I honestly don't know how anybody could be attracted to that.
I mean, she was not...
She was vile, and she was not attractive.
Well, I wouldn't want to meet her in a dark alley.
So...
It kind of baffles me how she got any customers at all.
I mean, hitchhiking and prostituting herself...
I don't think that's the way our maker intended us to use our bodies.
She's like the trifecta.
Gay, female, sex worker.
And killing white men.
So very easy to execute with no conscience.
You know, we wrote for eight years, up until her execution.
Then in 1997, she said, "So,
I'm going to tell you the truth of my life and the crimes
because I wanna make it right with God."
Hey.
Um...
- Where do I sit? - Here.
Okay.
Who's... who's this right here?
This is Kay.
Kay.
Hi.
- And that's who? - Jane.
- Yeah.
- Hi, nice meeting you. - Hi.
And Jasmine.
Jasmine! What's happening?
Hi.
Can I get a photo with you?
Hey, yeah, man.
One, two, three.
Ah, I was not ready at all.
Okay.
Thank you.
I'm so glad you guys are here.
And, um, I was so concerned.
I had, uh, some freaky dreams, man. I don't even want to mention the dreams.
I know Montel Williams, you know?
He has a bald head, right? He was taking this stuff
and he was putting it all over his bald head.
It cracked me up.
Let me... let me see in the mirror the way I look.
Out there, I would never wear this.
If you want me to,
I'll just roll with my childhood, you know,
and roll up through everything and... and kind of like...
so you'll get the information that you need to, um...
- Uh, whatever you want to do with this. - Mm-hmm.
Um, Jaz, you know, I give you...
- Signature. Okay. - That's me.
You know, I give you...
I give you full permission
to do whatever you do in the future with this, you know?
You guys are gonna make millions off this.
When the last leaf of autumn Has fallen to the ground
And the icy wind Through the empty trees
Makes a howling sound
At first it drives you indoors And then it drives you mad
That's when you know you need it
And you know you need it now
You need the sunshine and sea breeze
Soft sand and palm trees of Florida
Florida
When you need it bad
We've got it good
When you need it bad
Come to Florida
'Cause we've got it good here
You need it bad...
August in Florida?
Oh my gosh, it's hot.
And, of course, you know Florida's a very transient state.
We have the... the people that live there.
And then we have the people that come there just in the winter.
We call them the snowbirds.
My name's Steve Binegar, and I was a captain
with the Marion County Sheriff's Office in Ocala, Florida.
And I was in charge of the Criminal Investigations Division.
These sand roads like this are all throughout the National Forest.
The hunters call them pig trails.
This was the Burress scene.
Troy Burress.
The company that he worked for, Gilchrist Sausage...
They had good sausage.
But it's...
...you know, it's like, "Hey, our guy hasn't showed up."
"We don't know... Maybe he's broke down."
Then also, you know, his truck was found literally out in the middle of nowhere.
There was nothing there.
There's nothing like a decomposing body.
I mean, it's like... It's a smell.
I can... I... You know, when I'm talking about it right now,
and I can almost smell it and taste it in my mouth.
Follow the yellow road.
How did this person end up down this road,
and then how did his truck end up eight miles away?
He knew who the suspect was.
This isn't a stranger-on-stranger type of homicide.
Okay. This is Troy Burress.
Uh, before photo.
Uh, this is an after photo. This is a tight shot of some bullet holes,
and it kind of looked like in there somewhere.
And then another body showed up.
This is Charles. Nickname Dick. Last name Humphreys.
The Humphreys murder was more brutal.
There were seven bullets, not two.
And it's the same bullets.
Wonder if these are related.
It wasn't uncommon to do a fax blast to all agencies in the State of Florida,
saying, "Does anybody have anything similar?"
Information started coming back.
Citrus had one body. Pasco had one body.
Dixie had one body. Volusia had one body.
We had two.
Seven men were killed within a 12-month period.
All found dead in the woods.
As the cases began to progress, we'd see the headshot more.
The passion of the person who's committing these murders
is increasing.
The rage.
The first murder that we knew about was Richard Mallory.
This is Mr. Mallory.
Found in December of '89.
Mr. Mallory.
- His car. - His car.
In every case, the victim's vehicle was found
in some other part of the state.
Seats were pulled forward.
Same description of the projectiles as the other victims.
All white, middle-aged men.
There were used rubbers and a blonde hair found at one of the crime scenes.
It's like, "Wait a minute. This is a woman out here doing this?"
They were traveling on this road right here.
- Coming around this bend. - Coming around this corner.
Traveling through here, ran off the road, hit this gate.
Uh-huh.
Went through the gate, on into these bushes here,
where, when the car came to a stop,
they got out, took the tag off, started wiping it down, uh,
took some belongings they had in there, and beat feet down the road.
Here you'd been investigating for how long, months?
Oh yeah.
And you first get this break, and you go, "Oh my goodness, it's a woman."
- Were you shocked? - Yeah, I was. I...
Some of the other investigators had played with that idea.
Said this possibly could be woman.
This is really the turning point in the case that I think,
it's when we found out that two women had the car
of a middle-aged victim who was missing,
who was traveling from Jupiter, Florida, all the way up to Arkansas,
who never got to his destination.
It's like, okay, now we've got something we can sink our teeth into.
Something we can be looking for.
So then, after that, we talked to witnesses.
We get a composite of two women that were seen in a car.
And when we started spreading them all over the country
and started getting information back and leads,
then the ball started rolling, and things started happening for us.
And we got a car coming.
That's her. That's the one that talked to, uh, the girls right there.
And reported it to us.
These drawings came out in the newspaper.
Two women are running around Florida, shooting guys.
And I said, "There has to be a reason why."
And I was driven to find out what that reason was.
Well, it's a landmark case in, uh, criminal investigation
because of the... you know, the female aspect.
The latest John that we just identified, his vehicle was on I-75.
I'm Jackie Giroux. I'm a producer.
I was the first person to sign Aileen Wuornos to do her life story.
I'm glad that I didn't take them nowhere.
You know, if I didn't get their car fixed,
they might've took me down the road and done me in or something.
In '87,
when I started really producing,
all they wanted was stories about true crime.
We're looking at similarities of these two girls.
Hopefully, we'll find some new evidence.
We just extended our search to about another square mile
that we're trying to look into.
My mother called me up and said, "I think I just saw this female serial killer."
And I said to my mother, "You should have given her my card."
It was meant to be for me to find that story.
So I flew to Florida,
and my brother drove me to various bars, including the Last Resort Bar.
I hung up, uh, like, small Post-it notes saying,
"If you are the female who's killing men, I'd like to do your story."
And I signed my name and my phone number.
That was it.
I go back to Hollywood.
I just wait.
Yeah, I just waited.
As this thing went more public, we got over 500 leads right off the bat.
Several names kept coming up for the blonde.
Everything pointed to the fact that she was the most aggressive.
Probably most likely was our shooter.
We started looking at the pawn shops.
And we discovered property that belonged to Richard Mallory.
So now that we've got a fingerprint...
The fingerprints don't lie.
Aileen Carol Wuornos.
Who is this?
Jerry, she won't leave with us.
We can get her outside the bar.
All we... all we gotta do is pull out front and blow the horn.
She'll come out here and talk to us.
But we need to get her outta there now.
Is everybody ready to go, Jerry?
All right, buddy. Bye.
I always give credit to the good Lord
because I believe He was guiding us,
and I know He was guiding me in this investigation.
Lee, come here, baby.
And I believe that, uh, He delivered her to us.
You go back up here?
- Go in the bar. - What do you need to know?
If you go back up here, to this main road...
- Down on... - ...it goes this-a-way.
Sheriff's Department, Volusia County. Step over here, ma'am.
What the hell is going on here?
I want to know what the hell is going on here.
All right, I'd like to know why I'm being arrested, by the way.
- What did I just tell you? - No, you didn't tell me nothing.
How many times do I have to tell you? You're under arrest.
- For what? - For a warrant!
- For what warrant? - A warrant!
Then I get a call.
The day she was arrested.
She says, "I'm the girl you're looking for."
"I'm the girl who's been shooting the men."
She had read my note.
