Aileen Wuornos: Not a Monster

Content Warning: this post contains content about sexual violence. Please take care when reading.

You may have heard of Aileen Wuornos: branded as America’s first female serial killer, unrepentant sexual deviant and psycho killer, Monster. In the early ‘90s, that’s how Wuornos was portrayed by the media and law enforcement after she was arrested for the murder of seven men. It was the same angle pursued by the prosecution when Wuornos was on trial in 1992 for first-degree murder. Aileen Wuornos was convicted by a jury and sentenced to death. She spent a decade on death row until she was executed by lethal injection on October 9th, 2002.

It was easy to call Wuornos an evil murderer and do away with her. But I don’t think Aileen Wuornos was disposable. I don’t think a traumatized, mentally ill woman deserved a state-sanctioned death. I am not trying to absolve her from the crimes she committed. Instead, I’d like to try and understand Wuornos for who she really was: a person who was exploited her entire life, and failed by every system that could have prevented her from becoming what she did.

Image courtesy of unherd.com

Wuornos was born into a life of violence and poverty. Her mother was just 14 years old when she gave birth. Her father was in prison for raping a child when she was born. He later hung himself in jail. When she was four years old, Wuornos and her brother were abandoned by their mother. They went to live with their alcoholic and abusive grandparents.

Her already difficult life only got worse. She was repeatedly raped by her grandfather and other family members. She began survival sex work at 11-years-old. Like her mother, she gave birth at 14, after being raped. She put the baby up for adoption and was kicked out of her home. I won’t belabour the point any further: from the time she was born, her life was hell. She was abused and failed by every person who was supposed to take care of her.

It didn’t stop after she turned 14. Wuornos continued to do survival sex work into her adult life. She was in and out of jail her entire life, from the first time she was arrested as a teenager. She’d been a ward of the state, though she was often homeless, and committed various drunken and petty crimes. There were plenty of opportunities for the state to step in and provide her with the rehabilitation, counselling and healthcare Wuornos so desperately needed. Instead, she was churned out and spit back onto the street after every arrest and stint in jail. Instead, she was discarded by a system that saw her as worthless.

Feminist writer Phyllis Chesler tried to organize a thorough defense that addressed the decades of abuse and poverty that put Wuornos on the path to murder: “I organized a pro bono team of experts to testify about violence against prostitutes and a prostitute’s right to defend herself. I hoped we could also address the level of complex, post-traumatic stress from which she and all prostitutes suffer…none of us were ever called.”

IMAGE COURTESY OF IMDB

“Aileen was terrorised by violent johns, and eventually lashed out in crazed defense, just like men do in wars when they are also afraid of getting killed or tortured,” said psychologist Melissa Farley, who worked on Wuornos’ case. None of this was mentioned in the media at the time of her trial, much less considered by the prosecution or jury as potential mitigating factors in her crimes. She was treated as a throw away—a dirty prostitute who killed men to rob them of their cash and cars. Wuornos maintained that each killing was done in self-defense throughout her trial, though as her mental state deteriorated, she claimed to enjoy the killing. Perhaps she did. It may have been the only time in her life that she felt in control.  

The first man Wuornos killed, Richard Mallory, was a convicted rapist. Like her other six victims, he was a ‘john’, a term used to describe men who hire sex workers. Wuornos said he beat and raped her, which lead to her shooting him in self-defense. That was November 30th, 1989. In the next year, she would sporadically shoot and kill six more ‘johns’. The murders did not seem coordinated or planned, and she maintained all were in self-defense.

 “People painted Aileen as a monster,” said Wuornos’ defense attorney Nick Broomfield, “which she was not. She was also not a serial killer. Aileen neither planned her crimes, stalked her victims, or took any pleasure from what she did.”

Wuornos’ story has been retold by many different people, in many ways, for different reasons. Most seek to exploit her trauma for financial gain. Some portrayals are sympathetic, such as the Oscar-winning performance by Charlize Theron, who played Wuornos in the film Monster. The movie humanizes her, but like the title suggests, it turns her into a monstrosity as well. Other feminist writers have tried to understand and humanize Wuornos. Journalist Julie Grindel says in her examination of Wuornos’ life and crimes, “there are monsters…and there are misrepresentations.”

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My name is Angie Mosher (she/her) and I'm a Professional Writing student at Algonquin College. I have a Bachelor of Arts in Creative Writing from UBC, and when I’m not writing, I’m playing video games, hanging out with my cats, or getting a new tattoo. I’m originally from Halifax, Nova Scotia, but have been living in Ottawa since 2017. I like shining a light on things otherwise left to rot in the corner. Let’s kick up some dust.

