True Crime Friday: Aileen Wuornos, the First Female Serial Killer
Aileen Carol Wuornos was born February 29, 1956. She is considered the first woman serial killer because of her methodology. She used a gun instead of poison and she killed strangers instead of family and friends. She was raped throughout her childhood by her grandfather. At the age of fifteen after her grandmother died she was thrown out of the house by her grandfather. He blamed her for the death of her grandmother even though she did not have any part in the death of her grandmother. She was forced to find a home and she lived in the woods in an old car.
Aileen had an incestuous relationship with her brother. In order to take care of herself she turned to the world’s oldest profession. She would have sex with boys for money, drugs and cigarettes. To be fair the boys took advantage of a young girl left with nothing by her grandparents. This is a very grim story and it is no wonder that she turned into a monster. I have to admit I do feel some sympathy for the young girl because the people that were supposed to love, support and protect her let her down in the most horrific ways.
The Early Childhood of Aileen Wuornos
It was a terrible and abusive childhood. To be abandoned by your mother and have your father serving life in prison would be considerable trauma for any child. Her grandfather was an abusive man. He abused his wife, daughter and grandchildren. Aileen never met her father, he was in prison for raping a seven year old child. Mr. Pittman, Aileen’s father was diagnosed with schizophrenia while in prison. He committed suicide in prison in 1969. When Aileen was almost four years old her mother Diane Pittman abandoned her children, leaving them with their maternal grandparents. The grandparents were alcoholics. The grandparents eventually adopted Aileen and her brother Keith.When her grandfather kicked her out of the house, Aileen Wuornos stated that her alcoholic grandfather had raped and beat her when she was a child. Before beating her, he would force her to strip out of her clothes. In 1970 at the age of fourteen, Aileen became pregnant after being raped by a family friend. She gave birth to a boy at a home for unwed mothers in 1971. The child was placed up for adoption. She eventually dropped out of school.
She was arrested at the age of eighteen for driving under the influence and disorderly conduct. She was later charged with failure to appear in court. Aileen longed for a warmer climate since she was living outside in Michigan and the weather would turn cold. So she eventually hitchhiked to Florida. She met a sixty nine year old yacht club owner named Lewis Gratz Fell. The marriage did not last, mostly because Aileen was abusive to her spouse.
The Less Dead Theory
Aileen was failed by her parents, grandparents and systems that were supposed to be in place to protect vulnerable children. She was the poster child of a less dead victim. The Less Theory are poor people and minorities that are considered undesirable by society and the elites. These groups generally are the poor, women and children who are ignored and devalued in life. Therefore, in death they are also devalued essentially ignored by their own communities or members of their neighborhoods and generally not missed when they are gone. They lack prestige or power and the police generally devalue their lives as well. This is one of the reasons they are prime targets for serial killers or becoming serial killers themselves.The Victims of Aileen Wuornos
- Richard Mallory, 51
- David Andrew Spears, 47
- Charles Edmund Carskaddon, 40
- Peter Abraham Siems, 65
- Troy Eugene Burress, 50
- Charles Richard "Dick" Humphreys, 56
- Walter Gino Antonio, 61