And she said, "Well, first of all,
do you do movies or books?"
I thought, "Okay, she's... she's auditioning me, right?"
I said, "Mostly movies."
She goes, "Great. My story is unbelievable."
Okay, so I'll start just explaining, okay?
So when I was little,
I was adopted by my grandmother and grandfather.
My grandmother was really clean and decent.
Did not swear.
Did not drink.
She was into Jesus Christ.
Grandfather was a sergeant in World War II.
He was very stringent, but he was not nasty.
A very decent, moral upbringing.
Not any impurities or, uh, perversion
or battery or any of that jazz.
He accidentally hit me with a belt.
Oh my goodness, one time. So what, you know?
It was... it wasn't that big of a deal.
At around probably 14,
my grandmother died from cirrhosis of the liver.
I'll always miss her.
And I'll always love her.
At around 15, I ran away from home.
I got caught, went to Adrian's Training School for six months.
When I got out, I hit that road, and I split from the state.
On the road, 24-7, for four years.
Nonstop.
I must've been raped, I'd say, about...
30 times, maybe more.
I'm sorry about all the rape that you've had.
- It doesn't bother me because I... - No?
It's been...
I'm tough, you know?
A... a wussy woman, it would bother her.
But I'm tough, man. I've been through hell, uh, Jaz.
I think a lot of women understand.
You know, that... who've been raped all their life, like they...
- You get messed up, and you dream of it-- - I was gang raped.
I was gang raped twice when I was a kid by my high school friends.
My high school friends, man, gang raped my ass.
I got to take a leak.
Southern Orlando's Magic 107.7 FM.
Well, tonight, a woman sits in a Daytona Beach jail.
Sheriff's deputies say she may have killed seven people.
Their bodies were found dumped near major highways in Central Florida.
Tips led deputies to Daytona Beach
and a woman identified as Aileen Carol Wuornos,
a 34-year-old transient.
She was arrested eight days ago,
and on Wednesday was charged with the murder
of Richard Mallory of Clearwater.
There are women who have killed children
and elderly people in nursing homes,
but a female who's a... a predator that goes out seeking men,
it's a little different.
Anyone that would resort to that sort of violence
deserves the maximum punishment.
The motive behind these murders is unclear,
but authorities say Wuornos is a killer who robs, not a robber who kills.
We have identified, uh, pieces of property from, uh... from different victims
that were either in her possession at the time of her arrest on the ninth
or were in storage, uh, facilities.
There was some money taken in most of the cases,
but, uh, it didn't appear to be necessary to take the life of these men.
This is Judge Briese, everyone.
You are here for the purposes of a first appearance hearing of charge.
You do have a right to remain silent.
Anything you say can and will be used against you in court.
Do you solemnly swear the testimony you're giving
will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Is it Aileen Wuornos?
- Wuornos. - Wuornos?
Ma'am, you are here on a warrant signed by...
Aileen Wuornos used to call me, and we talked about 25 to 30 times.
No, sir.
She would call collect, and my daughter would answer the phone.
"Hey, Mom, the serial killer's on the phone!"
I wanted to make the right movie about her.
"You tell me your story, and I will write it."
That was our deal.
And I said, "Do you have a lawyer?"
And she said, "Yes, it's Russell Armstrong."
I said, "You need to have him call me."
Let me... let me, uh, cover the bases here.
- Are you working now? - No, sir.
- Do you have any sources of income? - None at all.
- Checking or savings accounts? - Nope.
- Own any real estate? - Nope.
- Have any children? - No.
You've got a public defender. Thank you, ma'am.
Thank you.
Wuornos had been traveling Central Florida
with her lesbian lover, Tyria Moore,
when the killings took place.
Her attorneys say Wuornos made the confession
to Volusia County deputies
only when her girlfriend, Moore, asked her to.
Authorities say Moore is a material witness
and aren't filing charges against her.
- Your full name is Tyria? - Tyria.
- T-Y... - T-Y-R-I-A.
Okay.
When did you decide to leave Lee?
In December of '90.
Why?
Because I'd seen composite drawings on TV of two females
and they had spoke of the car that we had wrecked.
At that point, I... This is enough. You know, I've had enough.
I can't... I'm not going to go to prison for something that she did.
And that... that was like drawing the line right there.
Then what happened?
Then, in December of '91,
um, law enforcement contacted me.
There was officers from Florida that wanted to speak with me,
then I knew exactly why they were there.
And I told them right from the beginning
that, you know, I had nothing to do with it,
but I am willing to... to help you.
You came back to Florida
and had conversations with her that were taped by the police.
She didn't know that.
Why did you decide to allow your phone conversation to be taped with her?
At the time, I didn't do it for the police at that time.
I did it for myself.
Were you afraid of being arrested?
Yeah, I was... I was scared.
Did police make a deal with you?
You won't go to jail if you testify against her?
No.
Why did you get her to confess?
I was just living with her for four and a half years.
I know her better than, I think, anyone else does.
And I think she's very intelligent.
She knows how to work around things. She could lie her way out of anything.
And that's mainly why I wanted her to confess to the murders.
It's because I knew she could lie her way out of it.
- Good morning. - Good morning.
How are you?
- You remember me the other night? - No, I don't.
I was the one that gave you the coffee and the cigarettes
when you were arrested.
How you doing?
Well, I came here to confess to murder.
Okay. Let me stop you just a second, okay?
If you cannot afford to pay for counsel,
we will furnish you with counsel if you so desire. Do you understand?
- What does counsel mean? - An attorney.
Oh yeah.
Well, like, what's an attorney gonna do? I...
I know what I did. I'm confessing what I did.
Go ahead and put the electric chair to me.
I'm gonna... I just don't...
I should have never done it.
If you want an attorney at any time,
you just say, "I'd like to have an attorney."
I can't advise you one way or the other what you should do.
It has to be solely your decision.
I don't know what to do.
I know that I don't want my girlfriend involved,
because this is why I'm doing this.
Tyria Moore's her name.
They've been talking to her parents, detectives and all.
She did not do anything.
And I'm trying to make this clear. That's why I'm confessing.
Were there nights where you were trying to sleep,
laying next to you is a woman who you know by now has killed people,
that you were just sickened, disgusted?
Yeah, I thought about it. A lot.
I thought, you know, "How could I...
How could I be in love with someone that... that has killed?"
And it... I don't know if it's a question that can be answered.
You know, why I... why I did love her.
She was just... she was a great person. She was very caring.
And, you know, I did fall in love.
Tyria really was kinda on the shy side.
It was not easy to be a gay woman in the 1990s.
She got out of Pennsylvania, came to Florida
to try to start a new life.
It was a real relationship between the two of them.
Tyria couldn't let go any more than Wuornos could let go.
I kept asking her stuff about Tyria, and she was going,
"I don't want her to be involved. I'm going to protect her."
And then there was, "Back off from Tyria."
"This was all me, and I'm here to tell that story."
I was on the road from 16 to 20.
I'm hitchhiking, and I'm hooking.
Running into a lot of situations 'cause I never had a place to live.
I slept under viaducts, abandoned homes, cow pastures.
I finally wound up in Daytona Beach.
I got me a job at a... a motel.
I was 20 years old.
I was going out with guys and all that stuff
and trying to fall in love with... ...you know...
It's not cool being, uh, alone.
It turns into a real drag.
And I met this guy, and he was a mama's boy.
His mom didn't want me to be with him, and he was going to go back to mama,
and I told him if he did, I'd shoot myself.
So I wound up shooting myself with .22 in the stomach.
It went right through my bod and just missed my spine.
Ray was another guy I fell in love with.
Probably around 24, 25.
But he was whiskey-bent, bottle-bent alcoholic,
and every time he started getting really, really drunk, he was abusive.
So I was thinking about going ahead and killing myself again.
But I never did.
So I head out to the Keys.
I decide I'm going to be a beach bum in the Keys.
And I met Toni, the first lesbian, at 28 now.
And, uh, this is my first encounter with lesbianism.
And she turns me on to it for the first time in my life.
She's been called the hooker from hell.
Police say Aileen Wuornos terrorized men along Florida's highways,
luring them into her web of death.
She's a wild, boozing, lesbian prostitute, she admits.
