NEED TO KNOW
- In actual life, Tyria Moore was brazenly homosexual and he or she and Wuornos lived collectively for about 4 and a half years — not the transient however intense romance proven in Monster
- Moore allowed investigators to report her telephone calls with Wuornos and helped police discover the homicide weapon — particulars proven in each the documentary and the 2003 movie
- The crash of sufferer Peter Siems’ automotive and the composite sketch of the 2 girls had been actual and detailed within the Netflix doc; Wuornos’ consuming buddy “Thomas” in Monster was fictional
Aileen Wuornos was convicted in Florida of six murders dedicated between 1989 and 1990 — and later confessed to a seventh earlier than she was executed by deadly injection on Oct. 9, 2002. Her story was instructed on-screen the next 12 months within the film Monster, starring Academy Award-winner Charlize Theron because the intercourse employee who claimed she killed violent clients in self-defense.
Now, a brand new Netflix documentary, Aileen: Queen of the Serial Killers, is revisiting the case by way of court docket information, footage from the NBC Dateline archives and a 1997 death-row interview that Wuornos did with artist Jasmine Hirst. In vital methods, the 2 movies about Wuornos’ life mirror each other — however in different methods they differ. Learn what Monster will get proper about what the media has known as America’s first feminine serial killer — and what was added for dramatic impact.
The Girlfriend: Performed by Christina Ricci vs. Tyria Moore In Actual life
Monster options Christina Ricci taking part in a fictional character named Selby Wall as a tentative younger lady who was dealing with pushback about her sexuality from her household as she was caught in a whirlwind romance with Wuornos.
In actual life, Selby relies on Wuornos’ longtime girlfriend, Tyria Moore, who was brazenly homosexual and labored as a motel maid, whereas Monster’s Selby Wall was financially depending on Wuornos.
In Aileen: Queen of the Serial Killers, Moore and Wuornos are described as “dwelling collectively as lovers” for roughly 4 and half years — reflecting an extended, extra settled partnership than the movie suggests.
Monster additionally frames Selby as Wuornos’ first same-sex relationship — in early scenes, the movie’s Wuornos even balks at labeling herself homosexual. However in actuality, by her late 20s, Wuornos had already dated girls.
In Aileen: Queen of the Serial Killers, Wuornos recollects dwelling within the Florida Keys and “assembly Toni, the primary lesbian,” saying the connection lasted a few 12 months earlier than she returned to Daytona and later met Tyria Moore. By then, Wuornos recognized as a lesbian.
Moore’s Cooperation with Authorities: The Recorded Calls — and What Wuornos Mentioned
After detectives arrested Wuornos in Florida, they situated Moore out of state and persuaded her to make police-monitored telephone calls to Wuornos in jail. The recorded name between Wuornos and Christina Ricci’s character in Monster echoes the substance of these calls, however not their extent.
On one of many 10 real-life calls that may be heard within the Netflix documentary, Moore mentioned she feared being arrested, to which Wuornos replied, “If I’ve to admit all the things simply to maintain you from getting in hassle, I’ll.”
In one other recorded name, Wuornos defined her mindset about cash and housing: “As a result of I fell so f— in love with you … I used to be so anxious about us not having an house and s— … I used to be scared that we had been going to lose our place … I do know it sounds loopy however it’s the reality.”
Wuornos quickly confessed to the killings to police and Moore went on to testify in opposition to her in court docket. Court docket filings additionally state Moore led legislation officers to a .22-caliber revolver recovered close to Florida’s Rose Bay that ballistics linked to a number of shootings.
Why Wuornos Carried a Gun — and How the Film Reframes It
Within the Netflix documentary’s 1997 interview, Wuornos mentioned she carried the gun to remain protected and make it house to Tyria: “The one purpose I carried that darn gun is as a result of I cherished her a lot … I wished to make it possible for I acquired house alive … to be one other day respiratory along with her.”
Monster presents her as already armed and, early on, toying with suicide earlier than assembly Selby. The documentary additionally contains Wuornos describing prior suicide makes an attempt, together with a self-inflicted gunshot wound she survived after a relationship disaster earlier than assembly Moore.
The Automotive Crash and Composite Sketch of Two Ladies
Monster’s sequence through which two girls crash and abandon a sufferer’s automotive — and a police sketch that then circulates — tracks with the report and is detailed in Netflix’s documentary.
After Peter Siems disappeared, witnesses in July 1990 reported that they noticed two girls wreck his Pontiac and wipe it down. A palm print contained in the automotive matched Wuornos, however she was by no means tried in his presumed demise — Siems’ physique was by no means discovered.
A composite sketch seemingly depicting Wuornos and Moore was additionally drafted and broadcast statewide, based on court docket paperwork and contemporaneous tv protection cited within the Netflix documentary.
The Invented Confidant on the Bar
Monster introduces a form common named Thomas, performed by actor Bruce Dern, at The Final Resort — a biker’s bar that Wuornos frequents. He turns into Wuornos’ confidant and urges her to go away the institution earlier than undercover officers arrest her. However he seems to be a story invention; neither court docket information nor the Netflix documentary determine an actual individual like Thomas.
Wuornos was arrested at The Final Resort in January 1991 — and photographs of that arrest is proven within the new Netflix documentary — however whether or not she had shut mates among the many patrons is unclear, per a WKMG ClickOrlando article concerning the bar’s function within the case.
She did have shut mates elsewhere, although — notably childhood pal Daybreak Botkins, who seems extensively within the Netflix doc and was among the many final individuals to talk with Wuornos earlier than her execution.
Victims With Regulation-Enforcement Ties
Monster features a sufferer with a background in legislation enforcement. In actual life, Charles “Dick” Humphreys, 56 — a retired Air Pressure main, former police chief and child-abuse investigator — was among the many males Wuornos killed.
One other sufferer, Walter Gino Antonio, 61, had served as a Brevard County reserve deputy, based on court docket information and reporting referenced within the documentary.
The Netflix documentary, nevertheless, skims over the life tales of Wuornos’ victims, focusing as a substitute on telling the story from her perspective.
Motive On Display screen vs. In Court docket Data
Each Monster and the Netflix documentary discover Wuornos’ claims of self-defense — significantly within the killing of Richard Mallory, her first sufferer — however the reality is murkier. Florida courts admitted similar-fact proof and rejected self-defense as a result of her personal statements shifted.
In a 2001 Volusia County listening to proven within the Netflix movie, Wuornos mentioned, “I killed these males … and robbed them as chilly as ice.” And within the documentary’s closing moments, Daybreak Botkins recollects Wuornos telling her, “She mentioned she was positively a serial killer. She killed to rob, she robbed to kill, interval.”
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