Latest / 10 Minute Murder | Bingeable True Crime Stories / The First Female Serial Killer: Why Aileen Wuornos's Case Still Matters
Transcript
- 1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:07,520 Between 1989 and 1990, seven men picked up a hitchhiker along Florida's highways. None of them made it home. 2 00:00:07,520 --> 00:00:12,240 Eileen Wernos said she killed them in self-defense. The state said she was a monster. 3 00:00:12,240 --> 00:00:18,240 A movie later said she was a monster too. But what if the truth is somewhere in between? 4 00:00:18,240 --> 00:00:24,160 What if the evidence that could have saved her life was hidden from her jury? Let's get into it. 5 00:00:24,160 --> 00:00:49,120 [Music] 6 00:00:49,120 --> 00:00:56,800 So you know how society loves to put people in these neat little boxes. Good guys over here, bad guys over there. 7 00:00:56,800 --> 00:01:03,200 Eileen Wernos absolutely destroyed that box. Her story is one of those cases where the more you learn, 8 00:01:03,200 --> 00:01:08,560 the less certain you become about anything. Between 1989 and 1990, 9 00:01:08,560 --> 00:01:14,480 Eileen Wernos killed seven men across central Florida. She became known as America's first 10 00:01:14,480 --> 00:01:20,400 female serial killer profiled by the FBI. But calling her a serial killer and leaving it at that, 11 00:01:20,400 --> 00:01:26,000 that's like reading the last page of a book and thinking you know the whole story. So let's back up. 12 00:01:26,000 --> 00:01:34,640 Eileen Carol Wernos was born in 1956 into a situation that was already a disaster. Her biological father 13 00:01:34,640 --> 00:01:40,400 was locked up for child molestation when she was still a baby. And he later died by suicide in prison. 14 00:01:40,960 --> 00:01:45,440 When she was four years old, she and her brother got shipped off to live with their maternal grandparents. 15 00:01:45,440 --> 00:01:52,080 You think that might be a fresh start, right? It wasn't. Her grandfather was an alcoholic who 16 00:01:52,080 --> 00:01:57,600 beat her with a belt for the smallest things. We're not talking about regular discipline. I know 17 00:01:57,600 --> 00:02:02,560 I was hit with a belt occasionally as a child. You listening to me right now, many of you were hit 18 00:02:02,560 --> 00:02:08,400 with a belt as a child. And I wouldn't technically call that abuse. What we're talking about is the 19 00:02:08,400 --> 00:02:14,880 severity of this physical abuse. And it gets worse. There's evidence that he sexually abused her as 20 00:02:14,880 --> 00:02:20,320 well. Her grandmother knew what was happening the whole time and did nothing to stop it. At 14 years 21 00:02:20,320 --> 00:02:26,640 old, Eileen was raped by a family friend. She waited six months before revealing that she was pregnant 22 00:02:26,640 --> 00:02:33,440 and her grandparents blamed her for her own pregnancy. 14-year-old gets raped, becomes pregnant, 23 00:02:33,440 --> 00:02:39,120 and the adults in her life blame her. She was forced to give the baby up for adoption and then her 24 00:02:39,120 --> 00:02:44,960 grandfather kicked her out of the house. At that time, she was 15 years old. So what do you do when 25 00:02:44,960 --> 00:02:50,880 you're 15, homeless, and have been failed by every adult who was supposed to protect you? Eileen 26 00:02:50,880 --> 00:02:56,720 started working as a prostitute along the highways of central Florida. She carried a gun because, 27 00:02:56,720 --> 00:03:02,160 well, sex work is dangerous, and it's Florida. Especially when you're doing it on the side of 28 00:03:02,160 --> 00:03:07,840 highways with complete strangers. Psychologists who studied her case later diagnosed her with 29 00:03:07,840 --> 00:03:13,840 anti-social personality disorder and borderline personality disorder. They