Last interview of 'America's first female serial killer' before execution

24 February 2024 , 08:00

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Last interview of 'America's first female serial killer' before execution

A woman who was dubbed America's first female serial killer took part in a chilling last interview for a documentary moments before she was executed.

Aileen Wuornos, 46, appeared chatty and laughed while saying she was "preparing" for her death at Florida State Prison in Bradford County. Wuornos, a sex worker who was found guilty of killing seven men between 1989 and 1990, was arrested in 1991.

She earned the nickname "Damsel of Death" for the killings, which she claimed were out of self-defence. She was convicted of the murder of Richard Mallory in January 1992 and later confessed to six more killings. convicted of six counts of murder and sentenced to death. She was executed by lethal injection on October 9, 2002.

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Aileen Wuornos smiling during her final interview (Lafayette Films)

At the time of her conviction, she showed a lack of remorse and said: "I killed those men, robbed them as cold as ice. And I'd do it again, too. There's no chance in keeping me alive or anything, because I'd kill again. I have hate crawling through my system."

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Just hours before she was put to death, Wuornos chatted with filmmaker Nick Broomfield who was shooting a true-crime documentary on her life, called "Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer". A chilling video from the interview Wuornos looking happy while laughing and chatting with Mr Broomfield.

Wournos was executed by lethal injection October 9, 2002 (Getty Images)

Wuornos leaving the courtroom in the Marion County Judicial Center in Ocala, Florida (Doug Engle/AP/REX/Shutterstock)

In the clip, she greeted the filmmaker and told him to check her "new orange shirt", typically worn by inmates on death row. When asked by Mr Broomfield how life in prison was, she replied: "Here it's ok. It's alright. But you have your problems with some staff who don't like you. So some staff won't treat you right."

Mr Broomfield then asked the serial killer if she had made any friends in prison but she said she just spent time by herself in her cell, having also stopped smoking so she would not need to go out. Describing her day-to-day life, she said: "I spend 24/7 in a cell, watching TV, reading the Bible, writing letters, sitting around, doing a lot of thinking, preparing, going back in time - memories of everything I've been through in my life and then just preparing for my death, getting all my tears out of me."

She was then seen laughing while repeating that she wanted to get all her tears out as she did not want to be crying in the execution chamber. The documentary was released in 2003, the year after the serial killer's execution.

Wuornos declined a last meal before being put to death, opting instead for a black coffee. And while in the execution room, she smiled at witnesses, showing no remorse for the killings she had been convicted for.

Her chilling final statement was: "I would like to say I'm sailing with the rock, and I'll be back with Jesus, like Independence Day. June 6, like the movie. Big mother ship and everything, I'll be back, I'll be back." Her remains were cremated and scattered by a tree in Michigan.

Wuornos spoke about her life in prison while filming a documentary about her (Lafayette Films)

During an interview in 2004, Mr Broomfield said he saw "an incredible humanity" in the serial killer despite the horrific crimes she had committed. He said: "I think this anger developed inside her. And she was working as a prostitute. I think she had a lot of awful encounters on the roads. And I think this anger just spilled out from inside her. And finally exploded. Into incredible violence. That was her way of surviving.

"I think Aileen really believed that she had killed in self-defense. I think someone who's deeply psychotic can't really tell the difference between something that is life-threatening and something that is a minor disagreement, that you could say something that she didn't agree with.

"She would get into a screaming black temper about it. And I think that's what had caused these things to happen. And at the same time, when she wasn't in those extreme moods, there was an incredible humanity to her."

Chiara Fiorillo