Aileen was born February 29, 1956 in Rochester, Michigan. Her parents had a very violent marriage. Her mother was only 15 years old when they married, and her father was a child molester. He was in prison for rape and attempted murder of a child when she was born. She was never to meet him. Aileen’s mother abandoned her children with her parents when she was 6 years old, and they were adopted by them. Her father eventually hanged himself in his prison cell.

Aileen’s grandfather was a violent drunk, and they were physically abused. This didn’t bode well with the fact that Aileen had a serious temper problem and would blow up with no provocation. She was very close with her brother, but this crossed lines as they began to experiment sexually with each other by the age of 10. They had sex on several occasions, even witnessed by a neighborhood boy. By the time she was 11 years old, she was having sex with other boys for loose change and cigarettes.

Her grandparents knew she was getting into trouble and not doing well in school, but they didn’t realize she was having sex. She would often run away to escape her grandfather’s wrath. At 14, she’d become pregnant. She claimed an older man from the neighborhood raped her. The grandparents sent her to a home for unwed mothers, where she gave birth to a baby boy and he was put up for adoption. Shortly after she came back home, her grandmother passed away. At this time, the grandfather kicked her and the brother out of the home.

At 15 years old, Aileen hit the road, earning her living as a prostitute. She headed West, hitchhiking on the interstates. She eventually ended up in Colorado where she was arrested for disorderly conduct, and wanted for grand larceny. In 1976, she settled in Daytona Beach, Florida. Friends say she went there to be able to sleep on the beach and stay warm with such a life of prostitution. During this time, she received word that her grandfather was found dead in his garage of an apparent suicide. That Spring, Aileen married a 70 year old man. He was reportedly well-off, but her attitude problems led to the only 9 week stint of the marriage. He filed for divorce claiming Aileen hit him with his cane when he stopped giving her spending money. And then in July, her brother died of throat cancer. She was devastated.

Aileen was back to the interstates prostituting. In 1978, Aileen shot herself in the stomach in an attempted suicide. She recovered from the injury, and although she told the doctors this was not the first time she’s tried to kill herself, she received little counseling. In 1983, she robbed a convenience store and was arrested. While in prison for this offense, she took up reading the Bible and ‘complaining’ about lesbian inmates. When she was released, she continued with the crimes and was arrested again and again ranging from check forgery to grand theft auto, all the while continuing the hitchhiking, substance abuse, and prostitution.

Convinced any man would always ‘let her down’, and desperate for a connection, Aileen turned to women. She quickly found acceptance. During this time she met the most important and significant person of her romantic life, Tyria Moore. The two lived like nomads, constantly on the move. Aileen was prostituting on the highways during the day. Tyria claims to have tried to get her to stop when she found out.

Aileen’s hard life had taken a toll on her appearance, and she no longer possessed the physical qualities necessary for a ‘successful’ career in prostitution. Trying anything to keep her relationship together and feeling it slipping away- on November 30, 1989, Aileen made her first kill. She shot a man who picked her up on the highway… after drinking in the woods till dawn, and she left with his car. She told Tyria what she had done. Tyria did not believe her. She would continue to kill six more men in 1990.

Aileen now had the ability to bring home lots of money, thinking this was the key to keeping her relationship with Tyria. On July 4, 1990, the two were in an accident in a vehicle stolen of one of her victims. They left the car, and Aileen’s palm print was lifted by police. Soon, Tyria would leave.

Police eventually found pawn shop records for Aileen made for items stolen from victims. Her thumbprint was on a pawn ticket. She was arrested on January 9, 1991. The police would arrange for Tyria to assist them in gathering information by tapping her phone line, and it worked. Tyria convinced Aileen she was afraid she would be implicated, so Aileen confessed to protect her.

Soon Aileen would become a media sensation, and she found a connection with a couple in Ocala, Florida that wanted to ‘help’ her. They could not visit her in prison because they were not related, so they legally adopted Aileen for the ability to do so. This adopted mother would become a rift in the defense, as Aileen would not cooperate if they did not speak with her ‘mother’.

The most painful part of the trials came when Tyria testified against her. Aileen would be found guilty of first degree murder, and sentenced to death. She dove into her Bible, and drawings, and also dropped her adopted mother our of her life when she tried to profit from the media sensation of the case. She was executed by lethal injection on October 9, 2002, and was immortalized in film. Charlize Theron received an Oscar for portraying her in the movie, ‘Monster’.