"I'm Ready to Go": Aileen Wuornos's Final Interview and Broomfield's "Life and Death of a Serial Killer"

Name: "I'm Ready to Go": Aileen Wuornos's Final Interview and Broomfield's "Life and Death of a Serial Killer"
Uploaded: 2025-10-30T00:00:00Z
Duration: 1 h 32 min 38 s
Description: Nick Broomfield's film of Aileen Wuornos's last year: her recantation of self-defense, her claims of a police conspiracy, and her final interview the day before her execution.

Nick Broomfield's film of Aileen Wuornos's last year: her recantation of self-defense, her claims of a police conspiracy, and her final interview the day before her execution.

Subject: Aileen Wuornos
Recorded: October 9, 2002
Runtime: 1:32:38

Content warning: Concerns the murders of seven men; includes Wuornos's courtroom account of a sexual assault (her claim, later retracted by her), witnesses' accounts of the abuse she suffered as a child, an execution, and strong language.

The Interview

"Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer" follows what the film describes as the last year and a half of Aileen Wuornos's life. Nick Broomfield, who had made "Aileen Wuornos: The Selling of a Serial Killer" in 1992, was served with a subpoena to give evidence at a post-conviction hearing in her case in Ocala, Florida, and he and Joan Churchill went on filming until her execution. Wuornos speaks at length: in court, in a jail interview in which she says she killed the seven men in cold blood, in a prison visit in which she says the killings were in self-defense, and in a final interview recorded on October 8, 2002, the day before she was executed.

Historical Context

Between late 1989 and late 1990 seven men were shot dead in central and northern Florida: Richard Mallory, David Spears, Charles Carskaddon, Peter Siems, Troy Burress, Charles "Dick" Humphreys and Walter Gino Antonio. Wuornos, who had worked for years as a highway sex worker, was arrested on January 9, 1991, and confessed, saying the men had attacked or tried to rape her. She was convicted of the murder of Richard Mallory in January 1992, pleaded no contest or guilty to the five other murders she was charged with, and received six death sentences in all. Peter Siems's body was never found and she was not charged with his murder.

Circumstances of the Interview

At the Ocala hearing her post-conviction lawyer, Joe Hobson, argued that her earlier lawyer, Steve Glazer, had represented her badly; Broomfield was questioned about his 1992 film. During the hearings Wuornos objected to her own witnesses, and she later chose to give up her appeals. Governor Jeb Bush signed her death warrant, ordered a brief stay while three psychiatrists examined her, and lifted it when she was found competent. Wuornos chose Broomfield for her last interview. She was in shackles, with guards present, at Florida State Prison.

What the Interview Covers

In the jail interview Wuornos says she killed the seven men "in first-degree murder and robbery" and that her trial account of Mallory's attack was "a lying biz". At a later prison visit, when she believes the camera is off, she tells Broomfield it was self-defense but that she cannot say so on tape. In the final interview she says she is ready to die, claims that the police knew who she was after the first killing and let her go on killing, and says she was harmed by "sonic pressure" in prison. Asked once more whether she killed in self-defense, she declines to say, then ends the interview in anger. The film also includes interviews with her friend Dawn Botkins, people who knew her as a child in Troy, Michigan, her biological mother, a former Marion County officer, and news coverage of the execution.

What Makes the Recording Significant

The film records Wuornos's own shifting accounts of the killings in the last year of her life, and her final interview the day before the execution. Broomfield presents her as seriously mentally ill and questions the decision to execute her. Her complaint that police officers had sought to profit from her story drew on a real episode: as the film reports, a state attorney's report found that Marion County Sheriff's Office officers had held movie discussions about her case, and a senior officer resigned during the investigation. Her wider claims (that police watched her and let her kill, and that she was tortured with "sonic pressure") were her own and were not substantiated.

Archival Importance

Wuornos was executed by lethal injection at Florida State Prison on October 9, 2002. This film holds her last media interview and an extended record of her final year in her own words.

Important Caveats

Everything Wuornos says about why she killed is her own account, and she gave contradictory accounts: self-defense at trial, cold-blooded robbery in the jail interview, self-defense again off camera, and a police conspiracy in the final interview. The courts did not accept her self-defense claim. Her statements about police surveillance and torture are her claims. The film is an edited documentary with narration, not a raw interview, despite the uploader's title. Some passages are hard to hear and are marked in the transcript; the transcript has not yet been checked by a human listener.

Narrator: It was here in these woods of Florida's I-75 that in the space of one year, the police found the bodies of seven men. They were killed with this gun, a High Standard double nine .22. Richard Mallory, Walter Antonio, Dick Humphreys, David Spears, Charles Carskaddon, Peter Siems and Troy Burress.

Tv News Reporter: Eight men have been shot to death in cold blood on central Florida highways, including the busy tourist route of I-75. But this time there's an even more chilling twist to the slayings. Police say for the first time in criminal history, these killers may be murdering with a feminine touch.

Narrator: On January the 9th, 1991, Aileen Carol Wuornos was arrested in Daytona Beach, Florida. She worked as a hitchhiking hooker.

Investigator: How you doing?

Aileen Wuornos: Well, I wish I had never come here since that day.

Narrator: This is the original police video of Aileen Wuornos's confession.

Aileen Wuornos: Yeah, I wish I never had that gun. I wish to God I never had that gun. I just wish I didn't. I still [unclear: "don't always" / "have to say"] to myself, I still say that it was [unclear: "yourself you saved" / "self-defense"], because most of them either were going to start beating me up or were going to screw me up. You know what I mean? [unclear: "Anyone who doesn't actually believe it probably doesn't have to."] So I fight them and I get away from them.

Narrator: The idea of a woman killing men, a man-hating lesbian prostitute who tarnished the reputation of all her victims, brought Aileen Wuornos a special kind of hatred. Terry Humphreys' father was a retired police chief.

Terry Humphreys: There wasn't any sex involved in my dad's murder. They cut him. They did an autopsy on my dad. They wouldn't release his body for over a week. They cut him from stem to stern. There wasn't any semen there. Anywhere.

Unidentified Speaker: Just can't imagine the grief, the hurt, the anguish that they have caused this family. This is a man that I [unclear: "had to shoot" / "hugged with sleep"].

Unidentified Man: I hope she meets up with, quote, Old Sparky. You know who Old Sparky is.

Narrator: Politicians and the Christian right campaigned for Aileen Wuornos's execution.

Aileen Wuornos: Because I'm tired of this re-election jazz. They're just trying to get promotional ladder climbing, political prestige from this, and I'm sick and tired of this. I'll probably get three more death row sentences, and then I've got to go to Pasco and Dixie for two more death row. How many times you've got to kill me, you know what I mean? This is bullshit. They don't need to be doing this.

Narrator: Even Ted Bundy was offered life imprisonment. This was never offered to Aileen Wuornos. By the time I met Aileen, she already had four death sentences. But surprisingly, in an odd way, I found her to be the most honest person involved in the case. All the others, her lawyer, her born-again Christian mother, the police, had all been involved in trying to sell her story for as much money as possible.

Nick Broomfield: Hi, how are you doing?

Narrator: This is Aileen when I first interviewed her in 1992 for my original film, "The Selling of a Serial Killer".

Aileen Wuornos: I say it's this: the principle is self-defense. They say it's the number. I say it's the principle. The heck with what, it has nothing to do with the number killed. It's the principle. But they're saying if there's a number. No. Self-defense is self-defense no matter how many times it is. I don't care if it's a hundred times. I was very, I never provoked those guys. I never provoked them. I never showed any provocations whatsoever. I was very nice, very decent, very clean, very lady-like. I didn't even swear in front of my clients, and a lot of my clients, I talked about Jesus and I talked political, both mixed together, and we never argued.

Narrator: My old film had ended with this announcement of the resignation of Florida police officers who had illicitly entered into Hollywood movie deals to sell the story of America's first female serial killer, the Aileen Wuornos story.

Tv News Reporter: Major Dan Henry resigned as chief of staff of the Marion County Sheriff's Office after being notified of an investigation being conducted by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. The investigation being conducted by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement centers around taped telephone conversations made by Deputy Munster between he and Major Henry involving the Aileen Wuornos case.

Narrator: There was speculation at the time that if police officers did in fact receive money, all Aileen Wuornos's death sentences could be overturned. Twelve years later, Aileen is still on death row. There was no proper investigation into the police officers and their movie deals. It all got covered over.

Narrator: Aileen and I kept in touch over the years, and then a few weeks ago I opened my front door and to my amazement was served with a subpoena to attend Aileen's final appeal before execution. I had no idea how things would turn out and that I'd be witnessing an execution in one and a half years' time. This is Ocala, Florida. All us witnesses were housed together in a motel.

Joe Hobson: But we're going to win this thing. I'm telling you, we're going to win.

Narrator: This is Joe Hobson, Aileen's attorney. Lawyers like Joe are kept very busy. 4,000 people are on death row waiting for execution.

Unidentified Voices: Okay. Okay. You're not very good at wheeling this thing. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, bro. Okay.

