Aileen Wuornos confessed to seven murders not because she was caught — but to protect Tyria Moore, the woman who then testified against her. This chapter traces the jailhouse phone call, the immunity deal, and the love story that became the prosecution's most devastating weapon.
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Here's what most people get wrong about Aileen Wuornos. They think the story ends with the murders.
To understand why Tyria Moore's betrayal cuts as deep as it does, you have to understand what Aileen Wuornos was running from before she ever reached Florida. She was born in Rochester, Michigan, in February of nineteen fifty-six.
In nineteen eighty-six, Aileen Wuornos walked into a gay bar called the Zodiac in South Daytona. She was thirty years old.
Richard Mallory was fifty-one years old, the owner of an electronics store in Clearwater. He was Wuornos' first victim.
Police located Wuornos in January of nineteen ninety-one at a biker bar in Port Orange. They took her in.
Wuornos' defense was self-defense. She said every man she killed had either raped her or attempted to.
During trial, Wuornos partially recanted her self-defense claims. She said she'd lied about the men attacking her.
In two thousand and three, the year after the execution, Charlize Theron won the Academy Award for Best Actress for playing Wuornos in the film Monster. The performance was physical and committed.
Here's what remains clear when you lay all of it out. Aileen Wuornos was failed before she was a threat to anyone.
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