We're dealing with violence, extreme violence.
You look at women as being frail. Uh, this woman's not frail.
This is probably the meanest woman I ever met in my life.
She is not a monster. She is not a butch.
Um, she is a very caring, compassionate,
feminine human being with a heart of gold.
I saw her picture in the newspaper, and I get butterflies.
Then, when I was out on the lawn mower, like ten days later,
Jesus asked me to reach out to her.
"I want you to write her a letter and tell her about me."
"I want you to help her."
You're looking at expectant parents.
Bob and Arlene Pralle are going to a judge's office
to adopt suspected mass murderer Aileen Wuornos.
A few moments later, they emerge with the piece of paper
that makes Wuornos their legal daughter.
How do they feel about that?
Euphoric. I just want to burst into tears.
I wanted to be a mom forever.
It was awesome.
I mean, just unbelievable.
We talked every single night.
Our phone bills were $1,200 a month.
And we talked, and we talked. We prayed.
And I said, "Why do you keep hedging...
...about wanting to accept Jesus in your heart
and have the same peace that I've got?"
And she said, "Do you really want the truth?"
She said, "Because if I accept him and I'm born-again,
I feel you're just going to leave me like everybody else."
"Leave you?"
I said, "I just want to make sure if something happens to you,
you're going to heaven."
She said, "Well, in that case, can I do it right now, right here over the phone?"
Is that incredible?
It was a God thing.
It was truly 100% a God thing.
We've been together now since the end of January,
and yet I have never once seen this portrait
that the newspaper is portraying.
She recognized, "I'm the topic, the top topic of conversation."
"I'm a star."
And she ordered everybody around like Faye Dunaway on steroids.
Because the news media made her the queen of serial killers.
And that was her notoriety.
She wanted to be famous.
What do you know about Aileen that you feel the rest of the world doesn't know?
I had never, ever, ever been on any TV,
not even a blurb in a newspaper.
Lee was so excited about it.
And she'd call and say, "Oh, you did awesome."
"I have these other people I want to send you."
It was like she was my agent...
...forcing me to go out and do all these things.
Like, no, I don't want to do this.
I find myself on the cover of the local Ocala papers.
Glamour magazine. They came to the farm.
I mean, it was never, ever ending.
All the time.
Now, she was nice sometimes,
but there were other times she was like a tyrant
of, "How come you haven't found Dawn yet?"
"Don't you want this story?"
She told me, "Go to Michigan. Go see Dawn,"
that Dawn had her younger story.
She knew everything about her. They were best friends.
So I go to Michigan, it's the middle of a snowstorm,
and no one in Michigan knew this story. No one.
I was like the first person to break the news.
She had a horrible childhood.
There is a lot of people that's had bad lives,
but not from day get go.
This poor kid had a child, you know, was raped and had a child.
Her grandmother died,
and she was abandoned, living out, you know, in the woods.
And her older brother and sister got to stay in houses.
That's where she got to be a prostitute.
She needed food and things, cigarettes for her brother and sister.
Why didn't they take care of her?
When they told me she was a prostitute, I had no idea what a prostitute was.
I didn't.
I was like, "What's that?"
They said she had a baby. And I said, "She had a baby?"
And she did.
And I... I never asked her about it because I knew it'd bother her.
But she used to... Her and her sister stayed at my house a lot. So did her brother.
And we all wore each other's clothes.
Even Keith was about all of our same size, and Ducky and all of us.
And you could tell she did. That's...
And I thought, "Yeah, she did have a baby."
You know, but I just never brought it up to her.
The feeling I walked away was nobody was looking at the cookie jar.
Those kids started drinking when they were like ten years old,
sneaking booze and everything.
Nobody was guiding them.
Nobody was educating them.
Nobody was telling them the difference between right and wrong.
34-year-old Aileen Wuornos
pleaded not guilty to the charges she faces.
She will undergo a psychiatric exam in the next week or so.
There's a report of a prior suicide attempt, for one thing.
She was abandoned by her mom at the age of six months.
Her grandmother discovered her in an attic covered with flies.
Heavy use of drugs and alcohol since she was 13.
I think her abuse led to her acting like she did.
I think she could maybe be saved with some therapy.
Aileen Wuornos faces five first-degree murder charges,
and there could be as many as five more indictments to come.
If she's found guilty on any of those charges,
she could end up facing Florida's electric chair.
Only police know where 28-year-old Tyria Moore has been living
for the last 11 months.
She's reportedly hiding out of state and showed up for a deposition today
only after the court ordered her to appear.
The strong bond between the two women
led Wuornos to confess to killing at least five of the men.
While police recorded their telephone conversations,
Moore allegedly convinced Wuornos to admit to the killings.
I went to the pre-trial hearings every single day.
And soon as it was over, I went to the jail
and spent the evening with her through glass.
God just gave me the strength to do all of it
because that was what I was supposed to do.
You've put me in a difficult position.
I've got...
My first involvement with Aileen Wuornos was her case.
Richard Mallory was assigned to me.
We think it is absolutely necessary.
I think you don't really know what happened
if you don't consider the why.
She killed seven men.
She readily said
during that same time period, she had had 400 johns.
She hadn't killed any of them.
Why these seven?
Why didn't she kill all of them?
She didn't kill a single person before she met Tyria Moore.
Think about that.
Mm-hmm.
Tyria Moore was the catalyst that pushed her over the edge.
Counsel, approach the bench.
Lee did not know about the recordings at all.
She never knew
that the police were right there with Ty, and it was all fake.
Fake, fake, fake, to get her to confess.
Why did you answer those questions?
I was scared.
Who were you scared of?
I was scared of being arrested.
When you lied to Miss Wuornos about these things, why did you do that?
Because I wanted her to talk to me about the offenses so I would be cleared.
Okay.
Hello?
- Ty? - Yes?
- Hi. - Hey.
What the hell's going on, Lee? They've been up to my parents' again.
They've got my sister now, asking her questions.
I don't know what the hell's going on.
Huh.
What are they asking your sister questions for?
- I don't know. - Hm.
Lee, they're coming after me. I know they are.
No, they're not, Ty.
Why are they asking so many questions then?
Honey, listen, listen, listen.
Do what you gotta do, okay?
I'm gonna have to because I'm not gonna go to jail
for something that you did. This isn't fair.
My family is a nervous wreck up there.
My mom has been calling me all the time.
She doesn't know what the hell's going on.
- Ty? - What?
I'm not going to let you go to jail.
I don't know whether I should keep on living or if I should...
No, Ty, Ty, listen.
What if they don't believe me?
- Ty. - What?
I love you.
If I have to confess everything
just to keep you from getting in trouble, I will.
Okay.
- Don't worry, okay? - Okay.
I love you.
Well, do it now. Get it over with.
- Right at this very moment? - Yes, get it over with.
All right.
- Okay? You can call me back later. - Okay. But be careful.
- All right. - All right. Okay, bye.
Can you imagine the betrayal?
They took advantage of her.
They've already put her in a situation with Tyria that...
She's going to say anything to protect her.
They weren't looking for the truth.
I don't know how to put this, but...
The pissing on the system.
I mean, she obviously really loved this woman.
To her detriment.
When I met Toni, it was totally different.
A lot of loving and understanding each other's ways and stuff.
And so I started to agree with the lesbianism.
I was hooking all over in the Keys.
Then I started on the highways.
I had double-barrel shotguns to my head, ...357 Magnums to my head.
So when a cop friend of mine told me to go ahead and get a gun,
it was purely for protection.
I had to do what I had to do.
I'm with Toni for about a year, but she splits on me.
And I finally wound up back in Daytona and met Tyria.
So when I met Tyria,
we never left each other except for when we worked.
And I was a cook. I was cooking for Ty.
I cleaned the place for Ty.
Ty didn't do nothing. She didn't have to move a muscle.
I loved her so bad. She did not have to move a muscle.
And do you hear from Ty anymore? Or just...
I just... No, I haven't seen Ty.
I haven't heard from Ty since 1992, I think it's been.
Do you miss her?
Yes.
Miss her a lot. I always miss her.
And I'll always love her.
And I'll be thinking about her the day I'm executed.
