12.05.2004

Fears of middle America

Channel 4, Tuesday May 11 Aileen: the life and death of a serial killer

Pick up any newspaper, watch any talk show, listen to any politician and, too often you see the world being painted in black and white. There is clearly something reassuring about being told that great lie: that somehow everything makes sense.

The documentary Aileen: the life and death of a serial killer made for compelling and uncomfortable viewing because it rejects that. It depicted the final months of Aileen Wuornos in 2002, as she awaited her death by lethal injection for murder. The documentary follows writer and director Nick Broomfield as he interviews Aileen in prison and charts her tragic life leading up to the murders, her trial and conviction, her inhumanly long time on death row and ultimately her execution. It makes no attempt to deny her guilt or the horror of the crimes she committed, but it portrays Aileen not as an evil and calculating fiend, but as a tragic figure, abused, betrayed and exploited throughout her life and tormented by paranoid delusions and personality disorder. A woman who should have received sympathy and support, but who instead was vilified, exploited and sentenced to death.

Aileen gained notoriety as America's first woman serial killer when she was convicted in 1991 for the first-degree murders of seven men in Florida. In recent months she has once again become the focus of media attention because of the Hollywood movie, Monster, which dramatised her life. Actress Charlize Theron won an Oscar for her portrayal of Wuornos, and no doubt everyone involved received substantial amounts of money, while congratulating themselves on tackling such a controversial and hard-hitting story.

Aileen had led a traumatic life. Her mother abandoned her when she was six months old, her father committed suicide after being convicted of raping and murdering a young boy. Aileen was raised by her grandparents in a small town in Michigan, where she was sexually abused by family members and by boys in her neighbourhood, took drugs and became pregnant at 13. After her baby was taken from her, she was not allowed to go home and lived rough in the woods. She later left her home town and travelled to Florida, where she made a living as a prostitute hitchhiking around the state, while living in a caravan with her girlfriend. It was here that she committed the murders and was arrested. Aileen at first alleged that she killed each man in self-defence, protecting herself from rape and murder. She later changed her plea, declaring that the murders were premeditated. The documentary's inference was that after 12 years on death row Aileen just wanted to die. Aileen received no treatment in prison and had very little human contact.

Aileen's arrest and trial were a tragic farce. The police, her girlfriend and her mother cashed in by making deals with filmmakers. Her inexperienced lawyer simply got her to plead guilty, without any pleas for mitigation. Politicians, notably Floridia governor Jeb Bush, standing on a law and order ticket, exploited her case for electoral gain. Prior to her execution Jeb Bush had three psychiatrists declare Aileen mentally sound after a 15-minute interview. The christian right vilified her for being a man-hating, murdering, lesbian prostitute, clamouring for her execution. Aileen fitted the mould of the dangerous outsider perfectly: she represented the fears of middle America.

Watching the documentary, you got the impression that almost everyone treated Aileen as a thing, not as a human being: something to be exploited and abused. To the men who wanted her only for sex and the people for whom she was simply a pawn, to be used for financial gain or to further their moralistic crusade, Aileen was merely a commodity. Nor is Nick Broomfield, the documentary-maker entirely innocent of this. He too has an agenda, albeit a laudable one - to demonstrate the injustices of the American legal system that sentenced a mentally ill woman to death and the failure of the society that turned her into a monster. Ultimately the viewer is also complicit in the voyeuristic tragedy of it all.

In the midst of it all is the figure of Aileen Wuornos herself. In the interviews with her, Aileen is confused and angry. She talks about radio waves and sonic pressure influencing her thoughts, of the police allowing her to kill so they could get more money by selling her story. To look into her eyes is to see someone who is lost.