Authors: Aileen Wuornos
Referring to Richard Mallory later in the questioning, Lee changed the earlier version of her account and claimed: ‘See, one guy, he was trying to screw me in the ass and stuff… he was going to try to a… anal screw. You know, anal screw or whatever you call it. So I started fighting with him and I got to my bag and I shot him. And then when I shot him the first time, he just backed away. And, I thought… I thought to myself, Well, hell, should I, you know, try to help this guy or should I just kill him. So, I didn’t know what to do, so I figured, Well, if I help the guy and he lives, he’s going to tell on me and I’m going to get it for attempted murder, all this jazz. And I thought, Well, the best thing to do is just keep shooting him. Then I get to the point that I thought, Well, I shot him. The stupid bastard would have killed me so I kept shooting. You know. In other words, I shot him and then I said to myself, Damn, you know, if I didn’t… sh– shoot him, he would have shot me because he would have beat the shit out of me, maybe. I would have been unconscious. He would have found my gun going through my stuff, and shot me.
Because he probably would have gone to get it for trying to rape me, see? So I shot him and then I thought to myself, Well, Hell, I might as well just keep shooting him. Because I got to kill the guy because he’s going to… he’s going to… you know, go, and tell somebody if he lives, whatever. Then I thought to myself, Well, this dirty bastard deserves to die anyway because of what he was trying to do to me. So, those three things went in my mind for every guy that I shot…’
| Munster: | Did you watch TV? |
| Wuornos: | I watched TV all my life. |
| Munster: | Did you watch to see if the police… |
| Wuornos: | I watched TV all the time, but after the crimes, yes I did. |
| Munster: | To see what the police were doing? |
| Wuornos: | To see if they had found the bodies. |
| Horzepa: | OK. From all the shootings that you have told us about, for the most part, you’ve always gotten the drop on these guys. You’ve been able to get your gun and point it at them. |
| Wuornos: | Uh huh. |
| Horzepa: | Right? |
| Wuornos: | Right. |
| Horzepa: | OK. At that particular time, you were in control. Why didn’t you just run? Why didn’t you… |
| Wuornos: | Because I was always basically totally nude with my shoes off and everything and I wasn’t going to run through the woods and briars and the… |
| Horzepa: | No, but still, like I say, you’re in control. You got that gun. You could go ahead and get dressed while you had, you know, them do whatever you basically wanted. Why did you go ahead and… shoot these people? |
| Wuornos: | Because they physically fought with me and I was… well, I guess I was afraid, because they were physically fighting with me and I… what am I supposed to do, you know, hold the gun there until I get dressed and now I am going to walk out of here? When the guy, you know, might… you know, run me over with his truck or might come back when I’m walking through the woods or something… uh, have a gun on him too or something. I didn’t know if they had a gun or not. |
| Horzepa: | So was it… was it your intent, during each of these times, to kill this person so they couldn’t come back at you later? |
| Wuornos: | Because I didn’t know if they had a gun or anything. I… once I got my gun, I was like, ‘Hey, man, I’ve got to shoot you because I think you’re going to kill me,’ see? |
| Horzepa: | What about the ones who didn’t have a gun, like Mr Mallory? |
| Wuornos: | I didn’t know they had… didn’t have a gun. |
| Horzepa: | OK. So you were taking no chances. |
| Wuornos: | Right. I did not know… what… had… they… what was in their vehicle. See? |
| Horzepa: | OK. |
| Wuornos: | I didn’t know if they had it under the seat, close by them. I didn’t know if they were in arm’s reach of another weapon or what. See? |
| Horzepa: | What made you take property… a lot of property or a little property from some and not from others? Was there anything there that… |
| Wuornos: | I guess it was. |
| Horzepa: | Motivated you to… |
| Wuornos: | I guess it was after, it was pure hatred. Yeah, I think afterward, it was like, You bastard, you would have hurt me and, uh, I’ll take the stuff and get my money’s worth because some of them didn’t even hardly have any money. They were going to… they were… some of them didn’t have any money. Like that guy, uh, the drug-dealer guy… he had 20 bucks and he was… he wasn’t going to give me any more money. The one with the .45 on the hood [Carskaddon]. |
| Horzepa: | Mmm. Mmm. So you just started living off the items that they had? Is that what you were doing? |
| Wuornos: | No, I think I took them just for the fact that, you bastards, you were going to hurt me, you were going to rape me, or whatever you were going to do. Well, I’ll just, you know, keep these little items so I don’t have to buy them or something. I don’t know. I just… |
| Horzepa: | It was like a final revenge? |
| Wuornos: | Yeah. OK. That would… that would do. Mmm… mmm. |
| Munster: | Lee, after you shot one time, I mean you could have left. You could have taken their stuff and [inaudible]. |
