Aileen Wuornos
Rebecca McRunnel
CRJ 308
Psychology of Criminal Behavior
Professor David Ojo
October 6, 2014

A serial killer is defined as a “person who murders three or more people over a period of more than 30 days, with a “cooling off” period between each murder, which whose motivation for killing is largely based on psychological gratification.” (University, n.d) Many times serial murders go unsolved and other times it takes decades to unravel. According to the FBI there is no set profile of a serial killer, because they can come in all sizes, ages, shapes, colors and groups. (Welch, 2011) They tend to operate within their comfort zone, which is there area where they work, live or they have relative’s homes. (Roberts, 2011) …show more content…
Wuornos grandfather beat her and her grandmother was an alcoholic. When she was just 11 years old she started trading sexual favors for money, beer, cigarettes. She suffered through this for a few years and at the age of 14 years old, she was given up for adoption, but soon after she was kicked out of the house. During this time she was spending more time way from the house and traveling alone around the country under assumed names and living in the woods. In the early 1980’s Wuornos found out that her brother died of cancer, this is when she moved to Florida and began working as a prostitute. She began getting into trouble with the law for being a prostitute and other crimes, including that illegal possession of a firearm, forgery, assault, and robbery. (Capital Punishment in Context, n.d) People that knew her would describe her as erratic and easily …show more content…
Her last hope was to get a stay of execution, which happened on September 30, 2002 by Governor Jeb Bush and he ordered a mental examination to determine whether Wuornos was competent to be executed. Florida law states that an inmate cannot be executed unless she understands why she is being executed. An examination by three psychiatrists determined that Wuornos was competent to be executed and the stay was lifted. On October 9, 2002 Aileen Wuornos was executed by lethal injection in Florida State prison. Her last words before being executed were “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”. (Capital Punishment in Context, n.d) She was pronounced dead at 9:47 a.m. being the tenth woman to be executed in the United States since 1976 and the second woman ever in Florida. (Capital Punishment in Context,