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Aileen Wuornos
In 1992, Aileen Carol Wuornos, an itinerant sex worker, was arrested for the murders of seven men in or near Volusia County, Florida in 1989 and 1990: all of them shot while Wuornos was on the job, all of them shot at point-blank range. She became, in the view of the public, according to the filmmaker Nick Broomfield, who made two documentaries about her and about the media storm that surrounded her, a "man-hating lesbian prostitute who tarnished the reputations of her victims,” a useful foil for family-values string-em-up-dead politicians who wanted to show that they were tough on crime–and an unlikely lesbian hero.
Visit our website for T-shirts, an episode archive, and more information about the show.
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SOURCES:
Barrett-Ibarria, Sofia. “How Serial Killer Aileen Wuornos Became a Cult Hero.” Vice (blog), September 19, 2019.
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/mbm3j4/how-serial-killer-aileen-wuornos-became-a-cult-hero.
Broomfield, Nick. Aileen Wuornos: The Selling of a Serial Killer. Documentary, Crime. Channel 4 Television Corporation, Lafayette Films, 1994.
Broomfield, Nick, and Joan Churchill. Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer. Documentary, Crime. Lafayette Films, Channel 4 Television Corporation, 2003.
chesler, phyllis. “A Woman’s Right to Self—Defense: The Case of Aileen Carol Wuornos.” Off Our Backs 23, no. 6 (1993): 6–15.
Levina, Marina, and Diem-My T. Bui, eds. Monster Culture in the 21st Century: A Reader. London, UK: Bloomsbury Academic, 2013.
Pearson, Kyra. “The Trouble with Aileen Wuornos, Feminism’s ‘First Serial Killer.’” Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies 4, no. 3 (September 2007): 256–75. https://doi.org/10.1080/14791420701472791.
Vronsky, Peter. Female Serial Killers: How and Why Women Become Monsters. 1st edition. New York, N.Y: Berkley Books, 2007.
Our intro music is Arpeggia Colorix by Yann Terrien, downloaded from WFMU's Free Music Archive and distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Our outro music is by DJ Michaeloswell Graphicsdesigner.
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By Huw Lemmey & Ben Miller
4.5
487487 ratings
In 1992, Aileen Carol Wuornos, an itinerant sex worker, was arrested for the murders of seven men in or near Volusia County, Florida in 1989 and 1990: all of them shot while Wuornos was on the job, all of them shot at point-blank range. She became, in the view of the public, according to the filmmaker Nick Broomfield, who made two documentaries about her and about the media storm that surrounded her, a "man-hating lesbian prostitute who tarnished the reputations of her victims,” a useful foil for family-values string-em-up-dead politicians who wanted to show that they were tough on crime–and an unlikely lesbian hero.
Visit our website for T-shirts, an episode archive, and more information about the show.
----more----
SOURCES:
Barrett-Ibarria, Sofia. “How Serial Killer Aileen Wuornos Became a Cult Hero.” Vice (blog), September 19, 2019.
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/mbm3j4/how-serial-killer-aileen-wuornos-became-a-cult-hero.
Broomfield, Nick. Aileen Wuornos: The Selling of a Serial Killer. Documentary, Crime. Channel 4 Television Corporation, Lafayette Films, 1994.
Broomfield, Nick, and Joan Churchill. Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer. Documentary, Crime. Lafayette Films, Channel 4 Television Corporation, 2003.
chesler, phyllis. “A Woman’s Right to Self—Defense: The Case of Aileen Carol Wuornos.” Off Our Backs 23, no. 6 (1993): 6–15.
Levina, Marina, and Diem-My T. Bui, eds. Monster Culture in the 21st Century: A Reader. London, UK: Bloomsbury Academic, 2013.
Pearson, Kyra. “The Trouble with Aileen Wuornos, Feminism’s ‘First Serial Killer.’” Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies 4, no. 3 (September 2007): 256–75. https://doi.org/10.1080/14791420701472791.
Vronsky, Peter. Female Serial Killers: How and Why Women Become Monsters. 1st edition. New York, N.Y: Berkley Books, 2007.
Our intro music is Arpeggia Colorix by Yann Terrien, downloaded from WFMU's Free Music Archive and distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Our outro music is by DJ Michaeloswell Graphicsdesigner.
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