Serial killer Aileen Wuornos laughed and chatted with a documentary maker just hours ahead of her execution.
Wuornos was a sex worker who shot, killed and robbed seven of her clients within a 12-month span between 1989-1990. At trial, Wuornos claimed she had acted in self defense but was convicted of six counts of murder and sentenced to death. You can see her talking shortly before her execution here:
During her incarceration ahead of her execution, Wuornos took part in true-crime documentary Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer from filmmaker Nick Broomfield.
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In a chilling scene from the documentary, Broomfield visited her in Florida State Prison shortly before she was due to be executed by lethal injection.
In the clip, Wuornos looks happy as she greets Broomfield and tells him to check her ‘new orange shirt’, typically worn by inmates on death row.
When asked what it’s like inside, she laughs and replies: “It’s OK. It’s alright. But you have your problem with some staff who don’t like you.”
She went on to say that she kept herself to herself and had even given up smoking so she could stay in her cell by herself.
Asked how she spends her days, she went on: “I spend twenty-four-seven in a cell, watching TV, reading the bible writing letters… sitting around doing a lot of thinking, preparing, going back in time - memories of everything I’ve been through in my life and then just preparing for my death, getting all my tears out of me.”
At this point, Wuornos laughed and said that she didn’t want to be in the execution chamber with tears in her eyes to be a 'little bit tough' when she goes.
Ahead of her execution, Wuornos denied a request for a final meal and instead opted for a coffee - when asked if she had last words she said: "Yes, I would just like to say I'm sailing with the rock, and I'll be back, like Independence Day, with Jesus. June 6, like the movie. Big mother ship and all, I'll be back, I'll be back.”
Wuornos was executed on October 9 2002 aged 46.
Broomfield, who got to know Wuornos during the course of the documentary, speculated on her state of mind during an interview in 2004.
He said: “I think this anger developed inside her. And she was working as a prostitute. I think she had a lot of awful encounters on the roads. And I think this anger just spilled out from inside her. And finally exploded. Into incredible violence. That was her way of surviving.
“I think Aileen really believed that she had killed in self-defense. I think someone who's deeply psychotic can't really tell the difference between something that is life threatening and something that is a minor disagreement, that you could say something that she didn't agree with.
"She would get into a screaming black temper about it. And I think that's what had caused these things to happen. And at the same time, when she wasn't in those extreme moods, there was an incredible humanity to her.”
Topics: Film and TV, True crime, Crime
Claire Reid