Nick Broomfield: And has this particular case been stressful? The Aileen case?

Joe Hobson: Oh. It's so important, because this is the legal system in a phase where it's doing the most important thing it can ever do, and that is taking a human life. It's more important than a money judgment or, you know, adjudication of guilt or 30 years in prison. And we've really got to be careful. I mean, the whole system's got to be careful. And my opinion, and the whole gist of our motion, is that she's been failed by the legal system.

Narrator: Joe Hobson felt that Aileen had been poorly represented by her previous attorney, Dr. Legal.

Unidentified Voice: Most of us will probably never worry about spending time in jail. But if you are ever involved in the criminal justice system, you will need a lawyer who can...

Narrator: Joe Hobson was hoping to get Aileen a retrial by discrediting Dr. Legal, otherwise known as Steve. This is the Ocala courthouse, where we were going to spend the next week. Steve the lawyer had made no attempt to investigate the cops. He pled guilty to all the murders and didn't even try and make a deal for a lesser sentence. Aileen had no money to pay him, so Steve used the money obtained from interview fees. This man in front of me is the state prosecutor who wants to execute Aileen immediately. This is the first time I've seen Steve for 11 years. He said my film got him run out of town.

Steve Glazer: Fuck you. Fuck you and the [unclear: "clan" / "clam"].

Nick Broomfield: What?

Steve Glazer: Fuck you and your documentary.

Nick Broomfield: Well, nice to see you.

Steve Glazer: Don't talk to me. [unclear: "I got a flight."]

Bailiff: All rise, please. The circuit court's back in session.

Judge: Okay, be seated. All right, let's continue with the...

Attorney: Now, you were contacted by Mr. Broomfield in 1992. Do you recall specifically charging or attempting to charge Mr. Broomfield $25,000 for an interview?

Steve Glazer: I didn't attempt to charge anybody anything. If Ms. Wuornos asked me, "Steve," or told me, "Steve, I want $25,000 for this interview," I would have passed that on to the person who was interviewing. But it's not my position to set fees, or we didn't have a fee schedule.

Attorney: Will you admit that you are depicted in the movie "The Selling of a Serial Killer" doing exactly that, trying to get $10,000, or I think $25,000, for an interview?

Steve Glazer: I don't think there's any evidence that I tried to get $25,000 or anything.

Nick Broomfield: So the next stage is really to come up with a counteroffer.

Steve Glazer: No, the next stage is to come up with $25,000.

Nick Broomfield: Right. Okay, well then, if you don't, then the next thing to do is to really get a counteroffer, and let's tell her something. So we would basically then pay the money to, well, we'd pay money to you or to, as her legal...

Arlene Pralle: As her mom, and then Steve gets a percentage as her agent.

Nick Broomfield: Right.

Arlene Pralle: A very tiny percentage. This poor man works for nothing.

Steve Glazer: Nick, wait a second. What's Davy Crockett doing on the $100 bill? Thank you very much.

Attorney: Have you seen Mr. Broomfield's production "The Selling of a Serial Killer"?

Steve Glazer: Yes.

Attorney: Okay. And you've seen yourself depicted in that movie?

Steve Glazer: Yes, sir.

Attorney: Do you recall joking in that movie that your advice to any client facing the electric chair was to quote Woody Allen, "Don't sit down"?

Steve Glazer: I remember making a lot of jokes in that movie.

Joe Hobson: Judge, you're talking about the depictions of Mr. Glazer in the movie "The Selling of a Serial Killer" that the defendant submits fairly captures the essence of his approach to his representation, which clearly impeaches his claim that he had taken this in an altruistic, pro bono, National Lawyers Guild [unclear: "with" / "or skilled"], and helps establish the claim that all along his motive in taking this case was the publicity and the money to be made.

Narrator: I have to say I always liked Steve. He was an old hippie from Micanopy who was just way out of his depth. The only thing really to do here is to have breakfast and then leave. This is Dawn Botkins, Aileen's best friend.

Unidentified Voice: What was that little [unclear: "ditty" / "issue"] you had about [unclear: "Ocala" / "a collar"]?

Narrator: I really don't believe Steve took the case on for money, but he was so inexperienced he could only plead guilty for Aileen. He didn't even have a fax machine or law office.

Steve Glazer: Yeah, I had a little... When I was living in a teepee in Micanopy, I had, I had... I went through the whole thing: cows, chickens, geese and... I got all that. Pigs. I had a cow called Sir Angus McBeef. Just so you know what he's going to be, you know, you try to rationalize it. You're going into the refrigerator. You're going in. And that was the last meat I was able to eat.

Unidentified Voice: I guess you can look at it that way.

Narrator: Aileen lived in a total fantasy world. She thought she'd get off the murders and then live with this woman, Arlene Pralle, a born-again Christian who'd seen Aileen's picture in the local newspaper and had adopted her. Together they planned to run a horse ranch and raise she-wolves. Arlene Pralle, the born-again Christian, hired Steve and persuaded Aileen to come clean with God and plead guilty. Steve had been advised that Aileen was paranoid and suffered from borderline personality disorder, but still went along with this cockeyed scheme. Aileen seemed to think a miracle might happen, and was outraged to receive three more death sentences.

Judge: [unclear: "I sentence you"] to death for the murder of Charles Humphreys. Case number 91-112, Citrus County case number, I sentence you to death for the murder of David Spears.

Aileen Wuornos: Thank you. And [unclear: "you probably see"], I'll be up in heaven while y'all rot in hell.

Judge: Okay, there will be an automatic appeal. You have the right to an appeal. Mr. Glazer, is that going to be handled by you, or the public defender's...

Aileen Wuornos: [unclear: "Your wife and kids get raped."]

Steve Glazer: I would ask that you would appoint the public defender's office.

Aileen Wuornos: I know I was raped. You ain't nothing but a bunch of scum. Therefore, these proceedings are now [unclear: "completed" / "concluded"]. [unclear: "Putting somebody who was raped to death..."]

Narrator: In many death row cases, a client in despair will say they want to die. It was a measure of Steve the lawyer's inexperience that he took Aileen's wish on face value.

Unidentified Voice: Sir, can you come on up here, please?

Narrator: I like to flatter myself that I was being asked for my legal opinion, but it turned out I was there to talk about Steve's marijuana smoking. The big question was whether Steve had consumed seven very strong joints before giving Aileen legal advice in prison.

Prosecutor: You know, I've got a short video clip I want to show, if I may. It's an excerpt from the film that depicts this alleged six, seven joint ride. And as a preliminary question, isn't it true that in doing your work, you routinely edit things, correct?

Nick Broomfield: Well, you always edit [unclear: "afterwards" / "off tapes"], yeah.

Prosecutor: And editing involves cutting and pasting and putting things together, correct?

Nick Broomfield: Yeah.

Prosecutor: And that's what you do all the time.

Nick Broomfield: I don't know about the pasting, but you certainly can't...

Prosecutor: Well, pasting in terms of inserting and connecting and making things fit together.

Nick Broomfield: Correct.

Prosecutor: Okay.

Narrator: It was 6 a.m. Steve said it was a seven-joint ride to the prison, and he brought along the tape of his own music, with him singing and playing all the instruments, especially for the occasion.

Prosecutor: Okay. Let's go back.

Prosecutor: Do you recognize that?

Nick Broomfield: Yes.

Prosecutor: That's your work, isn't it? I apologize for the quality. It's not a very good copy. But that's your work.

Nick Broomfield: Yes.

Prosecutor: You notice that the shirt that Mr. Glazer has on is white?

Nick Broomfield: Uh-huh.

Prosecutor: Now, here he's got a blue shirt on, correct?

Nick Broomfield: Maybe he changed his shirt. I don't know.

Prosecutor: But he had a blue shirt on, and now he's got a white shirt.

Nick Broomfield: Well, it's possible that he changed his shirt. Maybe he put a clean white shirt on for the prison visit.

Prosecutor: But is it also possible that you just cut and paste and took footage from one episode and cut and pasted it into another episode to make it look like something that hadn't, in fact, happened?

Nick Broomfield: Uh, I remember distinctly the, I mean, the seven-joint ride, if that's what you're referring to. I don't remember him changing his shirt. But we could, if you want, we can make all the outtakes available from that particular journey, because they're still available.

Prosecutor: [unclear: "That's very convenient right now" / "it right now"], and you hadn't made those available before.

Nick Broomfield: Well, I didn't know you wanted them before. I mean, you know, I didn't even know that the film was going to be submitted as evidence.

Unidentified Voice: If I was making that trip, I would probably change my shirt at the end of the trip. I don't know about you.

Prosecutor: But that's not the point of my question, is it?

Unidentified Voice: I don't know, but I would probably bring a clean shirt along for my visit. Would you? I would.

Unidentified Voices: Yes. [unclear: "We'll keep in touch."] No.

Narrator: I got a message that Aileen wanted me to meet her at the local jail. We checked the film outtakes and made the great legal discovery that Steve had in fact exchanged his pongy blue T-shirt for a clean white one.

