Latest / Murder Files Unsealed / Aileen Wuornos - The Damsel of Death
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Aleen Warnos, a notorious serial killer, was found guilty of
- 0:04murdering six men in Florida during the years nineteen eighty
- 0:07nine and nineteen ninety Exhibiting atypical sexual behavior in her childhood,
- 0:14she left her home as a teenager and encountered various
- 0:18legal issues by the nineteen eighties, when she was working
- 0:21as a sex worker along Florida's highways. Her series of
- 0:26murders commenced in late November nineteen eighty nine, leading to
- 0:30her being dubbed the Damsel of Death. Following her arrest
- 0:34in January nineteen ninety one, Warnos confessed to seven murders
- 0:39and was subsequently sentenced to death in six of the
- 0:42cases against her, despite questions surrounding her mental stability. She
- 0:48was executed by lethal injection in October two thousand two
- 0:52at the age of forty six. Her life and crimes
- 0:57have been the subject of numerous documentaries, books, and an opera,
- 1:02as well as the two thousand three film Monster featuring
- 1:05Charlise Thehn and the more recent twoenty twenty one film
- 1:10Aileen Warnos American Boogie Woman, Young Aileen Warnos. Aileen Warnos
- 1:16originally named Aileen Carol Pittman was born on February twenty ninth,
- 1:22nineteen fifty six, in Rochester, Michigan. Her parents, Diane Warnos
- 1:28and Leo Pittman, separated prior to her birth. Following her
- 1:33abandonment by Diane, who was a teenage mother, Aileen and
- 1:37her elder brother, Keith, were legally adopted by their maternal grandparents.
- 1:43Aileen had no acquaintance with her biological father, who was
- 1:47later incarcerated for child rape and ultimately took his own
- 1:51life while in prison. Girlfriend Tiria Moore Warnos was apprehended
- 1:56in the mid nineteen seventies on charges of assault, to
- 2:00disturbing the peace and disorderly conduct. In the early nineteen eighties,
- 2:05she was incarcerated for armed robbery after a drunken attempt
- 2:08to rob a convenience store, reportedly while wearing a bikini.
- 2:13As noted in Peter Vronsky's book Female Serial Killers, her
- 2:17criminal history also encompassed offenses such as check forgery, resisting arrest, theft,
- 2:24and driving under the influence. In June nineteen eighty six, Warnos,
- 2:30who had adopted the name Lee, encountered twenty four year
- 2:34old Teria More at a gay bar in Daytona, Florida.
- 2:39The two embarked on a passionate relationship that lasted four
- 2:43point five years and began cohabitating. While Moore worked as
- 2:48a housekeeper, Warnos engaged in sex work along the highways
- 2:52of Florida. A possessive individual, Warnos was displeased when her
- 2:57partner went to work or socialized with others. The couple
- 3:01often relocated to various motels, apartments, and mobile home parks
- 3:07in Daytona and other areas of Florida. Murder victims. Between
- 3:13late nineteen eighty nine and the autumn of nineteen ninety,
- 3:17Warnos was responsible for the fatal shootings of seven men,
- 3:22predominantly middle aged and older, along highways in northern and
- 3:27central Florida. Her initial victim was Richard Mallory, a fifty
- 3:32one year old owner of a repair shop who was
- 3:35known for frequently employing sex workers. He was last seen
- 3:39on November thirtieth, nineteen eighty nine. According to the testimony
- 3:44of Moore. The following day, Warnos confided in her that
- 3:48she had killed a man. On December thirteenth, nineteen eighty nine,
- 3:54Mallory's remains were discovered at an illegal dumping site in
- 3:58a wooded area. In the months that followed, five additional
- 4:03deceased men were found. The body of David Spears, a
- 4:07forty three year old construction worker, was located on June first,
- 4:12nineteen ninety. Charles Carskadden, a forty year old part time
- 4:16rodeo worker, was reported missing on May thirty first, nineteen ninety,
- 4:22and his remains were uncovered on June sixth. On August fourth,
- 4:27nineteen ninety, just five days after being reported missing, the
- 4:32body of salesman Troy Burres, aged fifty, was recovered. Charles
- 4:37Dick Humphreys, a fifty six year old child abuse investigator,
- 4:41was found on September twelfth, nineteen ninety. Lastly, Walter Antonio,
- 4:48a truck driver and reserve police officer in his sixties,
- 4:52was discovered on November nineteenth, nineteen ninety. During this period,
- 4:58Warnos frequently returned and home with various items to pawn
- 5:03and vehicles that she had borrowed. She employed multiple aliases
- 5:08when pawning belongings that belonged to her victims, complicating efforts
- 5:14to track her movements. However, in July nineteen ninety, authorities
- 5:20investigated the vehicle of Peter Seems, a sixty five year
- 5:24old missionary who had been reported missing the previous month.
- 5:28Witnesses indicated that they had seen Warnos and more departing
- 5:33from the car, and a fingerprint from the door handle
- 5:36matched that of warnos death and last words. After spending
- 5:44ten years on death row, Wunos made the decision to
- 5:48dismiss her appeals attorneys, who were seeking a stay of
- 5:52execution on her behalf. Despite a court appointed lawyer's assertion
- 5:57that Warnos's statements indicated a Siklus magnificant detachment from reality,
- 6:02the Florida Supreme Court ruled in April two thousand and
- 6:05two that she had the right to terminate her legal representation.
- 6:11In early October two thousand two, Florida Governor Jeb Bush
- 6:16rescinded a temporary stay of execution following evaluations by three
- 6:21psychiatrists who concluded that Warnos was mentally competent to comprehend
- 6:26the death penalty and the rationale behind its enforcement. Warnos
- 6:32was executed via lethal injection on October ninth, two thousand
- 6:37and two, in Stark, Florida. I'd just like to say
- 6:41I'm sailing with the Rock and I'll be back like
- 6:45Independence Day.