Disclaimer: The article has mentions of killing.
Aileen Wuornos confessed to killing seven men in Florida while she was working as a s– worker from 1989 to 1990. She killed Richard Mallory, a store owner in November 1989. Wuornos stated she killed him in self-defense after he assaulted her.
Wuornos continued to kill men after her first murder. She shot the men who were her clients, often found along the Florida highways. She added that all her victims were killed in self-defense. Police captured her after matching her palm print to one found on a murdered man’s car.
She was found guilty of the first murder, along with pleading no contest or guilty for other murders. Her chilling statement was, “I killed those men, robbed them as cold as ice. And I’d do it again, too. There’s no chance of keeping me alive or anything, because I’d kill again. I hate crawling through my system.”
I always believed Aileen Wuornos should never have been executed. This Netflix documentary is so much more detailed than the Nick Broomfield one from 1992. So much I didn’t know. I think if i’d endured what she had I’d be tempted to take their lives. R I Ppic.twitter.com/iaKuT3c3A9 pic.twitter.com/TJoi6hj3u1
— The Jenny Cochran🐾🎸🇬🇩🇻🇨🇳🇬🇵🇸 (@missdemenor) October 31, 2025
She also said, “I wanted to confess to you that Richard Mallory did violently r— me as I’ve told you. But these others did not. [They] only began to start to.”
Her trial ended with a death sentence, and she was executed using lethal injection in 2002. Her case has gained renewed attention following the release of the Netflix documentary Aileen: Queen of the Serial Killers.
The prosecutors of the case did not agree on self-defense being the motive. They said she killed him because of greed, and there was no evidence of assault. But he was indeed convicted of assault when he was just 19. Other middle-aged victims of Wuornos include David Spears, Charles Carskaddon, Peter Siems, Troy Burress, Charles Richard, and Walter Jeno Antonio.
How come Aileen received the death penalty, and wasn’t given life, like these other Serial killers?
Jeffrey Dahmer, Gary Ridgway, the BTK killer, etc.
I’ll tell you why.
Because her victims were middle-aged white men, like Prosecutor John Tanner #AileenQueenofTheSerialKillers pic.twitter.com/FHC1a3UQJV
— A 🌱💜 (@AllforTheLove_) October 30, 2025
Charles Richard was a 56-year-old former police chief who was shot in the head and torso. Antonio was a 62-year-old security guard who was murdered. Wuornos was arrested after her ex-girlfriend persuaded her to confess during a recorded phone call in 1991.
Tyria Moore tricked her into making a confession as she was working with the police, who gave her immunity in exchange for her help. Wuornos said, “I’m not gonna let you go to jail. Ty, I love you. If I have to confess everything just to keep you from getting in trouble, I will.” In her last statement, Wuornos mentioned that she wanted to hasten her execution and stood by her reason to kill, which was in self-defense.