- I'll be thinking about her leaving. - Mm.
I loved her so bad.
And the only reason I carried that gun is 'cause I loved her so much.
I wanted to make sure that I got home alive, in one piece.
So I'd be another day breathing with her, you know?
Yeah.
But it didn't turn out that way. It got all screwed up.
I'm sorry.
Who do you think Lee Wuornos is?
Amoral at best. Uh, immoral at worst. And, uh...
I'm... I'm afraid she is indicative of... of what's coming in... in our society
and has been evolving in the past 30 years.
He's got the whole world In His hands
He's got the whole wide world In His hands...
Not unlike a religious revival meeting,
Tanner supporters sing hymns and sing praises
to the state's attorney's anti-pornography efforts.
We especially thank God for John Tanner.
Obscenity kills women and children.
The decent people are going to demand the laws be enforced,
and the pornographers have got to go.
John Tanner was the lead prosecutor
and running in the election for state's attorney at the same time.
...in Volusia County are going to...
Aileen Wuornos was everything he detested.
And he thought she would be an easy conviction.
- Everything's set up. Go ahead. - Okay.
Go ahead and what, John? You want me talking or...
So you were assigned to be the judge on the Wuornos case.
What happened?
The state, uh, about a month prior to trial,
filed a motion to disqualify me or recuse me.
Why?
Uh...
I can't really tell you. Uh...
This was a direct attack on me
that I was not the person they wanted to try this case.
They knew that I would give this woman a fair trial.
And they had no intentions of that ever happening.
Now you've got to look at the mental status of the person
at the time they make the confession and what may be factors
causing them to do it at the time.
You wanted to have other evidence brought in regarding the confession.
Yes.
But obviously, in your being so vigorous in what you were doing,
they didn't like you.
They went and got you taken off the trial.
Uh, I guess so.
Kind of a backhanded compliment.
Um, I guess so.
I was angry.
I was angry that...
...Tanner got his way.
But in looking at this case, um...
And there's nothing I could do about it.
It seems like it's a good possibility that it could be because you're a woman.
I would hope not.
Partly cloudy tonight, some patchy late night fog is possible
with a low of 55.
And the At Work Network continues, coming next.
What makes this more than just another bizarre story
about a string of murders
is the very fact that Lee Wuornos is a woman.
And if found guilty, she would win the distinction
of being the nation's first female serial killer
who violently confronted her victims.
In Hollywood, it was as though a siren sounded.
A new true-crime tale was ready-made for the movies.
Been dead about 24 hours.
Wuornos was but a sketch on a wanted poster
when TV producers started calling the Marion County Sheriff's Office
looking to make a deal with investigators working the case.
Entry wounds are small.
Binegar and two other sheriff's deputies
hired attorney Rob Bradshaw to field the calls from Hollywood.
I'd talk to one and they'd say, "Oh yes, CBS told me you just signed with Lorimar,
and Lorimar told me you signed with CBS." I'm like...
Deputy's competitor, Jacqueline Giroux, is quick to challenge
what they're up to.
It would be very altered to have three sheriffs
and, uh, someone who's turning state's evidence to go in there
and be discussing their case with CBS and Republic Pictures,
when, uh, that's only supposed to come out at the trial.
You get any fingerprints out of here?
Uh, nothing. Just some beer koozies, some cigarette butts...
...and blonde hair.
-These three cops made a deal with CBS... - Major!
Captain Binegar on line two.
...before she even pled a plea.
Steve, what's happened?
We arrested her, but she's...
We wanted this story told accurately,
and we wanted the people who participated in this
to be portrayed in the role that they... that they had in this investigation.
I never discussed dollar amounts with anybody.
If I was part of a project,
I wanted to make sure it was right. That was it.
I mean, we'd go from heroes to zeros, you know, and...
and it's like, how did this even happen?
It's apparently a very dog-eat-dog world.
You know? I mean, it ended up personally costing me my position.
Now, just in case anybody's wondering where my loyalties are,
they're right here in this room. All right?
- Yeah. - Yup.
Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen.
This is one of the most unpleasant things I've ever had to do.
And I'll read to you a... a release...
They should have all gone to jail. All of them.
...1992, Major Dan Henry...
And guess what? They just got fired.
She wasn't treated right.
She didn't get justice.
Aileen Wuornos could not be more different
than the group of people chosen to determine her fate.
The land boasts no wildlife, no prostitutes of any kind,
and any booze is deeply frowned upon.
Yet it's the religious fervor that made it so difficult to seat a jury.
One woman said God spoke to her about this case last night.
He wants me to remove myself.
In the end, the panel of seven women and five men
said they were up to the job.
The trial is attracting national media attention,
as well as the attention of several screenwriters and authors.
Aileen Wuornos showed little emotion
as she was led into the courthouse in DeLand, Florida.
Wuornos is accused of killing an electronics repair shop owner.
They started proceedings for Richard Mallory,
which was the first one.
The others would follow,
but right now, it was just concentrated on Richard Mallory.
It was intense.
Her lawyer, Trish Jenkins, gave me a list of stuff to get.
Lee was adamant, "I don't want anything frilly,
just normal clothes and a cross."
She wanted a cross, so we bought her a gold cross.
The opening statements that the attorneys now make
are intended to help you properly understand the issues,
the evidence, and the applicable law,
and I would request that you give them your closest attention.
Ladies and gentlemen, the evidence is going to show
that when Aileen Wuornos
jumped into the car with Richard Mallory
on that rainy night in December of 1989,
she had no idea
that she was going to be traveling with him into a nightmare
and that that ride would ultimately bring her into this courtroom today.
All that Richard Mallory had, she took,
including his life.
And under the law... under the law,
she must pay with her life.
Objection, Your Honor.
We don't think that women have a special dispensation
when it comes to death penalty.
We think the law applies equally to all citizens, men and women alike.
I want them to treat her like a human being.
I mean, we've been hearing in there, all of us,
that she is innocent until proven guilty.
I want them to treat her like she's innocent
until she's proven guilty. That's what I want.
In Florida, the prosecution played a chilling videotape at the trial
of an accused serial killer.
Aileen Wuornos watched her own confession
to a year-long string of killings.
The version the jury heard today lasts only 20 minutes
and contains only references to Richard Mallory's death.
The defense could fight back with courtroom drama of their own.
Aileen Wuornos might take the stand.
She's shy. She's scared of the cameras.
I mean, I don't know what's going to happen.
We've got two cameras.
Wow, this looks better than last time.
Come right around over here and take that seat.
Montel Williams had it really terrible.
I'm glad at least it all looks like an improvement to you.
Yeah. It's really...
Okay, all right.
I want to start right now with, do you think you belong here?
No. Mm-mm.
Why?
But I'm... I'm not a serial killer.
I'm... I... I didn't kill those men, like, everyday profile of a serial killer,
and I didn't plan these murders or anything like that.
Why did you kill the men?
Self-defense.
Most of her testimony,
I remember sitting there praying through the whole thing,
just that she would be able to get through it.
Do you remember catching a ride with Richard Mallory?
Uh, yes.
If you remember, when did you meet him?
It was at the end of November.
Were you hitching a ride when Mallory picked you up?
Yeah, okay. So, uh... Yes, I was underneath the bridge.
I was in... I mean, not Fort Lauderdale, Fort Myers.
I had made some money. I made almost $300, $350.
It was around 10:30 at night. It was drizzling outside.
A vehicle passed, and its headlights went on in the vehicle,
and I saw one head, so I felt all right, walked up to the car.
I opened the door, and I said, "Did... did you stop for me?"
And he said, "Yeah. Are you going to Orlando?"
I said, "No, I'm going Daytona." He said, "Wow, your lucky day, man,
'cause I'm going all the way to Daytona."
I said, "Wow, this is great."
So I got in the car.
You agreed to go to an area to what, allegedly talk?
- Mm-hmm. - Okay.
You're with him, but at some point, you agreed to have sex with him for money.
You both got undressed,
and then he said to you, "Guess what? I'm not paying you." According to you.
And I said, "Well, that's it. I'm not here for my health."
"The game's over." You know? And I started to turn around. And that's...
When I turned around to go get my clothes,
that's when he whipped the cord around my neck.
