Aileen Wuornos remains one of the most infamous female serial killers in American history, but one detail from the end of her life is strikingly ordinary: when she was offered the chance to choose a final meal, she asked for something else instead.
Wuornos was convicted of killing seven men in Florida between 1989 and 1990. She had worked as a sex worker along Florida highways, and investigators believed the men she killed had picked her up while she was soliciting.
Her first known victim was 51-year-old Richard Mallory. Wuornos said Mallory had picked her up for sex before taking her to an isolated location, where she alleged that he raped and assaulted her. She claimed she shot him because she believed he was going to kill her.
Mallory did have a previous prison sentence for attempted sexual assault, but Wuornos’ self-defense claims were ultimately dismissed after she withdrew them.
The other men Wuornos was convicted of killing were David Spears, Charles Carskaddon, Peter Siems, Troy Burress, Charles Humphreys and Walter Antonio.
In some cases, Wuornos also took money and personal belongings from the men before taking their vehicles. Prosecutors later argued that the crimes were committed in part to support the lifestyle she shared with her girlfriend, Tyria Moore, who was her partner during the killings.
Aileen Wuornos last meal request
Wuornos initially maintained that she had acted in self-defense. But her position changed dramatically as her execution approached. She eventually withdrew her claims and asked to be put to death.
On October 9, 2002, that request was carried out.
Wuornos was executed by lethal injection at 9:47 a.m., becoming only the 10th woman in the United States to be executed since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976.
And while the final meal is a long-standing tradition for death row inmates in many places where capital punishment remains legal, Wuornos chose not to take advantage of it.
According to records from the Florida Department of Corrections, “Wuornos declined the traditional last meal, which could have been anything she wanted for under $20, and instead was given a cup of coffee.”
Wuornos’ decision came after years of controversy surrounding her crimes and her claims about what happened to her first victim. A year before her execution, she gave a blunt account of the killings, saying: “I killed those men, robbed them cold as ice. And I’d do it again, too.”
Ultimately, her final request was remarkably modest: rather than a last feast, Wuornos had one simple cup of coffee before her execution.
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