The Backstory: Blueprint For a Serial Killer

next on the backstory. We're back with the backstory. There's no justifying what she did, but it is interesting to hear her backstory. Aileen Warnos had a rough start in life and it never got better. Her parents were kids themselves. Her mom, Diane, was fourteen when she married Aileen's father, Leo, who was eighteen. The marriage quickly fell apart. Within two years, Diane was gone, abandoning Aileen, who was just six months old,

as well as her older brother Keith. Her father was already out of the picture, doing time for the rape of a child. Aileen never got a chance to meet him. He hanged himself in prison before she turned fourteen. So who raised her Her grandparents on her mom's side, Laurie and Britta. But the word raised is kind of doing some heavy lifting here. Laurie was a heavy drinking, controlling

guy with a cruel streak. Aileen said. Laurie beat her, regularly, called her vile names, and emotionally just tore her apart until she believed she was worthless. And then there's Grandma Britta, also an alcoholic, she rarely protected Aileen or even bothered to look up when she was being abused. Aileen later claimed her grandfather and some of his friends sexually abused her.

The patterns clear. She learned early on that adults were not to be trusted, that love could hurt, and that home wasn't safe, and for her, the outside world was no better. By the time she was just nine years old, Eileen was trading sex for money, food and cigarettes. Kids her own age made fun of her, boys used her, her classmates called her cigarette pig, and adults they simply ignored her. From the time she was a small girl,

Aileen was already surviving instead of living. This traumatized child was already adapting to a world where being exploited was part of the game. Her body was her only bargaining chip. Then, at fourteen, she got pregnant. The father was a much older family friend who had raped her. Her grandparents sent her away to a home for unwed mothers in Detroit, and in nineteen seventy one she gave birth to a baby boy, but he was taken away and adopted out.

She never saw him again. By the time she was fifteen, Eileen was back at home, but then her grandmother died of liver failure almost immediately, and her grandfather kicked her out of the house. Now Aileen, still fifteen, was homeless, with no education, no job, no support, and nobody to turn to. She slept in abandoned cars and in the woods. She hitchhiked from town to town doing sex work just

to eat. Her childhood was nothing but trauma, and that made her tougher and meaner, simply as a way of surviving. Psychologists later diagnosed her with borderline personality disorder and antisocial personality disorder based on her inability to regulate her emotions, her rage outbursts, her constant fear of abandonment, and her black and white thinking. She didn't trust people because people had never been trustworthy. She didn't believe in safety because

she had never been safe. Aileen slowly realized that the world was a predator and she was the prey until she decided to fight back. Got to say, again, none of this justifies what she did. At least seven men died, seven lives extinguished, sons, brothers, fathers. But it begs the question, how does a person become capable of killing so many people? Aileen's life tells us she was abandoned, molested, beaten, homeless, raped, institutionalized,

ridiculed and forgotten. She slowly cracked and no one noticed or cared until it was too late. Aileen once said, I wanted to be loved ever since I was a kid, just someone who would love me, but it never happened. Pretty haunting. That's a line from somebody who never had a chance to be human. She was born into violence, raised in it, used by it, and ultimately she became it.

Aileen Warnos's childhood was the blueprint for her violence. When we talk about true crime, we focus so much on what they did, but sometimes the why is even more terrifying and a bit more interesting, because honestly, the why can be traced back to failures in parenting, in protection, in institutions, and in a society that should have seen

her and helped her. By the time she was in her early twenties, Aileen had drifted to Florida, moving from town to town and again supporting herself through sex work. It was here that she met Tyrea Moore, a maide, at a motel. They got into a romantic relationship, and Aileen was smitten. Somebody finally cared for her, and she

was determined to provide for them both. So around the same time, between nineteen eighty nine and nineteen ninety, the bodies of seven middle aged men were found scattered along highways in central Florida. Each had been shot multiple times, and their cars or trucks, as well as their belongings were missing. The victims included Richard Mallory, David Spears, Charles Carskadden,

Troy Burris, Dick Humphreys, Peter Siemes, and Walter Antonio. The investigation kicked into high gear and then really gained momentum when Aileen and her girlfriend Tyrea were seen abandoning Peter Seem's carr after an accident. Witnesses gave descriptions and then fingerprints found on stuff that had been pawned linked Aileen to the crimes. Eventually, cops found Tyrea in Pennsylvania and convinced her to get a confession from Aileen in exchange

for immunity. Tyrea made a number of phone calls to Aileen, pleading with her to confess to clear Tyrea's name. On January sixteenth, nineteen ninety one, Aileen confess to the murders, claiming self defense. She claimed that each of these men had either raped or attempted to rape her while she was working as a prostitute, and that she killed them

in self defense. On the other hand, the prosecution argued the murderers were committed during robberies, pointing to the theft of the victim's belongings and the sale of their stuff at pawnshops. The trial of Aileen Ornos began on January five, thirteenth, nineteen ninety two, in Vlusha County, Florida. She was charged with the first degree murder of Richard Mallory, a fifty one year old electronics store owner. Although Aileen would eventually confess to killing the other six men, this was the

only case that actually went to trial. She pleaded guilty or no contest. In the other cases, The prosecution painted the picture of a cold blooded killer who murdered her victims during robberies. They were able to introduce evidence from her other crimes under Florida's William's Rule, which allowed the prosecution to establish a pattern, and that crumbled her claim

of self defense. For their part, Aileen's defense team argued that she suffered from borderline personality disorder and antisocial personality disorder, which impaired her judgment. They claimed she killed Mallory in self defense after he violently raped her, but the judge denied the defense's request to introduce Mallory's prior conviction for attempted rape as evidence. On January twenty seventh, nineteen ninety two, the jury found Aileen guilty of first degree murder. Four

days later, she was sentenced to death. Since the murder was committed during a robbery and it was what they called especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel, Aileen waived her right to provide more evidence during sentencing. In the months following her conviction, she pleaded no contest to three of the other murders, saying she wanted to get right with God. She later pleaded guilty to two more murders and got two more death sentences. In the seventh case, no charges

were filed because the body was never found. Aileen Warnos was executed by lethal injection on October ninth, two thousand and two, at the age of forty six. Her last words were a little bit puzzling. I'm sailing with the rock and I'll be back like Independence Day with Jesus June sixth, like the movie Big Mothership and all I'll be back. Her trial and convictions sparked debates of the treatment of women in the criminal justice system and the

impact of childhood trauma. The life and crimes of Alien Warnos were later depicted in the two thousand and three film Monster. Charlie's theren won an Academy Award for Best Actress. Hope you're enjoying the Backstory with Patty Steele. Please leave a review and follow or subscribe for free to get new episodes delivered automatically. Also feel free to DM me if you have a story you'd like me to cover.

On Facebook, It's Patty Steele and on Instagram Real Patty Steele I'm Patty steel The Backstory is a production of iHeartMedia, Premier Networks, the Elvis Durand Group, and Steel Trap Productions. Our producer is Doug Fraser. Our writer Jake Kushner. We have new episodes every Tuesday and Friday. Feel free to reach out to me with comments and even story suggestions on Instagram at Real Patty Steele and on Facebook at

Patty Steele. Thanks for listening to the Backstory with Patty Steele, the pieces of history you didn't know you needed to know.