Monster: Inside the Mind of Aileen Wuornos

Munster: Did you watch TV?

Wuornos: I watched TV all my life.

Munster: Did you watch to see if the police…

Wuornos: I watched TV all the time, but after the crimes, yes I did.

Munster: To see what the police were doing?

Wuornos: To see if they had found the bodies.

Horzepa: OK. From all the shootings that you have told us about, for the most part, you’ve always gotten the drop on these guys. You’ve been able to get your gun and point it at them.

Wuornos: Uh huh.

Horzepa: Right?

Wuornos: Right.

Horzepa: OK. At that particular time, you were in control. Why didn’t you just run? Why didn’t you…

Wuornos: Because I was always basically totally nude with my shoes off and everything and I wasn’t going to run through the woods and briars and the…

Horzepa: No, but still, like I say, you’re in control. You got that gun. You could go ahead and get dressed while you had, you know, them do whatever you basically wanted. Why did you go ahead and… shoot these people?

Wuornos: Because they physically fought with me and I was… well, I guess I was afraid, because they were physically fighting with me and I… what am I supposed to do, you know, hold the gun there until I get dressed and now I am going to walk out of here? When the guy, you know, might… you know, run me over with his truck or might come back when I’m walking through the woods or something… uh, have a gun on him too or something. I didn’t know if they had a gun or not.

Horzepa: So was it… was it your intent, during each of these times, to kill this person so they couldn’t come back at you later?

Wuornos: Because I didn’t know if they had a gun or anything. I… once I got my gun, I was like, ‘Hey, man, I’ve got to shoot you because I think you’re going to kill me,’ see?

Horzepa: What about the ones who didn’t have a gun, like Mr Mallory?

Wuornos: I didn’t know they had… didn’t have a gun.

Horzepa: OK. So you were taking no chances.

Wuornos: Right. I did not know… what… had… they… what was in their vehicle. See?

Horzepa: OK.

Wuornos: I didn’t know if they had it under the seat, close by them. I didn’t know if they were in arm’s reach of another weapon or what. See?

Horzepa: What made you take property… a lot of property or a little property from some and not from others? Was there anything there that…

Wuornos: I guess it was.

Horzepa: Motivated you to…

Wuornos: I guess it was after, it was pure hatred. Yeah, I think afterward, it was like, You bastard, you would have hurt me and, uh, I’ll take the stuff and get my money’s worth because some of them didn’t even hardly have any money. They were going to… they were… some of them didn’t have any money. Like that guy, uh, the drug-dealer guy… he had 20 bucks and he was… he wasn’t going to give me any more money. The one with the .45 on the hood [Carskaddon].

Horzepa: Mmm. Mmm. So you just started living off the items that they had? Is that what you were doing?

Wuornos: No, I think I took them just for the fact that, you bastards, you were going to hurt me, you were going to rape me, or whatever you were going to do. Well, I’ll just, you know, keep these little items so I don’t have to buy them or something. I don’t know. I just…

Horzepa: It was like a final revenge?

Wuornos: Yeah. OK. That would… that would do. Mmm… mmm.

Munster: Lee, after you shot one time, I mean you could have left. You could have taken their stuff and [inaudible].

Wuornos: I didn’t want to do that because I was afraid that, if I shot them one time and they survived, my… my face and all that, description of me, would be all over the place and the only way I could make money was to hustle. And I knew these guys would probably… would, you know, rat on me if they survived and all this stuff… and I would… I was hoping that I… after what I had to do, that I wouldn’t have gotten caught for it because I figured that these guys deserved it. Because those guys were going to either rape, kill… I don’t know what they were going to do to me. See what I’m saying?

Horzepa: So you continued to kill these men to cover up when you… when you shot these men. Mallory was the first. Is that correct?

Munster: OK. You continued… you had to go ahead and kill these men so that they couldn’t testify against you and have it all backtracked? From body to body then?

Wuornos: Oh, no, I didn’t even think of that either. I… I shot them because it was like to me, a self-defending thing because I felt that if I didn’t shoot them and I didn’t kill them, first of all, if they survived, my ass would be getting in trouble for attempted murder, so I’m up shit’s creek on that one anyway, and… and… and if I didn’t and if… and if I didn’t kill them, you know, of course, I mean I had to kill them… or it’s retaliation, too. It’s like, you bastards. You were going to… you were going to hurt me.

Horzepa: So now I’m going to hurt you.

Wuornos: Yeah. Mmm… mmm.

Munster: Yeah, all… all of these guys that you shot, they seem to be older guys. Over the age of 40. What is that?

Wuornos: Because all of the guys that I dealt with were that age. Every… every guy.

Munster: You were dead wood for the younger guys?

Wuornos: No. Every guy I dealt with on the road was anywhere from… let’s see… 37 and up.

Horzepa: Was that your decision? I mean, like the…

Wuornos: Yeah. Because I…

Horzepa: Younger guy in his twenties would stop…

Wuornos: Yeah, because, see, I don’t do drugs or anything and I wanted to deal with people who didn’t do drugs. I was looking for clean and decent people. But, like I say, it just happened that the last… this following year, that I kept meeting guys that were turning out to be ugly guys… to me. That they were… fighting.