Aileen Wuornos told examiners she was being controlled by sonic waves and wanted to die to return as an avenger with Jesus — the psychiatric panel still cleared her for execution. This chapter traces her Michigan childhood, the Florida highways, Tyria Moore's betrayal, and the competency battle that exposes everything the system refused to face.
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Before Aileen Wuornos was executed in October two thousand and two, a psychiatric panel reviewed her case and declared her competent to die. She had told interviewers she was being controlled by sonic waves.
Aileen Carol Wuornos was born in Rochester, Michigan, in February nineteen fifty-six. Her father was Leo Dale Pittman.
By nineteen eighty-six, Aileen Wuornos was thirty years old. She had spent fifteen years hitchhiking, prostituting, surviving.
The prosecution's version was clean. Aileen Wuornos dressed as a distressed woman needing a ride.
In January nineteen ninety-one, police had Wuornos in custody. They wanted a confession.
Her attorneys raised the issue of mental fitness. Psychiatrists examined her.
In two thousand and three, Charlize Theron won the Academy Award for Best Actress for playing Wuornos in Monster. The film presented her as a survivor of abuse who broke under pressure.
Aileen Wuornos is regularly described as the most famous female serial killer in American history. She's probably the most famous in the world.
The questions about self-defense were never resolved in any definitive sense. The court resolved them legally, with convictions.
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