He was choking me, and I was holding it like this,
and he said, "Do you want to die, slut?"
And I just nodded no.
And then he said,
"You're going to do everything I tell you to do,
and if you don't, I'll kill you right now and I'll fuck you after,
like... just like the other sluts I've done."
And...
I had to lift up my hands like this, and he tied my hands,
and he tied me to the steering wheel.
And he got out of the car,
and he told me, "Slide up and get comfortable,"
'cause he's going to see how much meat he can pound in my ass.
Okay, what happened next?
He began to start having,
uh, anal sex.
Okay.
And...
...he's doing this...
...very violent manner.
Movement.
And then he...
I don't know if he came or what... I...
Climaxed. I talk street talk, so...
So I don't know if he did that.
And he violently took himself out
and violently put himself in my vagina.
Were you saying anything to him at that point?
No, I was crying my brains out,
and he lifts up my legs, and he puts...
what turns out to be rubbing alcohol in a Visine bottle,
and he sticks some
up my rectum area or whatever.
And that really hurt really bad 'cause he tore me up a lot.
And then he put some in my vagina,
which really hurt bad.
And then he walked around back to driver's seat side,
and he pulled my nose open like this.
Pulled them open, and he squirts rubbing alcohol down my nose.
And he said, "I'm saving your eyes for the grand finale,"
and he put the Visine back on the dash.
So, he's just sitting out there listening to the radio,
and I'm thinking this guy is thinking how he's going to kill me.
So I'm trying desperately to get off... untied from the steering wheel.
So finally he came back,
after about an hour... It must have been an hour or so.
It seems like the longest time,
and he said, "I'm gonna untie you from the steering wheel,
and you better be a good girl, or I'll kill you."
So... so...
He untied me from the steering wheel...
He untied me and put the rope around my neck
and held it like a leash around my neck,
and told me to move over so he could move in.
I jumped up real fast and I spit in his face,
and he said, "You're dead, bitch! You're dead."
And he's wiping his eyes.
And I laid down real quick, and I grabbed my bag.
And he was starting to come for... for me,
then I grabbed my bag and whipped my pistol out toward him.
And I shot him from the floorboard to him as he was reaching down to get me.
- See... And... - How many times did you shoot him?
I think I shot him twice 'cause I know I shot him twice.
Did you get out the car, and then come around and shoot him again?
Okay. Yeah, after I shot him, I got out of the car
and I ran around to the driver's side.
And I opened up the door, and he turned around,
and he... and he got his legs out of the passenger... or driver's side
and started coming up.
And I thought... I mean, like he wasn't even shot.
Did you see blood on him?
No, I didn't see any blood, nothing.
And so I said, "Man, you better stop."
I said, "I... I'll shoot you again. Do not get up." And he wouldn't listen.
He just got up, and I shot him in the chest area somewhere. I don't know.
Wherever there was a lot of flesh is where I shot.
You shot him, you say you can't remember how many times.
Did you say to yourself, "I just murdered a man?"
I said to myself, now this is the only thing I said to myself,
and I don't believe this is premeditated whatsoever.
I said, "If anybody ever comes up to me again
and ever tries to rape me like that,
he will definitely wish he had not met this prostitute."
That was a very difficult day.
For all of us.
She did well, in spite of everything.
John Tanner just didn't care.
She's a woman and a prostitute, and he had a problem with that.
Mm-hmm.
I didn't like him.
That was your pistol?
Mm-hmm.
- Yes? - Yes.
That was the pistol you killed Richard Mallory with?
- Yes? - Mm-hmm. Yes.
You offered to have sex, you're laying there naked on your back,
and the man paid you,
and you say it's rape when he's kissing and getting on you?
He didn't pay me. I don't know what you're talking about.
He didn't pay me. He's not kissing me because... for regular sex.
He's... he raped me.
This is when he gets heavy.
And I don't know... I don't know what you're talking about.
Did you say that here you are, a woman who is ravaged and naked,
and no one would believe that you've been assaulted?
We've got prostitutes out there that are being killed every day,
and nobody cares about it.
And we've got women being raped every day,
and nobody cares about it.
I have witnessed it with my own eyes.
Nobody would have believed that I was raped
and that I had to defend myself.
They would've said, "You're a prostitute. We don't care."
You say Richard Mallory told you that, in your words,
he'd killed other women?
He did, yeah.
- He told you that? - Oh yeah. Flat out told me.
Tanner said to me that there was never any evidence
that Richard Mallory had ever been abusive to women.
- Okay. - Was he telling the truth?
No.
Uh, Jackie Davis did that depo and said he was crazy.
Why haven't authorities looked into that?
- In your opinion-- - Okay.
- Let's break off and come back to that. - Okay.
And if you guys wanted to stay and chat for a minute...
Mm-hmm.
Come back... You know, what I'll do is look through all of this,
and... and maybe if there's some other points we need to make,
we may be able to come back and... and do more.
- There's a lot of stuff. - A lot of it we're gonna look into.
Now, I wanna be clear on one thing.
All of the authorities that I spoke to when I said,
"What's the mistake Lee Wuornos made?"
- You know what they all say? - What?
She confessed.
Miss Wuornos, you were in the courtroom yesterday
when the videotape of the confession was played, wasn't it? Weren't you?
Yes, sir.
You saw it in its entirety, didn't you?
Yes.
You didn't make one mention
of an anal rape or being tied up, did you?
I was withdrawing from alcohol so bad,
I was so confused and so scared about Tyria
that I... I couldn't function properly.
I don't know what I was saying. I was... I don't know.
And I go into other details with other people in here
where I'm totally talking about one person,
and another person even talked about Richard Mallory--
Lee, I have to advise you not to talk about any other charges.
I mean, they weren't letting me go on and... or nothing,
to re-correct myself or anything. They kept...
Now he just asked me about...
Now for the next 11 pages, he's talking about all different guys.
"White pickup truck," and I say, "I don't recall a white pickup truck."
Your Honor, Lee, I'm gonna instruct you
not to talk about any other...
Okay.
...charges.
You didn't tell the detective because you couldn't remember it.
And/or you didn't tell the detective 'cause you were stubborn--
- I couldn't remember-- - Let me finish the question, Miss Wuornos.
And you didn't tell the detective
because you were stubborn and trying to protect Tyria Moore.
Were there any other reasons you didn't tell the detective?
He cut me off
every time I talked about a rape with any incident.
Oh, did you talk about rapes with other incidents?
- Objection. - I'm not gonna answer.
- Lee, do not answer about other cases. - I'm not.
They have not been tried yet.
Well, I'm... I'm only trying to ask you
is why you killed six other men?
- Was it the same reason? - I'm here for one trial.
I'm here for first-degree murder in one count in this county.
I move for a mistrial, Your Honor.
Overruled.
If you had only been allowed to argue the Richard Mallory case,
were you guaranteed to win?
No. No.
Uh, if we had had to try the case, uh,
on simply the evidence of Mr. Mallory's killing
with her story of self-defense, of a sexual assault,
uh, of... of brutal torture that she described,
a jury would be hard-pressed to... to sort out the truth in that case.
Uh, we certainly could've lost it.
How were you allowed to bring in court these other murders
when she hadn't been convicted of them?
Well, Judge Uriel Blount,
uh, I've known him for a long time, ever since I've been a prosecutor,
uh, going back over 24 years.
And, uh, Judge Blount, uh, had, to my knowledge,
never allowed similar fact evidence in any case before.
When the judge said, "Okay, you can bring those in,"
you must have breathed quite a sigh of relief.
We were greatly relieved, and of course we knew we had her then.
So... so, that maneuver, or that legal, uh, tactic,
uh, it worked this time.
It... it's kind of like, uh, kind of like football.
If it works, it's great, and if it doesn't, you wish you hadn't.
The judge's ruling opened the floodgates
for new evidence surrounding the six other killings
Aileen Wuornos says she committed.
The prosecution rested
after a detective who took Wuornos's confession
showed the jury on a map where each of the bodies was found.
In closing arguments today,
her attorneys asked the jury to believe Wuornos.
She needs fairness. She needs justice.
She needs you to understand what really happened.