Aileen Wuornos: [unclear: "I got this."] Oh my God. Can you turn it off, dear? We're good. Get it out of there, Nick. Get it...

Nick Broomfield: I'm just trying to... Sorry. It was a microphone, which is [unclear: "now that"]. Sorry about that.

Aileen Wuornos: Oh, lordy. All right. It's okay. I can't believe this microphone, how small it is. You know, it actually works.

Nick Broomfield: It actually works.

Aileen Wuornos: Okay, Nick. Nick, this interview, man, I got to, I just... Let me do this thing over one more time, because I know you guys pre-tape and you clip and stuff. So let me say it one more time kind of right, okay? Because I'm really concerned about the family members. I get my hair out of my face while I'm doing this. Because I'm really concerned about the family members, man. So I want to say this again, over.

Aileen Wuornos: Nick, the reason I'm coming forth with you at this interview is because I'd like to come clean about my cases, and because there's only about 1% chance a person can get off death row. And I come to realize that that is actually true, very, very true. There's only like about 82 people that got off death row in like 30 years, out of like about 4,000 death row inmates. And those are only DNA people, blood sample. So the chances of getting off death row are 1%. 99.9% you're going to be on it and you're going to die.

Aileen Wuornos: Okay, I cannot go in the execution chamber and die in the execution chamber as a liar. And I cannot go in the execution chamber and be executed under the devil. I have to come clean and cleanse my spirit in the name of Jesus Christ. So I have to come clean and tell the world the lies that went on through my mouth. I mean, now prosecutors and the cops...

Nick Broomfield: [unclear: "...know"] that you killed seven men?

Aileen Wuornos: Huh?

Nick Broomfield: That you killed those men in cold blood.

Aileen Wuornos: Yeah, I got to come clean that I killed those seven men in first-degree murder and robbery. As they said, they had it right: serial killer. Not so much like thrill kill. I was into the robbing biz. I mean, you know, serial killers are in this thrill-killing jazz. I was into the robbing, just to eliminate a witness. But still, then again, I got a number, so it's serial killer. But I'm coming clean before I go in that execution chamber and be executed, that I killed them.

Nick Broomfield: And so when you met them from the beginning, did you know that you were going to kill them, when they picked you up in their cars?

Aileen Wuornos: I pretty much had them selected that they were going to die.

Nick Broomfield: But when you're saying that there was no self-defense... So there was no self-defense.

Aileen Wuornos: No, there was no self-defense. I'm being really straight up about everything. There's no self-defense. I'm really sorry what happened, about everything. I was in, in this, this... To me, this world is nothing but evil, and all of us are full of evil one way or another. In whatever we do, we have evil in us, all of us do. And my evil would just happen to come out because of the circumstances of what I was doing: hitchhiking, hooking, on the road.

Aileen Wuornos: I was a homeless person all my life. And then the hitchhiking, hooking, I learned off the homelessness and cruising all over the United States of America and stuff. And so learning how to be a hooker as a hitchhiker eventually got tiring in the end. I carried the gun for protection, but then I got where I was getting a real problem, and our rent was due, $1,200 behind. And Tyra was doing a lot of beer drinking and stuff. She wanted to go out all the time, so she was burning up the money I was making. I was making good, about two, three hundred a day sometimes, sometimes 150.

Nick Broomfield: And did she know what you were doing?

Aileen Wuornos: Oh yeah, Tyra always knew everything I was doing.

Tyria Moore: I met her in a bar.

Narrator: This is Aileen's great love, Tyra. One of the reasons I had felt so much sympathy for Aileen was that she was betrayed by those closest to her all her life.

Tyria Moore: We were sitting on the floor watching TV, and she just came out and said, "I have something to tell you." And I asked her what. And she said that she had shot and killed a man that day.

Narrator: Tyra knew about the murders all along, but didn't come forward to say anything until she was questioned by police. Tyra, who was never charged with anything, was then made a state's witness, and, it has been asserted, became part of the movie rights package in the Hollywood police film deal. It was Tyra who got Aileen to confess in a series of taped phone calls.

Tyria Moore: Hello.

Aileen Wuornos: Hi. Yes.

Tyria Moore: Hey.

Aileen Wuornos: I wanted to call you earlier, but I didn't know if you were going to leave there or what.

Tyria Moore: I don't... What the hell's going on, Lee? They've called, they've been up to my parents again. They've got my sister now asking her questions, so I don't know what the hell's going on.

Aileen Wuornos: Huh. What are they asking your sister questions for?

Tyria Moore: I don't know. Lee, they're coming after me. I know they are.

Aileen Wuornos: No, they're not.

Tyria Moore: They've got to. Then why are they asking so many questions, then?

Aileen Wuornos: Honey, listen. Listen. Listen. Do what you got to do, okay?

Tyria Moore: I'm going to have to, because I'm not going to go to jail for something that you did. This is unfair. 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.

Aileen Wuornos: You got to do, okay. All righty. I'm not going to let you go to jail.

Tyria Moore: I don't know whether I should keep on living or if I should kill [inaudible].

Aileen Wuornos: No, Ty, Ty, listen.

Tyria Moore: What if they don't believe me?

Aileen Wuornos: Ty, [unclear: "we're listening" / "listen"]. I'm not going to let you go to jail or... Listen, if I have to [unclear: "kiss ass myself" / "discuss myself"]...

Nick Broomfield: So you were very close.

Aileen Wuornos: Yeah, we were. And I still miss her and I still love her. And I'm really sorry about everything I've done. I miss Ty. I lost Ty over this. And then the people that lost their loved ones and everything. I really think first about the people that lost their loved ones, and then Ty second. Because I have to put them in first on this whole thing. I'm really sorry for them losing their loved ones, man. I know the feeling.

Nick Broomfield: And what about with Richard Mallory? Because you gave that testimony with Richard Mallory.

Aileen Wuornos: Yeah, Richard Mallory definitely was not self-defense. Richard Mallory I killed in, for, he had... I needed his wheels to move the stuff, and he had the right amount of money I needed to move into the apartment, so.

Nick Broomfield: But what about the testimony that you gave in court about...

Aileen Wuornos: Well, that's just, like I was saying...

Nick Broomfield: About the Vaseline and...

Aileen Wuornos: Oh, I was just doing a lying biz. That was just my lying [unclear: "gig" / "game"], trying to beat the system.

Nick Broomfield: Really? So that was really all... None of it was true.

Aileen Wuornos: He said, "It doesn't matter to me. Your body will still be warm for my huge cock." He said, 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, "Are you going to, you're going to listen to everything I've got to say and you do?" And I just nodded yes.

Defense Attorney: Then what happened?

Aileen Wuornos: He takes Vaseline, and he lifts up my legs, and he puts what turns out to be rubbing alcohol in the Vaseline bottle, and he sticks some up my rectum area. And that really hurt really bad, because he tore me up for a while. And he put some in my vagina, which really hurt bad. And then he walked around back to the driver's seat side, and he pulled my nose open like this, held them open, and he squirted rubbing alcohol down my nose. And he said, "I'm saving your eyes for the grand finale." And he put the Vaseline back on the dash, and I spit in his face. And he said, "You're a dead bitch. You're dead." He's wiping his eyes. And I laid down real quick, and I grabbed my bag, and he was starting to come for me, and I grabbed my bag and whipped my pistol out toward him. And he was coming toward me with his right arm, I believe, and I shot immediately, and I think I shot twice, as fast as I could.

Nick Broomfield: Because in court you gave such a graphic description of what had happened with Richard Mallory.

Aileen Wuornos: Yeah, I was just sitting around thinking how I could drum up a story, you know.

Nick Broomfield: But it was pretty convincing.

Aileen Wuornos: Was it? Well, I thought so.

Nick Broomfield: God, that's sad.

Aileen Wuornos: Well...

Nick Broomfield: And it's not that you just decided that you wanted to die and you wanted to get it over and done with, that you changed your story?

Aileen Wuornos: No. The reason is, it's serious. There's no way, and nobody should go in that execution chamber dying on a hope for a lie, and even by the second make it out of the thing on a lie.

Nick Broomfield: But I heard, you know, that you just couldn't stand being on death row after 12 years.

Aileen Wuornos: Nick, and [unclear: "this last time they said" / "that this last time I'm going to say it"], you have to kill Aileen Wuornos because she'll kill again.

Narrator: I had always believed that Aileen Wuornos had acted in self-defense, and that Richard Mallory, her first victim, who had a long history of sex crimes and who had spent five years in an institution for sex offenders, had tortured and tormented Aileen, pushing her over the edge into an insanity which led to the other six murders. This is what Aileen said to Judge Uriel Blount before the sentencing on the Richard Mallory murder.

Aileen Wuornos: What I did was what anybody else would do. I defended myself, which everybody has a right to defend themselves. And I had no intentions of killing anyone. I would not do that. I'm not that type of person.

Narrator: But the jury didn't go for it. This was Aileen's reaction on receiving her first death sentence.