The Canadian Origins Of Satanic Panic

Part Two: Michelle Lied

By the mid 1990s, the fires of the Satanic Panic were cooling, but irreparable damage had been done. The scope of the harm is hard to put into exact numbers, but there had been tens of thousands of accusations globally. Each time a child spoke out about alleged satanic ritual abuse, the lives of the accused were torn apart, and most were left without recourse. After years in prison, some of the convicted had their charges overturned, but their lives would never return to how they once were.

Image courtesy of latercera

What about the couple that started it all? Michelle Smith and Lawrence Pazder set the Satanic Panic ablaze across the world with their grisly book about satanic ritual abuse Smith suffered as a child in her hometown of Victoria, B.C. Some of her claims were accusations that could be easily fact-checked. She claimed the satanic cult members who abused her were all initiated into the cult by cutting off a finger. A simple look around town for the fingerless folks could have been corroborated by any investigator. She claimed to have witnessed at least two murderers, and the dismemberment of six stillborn infants. Yet, there was no evidence of missing persons matching the descriptions Smith provided. No horrified post-partum women searching for their missing infants, either. Interviews conducted decades later found Smith was in school during times she alleged the abuse occurred.

How did she come to recover these memories in the first place? It was her psychiatrist (and eventual husband) Dr. Lawrence Pazder who pulled the memories out of her. She had been seeing him for a few years, but her mental health worsened after a miscarriage sparked nightmares. There weren’t many boundaries between doctor and patient. They eventually divorced their spouses and married each other. Across their media blitz, no one seemed to publicly question the ethics of a male psychiatrist marrying his younger female patient.

At the height of the panic, FBI agent Ken Lanning was assigned to investigate satanic ritual abuse. He attended one of the many talks Dr. Pazder gave to law enforcement. He noticed while Michelle’s abuse was widely discussed, she never spoke for herself. On one occasion, Lanning raised his hand and said, “when people ask, all this happened to Michelle; how come she doesn’t give the answer, she just turns to you?” Pazder gave a weak answer about how the recovered memories were still difficult for her to recall—something that didn’t prevent her from recounting them vividly for daytime talk shows.

Both the families of Pazder and Smith suffered in their own ways. Smith’s mother, who was at the centre of many of the abuse allegations, died years before the book came out. Her estranged father denounced her claims. Charyl, Smith’s sister, was equally horrified and vehemently denied the claims. She believes Michelle had a reason for lying: “she wanted Larry as her husband.”

Image courtesy of CBC

For Pazder’s ex-wife and daughter, their family was torn apart in other ways. “To us she was this stalker,” said Theresa, Pazder’s daughter with his first wife, Marylyn. Marylyn remembers Smith calling the house at all hours, always demanding to speak with Pazder. The longer he worked with Michelle, the more obsessed her became. He clearly saw himself as her saviour. In the book, Pazder describes himself as “lithe and athletic” and “warm, manly, soft-spoken.” The Smith family home was within walking distance from Pazder’s office. He never tried speaking with any of her surviving family members when the repressed memories surfaced, nor did he report anything to the local police.

Even after all the chaos, it seems the couple was allowed to disappear into relatively normal life once the panic began to lull. Their very successful lies had not yet been called into question, and it seems to this day, they were never truly held responsible for the damage they caused. When people were sent to jail, when court cases eventually fell apart, Smith nor Pazder were called to account for their role in the panic. There were plenty of lawsuits. Falsely accused satanic abusers sued the systems that failed them, often for millions of dollars--but the infamous pair who incited the panic were never called out directly in connection.

Pazder was paid a $342,000 USD advance for the book, which is the equivalent to more than 1.2 million dollars CAD in 2023. It’s unknown how much he collected in consulting fees, or any payment for the countless television and radio appearances. Dr. Lawrence Pazder died in 2004. Michelle Smith is still alive. She declines to participate in any interview requests from the media. Today, she reportedly lives in Victoria, B.C., where she claims the abuse began.

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My name is Angie Mosher (she/her) and I'm a Professional Writing student at Algonquin College. I have a Bachelor of Arts in Creative Writing from UBC, and when I’m not writing, I’m playing video games, hanging out with my cats, or getting a new tattoo. I’m originally from Halifax, Nova Scotia, but have been living in Ottawa since 2017. I like shining a light on things otherwise left to rot in the corner. Let’s kick up some dust.