Prosecutors reminded the jury members of the six other killings
with similar circumstances Wuornos has confessed to.
State Attorney John Tanner pointed out
that Wuornos had never mentioned any rape or torture
in her earlier statements to police.
She has left you no reasonable choice under the evidence of this case,
except to find her guilty of murder in the first degree.
Richard Mallory drove her to this secluded area,
and it was here that Aileen Wuornos became a killer.
It's so noisy. I don't know how it sounds like a secluded area.
A Florida jury has a life or death decision to make today
in the case of confessed killer Aileen Wuornos.
The seven women and five men deliberated for 91 minutes.
We, the jury, find the defendant, Aileen Carol Wuornos,
guilty of first-degree premeditated murder
and first-degree felony murder of Richard Mallory
as charged in count one of the indictment.
Sons of bitches.
I'm so pissed off.
I was raped. I hope you get raped.
Scumbags of America.
Aileen, how do you feel about the verdict?
- You ready to say-- - I'm innocent!
A lot of questions will be answered over the next couple of days.
I, uh, believe that this was not so much a crime of passion
as much as it was a crime of absolute control and domination
over, uh, the victim.
Wuornos is facing the electric chair.
Prosecutors say they will seek the death penalty.
The sentencing phase of her trial begins tomorrow.
So you're heading down here, and you wanted some company to drive with.
Yes, I just had a headache, and so I... I get to this spot here.
And right here,
this lady stands.
Did she have the opportunity to kill you?
She had the opportunity if she wanted to.
I had about $3,300, $3,400, $3,500 cash on me.
I had a gold watch worth about $1,200. I had a ring worth about $450.
You would've been an easy prey to rip off, never mind kill.
If Lee would wanna to kill somebody, it would've been me.
I'm living proof that Lee's not a cold-blooded killer.
The crime for which you'll be sentenced
was committed in a cold, calculated, and premeditated manner
without any pretense of moral or legal justification.
In the Circuit Court, 7th Judicial Circuit,
in Volusia County, Florida, case number 91257,
State of Florida versus Aileen Carol Wuornos,
as to count one, the majority of the jury filed a vote of 12 to nothing,
advise and recommend to the court
that it impose the death penalty upon Aileen Carol Wuornos,
dated at DeLand, Volusia County, Florida, this 30th day of January 1992.
In Florida today, prostitute Aileen Wuornos
bowed her head and cried as the jury unanimously recommended
that she be sent to die in Florida's electric chair.
Aileen Wuornos looked stunned as the court clerk announced
the jury's recommendation.
You have people coming out unanimously voting for the death penalty
and crying while they do it.
An unanimous verdict is much easier to sustain,
and we expect this, uh, conviction to withstand, uh, appellate review.
Maybe I'm wrong.
Was this her house?
I might be wrong, Fred.
- I think it's-- - What's going on?
Oh, we just need to... we're gonna just talk to Ms. Davis about some things.
Oh, all right.
Nothing important.
Hello? Jackie?
- Does she know you're coming? - No.
When we drove by, this screen was open. The door was open.
But her car is still here.
I have been labeled a serial killer, and I am no serial killer.
The convicted murderer gave the judge in a packed courtroom an earful.
State Attorney Tanner was the one manipulating the jury.
I was coerced into making my confessions. I was threatened.
The woman who adopted Wuornos in jail begged for a life sentence.
Three expert witnesses in the field of psychology,
who said that Aileen Wuornos was emotionally and psychologically a child.
And I just beg for...
...your mercy for my daughter's life.
There is no mercy in the judge's decision.
He sends Wuornos to death row.
...Aileen Carol Wuornos, be electrocuted until you are dead,
and may God have mercy upon your corpse.
With those words, Aileen Wuornos became
Florida's third woman on death row.
This way, Aileen.
It's the end of the trial. The sentencing was done.
I love you.
Bye!
She was moved to death row.
This is the cell that the inmate is kept in.
I saw her up there, and she was really, really scared.
She knew that the tide of public opinion was totally against her.
She said, "I don't know what to do."
"I don't want to go through all these trials."
"I just want to go to heaven."
She already has the death penalty.
Why on earth would she go through six more trials?
I said, "You need to just plead guilty."
"No contest for the rest of the murders."
She said, "My attorneys are not going to do that."
And I said, "Well, we can use Steve Glazer."
Lee Wuornos said to you, "I want to die."
Why?
Because she does want to die.
She figures this life is over.
And in a spiritual sense, she realizes there's not much left on Earth for her.
She's tired of the corruption, the cops, the judges, the courts.
And she wants to get off this planet and get into heaven
where she perceives she will have at least, uh, uh, uh...
She might find paradise. She can't find it on Earth.
She wants to go to the electric chair.
Her message to me is, "Steve, get this over as soon as possible."
And by "this over," she means...
Let's go through the legal system, let's go through all the courts.
Let's plead guilty or no contest and get it over with.
Lee, why do you want a new attorney?
You'll find out in court.
What was wrong with your other attorney?
- Uh, they're working for the state. - Ma'am, take it out of the way.
I would really appreciate to be sent back to prison immediately.
I've stated no contest.
And I meant that that is the end of the line, it's the bottom line.
I don't see why there should even be a jury.
I don't even see why this should carry on.
Inside the courtroom,
Wuornos repeated her claims that this was all a waste of time,
that after a no contest plea to the murder of three men,
in Marion and Citrus Counties,
she wanted to have nothing to do with the legal system,
requesting that she not be present while her sentence was decided
by a jury in the three cases.
I've been framed. I've been set up. I'm ready to die and get out of your evil.
God has forgiven her for what she's done,
and our state has the death penalty, so why not go for it?
I mean, wow, she could be home with Jesus in a matter of a few years.
I'm sick and tired of this.
I'll probably get three more death row sentences,
and then I gotta go to Pasco and Dixon for two more, uh, death row.
How many times you gotta kill me, you know what I mean?
This is... this is bullshit.
They don't need to be doing this.
There are, uh, actually two possible sentences that can be imposed
in a first-degree murder case.
One is life imprisonment, and one is death.
- Yes. - Do you understand that?
When God first told me to do this,
it was for her to reach out to Jesus so she could have peace.
That was always in the back of my mind.
I'm willing to die for what I've done,
for I took a life not wanting to, but had to in self-defense.
In accordance with the, uh, jury recommendation,
I sentence you to death for the murder of Troy Burress.
I sentence you to death for the murder of Charles Humphreys.
I sentence you to death for the murder of David Spears.
It was a good thing.
She absolutely wanted to be executed...
...because then, with her new belief,
she would be in heaven and away from here.
You can't blame her for that.
How do you feel?
I'm satisfied.
I'm going to be with the Lord soon, and I know it because I spoke the truth.
I have absolutely no regrets.
God asked me to do it. I did it.
Period.
I'll be right there.
- Hey. - Hi.
- How are you doing today? - Fine.
Good. Good. Come on in.
We have a couple of the guys here from the crew from the last time,
who you might remember,
and I know you got to spend some time with my producers the other day.
Go ahead.
Okay, we're rolling.
Okay, three, two...
You don't slow down, do you?
I never thought I'd be back in prison this week interviewing her again,
that's for sure.
- How's she doing? - Totally different person.
Totally different person than she was in our first interview.
I don't know if you saw part of that where she was very adamant to fight.
Mm-hmm.
Do you recall... Did you tell the jury that,
in your opinion, you were convinced that this man was going to hurt you?
I told them the whole story as best as I could.
I don't understand why they did not believe me.
They thought, "Well, my God, I got a legal way to put a prostitute to death."
They didn't care.
I asked John Tanner, when I interviewed him,
do you think that Richard Mallory was indeed violent with you?
Do you think that Richard Mallory was indeed violent with her?
Absolutely not.
Uh, Richard Mallory's, um, uh, history doesn't reflect a pattern of criminality.
It doesn't reflect a pattern of sexual violence.
Uh, there's no evidence at all
that Aileen Wuornos was the subject of any violence
at the hands of Richard Mallory
or any of her other, uh, seven murder victims.
Okay. And we can pick that up again,
but what I... what I wanna ask you about is your first two lines there.