pointed to her history of 30 00:03:13,840 --> 00:03:19,440 severe attachment disruptions and trauma as major contributing factors to what happened next. 31 00:03:19,440 --> 00:03:26,560 From late 1989 through late 1990, the bodies of seven middle-aged white men were discovered in 32 00:03:26,560 --> 00:03:32,320 central Florida. The killer had robbed all five victims before shooting them to death and stealing 33 00:03:32,320 --> 00:03:38,560 their cars. The first victim was Richard Mallory. He was 51 years old, a shop owner who picked up 34 00:03:38,560 --> 00:03:45,920 by Leighne along Interstate 75. His body was found several miles from his abandoned car in December 1989. 35 00:03:45,920 --> 00:03:51,920 He'd been shot multiple times in the chest. Then came David Spears, a 43-year-old construction 36 00:03:51,920 --> 00:03:59,440 worker shot six times. Charles Carr's Cadden, 40, part-time rodeo worker shot nine times. Peter 37 00:03:59,440 --> 00:04:05,600 Sims, 65, who was heading to New Jersey. His body was never found, but his car turned up abandoned 38 00:04:05,600 --> 00:04:12,240 on July 4th, 1990. Troy Burris, 50-year-old car salesman, Charles Humphreys, a retired 39 00:04:12,240 --> 00:04:19,360 Air Force major who'd worked as a child abuse investigator. And Walter Antonio, 62, shot four times 40 00:04:19,360 --> 00:04:25,360 in the back and head. Leighne was living with her partner Tyra Moore during all of this. After the 41 00:04:25,360 --> 00:04:31,040 first killing, she told Tyra what she had done. Tyra wasn't scared. And when the police eventually 42 00:04:31,040 --> 00:04:36,800 came knocking, Tyra cooperated. She helped them record a confession from Leighne that led to her 43 00:04:36,800 --> 00:04:43,600 arrest in January 1991. Here's where things get kind of messy. Leighne claimed from the beginning that 44 00:04:43,600 --> 00:04:48,480 she killed these men in self-defense. She said they either raped her or tried to rape her, 45 00:04:48,480 --> 00:04:53,920 and she believed she was going to be beaten or killed if she didn't act first. The prosecution, 46 00:04:53,920 --> 00:04:59,040 they painted her as a cold-blooded murderer, who killed for money and to eliminate witnesses. 47 00:04:59,040 --> 00:05:04,080 But let's talk about what the jury never heard. One example of poor representation revealed in 48 00:05:04,080 --> 00:05:09,840 subsequent appeals was trial counts was failure to uncover Richard Mallory's prior rape conviction, 49 00:05:09,840 --> 00:05:15,520 which could have cooperated Eileen's argument of self-defense. He later became known that Mallory had 50 00:05:15,520 --> 00:05:20,720 previously been convicted of attempted rape in Maryland and had served time in prison. So the 51 00:05:20,720 --> 00:05:26,640 first man that she killed was a prior offender, a convicted rapist. That information existed. The 52 00:05:26,640 --> 00:05:32,240 prosecution knew about it, and it was never presented to the defense team. After the trial, when this 53 00:05:32,240 --> 00:05:37,840 came to light, the judge refused to allow it in as evidence and post trial proceedings. But wait, 54 00:05:37,840 --> 00:05:44,080 there's more. When Eileen gave her videotaped confession, she insisted at least 16 times that she 55 00:05:44,080 --> 00:05:49,680 killed in self-defense. That part of the video was edited out before the jury saw it. 56 00:05:49,680 --> 00:05:55,280 And I don't mean that she killed 16 people. I mean 16 times during the recorded confession. 