How This Child Turned Into One of History’s Most Notorious Figures

Her name became infamous: Aileen Wuornos.

Dubbed the “Damsel of Death,” she became a media obsession. Her life story—abuse, homelessness, violence—was dissected, sensationalized, and endlessly debated. Was she a predator? A victim of lifelong trauma who snapped? Psychologists pointed to severe mental illness and untreated wounds. Prosecutors painted her as a cold-blooded killer.

On October 9, 2002, at age forty-six, Wuornos was executed by lethal injection. In her final years, she swung between insisting on self-defense and spiraling into paranoia and rage. To some, she was a monster. To others, a tragic product of abuse and neglect. To most, she remained an unsettling reminder of what can emerge from a childhood steeped in pain.

The Final Truth

In the end, the little girl in the photograph never stood a chance. The world failed her long before she ever pulled a trigger—and by the time she became infamous, there was no path back to who she might have been.