Court Clerk: The majority of the jury, by a vote of 12 to nothing, advise and recommend to the court that it impose the death penalty upon Aileen Carol Wuornos, also known as Susan Lynn Blahovec, also known as Lori Kristine Grody, also known as Cammie Marsh Greene. Dated at DeLand, Volusia County, Florida, this 30th day of January, 1992.

Reporter: Aileen, how do you feel about the verdict?

Aileen Wuornos: [Largely inaudible. The machine transcript gives only fragments, including "innocent", "a stupid deal" and "I cannot believe it"; the captions give nothing. Not reconstructed.]

Reporter: Why did this jury find you guilty?

Aileen Wuornos: [Largely inaudible; fragments only, not reconstructed.]

Narrator: I couldn't believe what happened the next day in court: Aileen objecting to her own witnesses.

Aileen Wuornos: And I need to get this on record [unclear: "of the attorney"].

Judge: Yeah, she's taking it down.

Aileen Wuornos: There's some witnesses that are coming to this thing, and I've already told my attorneys on numerous occasions, these people did not grow up with me at all. They lived in the neighborhood, but they didn't really associate with me, my brother, my sister and everybody else.

Judge: Here's the only thing. The attorney can call them, but he can't put on anyone he thinks is committing perjury. And that's unethical for him to do that. If he thinks they're lying, if he knows that they're lying, he can't put them on.

Unidentified Voices: Thank you. Thank you. Judge?

Judge: Yes, ma'am. Yes, sir.

Defense Attorney: May the defense request a ten-minute recess? In view of the statement [unclear: "made by"]... to confer with my co-counsel.

Judge: Of course, yeah. Okay, everybody, they want to take ten minutes to confer [unclear: "confirm"] what they want to say, okay? All right, we're in recess for ten minutes.

Narrator: Aileen was deliberately sabotaging her own defense, but the witnesses were called anyway. Danny Corwell, like many other boys in the neighborhood, lost his virginity to Aileen. Aileen was trading blowjobs for cigarettes from the age of nine.

Danny Corwell: I was just heading over there to see who was there, and got up to the fort, and the door was kind of closed, so I, you know, opened it up, and Keith and Mark had Aileen in there.

Defense Attorney: What do you mean, they had Aileen in there?

Danny Corwell: Well, they had her in there, and, you know, she was naked, and...

Defense Attorney: And what was happening?

Danny Corwell: Well, Keith was having sex with her.

Defense Attorney: Did you stay during that?

Danny Corwell: Yes.

Defense Attorney: Did you ever have sex with Aileen again?

Danny Corwell: Just that day.

Narrator: Jerry Moss, who was a lover of Aileen's, pretended in public he didn't even know her.

Jerry Moss: She wanted us to be boyfriend and girlfriend in public, and I...

Defense Attorney: When you were in public around other kids, when the rest of the kids were around, how did you treat her?

Jerry Moss: Like she was nobody. Like she was dirt. Like I had nothing to do with her, you know.

Defense Attorney: What would you say to her?

Jerry Moss: Tell her to get the fuck out of my face and go some fucking place else.

Defense Attorney: Would you call her any names?

Jerry Moss: Call her ugly bitch.

Defense Attorney: If she were following along behind you, what would you do?

Jerry Moss: It would depend on who was with me or whatever, but I'd turn around and throw rocks at her and tell her to get the fuck out of there and go home.

Defense Attorney: Why would you do that?

Jerry Moss: Because I didn't want to be seen with her. I didn't want to be associated with her.

Defense Attorney: Do you know whether she was having sexual relations with anyone else at this time?

Jerry Moss: Yes, I [unclear: "do" / "did"].

Defense Attorney: And who was that?

Jerry Moss: Her brother, Keith.

Defense Attorney: Is that her uncle, or is that her actual...

Jerry Moss: That's her actual brother.

Aileen Wuornos: I just want to make sure that, you know... I just want to remark that you take a polygraph on what they're saying, because there's too much [unclear: "oral perjury" / "perjury"].

Judge: All right.

Narrator: Michelle [unclear: surname "Chauvin" / "Schovan"] recalled an incident with Aileen's grandfather.

Unidentified Voice: [unclear: "I raise your hand, Roger."]

Michelle: I don't know how much you want me to say. He was a bastard.

Defense Attorney: Do you recall an incident when you and Aileen skipped school?

Michelle: Yes.

Defense Attorney: What happened when... Did you go to Aileen's house with her?

Michelle: I walked home with her, and we had gotten caught. And I remember looking through the front. They had a screen door view. And the minute she walked in, he had her over a chair. And I stood there and watched him. And he beat the hell out of her with a black belt that was around his waist. He took it off and told her to lean over the chair, and walloped on her for a good five minutes.

Defense Attorney: Was this what you would call a spanking?

Michelle: Oh, no. No, it was like I was, it left me hypnotized.

Defense Attorney: Did he know you were watching?

Michelle: Yeah, he did. He was aware I was watching.

Defense Attorney: Is that just an example as to...

Michelle: That's an example. Yes. [unclear: "Hold on. I must stay consistent on it."]

Narrator: It had been a long week. All the witnesses stuck together in this motel. Do you think we'd all go mad if we were locked up here much longer together? Dawn insisted that gays hadn't been invented when she and Aileen first became friends.

Dawn Botkins: They weren't invented, or whatever. There was no gay people.

Nick Broomfield: Well, what were they all doing?

Dawn Botkins: They weren't gay. There was no such thing as gay.

Nick Broomfield: They were in the closet.

Dawn Botkins: No, they weren't. There was no such thing. I don't remember a person at school gay. I ain't heard this gay stuff till ten years ago.

Nick Broomfield: Well.

Dawn Botkins: Well, maybe 15. It's just now starting to be acceptable. But no, there was not. Was there gay people when you went to school?

Nick Broomfield: I'm sure there probably were. I went to a British public school. There were many. That's where it was invented. Us and the Greeks, you know?

Dawn Botkins: No way. Really?

Nick Broomfield: Yeah, of course.

Unidentified Voice: I just have to do this, sorry. Look. Come on, you guys.

Narrator: After all that, Aileen decided to volunteer for execution. And we all went home. Now that Aileen was confessing to being a cold-blooded killer, Aileen found she had a lot of new friends.

Tv News Reporter: Her appeals have been exhausted. She wants to meet her creator.

Unidentified Speaker: She's on my list, absolutely.

Tv News Reporter: Governor Jeb Bush is expected to sign Wuornos's warrant soon.

Narrator: We had all come to this as witnesses, hoping to get Aileen off death row, but it now felt like we were taking part in an execution. There was talk of making an appeal on the grounds of Aileen's mental competence. We traveled to Troy, Michigan, where Aileen grew up, to find out more. This is Dawn's house.

Dawn Botkins: [unclear: "You've got some..."] Hi, Joan. How are you? [unclear: "Oh, looks like you're alive."] My kids just come over with the grand-babies. Good to see you. Granddaughter and her grandson.

Nick Broomfield: How are you?

Dawn Botkins: It's called "Look at this stuff."

Narrator: Dawn gets up and writes to Aileen at 5 a.m. every morning.

Dawn Botkins: I got looking for one thing today, so I figured while I had Aileen's shit out, you could sit here.

Nick Broomfield: For all this?

Dawn Botkins: Yeah, and I got lots of pictures of her brothers and stuff like that that you might want to look at.

Nick Broomfield: Well, yeah. All this?

Dawn Botkins: All this. I was looking for her will. I couldn't find it, though.

Nick Broomfield: Her will?

Dawn Botkins: Okay, you just sit down for a while.

Narrator: Aileen does the most amazing ink drawings that you can only see against the light.

Dawn Botkins: Because you can't see them by looking down at them, but it's perfect with the sunlight outside. See how that does that?

Nick Broomfield: Wow. Have you got any pictures when she was quite young?

Dawn Botkins: They're kind of funny.

Nick Broomfield: It is funny, isn't it?

Dawn Botkins: Oh, that's her sister. That's her graduation. That's [unclear: "Larry" / "Lauren" / "Lori"]. Yeah, that's what she looks like now.

Narrator: There were other photos, too. Aileen aged four. Her brother Keith, aged six. Aileen's biological mother, Diane, who abandoned Aileen when she was six months old. Aileen's father, Leo, who was convicted of kidnapping and sodomizing an eight-year-old boy. He committed suicide in prison. Aileen's grandfather, Lauri, who she called Dad and is rumored to be Aileen's biological father. He abused both Aileen and her mother. Aileen aged 13, when she got pregnant and had a baby boy that was put up for adoption. After the baby, Aileen became the local untouchable. She spent two years living in the woods at the end of her street.

Dawn Botkins: Aileen used to have a fort back here, as a matter of fact.

Nick Broomfield: A fort?

Dawn Botkins: A fort. [unclear: "Oh, with Dennis."] Yeah, yeah. So Aileen would just sleep rough. She'd either sleep in the cars, or she would go around prostituting at night to keep warm, stuff like that, and hopefully she'd get a hotel. You know, some of these guys would say, "We'll go get a hotel," and then she could get a shower. That's how she washed and stuff like that. Or she would go to that gas station up there, which is still there, by the way. Used to be the Clark. That's where we used to go in there and pinch our nose and drink... What was it?

