Notorious figures
Aileen Wuornos
1956–2002 · serial killer
Serial killer executed in Florida in 2002, born in Rochester and raised in Troy, two Oakland County suburbs of Detroit.
- Born
Rochester, Michigan- Died
Florida State Prison, Raiford, Florida
aged 46- Birth name
- Aileen Carol Pittman
- Detroit years
- 1956–early 1970s
- Field
- Notorious figures
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Aileen Wuornos was born Aileen Carol Pittman on February 29, 1956, in Rochester, Michigan, a northern suburb of Detroit. Her mother left her and her brother with their maternal grandparents before she turned four, and the grandparents legally adopted both children in 1960 and raised them in Troy, in Oakland County. Her childhood there was marked by alcoholism and abuse at home, and she left as a teenager, living rough and hitchhiking. After years of petty crime in Michigan and other states, she settled in Florida. In 1989 and 1990, while working as a roadside prostitute, she shot and robbed seven men. She was sentenced to death for six of the killings and executed on October 9, 2002. Her life inspired the 2003 film Monster and two documentaries by Nick Broomfield. After her death, a childhood friend scattered her ashes in her native Michigan.
Highlights
- Born in Rochester, Michigan, on February 29, 1956; raised in Troy
- Sentenced to death for six murders committed in Florida in 1989–1990
- Executed at Florida State Prison on October 9, 2002
- Charlize Theron won the Academy Award for playing her in Monster (2003)