The Canadian Origins of the Satanic Panic

Part One: Michelle Remembers

Satan is coming for your children. It’s too late. He’s already in your home, your child’s daycare, their schools. It sounds ridiculous, I know. In the 1980s, all you had to do was turn on the TV, or pick up a newspaper—you’d hear someone saying it. Except it wasn’t coming from a mad preacher or your crazy uncle. Police officers, FBI agents, trusted reporters, clinical psychologists, even Oprah warned parents to watch out for the devil at the door. At the time, experts scrambled to name and blame the phenomenon. Eventually, they settled on what we call it today: the Satanic Panic.

Image courtesy of pocket books

Law enforcement, media and other experts referred to it as ‘satanic ritual abuse.’ It was happening en masse, in secret, done by people you trusted with your children: teachers, day care providers, even police officers. A network of underground cults were abusing and killing children in the secret service of Satan. The accounts of the abuse were horrific. Across America, children were being sexually abused, forced to drink blood, and killed in ritual sacrifices, amongst other things. One particular rumour alleged the use of “baby wax made from murdered infants.”

All those horrors were being reported by real children. You would think so many accusations would lead to strong investigations with legitimate evidence. You’d be wrong. There was little to no evidence that these crimes occurred. Hundreds were accused and charged anyways. Many were convicted based on accusations alone. Some cases fell apart during trial or were overturned on appeal. By the early 1990s, it was found that nearly 12,000 claims of satanic ritual abuse could not be substantiated.

While the Satanic Panic is remembered largely as an American phenomenon, its roots started in Canada. Perhaps the most publicized case of supposed satanic ritual abuse is that of Michelle Smith, and the book that details her abuse— “Michelle Remembers.” The book was written by Canadian psychiatrist Dr. Lawrence Pazder and his patient, Michelle Smith. It tells, in vivid detail, shocking therapy sessions where Smith recovered repressed memories of satanic ritual abuse she suffered as a child.

The book was published in 1980. It sold millions of copies and quickly became a best-seller. Together, Pazder and Smith went on a relentless media tour. They appeared on endless talk shows, news channels, and radio shows across North America. They gave speeches to petrified parents and lectured law enforcement. Smith told the horror stories of the abuse she allegedly suffered at the hands of a satanic cult in her hometown of Victoria, British Columbia. She claimed that as a five-year-old, she was forced to take part in satanic rituals. Accusations included physical and sexual abuse of all kinds, animal sacrifices, even the sacrifice of human fetuses.

Michelle smith & lawrence pazder. Image courtesy of game theory films

The term ‘satanic ritual abuse’ came from Pazder’s work. His definition became the official explanation used by law enforcement agencies like the FBI. Pazder defined it as "repeated physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual assaults combined with a systematic use of symbols and secret ceremonies designed to turn a child against itself, family, society, and God.”

Due to the legitimacy the pair earned from their success, they became the go-to experts of the Satanic Panic. They travelled to the Vatican to warn the Catholic Church of the dangers of satanic ritual abuse. Their book was considered a textbook for law enforcement. In 1986, Pazder and Smith acted as consultants to the prosecution for the infamous McMartin Preschool case. In Manhattan Beach, California, seven McMartin Preschool employees were accused of satanic ritual abuse. Despite no physical evidence, prosecutors spent $15 million dollars on the case before they dropped all charges in 1990.

The pair became such media darlings that no one questioned anything they said or did. Not even when Pazder and Smith eventually divorced their spouses and married each other. Nobody questioned the ethics or credibility of a man who married his former psychiatric patient—not until the panic that ensued caused so much damage that it’s still hard to understand, even thirty years later. Many of the accused and their families are traumatized to this day. In part two of this series, we’ll take a deeper look at the relationship between Pazder and Smith, and what happened to them in the years following the Satanic Panic.

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My name is Angie Mosher (she/her) and I'm a Professional Writing student at Algonquin College. I have a Bachelor of Arts in Creative Writing from UBC, and when I’m not writing, I’m playing video games, hanging out with my cats, or getting a new tattoo. I’m originally from Halifax, Nova Scotia, but have been living in Ottawa since 2017. I like shining a light on things otherwise left to rot in the corner. Let’s kick up some dust.

Introduction

Do you have an affinity for the darker things in life? Do you spend your free time searching for disturbing stories on the internet?

Don’t worry, this is not a psychological evaluation. This is the Tales of Twisted History! This blog isn’t for your average history buff, this is for the dark academic. Here we’ll talk about anything from serial killers to mysterious disappearances and thrilling historical phenomena. 

Come explore dark and disturbing events that stain the pages of our history books. From the gruesome death of the Black Dahlia, to the infamous Jack the Ripper murders. Be warned… we will be covering the depths of disturbing history in excruciating detail.