Unidentified Voice: Boone's Farm.

Dawn Botkins: Peppermint schnapps. It's disgusting. It's the only way you could drink it, to get the quick buzz. [unclear: "That's sickening. It was sickening."]

Nick Broomfield: But it must have been freezing in the winter.

Dawn Botkins: Well, it was for her. I didn't come out here in the winter, I'm sure. I don't think none of us did. That's why she left.

Nick Broomfield: So did the other kids pick on her, though?

Dawn Botkins: Yeah. Do you remember where we were at? Yeah, they always picked on her, or she picked on them, because they always had something terrible to say about her. But that's because she had a baby, and they naturally assumed that she... Well, she did get, you know, she slept with people for money and all that. So I imagine the girls in our days probably thought, "Well, she sleeps with everybody," and they just didn't like that. They don't think it's funny now, though.

Nick Broomfield: How do you mean?

Dawn Botkins: They think it's terrible how they treated her.

Nick Broomfield: Now?

Dawn Botkins: And everybody all of a sudden comes out of the woodwork and said, "Oh, I was nice to her. I gave her clothes and stuff like that." No, they didn't.

Narrator: We went to visit Dennis Allen, who lived in the woods with Aileen and now lives in this house.

Greetings: Hi. Hi, how do you do? [unclear: "Jim"]. I'm Nick. Nice to meet [you]. [unclear: "Dennis" / "I'm Jim" / "Hi, Jill"]. Hi. And who are these fine creatures? Oh, those are my birds. That's Freckles and Frida. Freckles and Frida.

Narrator: This is a picture of Dennis, who used to be a cross-dresser. Dennis looked out his only picture of his time in the woods with Aileen.

Dennis Allen: It was kind of a mess around here. In fact, the police took this picture. That's how I got it. Yeah, I don't know if you can...

Nick Broomfield: What [unclear: "set it off" / "is it of"]?

Dennis Allen: Well, this was when they were subdividing. They threw all the stumps over in one section, and these were all made with stumps, with straw packed in around. This is where I slept. It was just long enough to get in there and sleep.

Nick Broomfield: And so Aileen would come and visit you?

Dennis Allen: Yeah, every now and then she'd find one of my camps. In fact, the last camp I was at when Aileen found me was what we called the Little Round Lake. It was way down at the bottom of a gully, and it was round, and I had a piece of plywood that somebody had left there, and I just made a lean-to with two posts and put that up on it. That was the last place. In fact, Aileen, last camp she'd come that I had was that one.

Narrator: This is a picture of Chief, the local pedophile. He's thought to be the father of Aileen's child. Chief later committed suicide.

Nick Broomfield: He was like a bit of a strange old man, wasn't he?

Dennis Allen: Kind of, yeah. A lot of people thought he was. But they were a gathering place there for kids, because they had kids from everywhere that came there all the time. Yeah, and I remember when I was little, Chief would want to pick kids up and put them on his lap, and he'd talk and tell them about this and that. And I never would allow it, because I just, he kind of freaked me a little bit. I can remember one time, he had some chicken eggs, because he had chickens and all this kind of thing, and he'd pick them open when they were ready to hatch. And I couldn't stand it.

Nick Broomfield: Pick them open?

Dennis Allen: He would pick the shells open as they were trying to come through. He would pick them open, and it would be too early for them still, you know, because...

Nick Broomfield: And they're done.

Dennis Allen: A lot of times they would, they weren't really ready to come out of there yet. They wouldn't live.

Unidentified Voice: They're still there.

Narrator: Michelle drove us to Aileen's old home. They grew up as Vietnam was ending and drugs were everywhere.

Michelle: Aileen's house is right over there. You want to go by it?

Nick Broomfield: Yeah.

Michelle: Okay, I'll take you by it. This was Mark [unclear: "Farron's" / "Ferrin's"] house. We were all connected together. We all used to hang in the neighborhood, you know. All the kids packed together. This was Terry Cox's house right here. She used to do a lot of drugs with [inaudible], who lived in this little white one. This is Aileen's house right here. This is it.

Nick Broomfield: That's it, that?

Michelle: That's it. This is her house.

Nick Broomfield: And when you saw her being beaten, where?

Michelle: That door right there. I was in front of that door. See, they've redid the house since then, but that room in the very back is her bedroom. Not the first one, but the one in the back.

Nick Broomfield: And that's where she was being...

Michelle: Yeah, this one, the second window. See how low they are? We used to climb right out of them. If somebody sees us in here, they will come out and raise hell, because Corey was with me when that happened last time. And we lived right here. And they were druggies also. We used to hang together and go over there and smoke pot and do whatnot, and getting all kinds of shit.

Nick Broomfield: But lots of different drugs?

Michelle: Yes, lots of... pills, actually.

Nick Broomfield: Pills?

Michelle: LSD, mescaline, [unclear: "bladder acid"]...

Narrator: Aileen, aged 16, left Michigan and traveled down here to Florida looking for sun and friends. She was young and pretty, earning good money as a hooker, but with a violent temper and soon in trouble. She knocked one man out with a beer bottle, another with a billiard ball. She particularly liked it here near Daytona Beach. This is one of the motels, the Fairview, where she frequently stayed. It was also new and exciting. Just down the road is the Last Resort biker bar, where Aileen liked to hang out. She was allegedly great friends with [unclear: "the Human Bomb" / "the human bones"].

Nick Broomfield: How do you feel?

Man At The Last Resort: [unclear: "Real dizzy" / "I'm a little dizzy"] right now. Real dizzy.

Nick Broomfield: Did you know Aileen well?

Man At The Last Resort: Yeah. Uh... Can I talk to y'all in a few minutes? I got to walk this off.

Narrator: After Keith, her brother, died of cancer, aged 21, Aileen surprised everyone by marrying this man, Lewis Fell, who was 76 years old and president of the Keystone Coal Company. But after only a month, Lewis filed for restraining charges after Aileen beat Lewis with his own walking stick. In her late 20s, Aileen gave up on men and started dating women. Here's Tyra, who became Aileen's family. They lived together for over three years. This was one of the homes they had. Aileen saw herself as a kind of Bonnie and Clyde character on the run with her lover Tyra. Aileen and Tyra's favorite pastime was drinking beer and firing their pistols in the woods. Aileen got books on being a survivalist. She wanted Tyra all to herself. Tyra described Aileen as a fantasist who became jealous and possessive, and who could be violent and frightening. In the end, Tyra ran off as the police were closing in. In loneliness and desperation, Aileen ended up with this man, Dick Mills.

Nick Broomfield: This is that paper you're talking about?

Dick Mills: Yes, it's [unclear: "My Sex Romp with Kinky Man-Killer" / "My Sex Rants with Kinky Mankila"].

Narrator: Dick had sold his story to the News of the World.

Dick Mills: All I want to know is who's the best lawyer out there, man, to sue him for this trash. I never talked that shit.

Nick Broomfield: Can I quote you a bit, and get you [unclear: "to say"] if you said this, right? [Reading from the newspaper:] "We were lying in bed one night when she started talking about her favorite sexual fantasies. She said she often got turned on by imagining she had a black hood over her head and was tied to a tree in a forest. Then a guy would come up, rape her, and shoot her in the head. She said the actual killing would make her climax. I was real sickened by what she said."

Dick Mills: Wrong. Wrong. There's partial truth to that, but most of that, I don't know where it came from or who got it or nothing about it. And you can check any film anywhere in the country, or anybody that's got it, and I've never said that, okay? It goes along the lines that she told me one time that the idea was that she'd like to lay in bed out in the middle of the forest, or the woods, or somewhere in the mountains or something, have a hood over her head or something, and somebody crawled in through the window or something. No, they had the hood on or something, and would rape her, or just that kind of shit, and she liked that. I mean, as far as all these other things go pertaining to her, there's no reality to it.

Nick Broomfield: Did you get any feeling that she hated men, or...?

Dick Mills: No, I just got the feeling she's what she was, a d---, except I didn't know she was a killer. There's no way I could know that.

Nick Broomfield: But I mean, could you tell that when you made love to her, or...?

Dick Mills: No, not particularly. She just probably liked it either way, whatever came along. Didn't really seem to matter much. It's just another bad experience, I'm sure, for both of us.

Narrator: This is Aileen when first charged with the murders. It was just after the phone conversations with Tyra that had led her to confess. What Aileen didn't know was that Tyra herself was involved in movie discussions involving Florida State Police and production companies in Hollywood. They were selling her story, the story of America's first female serial killer.

Judge: Do you understand that you're entitled to a lawyer?

Aileen Wuornos: Yes, I do, sir.

Judge: Do you wish to be represented by counsel?

Aileen Wuornos: Yes, I do.

Judge: Can you afford to hire an attorney?

Aileen Wuornos: No, sir.

Judge: Do you work?

