Sign up to save your podcasts
Or
Share Aileen Wuornos
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Or
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.
----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.
View all episodes
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.
More shows like Bad Gays
View all
Politics Theory Other
179 Listeners
You're Wrong About
21,865 Listeners
American Hysteria
3,342 Listeners
Death Panel
547 Listeners
The Polyester Podcast
201 Listeners
Know Your Enemy
2,065 Listeners
You Are Good
2,730 Listeners
Maintenance Phase
16,672 Listeners
Cancel Me, Daddy
375 Listeners
Cool People Who Did Cool Stuff
833 Listeners
If Books Could Kill
9,399 Listeners
Ordinary Unhappiness
230 Listeners
In Bed With The Right
551 Listeners
A Bit Fruity with Matt Bernstein
2,546 Listeners
Sixteenth Minute (of Fame)
817 Listeners