Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer (2003)

Director: Nick Broomfiled

Starring: Aileen Wuornos, Steve Glazer and Arlene Pralle

Plot: Nick Broomfield's second documentary on Aileen Carol Wuornos, a highway prostitute who was executed in 2002 for killing seven men in the state of Florida. This second installment includes the filmmaker's testimony at Wournous's trial.

My Rating: 8/10

Would I watch it again? Yes

Broomfield's previous documentary about Wuornos, AILEEN WUORNOS: THE SELLING OF A SERIAL KILLER (1992), left me wanting to know the back story about Wuornos and the questions you would have of what lead her to kill seven men over the course of a year beginning in 1989. Well, here it is. This documentary is more focused than the last and it takes us on a sad journey from her childhood to her execution in Florida on October 9, 2002.

Wuornos' shit bag mother

Her life was shit from the start. Her mother, Diane, married Leo at the age of 15 in Michigan. Leo was a child molester and was strangled to death in prison in 1969. Diane abandoned her children, leaving them with her parents (we get to see Diane interviewed, btw, and she's a piece of shit). At the age of 13, Aileen became pregnant. She had been sexually active with many partners including her brother. At 15 her grandfather threw her out of the house. She lived in the nearby woods for the next two years, supporting herself with prostitution. Sick of living another harsh winter in the woods, she decided to move to the warmer, more agreeable climate of Florida. From there her life of crime escalated, ending with her arrest on January 9, 1991 for the recent murders of seven men.


Now this is what I wanted to see. We also get to find out what has happened over the past ten years with the players from the previous documentary. Wuornos' life was a fucked up mess from start to finish. No doubt about that and this doc is loaded with low-lifes including a friend of Wuornos' that insists gays didn't exist before the 1970s. Unbelievable. It's a great counterpart to his earlier doc. If you only liked the first one a little bit, you need to see this one as it will give you the satisfaction you wanted.

Want to see it? Start watching the whole thing, below, beginning with part one.