57 00:05:55,280 --> 00:06:00,640 She said she killed in self-defense. I know I said that weird. And then there's the prosecutor, 58 00:06:00,640 --> 00:06:05,760 John Tanner. This guy had previously written articles calling prostitutes "pure evil." 59 00:06:05,760 --> 00:06:11,440 He was also friends with the presiding judge. Legal experts have pointed out that gender bias 60 00:06:11,440 --> 00:06:16,400 likely played a significant role in how this case was handled. Studies show that women in Florida 61 00:06:16,400 --> 00:06:21,200 were sometimes treated more harshly than men who committed similar crimes. After her conviction 62 00:06:21,200 --> 00:06:27,200 for killing Mallory and her death sentence in 1992, Eileen's story changed. She pleaded guilty 63 00:06:27,200 --> 00:06:32,960 or no contest to the other murders and said she'd killed for robbery, not self-defense. But here's 64 00:06:32,960 --> 00:06:38,240 the thing about that. In a private interview with Documentary in Nick Brumfield, she suggested that 65 00:06:38,240 --> 00:06:42,720 the killings were actually self-defense. She said she couldn't take being on death row anymore 66 00:06:42,720 --> 00:06:47,040 and just wanted the whole thing to be over with. She knew that whatever she said wasn't going to 67 00:06:47,040 --> 00:06:52,960 change the fact that she was on death row. So she just wanted it to be done. Eileen spent over a 68 00:06:52,960 --> 00:06:58,720 decade on Florida's death row and her mental state fell apart during that time. She fired multiple 69 00:06:58,720 --> 00:07:04,960 attorneys. She wrote rambling motions claiming she was being abused. In 2001, she dropped all of her 70 00:07:04,960 --> 00:07:10,800 appeals. She said she wanted to die because, quote, "She seriously hates human life and would kill 71 00:07:10,800 --> 00:07:16,240 again if they kept her alive." Some of her former lawyers raised concerns that she wasn't mentally 72 00:07:16,240 --> 00:07:21,680 competent to give up her appeals. But state appointed psychiatrist to examine her and said that she 73 00:07:21,680 --> 00:07:28,080 was competent enough to make that decision. On October 9, 2002, Eileen Wernos was executed by 74 00:07:28,080 --> 00:07:34,480 lethal injection. Her final words were honestly pretty disturbing. She said, "I just like to say 75 00:07:34,480 --> 00:07:40,000 I'm sailing with the rock and I'll be back like Independence Day, like Jesus, June 6, 76 00:07:40,000 --> 00:07:46,480 like the movie, big mother ship and all. I'll be back." A lot of experts saw those final words as 77 00:07:46,480 --> 00:07:52,800 confirmation that her mental state had completely deteriorated. All right, look, I'm not here to say 78 00:07:52,800 --> 00:07:58,640 that Eileen Wernos was innocent. Seven men are dead. That's a fact. You can't do that. You can't kill 79 00:07:58,640 --> 00:08:04,320 other people. But what I am saying is that her case raises some seriously uncomfortable questions 80 00:08:04,320 --> 00:08:09,360 about how our justice system handles people who have been victimized their entire lives 81 00:08:09,360 --> 00:08:14,400 and then become perpetrators themselves. And again, I'm not saying had she not be put on death 82 00:08:14,400 --> 00:08:20,000 row, she should just be released into the wild, not at all. What I am saying is when you're sexually 83 00:08:20,000 --> 00:08:25,600 abused as a child, kicked out at 15, forced into sex work to survive, and then you kill someone who 84 00:08:25,600 --> 00:08:30,320 you claim tried to rape you. And it turns out that person was actually a convicted rapist. But 85 00:08:30,320 --> 00:08:35,760 nobody tells your jury that information. That is not justice. It's a broken system. 86 00:08:35,760 --> 00:08:41,760 Eileen Wernos's story is a dark reminder of what happens when childhood trauma goes unaddressed. 87 00:08:41,760 --> 00:08:47,040 When society fails the most vulnerable people and when the legal system cares more about getting 88 00:08:47,040 --> 00:08:54,400 a conviction and getting the truth, was Eileen a victim? Absolutely. Was she also a killer? 