Aileen Wuornos: I'm in jail. How can I work?

Judge: Well, obviously you're not working now, but how long has it been since you last worked?

Aileen Wuornos: Oh, uh, about '84, possibly.

Judge: You haven't worked in six or seven years? How do you support yourself?

Aileen Wuornos: I was a [unclear: "special" / "professional"] call girl.

Narrator: When Sergeant Brian Jarvis, who is now a police chief in New York State, objected to these movie discussions, he was taken off the Wuornos case.

Brian Jarvis: Right, I was actually transferred back into the patrol division. It had followed a month of continual harassment on the job, in the current position I was in, which ultimately started when Captain Binegar had realized that I found out about their plan to work with Tyria Moore in obtaining a movie rights package.

Narrator: The state attorney's report found that three of Jarvis's fellow officers, Captain Binegar, Sergeant Munster and Major Dan Henry, were involved in movie discussions with Tyria Moore after Aileen's arrest.

Brian Jarvis: Yeah, ultimately, when the arrest came, Lee Wuornos was charged with the murder and Tyria Moore was not charged with anything, but she was made a state's witness, and she was working with these fellow officers on obtaining movie rights.

Narrator: This note was then pinned on Sergeant Jarvis's back door, and his home burgled.

Brian Jarvis: Less than a month later, on November 25th, my wife had gone out to the post office and the store during daylight hours, like 10 o'clock in the morning. When she came home, the house had been broken into; the doors were ajar. She went up to my office, and all of the files on the Wuornos case, on the investigators, and all the information I had, had been trashed. Nothing else had been touched in the house.

Reporter: How do you feel, Aileen?

Aileen Wuornos: Crooked cops and their conspiracy, please.

Reporter: Are you afraid, Aileen?

Aileen Wuornos: I'm innocent.

Narrator: Aileen was right about the cops and their movie deals. But in her paranoia, she also believed that the police had known about the first murder but allowed her to become a serial killer, because then they'd get more money for their film deals. Aileen's lawyers are challenging the execution on the grounds of her mental competence. Not that executing insane people seems to be a problem: in 1989, the Supreme Court ruled it was not unconstitutional to execute the mentally impaired. Aileen's paranoid delusions have gotten much worse on death row. She now believes her mind is being controlled by radio waves beamed into her cell.

Tv News Anchor: Aileen Wuornos says her food is being tainted and she's being threatened with rape. CBS 4's Joan Murray is live in Fort Lauderdale with the story. Joan?

Joan Murray: Well, now she has written a 25-page letter where she names names, names security, or rather guards, at the prison where she is being held in Pembroke Pines, accusing them of harassing her while she awaits execution.

Aileen Wuornos: And I need an attorney, like a private attorney, to oversee my well-being until my execution. Maybe that would keep things kind of in line, because there's a lot of illegalness going on.

Narrator: It's actually pretty hard to help Aileen, who by now, not surprisingly, doesn't trust anyone. And she's threatening to fire her lawyer if he continues to try to fight the execution. Dawn told Aileen about our visit to Troy, and Aileen asked for the opportunity to put the record straight about her childhood.

Prison Staff And Nick Broomfield: All right. Yep. Will you let me know when she is [here]? Okay. You don't have any other secret cameras on your belt, do you? No, no. I just have to throw the large one right here.

Aileen Wuornos: Hey, how you doing?

Nick Broomfield: Good. Hi. Good to see you.

Aileen Wuornos: Hi, Nick.

Nick Broomfield: Hi, how are you?

Aileen Wuornos: I'm doing all right. How you doing? Check out the new orange shirt.

Nick Broomfield: Wasn't it orange? Was it orange before?

Aileen Wuornos: No, they changed it. They got this new thing, to wear the orange shirt out for rec, or wherever, whenever you get out of your cell. Like, like death row has never escaped. Nobody on death row has ever escaped, right? And they're acting like we're escape risks or something.

Nick Broomfield: What's it like being in here all the time?

Aileen Wuornos: What's it like being in here? Well, here it's okay. It's all right. But, you know, you have your problems with some staff don't like you, just, "Oh, you're a serial killer!" You know, biz and stuff, so some staff won't treat you right because of who you are. You can't be in control of everybody.

Nick Broomfield: Have you got any friends here at all?

Aileen Wuornos: No, I stick to myself. I just stick in the cell with myself. I don't even care about going outdoors. There's none out there. I don't smoke any more.

Nick Broomfield: So what's your day like? How does it start?

Aileen Wuornos: I spend 24/7 in the cell, watching TV, reading the Bible, writing letters to Dawn, sitting around doing a lot of thinking, preparing, memory, going back in time, memory of everything I've been through in my life, and then just preparing for my death. Get all the tears out of me and stuff, so I won't cry. Because it's going to be a little bit tough when I go, huh?

Nick Broomfield: Getting all the tears out of you.

Aileen Wuornos: Yeah. Because I just don't want to be in the execution chamber crying my eyes out, and I'm not going to. I'm going to tough it out as tough as I can. Just lay on the table, give everybody a little smile, and close my eyes and go.

Nick Broomfield: With Richard Mallory, he was the first that you killed.

Aileen Wuornos: Mm-hmm.

Nick Broomfield: Did he abuse you or not? Because in the court you said that, you know...

Aileen Wuornos: Oh, see, I'm not going to go into the... Wait a minute. Ow. No, I won't go into the murder. I won't go into murders, if it was self-defense or not. I'm not going into any of the murders, whether or not they died in self-defense or what. I'm not going to say. I'm not saying nothing. My concern, the only reason I'm doing interviews for anybody or anything, my concern is there's, you got law enforcement out there allowing people to die. You got those 50 men in Canada, I mean, those 50 women in Canada that died. I'm sure the cops knew who the guy was. They're letting them kill. They want to turn them into high-profile cases for books and movies.

Nick Broomfield: Well, what was it? So what was it...

Narrator: I wondered how Aileen herself viewed her childhood in Troy.

Aileen Wuornos: Yeah, Troy's all right. Oh, and I want to straighten out something, man. See, hey, Nick, I got to get this straightened out. See, the cops lied about my family. [unclear: "Jackie turned them" / "Jackie drew in there"], and they all lied about my family.

Nick Broomfield: Well, how did they lie about your family?

Aileen Wuornos: Because, see, okay, now I got, see, I got, if this documentation, I got to square some stuff up.

Nick Broomfield: Okay, so tell me about your family.

Aileen Wuornos: Okay. The truth about my family is this. My dad was so straight and so clean, he wouldn't even wear, take his shirt off to mow the lawn. He did not believe in cussing. He did not believe in long hair and miniskirts and stuff. He was really straight, really decent. And so was my mom. My mom hated swearing in the house. If you swore, you said one swear word, you had a whole bar of Lava soap in your mouth. So I came from a real clean and decent family.

Nick Broomfield: But why then did you get thrown out after the birth?

Aileen Wuornos: See, after my mom died, after my mom died, my dad got pissed. He's like, "Okay, this is the last straw, you know? I think you are the cause of Mom's death," because she had physical problems because of all the stress and the pain and the suffering and everything, and what I'm going through as a wild kid is pissing him off. I mean, he thinks that that killed her as well, induced her death, and so he's pissed off. He doesn't want me home any more.

Nick Broomfield: But how did it feel, like, having to live in cars and in other people's homes?

Aileen Wuornos: It was living hell. That's why I went to Florida.

Nick Broomfield: Living hell?

Aileen Wuornos: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you know, sleeping in the snow, I mean, sleeping in snowy weather in a vehicle on cinder blocks at Richie's house, sleeping with no... I think I had one blanket and one pillow. It's ice cold outside. That's when I said, "Well, I got to go, I got to go down to Florida or something now," because I was sleeping in the snow, out in the woods, sleeping on the ground in the snow.

Nick Broomfield: You must have been frozen.

Aileen Wuornos: I was frozen, man. Yeah. I still got marks. My toes are blue to this day, and the bottom of my feet are blue. That's probably why I even got my hands like this today. I don't know. My hands are, as you can see, they're like frostbitten looking.

Nick Broomfield: And how were the other kids, though?

Aileen Wuornos: The other kids? They're all living in their houses. Well, I was out on the streets. But that's all right, man, because, see, I lived through it. I survived. I went down to Florida, and then I could, you know, start trucking all over the United States of America and stuff.

Nick Broomfield: Aileen, let me ask you one question. Do you think if you hadn't had to leave your home and sleep in the cars and stuff, it would have worked out differently?

Aileen Wuornos: Now, if I would do my life all over again... I came from a background of a family that was right on, where my, I mean, my family was right on. When I was thinking that, I meant as far as my mom not dying, my dad not freaking out, and us. If I could do it all over again... My family died too young. I had to hit the road. And I came from a family that was supportive. We didn't have [unclear: "split sister,"] half-sister and brother stuff and all that. It was all true blood, real blood, and everything was financially stable, and everybody was really tight. I would have became, more than likely, an outstanding citizen of America, who would have either been an archaeologist, a paramedic, a police officer, a fire department gal, or an undercover worker for DEA, or... did I say archaeology? Or, oh, or a missionary. Because I believe in God. But I'm not a Christian freak.

