Monster: Inside the Mind of Aileen Wuornos

‘What did she inform you?’

‘I told my corporal, you know, that Ms Wuornos wanted to speak to me. She looked really upset. So Corporal Cresta let me inside the block. When I got to the sally port she had gone to the telephone. She signalled for me to come in. I went over to a couple of other girls that were by a table. Ms Wuornos was on the telephone. She was very upset…

‘I was going to go ahead and leave again and Ms Wuornos got off the phone and signalled for me to come over to the table. And I sat down with her at the day-room table. She was sobbing. She was very, very upset. She asked me if I… she said she had done something terrible, and she wanted to get something off her chest. She asked me if I was a Christian. I told her, yes, I was.

‘She proceeded to tell me that she had done some bad things. And she was one of the people that was wanted on these murders. And I just kind of… I really didn’t know much about the case. I knew she was our mystery guest, you know. We just treat them like anybody else.

‘She told me she had this lover named Tessie. She had nothing to do with the murders. And they had gotten drunk one night, and she had said something to this girl, and that she wanted to confess. And I asked her if she had an attorney. She said, “No.” I said, “Well, I suggest you get yourself one.” I told her, “You know, anything that you said to me I have to tell to my supervisors.”

‘She said, “Well, I wanted to get it off my chest,” and she would speak to anybody, investigators, police, anybody. She said she wanted to go to heaven. She was afraid she wouldn’t go to heaven. That’s why she was telling me. That’s why she wanted to confess to someone.’

‘What shift were you working that day?’

‘Eight to four shift.’

‘This occurred at what time?’

‘This was about ten o’clock.’

‘In the morning?’

‘Yes, sir.’

‘Had she, to your knowledge, up to that point been pulled from her cell and taken to any other area of the jail?’

‘You mean like to be questioned or something?’

‘Yes.’

‘No, not at all. Nobody bothered her at all.’

‘Was she, to your knowledge, taken later that day?’

‘Yes, she was.’

‘The block that she was in, they have a telephone inside that area?’

‘Yes, they do.’

‘And they can make collect calls out of there?’

‘Yes, sir. She was trying to get hold of this Tessie. I don’t believe she got hold of her that day. She was really upset. I don’t know who else she had called.’

‘You’re saying that she was visibly upset. Was she crying?’

‘Yes, she was sobbing.’

‘For longer than a brief moment?’

‘For the whole time I was at the table she was. She asked me what I would do. I said, “I’d ask for forgiveness, you know. I’d forgive myself.” Because she was really very, very upset. Of course, anybody that upset we really watch for suicidal tendencies.’

‘Her emotional state was enough to at least concern you?’

‘Yes, it was. She told me she had killed six, not ten.’

‘Where did the figure ten come from?’

‘I had no idea, sir. She said, “I killed six, I did not kill ten.”’

‘Did you at any point in time during that contact with her – you’re familiar with Miranda warnings…?’

‘Yes, sir. I just told her that she had the right to counsel before she even, you know… after she had said… I said, “Well, you should have an attorney. You should be telling this to an attorney.” She said she wanted to get it off her chest, and she would talk to anyone. She said, “I’ll talk to investigators, I’ll talk to detectives. I want to get it off my chest. I want to go to heaven.” She kept crying.’

‘Did she describe any conversations she may have had recently with this Tessie?’

‘Only that she loved her very much, and that she was a Christian and goes to church a lot, and had nothing to do with it, and really hated to see her go through this; and “she’d probably never talk to me again”. Her words.’

‘In talking about this situation, wanting to talk to someone, based on what she is telling you, why did she seem to want to get this off her chest?’

‘Because she said she was a Christian. She said she had really studied the Bible before. She wanted to go to heaven. She was afraid she was not going to heaven. She said they were going to give her the electric chair.’

‘Did she mention anything about wanting to protect this Tessie?’

‘No. She said she had nothing to do with it. She had told her about something in one of those episodes that she had had. She was drunk, in a drunken state, and she had confessed this. And Tessie really didn’t know anything about it.’

‘Did it seem important to her to want to make sure people knew that Tessie didn’t have anything to do with it?’

‘Not really. It was more like she wanted to go to heaven. She was more worried about that.’