Monster: Inside the Mind of Aileen Wuornos

Dr Elizabeth McMahon had performed the necessary neurological, psychological and intelligence tests on Lee. She examined her for a total of 22 hours. Dr McMahon testified that the structure of Lee’s brain was normal, ‘but it does not function properly, like sand in a gas tank… the condition is chronic, static, doesn’t change and interacts with other problems.’

Lee was a borderline personality, which is defined by eight classic symptoms. Dr McMahon claimed that Lee evidenced them all: a pattern of unstable and intense interpersonal relations; impulsiveness; unstable moods; inappropriate, intense anger; recurrent suicidal threats; marked and present identity disturbance; feelings of emptiness or boredom; frantic efforts to avoid real or imagined abandonment.

‘This, combined with the dysfunctional background, produced an unhappy, discontented woman who cannot cope with the world. Lee is always in a state of living on the edge. There is a sense of danger, striving just to get her physical needs met,’ said Dr McMahon. ‘She has some sense that other people are doing it OK, but she’s not… Miss Wuornos is probably one of the most primitive people I’ve seen out of the institution. By that I mean that she functions at the level of a very basic… a small child. Always making an attempt at some sense of security, some sense of contentment.’

When cross-examined, however, Dr McMahon was forced to agree that Lee was sane, and that she knew the difference between right and wrong. Any chance of rehabilitation was remote, if not impossible.

The Oxford English Dictionary defines ‘monster’ as ‘an inhumanely cruel or wicked person’. Aileen Wuornos certainly had a dysfunctional start in life, and we cannot blame her for that. However, she became hooked on murder for murder’s sake. Aileen Wuornos chose her own fate. She knew that if she committed aggravated murder in Florida she could face the ultimate penalty. She decided to kill not once, not twice, but many times, and for this we are obliged to label her a monster.

Most of us have a conscience. Aileen Wuornos had a black void.

CHRONOLOGY OF DATES AND EVENTS

29 February 1956 – born Aileen Carol Pittman

1960 – Lee’s mother abandons her 18 March 1960 – Adopted by her grandparents Lauri and Britta Wuornos

January 1971 – Lee’s baby boy adopted

1971 –Lee’s natural father hangs himself in prison

7 July 1971 – Britta Wuornos dies

1974 – Jailed for the first time

January 1976 – Lauri Wuornos commits suicide

March 1976 – Lee marries Lewis Gratz Fell

16 July 1976 – Lee’s brother Keith dies of cancer

July 1976 – Lee and her husband separate

19 July 1977 – Lee and Lewis divorce

4 August 1977 – Fined for assault and battery

1978 – Attempts suicide with a gun

1981 – Moves into a mobile home with a boyfriend

20 May 1981 – Lee robs store at gunpoint

4 May 1982 – Imprisoned for robbery

30 June 1983 – Released

January 1984 – Hitchhikes to Smyrna Beach, Florida

1 May 1984 – Arrested for passing forged cheques

1985 – First lesbian love affair with a girl called Toni

30 November 1985 – Suspect in the theft of a pistol and ammunition

4 January 1986 – Arrested and charged with auto theft

2 June 1986 – Arrested for threatening a man with a pistol and demanding money. Bailed

8 June 1986 – Ticketed for speeding

June 1986 – Meets Tyria Moore

November 1986 – Arrested for grand larceny

March 1987 – Lee and Tyria move into a trailer at Ormond-by-the-Sea

1 December 1989 – Richard Mallory murdered and, later, his car discovered

6 December 1989 – Lee pawns Richard Mallory’s property

13 December 1989 – Richard Mallory’s body found

19 May 1990 – David Spears murdered

20 May 1990 – David Spears’s vehicle found

21/22 May 1990 – Charles Carskaddon murdered

1 June 1990 – Spears’s body discovered

6 June 1990 – Charles Carskaddon’s body found

7 June 1990 – Charles Carskaddon’s vehicle found

7/8 June 1990 – Peter Siems murdered

4 July 1990 – Tyria and Lee crash Peter Siems’s car

30 July 1990 – Troy Burress murdered

31 July 1990 – Burress’s truck found

4 August 1990 – Troy Burress’s body discovered

6 September 1990 – Curtis Reid murdered

11 September 1990 – Curtis Reid’s car found

11 September 1990 – Charles Humphreys murdered

12 September 1990 – Humphreys’s body discovered

19 September 1990 – Humphreys’s car found

13/15 November 1990 – Tyria leaves Florida for Thanksgiving

16 November 1990 – Bobby Lee Copus picks up Lee and narrowly escapes with his life

17 November 1990 – Walter Gino Antonio murdered

18 November 1990 – Antonio’s body found

23 November 1990 – Tyria returned to Lee in Florida. Lee gives Tyria Antonio’s ring

24 November 1990 – Antonio’s car discovered

2 December 1990 – Lee throws her murder weapon into Rose Bay promising Tyria that she will never kill again

3 December 1990 – Lee and Tyria part company for the last time. Tyria hands back the ring

7 December 1990 – Lee pawns Antonio’s engagement ring

10 December 1990 – Lee leaves lodgings

8 January 1991 – Lee spotted by police

9 January 1991 – Arrested