Review of Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer (2003) by Angela L — 21 May 2011

A series of interviews with everyoneâ(TM)s favorite john-shootinâ(TM) lesbian prostitute, the late Aileen Wuornos (sadly executed in October, 2002) and the people who knew her. The interviews form the backbone of a fascinating exploration of a complex and troubled personality.

In filmmaker Nick Broomfieldâ(TM)s interviews you can literally see Aileenâ(TM)s personality alternately forming and disintegrating in front of your very eyes; calm, patient and sympathetic one minute and seething with incoherent misanthropic rage the next.

In some interviews she claims self-defense as her reason for her murders; in others, she claims she killed for the pleasure of it and lied about self-defense; towards the end of her life, she angrily refused to even discuss the reasons for the murders.

She flips off the victims one day and tearfully apologizes for their loss the next. What we have left is a compelling portrait of an incredibly damaged woman who was betrayed by everyone who ever mattered to her, and went to her grave relieved that her struggle of a life was finally ending.

I felt as much pity as contempt for Aileen, and Iâ(TM)m still left wondering what the truth was, and how much of the story was obscured by our culture of misogyny (especially in a conservative state like Florida).

(4/5).