Nick Broomfield: So you think it would have...

Aileen Wuornos: And so scrub missionary, because I'm just thinking what a... You know, I would have came from a decent... I would have done real decent.

Nick Broomfield: Let me ask you something. What do you think was the single most happy time in your life? What do you think you've enjoyed most?

Aileen Wuornos: Nick, I've been through so much hell, I can't even think of something there right now. And I'm so burning fucking mad about how I'm being, I got to wait for my execution. I want to get in the fucking chamber tomorrow and leave. And then they play, since I waived off, I've had [unclear: "nothing but" / "number"] psychological and physical fucking problems, playing with it because I'm on hold with my execution. I'm so fucking mad I can't see straight. And they're just daring me to kill again. They got me pissed. United States Supreme Court, you fucking... I'm telling you, man, you motherfuckers keep fucking with my goddamn execution, there's going to be bloodshed. I'm sick of this. Get that fucking warrant signed.

Narrator: Aileen waited until she thought we weren't filming to talk about the murders.

Aileen Wuornos: [unclear: "I can't do it."] I would never be able to handle a life sentence or anything. And then they've said other things that are really crazy. They do crazy things to the people while they're incarcerated. I'd never be able to handle it, so I'm going for the death. I have to, because they're too evil. They're too evil to be incarcerated, and they're too evil on the cases. They're so corrupt, it's not funny. So I got to go down. I have to. And that's why I can't say nothing about self-defense on tape or anything.

Nick Broomfield: But was it self-defense?

Aileen Wuornos: Huh?

Nick Broomfield: Was it self-defense?

Aileen Wuornos: What?

Nick Broomfield: Was it self-defense?

Aileen Wuornos: What?

Nick Broomfield: Was it self-defense?

Aileen Wuornos: Yes, but I can't tell anybody. Never. I have to go down to the execution. They're too corrupt. They stick together. Hand over fist. Hand in glove, man.

Nick Broomfield: So it was...

Aileen Wuornos: Let's see. Hand over fist, friend in glove.

Nick Broomfield: So was [unclear: "Mallory" / "Mary" / "it mattering"] self-defense?

Aileen Wuornos: Yeah. And so was some others. But there's nothing I can do about it. All they do is give me an overturned sentence. They would never do me righteous. You see what I'm saying? They'll never do me right. They'll only fuck me over some more, so I can only go to the death.

Nick Broomfield: [unclear: "What are you talking about?"]

Unidentified Voice: [unclear: "Yeah, Jesus!"] You know I'll always remember you and love you.

Aileen Wuornos: Yeah, I know. I love you so much, man. Take care of yourself.

Unidentified Voice: All right.

Aileen Wuornos: It's nice meeting you. Take care.

Nick Broomfield: Goodbye, Aileen.

Aileen Wuornos: Bye. See you later.

Nick Broomfield: See you later, Aileen.

Narrator: Six months later, this announcement was made.

Tv News Reporter: Governor Jeb Bush signs death warrants scheduling the executions. 44-year-old Aileen Wuornos is one of the nation's first known female serial killers. She will be executed October 9th for the murders of six men. Wuornos has dropped all of her appeals.

Jeb Bush: I did it because I believe in the death penalty, and I have a duty to implement the law. And a great majority of Floridians want their governor to do this.

Narrator: Jeb Bush is running for re-election on a law and order, pro-death penalty ticket. Aileen's execution date for October the 9th fits in perfectly, a month before these elections. Brad Thomas, Jeb Bush's political adviser, is reported as saying, "We want to become more like Texas. Bring in the witnesses, put them on a gurney, and let's rock and roll."

Narrator: We're driving to meet Diane Wuornos, Aileen's biological mother. They haven't laid eyes on each other for 25 years. This is Calumet, a copper mining town on Michigan's Upper Peninsula. The Wuornos family originally came here as immigrants from Oulu in Finland to work down the mines.

Diane Wuornos: Okay, let me fix my pillow again. Okay, I want to tell you, I'm probably going to cry a little, I want to tell you something about her birth. She was a frank breech birth. That means bottom first. And a breech birth is very dangerous, and that's feet first. And a frank breech, bottom first, is really very bad. The doctor even called in other people to watch it, because it was so unusual. But I thought maybe that she got some kind of brain damage during that birth. And while she's mentally competent, it may have caused her problems. What does Aileen think about what caused her to act like that?

Nick Broomfield: Well, originally she said she did it in self-defense. And then she said she just needed the money. And she says that if she had come from a home that wasn't split...

Diane Wuornos: Oh, [unclear: "because" / "the case hurt"] her father and me getting a divorce.

Nick Broomfield: She didn't say that. But I think she's confused, because she, on the one hand, says it had nothing to do with her childhood. But then, on the other hand, she was sleeping out in the snow for a while and living in the woods.

Diane Wuornos: She was sleeping in the snow and living in the woods?

Nick Broomfield: Immediately after she had the baby.

Diane Wuornos: I know nothing about that. I never heard Barry tell me that.

Nick Broomfield: After she had the baby, she couldn't move back into the house with your father.

Diane Wuornos: Yeah.

Nick Broomfield: Then she was living in the woods in the snow.

Diane Wuornos: Didn't an agency find her and take care of her?

Nick Broomfield: No.

Diane Wuornos: Yeah.

Nick Broomfield: And then she ended up, you know, hitchhiking around.

Diane Wuornos: Which she liked.

Diane Wuornos: Do you know the exact date of the execution?

Nick Broomfield: I think it's soon. I think it's very soon.

Diane Wuornos: I think I'll rest better.

Narrator: As we were leaving, Diane asked for Aileen's forgiveness. I heard Aileen just fired her lawyer. I drove to Starke, Florida, where the execution will happen, and to meet Dawn, who's doing the funeral arrangements.

Nick Broomfield: So what does Aileen want to wear again for the execution?

Dawn Botkins: A black Harley-Davidson T-shirt with wings, because she believes she's earned her wings, which she has. A pair of jeans, a pair of boots with [unclear: "corner toes"], and a military belt. I think that's it, actually. She might have something else on that. I don't know. Probably a leather jacket, if I know Aileen. Don't know if she can or not, but...

Nick Broomfield: And what other wishes did she make?

Dawn Botkins: You mean to be afterwards? To be cremated and come home to my house. Be around the people that love her. Why would she want to stay in Florida? She'd come home to Michigan.

Narrator: Aileen's ex-lawyer made a last-minute plea to stop the execution, but Jeb Bush was not going to be stopped.

Jeb Bush: Based on his concerns, we're going to ask three psychiatrists to analyze her, to make sure that she's fit for the execution, which is a duty that I have, and I intend to do it.

Narrator: Jeb ordered a stay of execution, but guess what? His psychiatrists examined Aileen for just 15 minutes and then gave the thumbs up to go ahead.

Tv News Anchor: Lynn Gordon is in our newsplex now with the latest details. Lynn?

Lynn Gordon: Lori, we have just learned that Governor Jeb Bush has lifted the stay of execution for serial killer Aileen Wuornos. She has been found to be mentally competent. That means she will be executed next Wednesday.

Narrator: Aileen's given up the opportunity to do a mass press conference and has asked me to do her last interview. I'm sure that's because she wants me to communicate her ideas about what she calls the crooked cops. The last interview. Dumb rules, like I've got to stand behind this rope. There'll be 15 guards, including the warden, in attendance, and Aileen, for no good reason, will wear shackles throughout the interview.

Unidentified Voices: Is she on her way? Is she on her way? [unclear: "I did."]

Narrator: It's been proven that the death penalty is absolutely no deterrent. States without the death penalty, in fact, have lower murder rates.

Nick Broomfield: Hi, Aileen.

Aileen Wuornos: You know, I already told you everything, so, you know, you just go ahead and ask me questions, and if I want to answer them, I'll answer them, okay?

Nick Broomfield: So I guess, you know, I was just wondering how you're going to be, you know, at 9:30 tomorrow morning. Are you prepared?

Aileen Wuornos: I'm prepared. I'm all right. I'm all right with it.

Nick Broomfield: And how...

Aileen Wuornos: I'm all right with it, but, like I said, remember, and let them know that I know that the cops knew who I was after Richard Mallory died. I left prints everywhere, and they covered it up and let me kill the rest of those guys to turn me into a serial killer. I know they did, because I was no professional serial killer or anything, or murderer, or whatever you want to call it, you know. Wasn't special at what I was doing.

Nick Broomfield: How...

Aileen Wuornos: Did some sloppy work, you know, and [unclear: "I left prints" / "they let me go"].

Nick Broomfield: How have you prepared yourself for tomorrow morning?

Aileen Wuornos: How? I'm all right with it. Yeah, I'm ready to go. Hey, I was tortured at BCI. 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.

Nick Broomfield: Sonic what?

