‘COLD AS ICE’
THE first female serial killer in America gained notoriety in the early 1990s after robbing and murdering multiple men.
Aileen Wuornos, who became known as The Damsel of Death and the Highway Hooker, was arrested in 1991 and eventually confessed to killing seven men between 1989 and 1990.
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Wuornos, a sex worker from Daytona Beach, Florida, committed her first serial killer crime in 1989, after admitting to her partner, Tyria Moore, that she shot and killed a man.
Court documents revealed that Wuornos told Moore she sifted through the man's belongings, abandoned his car near a beach, and left his body in the woods.
That same day - on December 1, 1989 - police found Richard Mallory's car, and later, on December 13, they found his body.
Wuornos alleged that Mallory raped her and she believed he was going to try to kill her.
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She had a gun on her at the time and claimed that a fight for the weapon ensued but she won.
Mallory was shot to death, with two bullets having pierced his left lung causing hemorrhaging and death, according to court documents.
ABANDONED VICTIMS AND VEHICLES
Six other victims of Wuornos were discovered in 1990, per Oxygen.
David Spears, 43, was found shot six times on June 1.
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His truck was also found nearby.
Days later on June 6, the body of Charles Carskaddon, 40, was found in the woods.
Carskaddon had been shot nine times.
His car was found in another location.
Then, on July 4, 65-year-old Peter Siems' abandoned car was discovered with blood stains on the interior and door handles.
But Siems' body has never been found.
A group of picnickers found the body of 50-year-old Troy Burress a month later on August 4.
He had been shot twice, and his truck was found miles away.
On September 12, the body of Charles Richard Humphreys, 56, was found by two young boys.
Humphreys' body was found with six gunshot wounds.
His car was found abandoned near a gas station in a different county.
The final victim's body was found on November 19.
Walter Jeno Antonio, 62, had been shot four times, and his car was found days later in a different county.
The victims were all found to be robbed, according to The Chicago Tribune, and their vehicles were abandoned.
Investigators determined that the shootings were committed with a .22 caliber pistol, the outlet also reported.
'I DID IT ALL MYSELF'
Wuornos was caught thanks, in part, to Moore.
When police released sketches of two women fleeing the scene after crashing Siems' car, Moore left Wuornos and fled to Pennsylvania.
After officials tracked her down, she began to cooperate.
She then returned to Florida where investigators recorded her conversations with Wuornos for four days.
In one conversation, Wuornos was recorded as saying: "I will not let you be involved in the picture. You’re not the one. I am the one who did everything. I did it all myself."
Wuornos' attorneys tried to appeal but Florida Supreme Court stated that Wuornos "freely waived her rights and confessed, contrary to advice of counsel both before and during the first confession and later," per Oxygen.
The suspect was arrested on January 9, 1991, at a Florida bar on a warrant for weapons possession dating back to 1986, The New York Times reported at the time.
Days later, on January 16, Wuornos confessed to the seven murders once Moore tells her she was being investigated.
She claimed self-defense and pleaded not guilty to the murder of Mallory.
But Wuornos was found guilty of first-degree murder on January 27, 1992, after facing trial for the death of Mallory.
She was sentenced to death on January 31, 1992.
Wuornos pleaded no contest to five of the six other murders.
As Siems' body was never recovered, she was not charged in his death.
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Wuornos was executed by lethal injection on October 9, 2002.
A movie, Monster, was later made about Wuornos' life and starred Charlize Theron, who won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her portrayal of Wuornos.