- How could you make that statement? - Well, the NCIC, uh...
showed no criminal convictions.
Did it show anything that was suspicious to you?
No. I don't recall,
and... and truthfully, I did not look at the dispatch myself.
My staff, uh, did not indicate to me there was anything
that we should... needed to pursue further.
What we want to get your reaction on today, Lee,
is that we have found out some things about Richard Mallory...
...that were never introduced in court.
I am...
- Okay? - Okay.
Richard Mallory was convicted of assault with intent to rape.
When was this? When did he... What year?
Well, he was actually arrested in 1957. Okay?
He ended up spending ten years in an institute
for... for criminal sexual deviance.
Well, he had a sexual defunct all his life then
'cause he was a maniac with me.
When you went to trial,
did you know that Richard Mallory had been arrested
for assault and attempted rape?
No, we did not.
Did you know that he claimed
he was insane at the time of that incident?
We do not, nor did we know that.
I want to read you some quotes that he wrote at the time to the judge.
This is Richard Mallory speaking.
"I hope they give me the gas chamber."
"I am no use to myself nor to anyone."
"I should die and I wish I could."
"I was afraid I might do something, someday, to somebody."
Here's the quote from the doctor who ran the institute
after several years of alleged treatment.
"Because of Richard Mallory's emotional disturbance
and his poor control of his sexual impulses,
he could present a potential danger to his environment in the future."
Another quote.
"He is still an extremely confused, impulsive, and explosive individual
who will get into serious difficulty, most likely of a sexual nature."
It's sad, isn't it?
What is sad about it?
Sad society didn't care, did they?
They framed me for a movie.
They framed me for elections.
They framed me for political purposes and...
They didn't care about taking up all this.
Do you know how I found this out?
No.
Through looking at a deposition that your office had.
Jackie Davis, his ex-girlfriend.
And this information is in your records. How much more of a clue?
He had indicated that he had been in some type of trouble
as a juvenile, I had thought.
And... and perhaps that's why it didn't come up on the records.
This is on the records. This is not a sealed record.
- Not a sealed record. - Okay.
Took me a day to find.
- I feel so hopeless. - Mm-hmm.
I'm numb.
I'm mad.
When I get back to the room, I'll show my anger...
...to myself.
To hell with you people.
You don't give a shit. So what the heck?
Does she not deserve a fair trial
that would have included information about the victim and his past?
I think that information was irrelevant.
She received a fair trial, and she deserves the death penalty.
We're fine.
That's... that's what we need.
Boy, are you patient.
You're a good cross-examiner. You don't even need to go to law school.
They'd just certify you and let you go to work.
Do you think that there's any chance
you would get a new trial?
I don't think that nobody cares.
The first time I was sexually assaulted, I was six years old.
And that changed the direction of my life.
I'm an artist.
I started making work about the sexual abuse of women and children.
Like, it became my path.
In 1993, I'm sitting in my apartment in Australia,
going through the newspaper, and I see Aileen's photo.
And there was a instant recognition,
like something clicked and resonated.
A prostitute killed johns?
I just felt compelled to write to her.
And that turned into eight years of correspondence between us
and hundreds of letters.
Then in 1997,
she said, "I want to give you this interview."
I was the most anxious I have ever been in my life,
that I could fuck it up really easily.
Then suddenly, a door flew open,
and there Aileen was right in front of me.
- Hi. - Hi.
Hi, everybody in the free world. Hope you're doing good.
- Aileen! - Yeah. Oh!
This is Jane. Jasmine.
The first time seeing her in the flesh,
I could feel her energy straight away.
- Oh, sorry. - That's all right.
She had the energy of a famous person.
All right, so how... On this interview, uh, Jasmine,
what I'd like to do, if you don't mind, is I just need to...
'Cause I'm coming clean.
I'm telling the truth about my cases. And, um, I have never done this before.
Aileen told me that she wanted to confess everything
to another human being.
I have to do this.
The Bible tells you to do it, and I'm into the Lord big time bad.
I felt responsible that she thought this interview
would bring her execution date up quicker.
Okay. Richard Mallory?
Could this kill her?
So I was underneath the viaduct at... of Tampa
when I ran, uh... ran into Richard Mallory.
And you all have heard the story,
what happened with him and everything else.
And that it was supposedly rape. Well, that is true. It was rape.
But there's only one thing that I lied about.
And that is that there was no sodomy.
I slipped with the cops in the beginning saying about sodomy
because I was thinking about Tyria.
And I was just running my mouth, saying anything that came to my head.
I was thinking of raped women and their... and their problems,
and my problems and everything.
And just anything that was coming to my mind.
You know, I was... wasn't even there. I was hysterical.
So when I started on the confessions, I remember I said sodomy to him.
Told myself, "Ooh, I better be a little consistent here," you know?
So I said, "Richard Mallory used sodomy."
Then I had to keep up with that stupid lie throughout the court and everything.
It pissed me off. I didn't like doing it.
So I felt really bad about that.
- Yeah. - Mm-hmm.
Six months later, I ran into David Spears.
He had a lead pipe in his hand.
And so, he... he was trying to hit me with it.
He just missed my hand.
By the time I got the door open and got the gun,
he was only three feet from me and so I started shooting him.
And I shot him, shot him, shot him away.
So he was also definitely an assault.
There was no rape involved or any of that jazz, but he was an assault.
Now my head's swimming in thought.
I'm not going to, you know, go to prison for life for these creeps.
If you're gonna sock me in the chair,
I'm gonna get me a bunch of rapists. So I was ready.
I said, "Come on, tell me you're a rapist and you're dead."
Well, that didn't happen. I was running into these idiots.
I was running into drug smuggler Carskaddon.
I'm highly against drugs. Highly.
I have a hard time taking those Advil for my teeth.
And when he kept telling me about drug smuggling,
drug smuggling, drug smuggling,
I decided to waste him.
And so that's what happened with Carskaddon.
Well, here I got a first-degree. This is a really first-degree.
I don't care anything. I don't care about anything no more now.
You know, it's over. It's over.
Aileen Wuornos, the real Aileen Wuornos
is not a serial killer.
- I was so drunk... - Yes.
...and so lost,
so fucked up in the head, man,
that I turned into one.
But my real self is not one.
- And so now I told the truth. - Straight up.
Oh God.
I want you all out there to know...
...that telling the truth was the hardest, hardest thing.
I kept thinking for days, and days, and days, and days.
And I was fighting... fighting the demons within me that kept saying,
"Don't tell the truth. I want you to go to hell with me."
And I said, "No way, man. I'm going to Lord Jesus Christ."
"I'm gonna tell the truth, nothing but the truth."
So I laid it down to you as best as I could in full honesty.
Oh, now I'm going to start crying.
Because I'm really sorry that...
I'm really sorry for, uh, the families.
I'm really sorry that your... your father or your brother...
...or whoever he might have been for you,
you know, in kinship, relationship, whatever,
I'm really sorry that he got killed.
I was messed up in the head, man, after the rapes. I lost it.
And I said, "You ain't gonna take me to prison
and spend the rest of my life in prison over these creeps."
"I'm gonna take a bunch of you creeps with me before I go."
That's what happened.
So I'm really sorry.
When the interview was over, I flew straight back to Australia.
It didn't matter to me at all if none of the men had raped her.
Those men may not have raped her in the moment,
but they are icons of previous rapists
that she didn't fight against.
Her love for Tyria
was for all eternity and obsessive,
and the complete heartbreak
when Tyria was beginning to pull away from her.
Anything to stop the pain.
I don't think Aileen would have the consciousness
of what abandonment pain does,
but she was conscious that she was losing it.
It wasn't until 2000 that the letters dropped off,
that she was really, you know, preparing to say goodbye.
And then she was very explicit about wanting to die.
She said, "I've had it. I'm tired."
"I've been abused my whole life. I wanna go."
At first, it was very upsetting
because this person had been part of my life for so long.
It was like a death. It was the death before the death.
But then, I understood.
I think her paranoia was increasing.
There was a deterioration
from accumulation of living in a small cell all those years.
My name is Deidre Hunt.
Aileen and I were on death row together.
Aileen, she...
she was not mentally well, from my experience.
Hey, I was tortured at BCI.