| Wuornos: | I didn’t want to do that because I was afraid that, if I shot them one time and they survived, my… my face and all that, description of me, would be all over the place and the only way I could make money was to hustle. And I knew these guys would probably… would, you know, rat on me if they survived and all this stuff… and I would… I was hoping that I… after what I had to do, that I wouldn’t have gotten caught for it because I figured that these guys deserved it. Because those guys were going to either rape, kill… I don’t know what they were going to do to me. See what I’m saying? |
| Horzepa: | So you continued to kill these men to cover up when you… when you shot these men. Mallory was the first. Is that correct? |
| Munster: | OK. You continued… you had to go ahead and kill these men so that they couldn’t testify against you and have it all backtracked? From body to body then? |
| Wuornos: | Oh, no, I didn’t even think of that either. I… I shot them because it was like to me, a self-defending thing because I felt that if I didn’t shoot them and I didn’t kill them, first of all, if they survived, my ass would be getting in trouble for attempted murder, so I’m up shit’s creek on that one anyway, and… and… and if I didn’t and if… and if I didn’t kill them, you know, of course, I mean I had to kill them… or it’s retaliation, too. It’s like, you bastards. You were going to… you were going to hurt me. |
| Horzepa: | So now I’m going to hurt you. |
| Wuornos: | Yeah. Mmm… mmm. |
| Munster: | Yeah, all… all of these guys that you shot, they seem to be older guys. Over the age of 40. What is that? |
| Wuornos: | Because all of the guys that I dealt with were that age. Every… every guy. |
| Munster: | You were dead wood for the younger guys? |
| Wuornos: | No. Every guy I dealt with on the road was anywhere from… let’s see… 37 and up. |
| Horzepa: | Was that your decision? I mean, like the… |
| Wuornos: | Yeah. Because I… |
| Horzepa: | Younger guy in his twenties would stop… |
| Wuornos: | Yeah, because, see, I don’t do drugs or anything and I wanted to deal with people who didn’t do drugs. I was looking for clean and decent people. But, like I say, it just happened that the last… this following year, that I kept meeting guys that were turning out to be ugly guys… to me. That they were… fighting. |
For three hours, Lee talked and talked, then she talked some more, despite the continuing advice from her attorney who effectively spelled it out to his client that she was putting her head in a noose. Lee’s mitigation was that she had been the wronged person. A simple hooker trying to earn a fast buck, her victims had used her, treated her badly or tried to have sex without payment. Her only remorse appeared to be directed towards Tyria, the lover
she had failed. She shed not a tear for the incalculable suffering she had caused to her victims and their next of kin. She wanted to ‘make it good with God’ before she died; this would soon change as the months passed inexorably by during which Aileen Wuornos would metamorphose into the true monster that she really was. But, for now, with attentive, seemingly understanding police officers hanging on her every word, Lee continued to spill the beans.
Larry Horzepa now turned his attention to the property Lee had stolen from her dead victims.
| Horzepa: | Is there any property that you would have collected from these victims that may be stashed somewhere? You might have put it in the woods or behind an abandoned house or anything like that? |
| Wuornos: | No. Uh uh. I just flung them out the window as I’m driving or… or stopped and threw them and stuff like that. I couldn’t even tell you where because they were way out in the country somewhere where I didn’t even know sometimes where I was. |
| Horzepa: | There’s something I forgot to ask you. There’s another guy that’s missing that we haven’t found. A guy that worked for the Kennedy Space Center. A guy that worked for the Kennedy Space Center and there was a white Oldsmobile and the car was parked in Orange County off of Semoran and 436. The guy had glasses on and this would have been right around the HRS guy’s car [Charles Humphreys]. |
| Wuornos: | Uh… |
| Munster: | It was a white car and he was driving from Titusville to Atlanta… it was a white two-door car… |
| Wuornos: | No, I don’t recall anything like that. |
| Munster: | Do you have a picture of him, Larry? |
| Wuornos: | Yeah, yeah, if you got a picture of him… |
| Horzepa: | What was the name on that? |
| Munster: | Reid. Curtis Reid. |
| Wuornos: | Curtis Reid. I don’t know that one. I don’t remember anybody like that. |
| Munster: | He worked at the Kennedy Space Center and he had a Space Center emblem on his windshield of his rear window and someone scraped it off. He had a lot of money. He just cashed his pay cheque. You might have had… |
| Wuornos: | I never got anybody that had a lot of money. |
| Munster: | He might have had a thousand dollars, something like that. |
| Wuornos: | Oh, I never got anything like that. Uh uh. |
| Horzepa: | No, I have a flyer of the emblem. I don’t have that one. |
| Wuornos: | I don’t recall anything like that because I never… I never got a lot of money on it. The only money I got, the most was that one that I didn’t know was a missionary dude, was like $400 [Peter Siems]. |
Having settled this matter, Bruce Munster started asking about the various alibis Lee had used.
