There are a lot of things I don't understand in this world, including the government and Teletubbies, but nothing stumps me quite like the mistreatment of the mentally ill, and the abuse and neglect of children. As human beings, we're programmed to survive and protect ourselves at all costs. The fight or flight response is a fine tuned machine that spans over our entire species. What happens when the person wielding this machine was sexually, physically and mentally abused as a child? The effect that can have on a person is evident in the case of Aileen Wournos. This picture is of a devastatingly charming little girl. Honestly, she's beautiful.In forty-eight years this child will have been put to death as a serial killer, with the blood of seven men on her hands. It doesn't seem possible for such a metamorphosis to occur, that a face like this could be changed by a hard life of drugs, drinking, smoking and highway prostitution. Aileen was a very sick woman, and her innocence didn't last long past the taking of this picture. She became known as a "cigarette pig" at the age of eleven, because she would have sex with local boys in exchange for cigarettes. She was abandoned by her mother, sexually abused by her grandfather, had incestuous relations with her brother, Keith, and eventually ended up a withered woman on the end of her tether. Her life is a story of being used, but she didn't start killing until she fell in love with Tyria Brookes. Her obsession with Ty overshadowed everything else. Ms. Brookes wasn't frightened away by Aileen's famous and well documented rages. They were together for four years.
It seems like the triggers for Aileen's highway killings were moments of insecurity in her relationship with Tyria. Wournos felt that in order to keep the woman she loved, she had to be able to provide some big money to keep them comfortable. At this point, the cute little girl above had changed into an overweight alcoholic and any remnant of her good looks were completely gone. Men stopped to pick her up for sex less frequently than ever before, and she was desperate. So when Richard Mallory stopped to pick her up (presumably as a hitch-hiker, but we'll never know for sure) Aileen began her immediate rationalizations. Soon, she'd convinced herself that 51 year old Mallory was going to rape her. Later that same night, her first victim was dead (1989), and the year long spree had begun.
Aileen is the perfect example of what I don't understand in this world. Used and abused from a very young age, is it any surprise that she became violent in her later life? In her last interview and final words, it's obvious that she was not in her right mind. The question is, was she ever? Did she deserve to die by lethal injection, or was her place in a mental institution, where her paranoia and rage could be treated, or at least handled? Towards the end, it didn't matter. Aileen stopped protesting her death penalty sentence. She was unstable enough to become a serial killer, but not unstable enough to warrant help. Her last words, while strapped down and waiting for the lethal injection to be administered, where the following:
"I'd 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."
Aileen Wuornos (February 29 1956 - October 9, 2002)
NOTE: I am not in any way suggesting that Aileen Wuornos was innocent. The evidence proved to 12 people beyond a reasonable doubt that she was a murderer. I simply wanted to share Aileen's sad story and get a few thoughts out there. As someone who struggles with a mental illness, cases like these really hit home. Chronic depression is no paranoid schizophrenia and I'm no Aileen Wuornos, but just think about how many times this has happened over the years... Who decides when someone needs treatment, and when someone needs to die?
Watching Life and Death of a Serial Killer, I can feel nothing but the deepest pity for Ms Wuornos. It is terribly sad that her victims found themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time (except probably for the first one). One day, I hope, a more enlightened posterity will understand and treat such tortured people.
ReplyDeleteWatching the film made me more curious about the sad details of Ms Wuornos's life. I for myself am convinced she was ill altogether after the severe abuses and abandonment etc. Its not normal at all a girl of 11 sells herself. She had severe inner sufferings which made her mentally ill and the prostitution was the only way to survive for her. She belonged in care, that's what I think and after the murders in closed psychiatric hospital.
ReplyDeleteI work with sex trafficking survivors in the Atlanta area (ages 11-39) and all of them are adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse - it primes them to receive abusive "love" from traffickers and purchasers alike. Each story is devastating and we cannot fathom that their precious bodies and minds have lived through all that they have. That level of violence and rape is enough to shatter anyone. Aileen's story is all too similar to most that I have heard. We MUST start treating prostituted women and girls like the victims they are (instead of criminals). Obviously, in Aileen's case she absolutely should have been punished for her crimes. There are 300,000 young women in the U.S. alone who are trafficked. The numbers and stories are staggering.
ReplyDeleteI’m pretty sure my child life was worse than hers. I turned out ok. Sounds like Aileen might have what my dad had. He was a violent rapest. He was never prosecuted. Pretty sure he killed. His last name was Raper. I had to deal with that until I got married. I attempt to write a book. I turned out good but only because of Jesus. I have a career in Child Abuse investigator in my area. I have saved Thousands of kids. I still would like to know why my dad was evil.
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