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Aileen Wuornos said her first victim raped her — and she killed him in self-defence. But the jury that convicted her never heard the full story of Richard Mallory’s past.
This isn’t another retelling of the Aileen Wuornos serial killer story. It’s a deep dive into the evidence, contradictions and disturbing details that complicate one of America’s most infamous murder cases.
Between 1989 and 1990, seven men disappeared or were found dead along Florida’s highways. The woman eventually connected to their deaths was Aileen Carol Wuornos — a homeless sex worker whose name would become synonymous with the phrase “female serial killer.”
Her story has since been told countless times. The abusive childhood. The years spent hitchhiking and living on the road. Her relationship with Tyria Moore. The murders. The manhunt. The trial. The increasingly chaotic interviews from death row. And finally, her execution in 2002.
But underneath the version of Aileen Wuornos that became Infamous was a far more complicated question.
What actually happened with Richard Mallory?
Mallory was the first man Wuornos admitted killing. She claimed he picked her up for sex, drove her to an isolated area and violently sexually assaulted her. According to Aileen, she shot Mallory because she believed he was going to kill her.
Prosecutors argued that wasn’t what happened. They portrayed Wuornos as a robber and murderer who targeted men for money and possessions — and in January 1992, a Florida jury convicted her of Richard Mallory’s murder.
But there was something those jurors didn’t know. Mallory had a troubling history that would later become a major part of the debate surrounding Aileen’s claim of self-defence. Information about his past was uncovered after her conviction — raising questions about evidence, credibility and whether knowing more about the man at the centre of her first murder case could have changed how her story was received.
And Richard Mallory is only part of it.
Because when you strip away the headlines, Hollywood portrayals and mythology that have surrounded Aileen Wuornos for decades, her case becomes much harder to squeeze into the simple story of a woman who murdered seven innocent strangers for money. That does not mean every killing was self-defence. It does not erase the men who died, nor does it turn Aileen into something she wasn’t. But it does mean this case deserves something more useful than deciding whether she was simply a “monster” or a “victim.”
So in this true crime deep dive, we’re going right back to the beginning: Aileen Wuornos’s childhood and adolescence, her years on the road, her relationship with Tyria Moore, the seven men connected to her killing spree, the investigation that finally identified her, the undercover operation involving Tyria, Aileen’s confessions, the Richard Mallory trial, the evidence used against her, what the jury didn’t know, her death-row years and the events leading to her execution.
Because you probably know the name Aileen Wuornos.
You may even think you know her story. But there is a part of it that changes the way you look at the entire case.
A true crime documentary and deep dive into Aileen Wuornos, Richard Mallory, Tyria Moore, the Florida murders, Wuornos’s self-defence claims, the evidence presented at trial, Richard Mallory’s history, Aileen’s convictions, death-row interviews and execution — examining one of the most infamous and controversial female serial killer cases in American history.
Podcast: True Crime w/ Anna Templeton