Aileen Wuornos Confided in a Childhood Friend About the Abuse She Suffered

When it comes to female serial killers, violence is rarely involved. Most of their murders are financially motivated and are carried out via poison, says Marissa A. Harrison, author of Just as Deadly: The Psychology of Female Serial Killers. Based on statistics, Harrison and her colleagues created a profile for female serial killers. She described a white woman in her twenties or thirties who was probably married once, likely middle-class, Christian, and possibly employed in the healthcare industry.

Aileen Wuornos barely fits that description. She was married once and was arrested at the age of 34. Other than that, she couldn't be more different. One thing that Harrison mentioned that aligned with Wuornos's background was the prevalence of sexual trauma in her childhood. That was common amongst female serial killers. What happened to Wuornos? Here's what we know.

A little over a year after Wuornos was executed, and just days before Charlize Theron would win an Oscar for playing the infamous serial killer, her childhood friend spoke with The Palm Beach Post. Dawn Botkins had everything Wuronos owned upon her death, including the prison-issued flip-flops Wuornos wore the day of her execution. She also had thousands of letters Wuornos wrote to her from behind bars. Botkins would later turn those into a book titled Dear Dawn: Aileen Wuornos in Her Own Words.

In those letters, Wuornos waxed poetic about their time growing up in Michigan. She also discussed deeply painful moments of her life. What surprised Botkins was how much kids seemed to hate her best friend. Wuornos never knew her mother. Her father, Leo Pittman, took his own life while serving time in a Kansas prison for raping a 7-year-old. She was raised by her grandparents, both of whom drank heavily.

At the age of 13, Wuornos gave birth to a son whom she gave up for adoption. When her grandmother died from cirrhosis of the liver two years later, Wuornos was kicked out of the house. That's when she started her life as a sex worker, often using the money she made to buy cigarettes and alcohol for other teenagers who would turn around and ridicule her. Botkins recalled a time a group of kids knocked Wuornos out cold by hitting her with an open van door while they were driving.

In her letters to Botkins, Wuornos shared numerous harrowing tales of her life in Florida. She arrived in Fort Lauderdale at the age of 16 and was picked up by a State Trooper who said he wanted to help her find a place to sleep. Wuornos alleged that she was dropped off at an abandoned house. The State Trooper later returned with another trooper as well as two deputies, who proceeded to forcibly sodomize her. The letters were filled with stories like that.

Wuornos also discussed what she wanted Botkins to do after she was executed. "Please have a smile put on my face," she wrote, adding that she wanted her hair loose and draped across the pillow beneath her head. "Also, I'd like a cross in my hands, like a small wooden one ... also a Bible tucked between my arm and rib cage, as my hands are folded holding the cross." She also wanted a cookout and requested music by Duran Duran and the Moody Blues be played at the wake.