They had... they had the intercom on in the room,
and they kept lying that it wasn't on.
And they were using sonic pressure on my head since 1997.
She would accuse them of listening to her.
They had come into her room one time and opened up the light,
and they cut the wires in front of her
to prove that they weren't trying to take over her mind
and brainwash her and whatever she was thinking.
I think their whole plan was to try and make it look like I was totally crazy,
and so nobody would believe anything I had to say about anything,
and then drive me there if they could.
She made us promise
we would not go to the media and tell them how mentally unwell she was,
because she really wanted to go.
It was very emotional.
It's... it's hard to imagine
killing somebody that's innocent, or killing somebody that's not...
really fully there.
And she was not fully there at all.
Wuornos came to Florida's death row for women,
January 31st of 1992.
Since then, she says she's found God,
feels compelled now to tell the complete truth
about everything she's done.
She will drop all of her appeals.
She says she is looking forward to taking her last breath.
Aileen Wuornos walked up to give testimony
in shackles and handcuffs.
The convicted serial killer hoping that after almost ten years of appeals,
the state will finally put her to death.
I've come real close to God...
...and I think it's the right thing to do...
...to tell the world...
...that I killed those men.
I robbed them, and I killed them as cold as ice,
and I'd do it again too.
I know I'd kill another person
'cause I've hated humans for a long time.
But there's no chance in...
...in keeping me alive or anything because I'd kill again.
I have hate crawling through my system.
Thank you for doing the right thing
and not keeping on with all the appeals,
which are... are going nowhere and putting us through a lot.
After a decade on death row,
Wuornos has volunteered to die
and convinced a Florida court and Governor Jeb Bush
to sign her death warrant.
Her appeals have been exhausted.
She wants to meet her creator.
She told the psychiatrist she'd made her peace with God
and that she was ready to go.
She said what was cruel and unusual was that it took so long to get it done.
Dubbed the damsel of death and the ultimate man-hater,
obnoxious and unsexy,
like a spider Wuornos stalked her prey
along a stretch of road in Central Florida.
Wednesday, barring a last-minute reprieve,
Aileen Carol Wuornos will become the third female executed in Florida.
In Miami, Orlando Salinas, Fox News.
I always knew that I would go for the execution.
I did want to be there for Dawn.
I've never seen someone so devoted to a friend
as Dawn was to Aileen.
At least she got to talk to somebody before they did it.
Oh yeah.
I got to come down here every year and visit her.
I get two visits, six-hour visits each day.
I met my husband with her 29 years ago.
Oh shit.
She's from Australia.
- Oh, is she? - Yeah.
- She is. - Mm-hmm.
She's come all the way down here
to be with Aileen.
I couldn't comprehend her upcoming execution
or even the notion of execution.
Why is her signature outside?
Can you see her?
So it was bizarre, like it was the talk of the town.
They've tie-dye ones.
A town known for strawberries and jails.
Just film me...
It was a huge event.
It was a public execution, except not so public.
It was a thing, yes.
Talk of the town.
...Wuornos was first arrested.
I'm Chris Trenkmann at Port Orange, the story coming up.
Plus a new...
...9:30 tonight.
Aileen Wuornos will be executed in the morning.
So here we are.
Wuornos will die by lethal injection
for the murders of six men.
It's 9:30 p.m.
Chris Trenkmann is live with more on the upcoming execution.
October 8th, and Aileen's got 12 hours to live.
It's so insane.
Being downstairs, drinking coffee, looking at the trucks going past.
Dawn had a great visit. Aileen's happy about going.
They laughed and talked for three hours.
She said...
What time is it?
"Is it weird I'm going to be dead in 12 hours?"
Take good care of yourself. Good seeing you.
Good seeing you. Bye!
I would have absolutely gone into the room
if she had wanted me to do that.
'Cause I imagine her last moments on Earth
are a whole lot of faces hating her.
If she had asked, I would have absolutely done that.
So I did want to be there for her
and also to be some kind of energy outside that jail.
Which is probably meaningless.
But just someone who would grieve for this death.
Um, Sterling Ivey, Department of Corrections.
I'm gonna be kind of brief on this one.
There's not much that's changed, uh, uh, in the last hour,
but just to kind of rehash everything that's happened through the night.
Uh, Aileen did visit with her lifetime, long-time family friend about 9:00 p.m.
Visit lasted until midnight.
She did go to sleep about one o'clock this morning.
She requested us to wake her up at 5:30, which we did.
Um, this morning, her demeanor, her attitude is... is pretty calm.
Uh, she's not quite as talkative as she has been in the past
and appears to be ready for the execution at 9:30 this morning.
So one of those candles, Jasmine, is for Aileen?
Yeah.
And one's for the victims?
Yeah.
Standing outside a jail in Florida,
someone's about to be executed.
I was in a surreal, detached state of being.
Uh, was this woman, Dawn Botkins,
who visited her late last evening between 9:00 and midnight.
Um, we don't know whether she'll be here. She was not a witness to the execution.
So... so far as we know, she's not present at the site at the moment.
Uh, Wuornos herself did not, uh, take her last meal.
She was served the regular prison meal of barbecued chicken,
but we're told by prison officials that she did not eat it.
At 9:47 this morning,
uh, the case of the State of Florida versus Aileen Wuornos
was carried out at Florida State Prison in a very professional and humane manner.
During Aileen Wuornos's brief, uh, one-minute final statement,
uh, she alluded to the fact, uh,
that she would be sailing away with the rock.
She'll be back with Jesus Christ,
like on Independence Day, on June 6th,
just like the movie, on the big mothership.
"I'll be back. I'll be back," were her final statements.
Uh, now, without further ado, uh,
John Tanner, State Attorney for Circuit Court in Volusia County.
- John. - Thank you.
I said a prayer for her
and for the victims.
And for all of us.
This is a tough business, but I think it's necessary. Thank you.
The press conference was upsetting.
Like, they just wanted the gory details.
...17 years, eight months and...
And then I see the white truck,
the morgue truck, take her body out and drive,
and everyone's running to film this white truck.
So these seem to be pretty good articles, eh?
Yeah, they are.
Just make sure I've got the...
Yeah, okay.
- I brought all the papers from downstairs. - This is fun.
"Terry Griffith, the daughter of former police chief Charles Dick Humphreys,
who was killed by Wuornos,
witnessed the execution and said, 'As far as I'm concerned,
I think she should've suffered a little bit more,
but I'm glad it's over.'"
Hang on, this is wrong.
Can't you even say something like,
"This has been a sad, sad thing, and it's a sad, sad day"?
Now there's eight people gone. And she has paid her price.
Hmm.
Now, she was... she just... she said to me during the visit, she is a serial killer.
Which she's never said all along.
She's always said, "I killed a series of men."
She just... When she did the God thing, she said, "I was a serial killer."
Yeah.
She killed to rob, and she robbed to kill, period.
And she said she was definitely a serial killer.
But we know that it's years of rape that led to that.
- Oh, she did say that too. - Mm.
Oh yeah, that's what got her to that point, plus the drinking.
It was all the years of the abuse, and then she started drinking.
And plus Tyria.
- You know, she was a fatal love. - Yeah.
She's... When... She kept saying that to me during the visit.
"That was quite the love, wasn't it? It was fatal."
And I said, "Yeah, I guess it was." Definitely with Ty. Totally fatal.
You know what I mean?
And so how was it saying goodbye to Aileen?
Actually, when I...
I gave her a hug goodbye. I told her I'd see her on the other side.
Then there was ten frickin' guards there for some reason. I don't know why.
They were taking their time, and I was telling her,
"Can that gate open a little quick?" 'Cause I didn't want to look back.
- Yeah. - 'Cause I could hear her standing there.
They were re-shackling her.
But I did look back and I just gave her a little wave.
- Yeah. - Then I heard her say, "I love you, Dawn."
- I said, "I know. I love you too." - Uh-huh.
- "But I will see you on the other side." - Aw.
She's up there making my way right now. She's a big part of my heart.
Yeah.
And the second I get home, I'm not even gonna undo my bags.
I'm going to take her ashes out the backyard,
and I'm going to unleash her the very second I can, so she is free.
...free.