Monster : My True Story

Told in her own words, this is the story of serial killer Aileen Wuornos, who was portrayed in an Oscar-winning performance by Charlize Theron in the filmMonster.There have been few female serial killers, but Aileen Wuornos, who was executed in 2002, was a remarkable example of this rare breed of death row inmate. All too often, female prostitutes have been the victims of male serial killersWuornos' killings were the inverse of this pattern. After escaping an abusive childhood at the hands of her grandparents, she became a child prostitute, progressing into a disastrous adulthood of prostitution and damaging affairs with both men and women. Her eventual metamorphosis from victim to attacker had brutal consequencesa stream of dead men. This is her story, as told to Christopher Berry-Dee, editor ofThe New Criminologistand director of Britain's Criminology Research Center.

Aileen Carol Wuornos was born in 1956 and raised by authoritarian grandparents who set the pattern for a disrupted and violent life. At the age of 20, she had a short-lived marriage with a multi-millionaire, which was followed by a long-term relationship with a woman. When money ran short for the two of them, Aileen turned to prostitution, leading to her murdering some of the men she picked up. She was at last arrested in 1991 and executed in 2002 Christopher Berry-Dee owns and is editor-in-chief of The New Criminologist and is director of the Criminology Research Institute