89 00:08:55,040 --> 00:09:00,560 Yes, both things can be true at the same time. And maybe that's the most important lesson here. 90 00:09:00,560 --> 00:09:06,400 People aren't always one thing or the other. Sometimes they're both. And our justice system needs 91 00:09:06,400 --> 00:09:16,560 to be able to handle that complexity instead of ignoring it. 92 00:09:22,400 --> 00:09:28,960 Thanks for listening to 10 Minute Murder, Bingeable True Crime Stories. I am Joe, I'm your host, 93 00:09:28,960 --> 00:09:32,800 and sometimes I feel it's weird to introduce myself after the story's over. 94 00:09:32,800 --> 00:09:37,600 Normally, introductions are done at the beginning, but that's not what we do here. 95 00:09:37,600 --> 00:09:42,240 And to be honest, I switched it to this way because I thought it's important to jump right into 96 00:09:42,240 --> 00:09:48,080 the story because all of our attention spans are shorter. If I were to do this rambling bit 97 00:09:48,080 --> 00:09:53,280 toward the beginning, most of you would tune out. Although there is a big group of you that say that 98 00:09:53,280 --> 00:09:58,320 this part of the episode is your favorite part of the episode where I just ramble about nonsense and 99 00:09:58,320 --> 00:10:01,840 different things. And I read a weird email from one of you that listens to my weird podcast 100 00:10:01,840 --> 00:10:06,560 because we're all weird here. Except for this one, I got an email that I'm going to read right now 101 00:10:06,560 --> 00:10:10,960 and it's not weird. It's just like a straight up one of the most one of the most normal emails I've 102 00:10:10,960 --> 00:10:16,720 gotten in a while, by the way. Here it is. Subjects, hold on, I can't see it. Subject cold cases and chaos. 103 00:10:17,280 --> 00:10:22,160 Hey, Joe, I've noticed that some of the cold cases you cover are way messier than the solved ones. 104 00:10:22,160 --> 00:10:26,560 It's like they were written by someone who lost the plot halfway through. Do you have any case that 105 00:10:26,560 --> 00:10:32,400 stands out as the most unnecessarily complicated? Or like, how do they even allow this to happen? 106 00:10:32,400 --> 00:10:38,880 Levels of messy. That's from Trina in Houston. And Trina, let me tell you, yes. And I just covered the 107 00:10:38,880 --> 00:10:43,760 case and I've covered it twice now in this podcast and I can't stop talking about it. It's the 108 00:10:43,760 --> 00:10:48,960 Ellen Greenberg case. You haven't heard about that. Look it up. There's been some recent news 109 00:10:48,960 --> 00:10:53,440 dealing with her case. And when you do look it up, you're going to see, oh, that's a suicide. Why 110 00:10:53,440 --> 00:10:58,960 is Joe talked about this twice? Because there's no possible way, in my opinion, that that's a suicide. 111 00:10:58,960 --> 00:11:04,400 That lady was attacked and murdered in her own home. And instead of me explaining this whole thing 112 00:11:04,400 --> 00:11:10,080 right now, just go back and listen to the Ellen Greenberg story on my podcast. And you'll see exactly 113 00:11:10,080 --> 00:11:13,920 what I'm talking about. It's so frustrating. But Trina, thank you for the email. It's a great question. 114 00:11:13,920 --> 00:11:20,160 If you've got a question, you can go to 10minutemerder.com and email me there. There's also on the website, 115 00:11:20,160 --> 00:11:25,360 all kinds of information about the podcast, where to listen, where to follow on social media, 116 00:11:25,360 --> 00:11:29,440 all that cool stuff. Before I forget, if you're a new listener, make sure you hit subscribe. 117 00:11:29,440 --> 00:11:33,280 If you're an OG listener, I love you with my whole heart. And that's going to do it. 118 00:11:33,280 --> 00:11:38,480 That's your episode for today. Thank you again for listening to 10 Minute Murder. See you next time.