Award-winning performance. Did
267. 10:35it do Aileen justice? That depends
268. 10:38entirely on who you ask. Theron's
269. 10:41performance was extraordinary by any
270. 10:43technical standard, the physical
271. 10:44transformation, the emotional range, but
272. 10:47the film made specific narrative
273. 10:49choices. It leaned into the self-defense
274. 10:52framing more sympathetically than the
275. 10:53courts did. It also leaned into Aileen
276. 10:56as a tragic figure in a way that some
277. 10:58critics felt was exploitative in its own
278. 11:00right. Aileen herself didn't like it.
279. 11:03Aileen was dead by the time it was
280. 11:04released. She was executed in October
281. 11:062002. The film came out in 2003.
282. 11:10But she had expressed concern before her
283. 11:12death about how her story would be told.
284. 11:14Given that multiple people had already
285. 11:16sold rights to her story without her
286. 11:18meaningful consent or benefit, that
287. 11:20concern seems legitimate. There's
288. 11:22something deeply uncomfortable about the
289. 11:24true crime industry, of which we are a
290. 11:26part, profiting from the stories of
291. 11:28people like Aileen Wuornos. We should
292. 11:31say that clearly. We're a podcast that
293. 11:33covers these cases. We try to do it
294. 11:35responsibly, but the fact that Aileen's
295. 11:38story has generated films,
296. 11:40documentaries, books, podcasts, and she
297. 11:43died in a prison execution chamber with
298. 11:45nothing is worth sitting with. It is
299. 11:48worth sitting with. Every time. Okay.
300. 11:51The question we opened with.
301. 11:53Monster or victim? Both. And I think
302. 11:57anyone who answers that question with
303. 11:59just one word isn't taking it seriously
304. 12:01enough. Expand. Seven men are dead.
305. 12:05Those men had families. Richard Mallory,
306. 12:08whatever his history, had people who
307. 12:10loved him. So did Walter Gino Antonio,
308. 12:14Troy Burress, David Spears, Charles
309. 12:17Carskaddon, Peter Sims, and Dick
310. 12:20Humphreys.
311. 12:21They were real people and their deaths
312. 12:23were real losses.
313. 12:25That cannot be waved away by any
314. 12:27sympathy for Aileen's background. And
315. 12:30the other side? A child was abandoned,
316. 12:33abused, sexually exploited, made
317. 12:35pregnant at 13, thrown onto the streets
318. 12:38at 15, and spent the next 25 years
319. 12:41surviving in circumstances that would
320. 12:43break almost anyone.
321. 12:45The self-defense claim in at least some
322. 12:47of the killings is credible. Richard
323. 12:50Mallory's prior conviction is a fact.
324. 12:53The failure to present that evidence at
325. 12:54trial is a fact. The question of whether
326. 12:57a woman working alone on highways in
327. 13:00Florida in 1989 had the right to use
328. 13:03lethal force when she believed her life
329. 13:05was in danger, that is a legitimate
330. 13:08legal and moral question that the jury
331. 13:10never fully grappled with. So, where do
332. 13:13you land? I land on Aileen Wuornos
333. 13:17deserved a fair trial and didn't fully
334. 13:19get one. I land on the systems that
335. 13:23created her circumstances are as
336. 13:25culpable as she is.
337. 13:27And I land on executing a severely
338. 13:30mentally ill woman who was waving her
339. 13:32own appeals is not justice by any
340. 13:35definition I recognize.
341. 13:37I'm with you on all of that. And I'd add
342. 13:39the label America's first female serial
343. 13:42killer, which was plastered everywhere,
344. 13:45did enormous damage. It made her a
345. 13:47spectacle before the trial even began.
346. 13:50It made a fair jury almost impossible.
347. 13:53She was tried in the media before she
348. 13:55was tried in a courtroom. Convicted
349. 13:57twice over.
350. 13:59The victims of Aileen Wuornos: Richard
351. 14:01Mallory, David Spears, Charles
352. 14:04Carskadon, Peter Sims, whose body was
353. 14:07never found, Troy Burress, Dick
354. 14:09Humphreys, Walter Gino Antonio. Seven
355. 14:12men who did not come home. We
356. 14:14acknowledge them. And Aileen Carol
357. 14:17Wuornos, born February 29th, 1956,
358. 14:21died October 9th, 2002.
359. 14:25A child who was failed so completely and
360. 14:27so early that the trajectory of her life
361. 14:30was shaped before she had any say in it.
362. 14:33We acknowledge her, too. This is the
363. 14:35most complicated episode we've done, and
364. 14:37we hope we did it justice, or at least
365. 14:40did it honestly. If this episode stirred
366. 14:43something for you about the justice
367. 14:44system, about how we treat survivors of
368. 14:47abuse, about who gets sympathy and who
369. 14:49doesn't, that's the right reaction. Let
370. 14:52it sit with you.
371. 14:54Thank you for being here for episode 18.
372. 14:56Subscribe, leave a review, keep the case
373. 14:59suggestions coming. I'm Cindy. I'm
374. 15:01Dylan. Take care of yourselves,
375. 15:03genuinely.
376. 15:39>> Mhm.