Aileen: Queen of the Serial Killers

Honestly, one of the most heartbreaking documentaries I’ve ever watched — and I’ve watched a lot of them. It even made me cry.

I’m so infuriated that the justice system in the US doesn’t work and is just another money-making industry and political game, where human lives and reputations mean nothing to anyone.

Eileen had the worst luck in life. She was raised by her grandparents, was allegedly raped at a young age, gave birth to a child and gave it up, and at 16 left home and began travelling around the country until she was 20. She said that during those four years, she was raped around 30 times — and had been gang-raped twice by classmates before she even left home. Throughout her short life, Eileen attempted suicide several times.

When Eileen was 30, she met a 24-year-old woman and began a serious relationship with her. Her partner was ultimately the reason Eileen confessed to the crimes — just to get the police off her back. I found Eileen’s partner deeply unpleasant and somewhat slippery.

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.

The police weren’t even investigating Aileen’s crimes — they were busy selling her story for a film production. The newspapers wrote things like “A man-hater brutally murdered her victims”, and people regularly insulted her, calling her ugly. The media turned her into a serial killer queen, even though she wasn’t really one — she didn’t plan her killings, had no urge to kill, and didn’t kill every client she had, only those who threatened her. That very much points to self-defence.

The way she was treated unjustly — the negligent investigation, the biased judges, the complete disregard for the context of both the crimes and her life — is simply heartbreaking. They decided to publicly destroy her and make an example of her, all because a masculine lesbian sex worker dared to kill the men who attacked her. From the way they spoke about her, you can tell they were threatened by her — scared it could happen to them — because most of them were probably the same kind of men who paid for sex and treated women exactly the same way.

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.

So, once again: “disappointed, but not surprised”. I want to express my admiration for all the women involved in making this documentary, but I was especially struck by Michelle Guillen. There’s so much more I could say, but I don’t want to just retell everything — so I’ll stop here.