Aileen Carol Wuornos Biography

Aileen Wuornos was born on February 28, 1956 in Rochester, Michigan, to parents Leo Pittman and Diane Wuornos Pratt. They were married when Diane was only fifteen, had two children, and were divorced within two years. Aileen was born a few months after the divorce. Pittman was a sociopath and child molester. He was in and out or mental hospitals and prisons; ultimately he was strangled in prison in 1969. Diane was unable to manage her children and in 1960 abandoned them to the care of her parents, Lauri and Britta Wuornos. The Wournoses adopted the children and raised them as their own.

Aileen's childhood was a troubled one. She and her brother were rebellious and incorrigible. They became wards of the court. In 1971, at fourteen, Aileen gave birth to her baby boy at a home for unwed mothers. The boy was placed for adoption. Aileen dropped out of school and began living on the streets.

A few years later, after the death of her brother and adoptive father, Aileen drifted to Florida. She was briefly married to an elderly man, Lewis Fell. Their marriage was annulled. She continued to drift from place to place, primarily in Florida. She supported herself through petty crimes, thefts, and prostitution. She was sent to prison for thirteen months for armed robbery of a convenience store in May 1981. Her arrest record shows convictions for petty thefts and assaults and a variety of aliases. In 1986 Aileen met Tyria Moore at a gay bar in Daytona Beach. They became partners and were inseparable for almost four years.

On December 13, 1989, Richard Mallory's body was found fully dressed in woods near Daytona Beach. He had been shot three times with a.22 handgun. His car had been found a few weeks earlier in Ormond Beach. On June 1, 1990, a nude body, later identified as David Spears, was found shot six times with a.22 in the woods north of Tampa. His car was found abandoned on I-75 near Gainesville, Florida. Five other men were reported missing between May 31 and November 19, 1990. The bullet-ridden bodies of four of them were found in northern and central Florida. The body of Peter Siems was never located. In each case, the victim's car was found abandoned, and in some cases, the victim's possessions had been stolen.

Police suspected that a woman was responsible for these crimes. On July 4, two women were reported leaving the scene of a one-car accident in Orange Springs, Florida under suspicious circumstances. The car belonged to Peter Siems. One of the women left a bloody handprint on the vehicle. Witnesses provided descriptions of the women. In late November, the media ran stories about the murders with sketches of the two women. Leads started pouring in. Prints obtained from pawn shops matched the handprint on Siems car and provided the identities of the two women from criminal records.

Aileen Wuornos was arrested on January 6, 1991 on an old traffic warrant. Without witnesses or the murder weapon, police were reluctant to charge her with the murders. Tyria Moore was located a few days later. Moore agreed to come to Florida to convince Wuornos to confess. On January 16, Wuornos confessed to six of the killings but claimed that they were in self-defense. She alleged that each of the men either assaulted or attempted to rape her. She denied killing Peter Siems. A jury convicted her of first degree murder in the death of Richard Mallory. Later, she pleaded guilty to five more counts of first degree murder. She was sentenced to the death penalty for each conviction. As of 2000, she remained on Florida's death row.