Aileen Wournos: I’ll be Back
by Why did Aileen Wournos go on a killing spree that resulted in her being considered America’s first female serial killer? From the time she became a teenager until they put the needle in her arm, she left a trail of dead men that she swore raped her. She was still swearing she was a victim when she received the lethal injection on death row.
Though we will probably never know the real reasons that Wournos killed her victims, there are some factors which may have contributed to her desire to terminate human life. Mental illness, a chaotic childhood, and a confused family background are all likely factors.
Mental Illness
Although Aileen did not receive any counseling or mental health help while she was young, she received these services in prison. Before she was executed, she was diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder. Borderline Personality Disorder , or BPD, is a disorder that is only barely removed from psychosis. People with BPD fear abandonment and will do anything to prevent it – anything inappropriate, that is. The more they are afraid, the angrier they get and the more aggressive they become. As they get angry and aggressive, people leave them. These individuals are very dangerous and are prone to fits of rage.
Chaotic Childhood and a Confused Family Life
Aileen’s mother abandoned her twice; her father was a convicted child molester strangled in prison. She went to live with her stern and abusive alcoholic grandfather. Her grandparents, perhaps out of embarrassment, pretended to be Wournos’s real parents. Aileen engaged in sex with her brother and by age fourteen was trading sex on the street for cigarettes and cheap jewelry. Aileen became pregnant, was sent to a home for unwed girls, and gave the baby up to be adopted. During her lifetime, Wournos’ stabbed two of her brothers and sisters, and married an older man and was put in jail for domestic violence when she beat him up. Finally, Wournos left her husband for another woman, who eventually turned her in for murdering a string of male strangers.
Who She Killed
Wournos, acting as a prostitute, picked up and killed six men along highways in Florida between 1989 and 1990. Although she insisted there was one more victim, it was never proven. Instead, the courts charged her with killing one victim; she pled no contest to five more men and was sentenced to death by lethal injection. Wournos stated that if she ever got out she would kill more men. According to CNN , Wournos said “I killed those men, robbed them as cold as ice. And I’d do it again, too, There’s no chance in keeping me alive or anything, because I’d kill again. I have hate crawling through my system.”
I’ll be Back…
On Tuesday, October 15, 2002, at 9:47 a.m. eastern time, Wournos was pronounced dead. Her last words were “I’ll be back.” To the end, Wournos insisted she was not guilty because she had acted in self defense. One thing is clear, American men are safer with Wournos gone. .
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