Aileen Wuornos (1956 - 2002) was an American prostitute who killed seven men in Florida between 1989 and 1990, she later claimed that the men had tried to rape her. Wuornos' mother abandoned Aileen and her older brother Keith in 1960, at which point they were adopted by their maternal grandparents. Aileen was known to have engaged in sexual acts with multiple partners from a young age, including her own brother, and at the age of thirteen became pregnant; claiming that the pregnancy was as a result of being raped by an unknown man. She gave birth to the son at a home for unwed mothers in Detroit in 1971. Soon after the birth her grandmother passed away and her grandfather threw Aileen and her brother out of his house, rendering them homeless. It was at this stage, aged 15 years old, that Aileen began working as a prostitute.

Aileen's criminal career started early and she was first arrested on May 27th 1974 in Jefferson County, Colorado, for drunk driving, disorderly conduct and firing a .22 calibre pistol out of that vehicle whilst it was moving. She was later charged with failing to appear for the court date. Aileen hitchhiked to Florida in 1976 where she met and married Lewis Gratz Fell, a 70 year old Yacht club president. Despite a seemingly perfect opportunity for her to straighten herself out, she continued to get into confrontations at a local bar and was eventually sent to jail for assault. Her new husband also had to get a restraining order placed on her as she would assault him with her own cane, after which she returned to Michigan. In the same year she was arrested in Michigan and charged with assault after throwing a cue ball at a bartenders head. Just three days later her older brother Keith died of throat cancer and Aileen was the beneficiary of a $10,000 life insurance payout.

It was to be a while before Aileen had another brush with the law, probably because she was able to live off of the hefty insurance payout, and she was next arrested back in Florida for the armed robbery of a convenience store on May 20th 1981. She was sent to prison but was in just over a year on June 30th 1981. Her frequent and persistant offending was ongoing and on May 1st 1984 she was arrested for attempting to pass forged cheques at a bank in West Keys. In the following year, 1985, she was named as a suspect in the theft of a gun and ammunition in Pasco County. Aileen's crimes were beginning to get more serious, almost like a series of criminal graduations, and on 4th January 1986 she was arrested in Miami and charged with GTA and resisting arrest; Miami police found a .38 caliber revolver and a large box of ammunition in the stolen car. In the same year Volusia County deputies arrested and detained Wuornos after she was accused of pulling a gun on a male companion (probably a client) and demanding $200. Wuornos was found to be carrying a .22 pistol. Around the same time Aileen met Tyria Moore a hotel maid at a Daytona Gay bar and they moved in with each other, Wuornos supported the couple with her earnings from prostitution. The pair were detained in July 1987 for questioning after they had been accused of assault somebody with a beer bottle.

It was more than two years later that Aileen killed her first victim, a 51 year old electronics store owner named Richard Mallory who's abandoned car was found on 1st December 1989, his body was not found until 13th December in a woods several miles away. He had been shot several times. The next known murder was of 56 year old Dick Humphreys a former police chief on 19th May 1990, whose body was not found until 12th September 1990, he was fully clothed and had been shot six times in the head and torso. Victim number 3 was David Spears, a 43 year old construction worker, whose nude body was found on 1st June 1990; he had also been shot six times. Victim number 4 was Charles Carskaddon, a 40 year old rodeo worker, his body was found on 6th June 1990 - just five days after David Spears' - he had been shot nine times.

Victim number 5 was 65 year old Peter Siems, whose car was found in Orange Springs on 4th July 1990. Aileen and her partner Tyria were identified as the people that had left he car where it was found, although the body of Siems was never found. Wuornos' palm print was found in the car. Victim number 6 was a sausage salesman from Ocala who was reported missing on July 31st 1990 and whose body was found on 4th August 1990 in a wooded area in Marion County; he had been shot twice. After several murders in a very short space of time there was a three month gap until the 7th and last known victim Walter Antonio, aged 62, whose freshly killed nude body was found on 19th November 1990 near to a remote road in Dixie County. He had been shot four times and his car was found five days later in another county.

Wuornos confessed to the killings on January 16th 1991, although claimed that the men had tried to rape her and she had acted in self defence. At several different trials, the last being in February 1993. she was found guilty of the murders of six of her seven victim and received six death penalties; she was not found guilty of the murder of Peter Siems as no body was ever found. Wuornos later admitted that she killed the men in cold blood and would do it again if ever released, she was executed by lethal injection on 9th October 2002. There have since been a number of books and documentaries about Wuornos, most notably the documentaries 'Aileen Wournos: The Selling of a Serial Killer' and 'Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer'. In 2003 Charlize Theron won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her portrayal of Wuornos in the film 'Monster'.