Aileen Wuornos: And every time I was trying to write something, I think they had some kind of eye in the cell, I'm not sure, but every time I started writing something, it went up higher. So I'm thinking they probably had the TV rigged. The TV or the mirror, something was rigged. They got a huge satellite on the compound. After they put the huge satellite on the compound, it could have been either rigged to the TV set or the mirror or something, because the electrician, when he put the mirror on the wall, he said, "Doesn't that look like a computer?" The back of it. And they stuck it to the wall.

Nick Broomfield: And do you think, what, did that affect your mind, do you think?

Aileen Wuornos: Huh?

Nick Broomfield: Did that affect your mind in some way, the sonic?

Aileen Wuornos: It was crushing my head, and they were using sonic pressure continually. Then, when I had three meetings with [unclear: "Ms. Philicorda" / "Miss Villa Quarta"; spelling not verified] on it, every meeting I had, she increased the pressure, the volume of the [unclear: "calm" / "comm"], increased the harassment on the floor, increased the trays being inedible, just increased every bit of my complaints, and trashed all grievances. They're trying to make it look like I was crazy at all times, rigged up the room with torture. If I said anything about... Their whole, I think their whole plan was trying to 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. I suffered so bad. I was really struggling to survive. Had a lot of trays that were attempted murder and everything. I had to wash all my food off. Then one day I didn't wash my food off, and I was sick for three weeks, almost died.

Nick Broomfield: But you're okay now?

Aileen Wuornos: I'm okay. I'm okay. God is going to be there. Jesus Christ is going to be there, all the angels and everything. And, you know, whatever's on the beyond, I think it's going to be more like Star Trek, beaming me up into a space vehicle, man. Then I move on, recolonize to another planet or whatever. But whatever's the beyond, I know it's going to be good, because I didn't do anything as wrong as they said. I did the right thing. And I saved a lot of people's butts from getting hurt and raped and killed, too.

Nick Broomfield: So are you saying that you killed in self-defense, or in cold blood? What do you... Because you've changed your story. I'm just trying to understand.

Aileen Wuornos: [unclear: "What are you"] talking about? Changed story on what?

Nick Broomfield: No, about whether it was self-defense or not.

Aileen Wuornos: I'm not going to say. You know, I'm not going to get in depth about my cases, Nick. [unclear: "I'm on my way to the chamber, nothing's stopping it" / "Mama waited in chamber, nothing's stopping it"]. You can believe it, or you don't have to believe it. That's up to you, man. Put a big question mark on your film.

Nick Broomfield: Just before we came here, we met with your, with your mother, Diane.

Aileen Wuornos: You met with my brother and Diane?

Nick Broomfield: Your mother.

Aileen Wuornos: My mother, Diane? Let me tell you something. She plopped me out of her belly, left me with my grandparents, and we never knew her. So tell that damn whore I could give a fuck if she even had me. She had me and left to Texas, and my mom, my dad, Barry, Keith, Lori, all of us never saw her ever again, except at funerals: my mom's funeral, my dad's funeral, my brother's funeral. And if she's at mine, I'd be spitting on her. Care less. I don't give a damn about that whore. I don't know her. I never even knew her.

Nick Broomfield: Well, she asked you for your forgiveness.

Aileen Wuornos: She can go to hell. She didn't have any of my forgiveness. I don't know, I don't even know her. Don't even want to know her.

Aileen Wuornos: My only interview concerns are about cops letting me kill. So if you don't ask me about that, I'm going to cut this interview. Ask me about the cops.

Nick Broomfield: What do you, I mean, what more is there... What more is there to say about the cops? What more do you want to say about the cops?

Aileen Wuornos: A lot of stuff. Did you know that they were surveilling me before I killed, and then I knew it? And that was covered up. Did you know there was helicopters dropping down from the sky, deputy sheriffs with decoys picking me up four, five months before my arrest? It was covered up.

Nick Broomfield: But nonetheless...

Aileen Wuornos: Nobody ever asked me these questions.

Nick Broomfield: [unclear: "Whether the cops were following"] you or not, I mean...

Aileen Wuornos: Oh, whether the cops were following me or not? I mean, what?

Nick Broomfield: Let's say the cops were following you.

Aileen Wuornos: Yeah?

Nick Broomfield: Let's say they were following you, and they did everything that you're saying they did. Nonetheless, you killed seven men.

Aileen Wuornos: Yeah, sure did.

Nick Broomfield: And I'm asking you, what got you to kill the seven men?

Aileen Wuornos: And I'm telling you, because the cops let me keep killing them, Nick. Don't you get it?

Nick Broomfield: Not everybody is killing seven people. So there must have been something in you that was getting you to do it.

Aileen Wuornos: Oh, you are lost, Nick. I was a hitchhiking hooker.

Nick Broomfield: Right.

Aileen Wuornos: Running into trouble, I shoot the guy if I ran into trouble. Physical trouble, the cops knew it. When the physical trouble came along: "Let her clean the streets, and then we'll pull her in." That's why.

Nick Broomfield: But how come there was so much physical trouble? Because it was all in one year. Seven people in one year.

Aileen Wuornos: Oh, well. Oh, well.

Nick Broomfield: But why not say now?

Aileen Wuornos: Because I'm out of retaliation, for taking my life like this and getting rich off it all these years, in total [unclear: "pathological lying" / "pathological lie"]. Yeah, thanks a lot. I lost my fucking life because of it. Couldn't even get a fair trial. Couldn't even get a fair investigation or nothing. Couldn't even have my appeals right. You sabotaged my ass, society. And the cops and the system, a raped woman got executed, and was used for books and movies and shit. Ladder climbs, re-election, everything else. I got [unclear: "a fifth finger" / "the finger"] on all your faces. Thanks a lot. You're an inhumane bunch of fucking living bastards and bitches, and you're going to get your asses nuked in the end, and pretty soon it's coming. 2019, a rock's supposed to hit you anyhow. You're all going to get nuked. You don't take fucking human life like this and just sabotage and rip it apart like Jesus on the cross, and say, "Thanks a lot for all the fucking money I made off of you." And I [unclear: "care" / "don't care"] about a human being and the truth being told. Now I know what Jesus was going through. They've been trying to tell the truth, and I keep getting it stepped on. Concerned about if I was raped. If I... I'm not giving you book and movie info. I'm giving you info for investigations and stuff, and that's it.

Aileen Wuornos: We're going to have to cut this interview, Nick. I'm not going to go into any more detail. I'm leaving. I'm glad. Thanks a lot, society, for railroading my ass. Okay, let's go. You dirty son of a bitch, you took a [unclear: "raped woman" / "rape woman" / "my brain woman"] to [unclear: "the center" / "sentence"]... Well, you [unclear: "sent her" / "sentenced her"] to God, but you're going to get your [unclear: "nukes" / "nuked"] some day soon.

Nick Broomfield: Hey, Aileen. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

Narrator: It was really pretty incredible that Aileen had just sailed through the psychiatric tests the day before. It makes you wonder what you'd have to do to fail. Later that night, Dawn met Aileen for her last meal: Kentucky Fried Chicken and french fries. She was limited to a $20 budget.

Dawn Botkins: She's sorry, Nick, that she didn't give you the finger. She gave the media the finger, and then the attorneys the finger. She didn't give you the finger. And she knew if she said much more that it could make a difference on her execution tomorrow, so she just decided not to, okay?

Nick Broomfield: But what, they thought, she thought they might not execute her if she said...

Dawn Botkins: She's afraid of something jeopardizing her execution in the morning.

Unidentified Voice: Keep going, ma'am! Don't stop!

Tv News Anchor: At 8 o'clock, time ticking away for serial killer Aileen Wuornos. Her date with death set for about 90 minutes from now. 7's Patrick Fraser is live in Raiford as her sentence is about to be carried out. Good morning, Patrick.

Patrick Fraser: Christine, in an hour and a half, exactly, Aileen Wuornos will be injected with a poison. Within about two minutes, she will begin to stop breathing. Now, it's tough to say who will be happier that she is dying: the families of the victims she brutally murdered, or Aileen Wuornos.

Prison Spokesman: We did wake her up at 5:30. She requested a towel and washcloth to wash her face and freshen up. She is very calm this morning, not as talkative as she has been in the past.

Narrator: It was hoped Aileen would confess all to a priest before execution, but she remained angry and defiant to the very end. Aileen sent the priest packing, and then knelt down and prayed for her victims, believing they might be too evil to be accepted by God.

Reporter: What about dying?

Execution Witness: She didn't talk about dying at all.

Reporter: What about remorse?

Execution Witness: All she wanted to do was to talk about the police. And I, you know, I just formed the impression that here was somebody who has obviously lost her mind, has totally lost touch with reality, and we're executing a person who's mad. And I don't really know what kind of message that gives. I find it very disturbing.

Execution Witness: And we watched her skin turn from a sort of a pale flesh color to a grayish-blue tone.

Unidentified Voice: Is everybody ready? Good.

Prison Spokesman: At 9:47 this morning, 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, one-minute final statement, she alluded to the fact 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 mother ship. I'll be back. I'll be back.