| Munster: | Who’s Susan Blahovec? |
| Wuornos: | Oh, well, that’s another fake ID I had. |
| Munster: | How’d you get that one? |
| Wuornos: | Oh, Lord, let’s see, how did I get… oh, this guy in the Keys had a birth certificate and he told me to use it for… because I had a suspended driver’s licence and he told me I could use that ID. Oh… because… and I had… I think I had a… that forgery warrant was at that time, I think. I had that on me. And he told me I could use this ID, that it was his wife’s ID, that she had never… he hated his wife, big time. And that I could… she’s never been in trouble and that I could turn that birth certificate and licence, but you don’t get into trouble with it, you know, just use it for driving and stuff, so I did. |
| Munster: | All right. I think that’s… |
| Wuornos: | How in the world did you find out about Susan Blahovec now? |
| Munster: | Oh… |
| Wuornos: | And did I put my name on a motel as that or something? |
| Munster: | No. You got some tickets with it. |
| Wuornos: | Oh, OK, I remember that. All right. |
| Munster: | I know about the time in 1974, you were arrested under the name of Sandra Beatrice Kretch. |
| Wuornos: | Yeah. |
| Munster: | Your neighbour. |
| Wuornos: | Yeah. I was… I was young and she was 33 or something and the judge couldn’t… I spent ten days in jail for that one. She got away with having to go to jail on her damn ticket. |
| Munster: | How far did you go in high school? |
| Wuornos: | Tenth and a half grade. |
| Munster: | Why’d you quit? |
| Wuornos: | Because my mother died and my father wouldn’t let me stay at home and I was living out on the street. I just want… to know that I hope to God, that you guys do understand that Ty is not involved with this. She doesn’t know. She thought that I had these cars rented or… or borrowed them and all this jazz, and she wasn’t too… too aware of what I was doing. I mean, she didn’t know… exactly what was happening. I mean I… when I’d get drunk I’d say shit from the top of my head just to try to be a bad ass, because I was drunk. And… but she didn’t have anything to do with these murders. She didn’t have anything to do with anything. She just worked, ate, slept, stayed at home, went to volleyball practice and was just a good gal… I’ve dealt with a hundred thousand guys. But these guys are the only guys that gave me a problem and they started giving me a problem just this year… the year that went by. So I, at the same time I was staying with some guy and I noticed that he had some guns and I ripped off his .22, a nine-shot deal… So when I’d get hassle, if the person gave me my money and then started hassling me, that’s when I started taking retaliation… I just wish I never would have done this shit. And I just wish I never would have done what I did. I still have to say to myself, I still say that it was in self-defence… Really inside, right inside me, I’m a good person. But, when I get drunk, like I said, I’d be drinking with these guys and… and when they started messing with me, I wouldn’t tou– I would never hurt nobody. But, if they messed with me, then I would. I’d just… I have to say I was… I’d get just as violent as they would get on me… to try and protect myself. |
| Munster: | I know what I wanted to ask you. You said that you put the gun and a flashlight, some handcuffs into the water. |
| Wuornos: | Oh, yeah. |
| Munster: | Over by the bridge around Fairview. Now you walked to the… on the bridge there… were you in the middle or towards one side or the other? |
| Wuornos: | Oh, when you go over the bridge… |
| Munster: | Uh, huh. |
| Wuornos: | … there’s the other little bank there… |
| Munster: | Uh, huh. |
| Wuornos: | … and it’s right underneath the bridge there. |
| Munster: | OK. |
| Horzepa: | Is it actually in the water or did you hide it up underneath the bridge? |
| Wuornos: | No, it’s… it’s in the water. |
| Munster: | OK. You took the gun and threw it underneath there? |
| Wuornos: | Yes. |
| Munster: | Now did you throw the handcuffs someplace else? |
| Wuornos: | No, I just dropped them along… they’re straight down… yeah. |
| Munster: | All right. |
| Horzepa: | Could you see them when they hit… hit the bottom of the… |
| Wuornos: | No, but I know it’s waist deep… around there. Because some guy said he had cemented that part out there. And he had to get his net untangled from the crab trap and he told me it’s about anywhere from here to there, in the water. |
| Horzepa: | Lee, would you be willing, if we needed you to, uh, go out with us to try to locate that .22 that you threw into the water… if you can show us the exact location where you had tossed it? Would you be willing to do that for us, Lee? |
| Wuornos: | I am willing to do anything. I want to just let you know I’m the only one involved in this deal… stuff… shit. |
| Horzepa: | Also, too, uh, later on, would you be willing to talk to other investigators… |
| Wuornos: | Oh, no problem. |
| Horzepa: | … if needed, from the other counties that have cases involved. |
| Wuornos: | I want all this out in the open and I want them to know that there’s not two girls. Ty is as innocent as can be. There was only one person. It was me, because I’m a hooker and I got involved with these guys because they were phys– and it was a physical situ– because I’m telling you now, I’m serious, every day when I was hitchhiking, I would meet anywhere from five to eight guys a day and make… now, but some would say no, and some would say yes. |
| Munster: | Mmm… mmm. |
| Wuornos: | And I would make money. But they wouldn’t abuse me or nothing. I’d just do my thing and make my money, stick it in my wallet and go. |
| Munster: | OK. That about wraps it up. All right, now, I’m going turn the tape off and it is 2.21 in the afternoon. |
| Wuornos: | Can I ask you something? |
| Munster: | You certainly can. |
| Wuornos: | Do you mind if I keep these cigarettes because I don’t have any cigarettes at all? |
| Horzepa: | You are quite welcome to them and I’m glad you didn’t ask to keep my jacket. |
| Wuornos: | Oh, yeah, that was warm. Thank you. |
| Horzepa: | Sure, no problem. |
| Wuornos: | I’m very sorry… |