Five Women Serial Killer Profiles (9 page)

Troy Burress

On September 12
th
, the body of Dick Humphreys, an investigator specializing in injured and abused children, was discovered in Marion County. He had been shot seven times with a.22 pistol.

Dick Humphreys

On November 19
th
, the almost naked body of Walter Jeno Antonio, a trucker and Police Reservist age sixty-two, was found in Dixie County, Florida on a remote road. He had been shot four times with a .22 gun.

Walter Jeno Antonio

It did not take too long for the police in the various Florida Counties to realize that they were dealing with a multiple killer. As more and more leads and forensic tests results came in, they realized they were searching for a female killer maybe even two. The names that constantly kept recurring were Tyria Moore, Aileen Wuornos, and her various aliases.

In November
of 1990, the police asked the media for help. The police drew up composite sketches of two women they were seeking in relation to a series of murders. Reuters published the story about the men’s slayings on Florida Highways with the police sketches. Newspapers throughout Florida published the report.

Newspaper headlines screamed
:

ANGELS OF DEATH

“Eight Men Dead And Police Ask Why?”

Tyria, on seeing the reports fled
, to her sister’s house in Pittston, Pennsylvania telling Aileen that she was just going to visit for Thanksgiving. She was terrified she would be arrested with Aileen. Tyria failed to return.

Aileen wrote to Tyria, "You’re my left and right arm, my breath, I'd die for you."

Aileen had never murdered before she met Tyria and never committed any more murders after Tyria left.

For a short time after Tyria left, she had a brief affair with a man
named Dick Mills, who later sold his story to the now disgraced British tabloid “The news of the World.” The headline read:

MY SEX ROMPS WITH KINKY MAN KILLER

He later said the story was widely inaccurate but admitted that he did have a brief affair with Aileen, as they were two lost souls. During their time together, he saw no indications that she was a “man-hater,” as the press portrayed her.

More leads were fed to the police who urgently began hunting Aileen and Tyria on January 5th, 1991. Their rootless life style did not help in the search but eventually two undercover drug detectives known as "Drums" and "Bucket" discovered Aileen on January 8th at a Port Orange Pub. They held off arresting her to see if she would take them to Tyria. They followed her to another bar, the Last Resort, a biker bar in Harbor Oaks, Volusia County. In this bar, she passed out on an old car seat. It was
to be her last night of freedom.

The Last Resort Bar

The following day, January 9th, 1991, the police
made the decision to detain Aileen on an outstanding warrant for Lori Grody, one of Aileen’s aliases.’ They arrested her on the steps outside the Last Resort. They made no allusion to her of the murders, as at that time they had no Tyria Moore or murder weapon.

The police then located Tyria Moore at her sister’s home in Pennsylvania. Two Florida detectives
, Bruce Munster of Marion County and Jerry Thompson of Citrus County, flew to Pennsylvania to confront her. Tyria, when confronted by the detectives, was clearly frightened as she was read her rights.

Tyria denied vehemently that she had anything to do with the murders. In her statement to the police, she claimed that Aileen had admitted to the murder of Richard Mallory on the day it had happened. She claimed she was shocked and begged Aileen not to tell her anything else; she did not want to know. Tyria claimed in her statement that she suspected that Aileen had killed more than one man because she returned home with cars and various other items that did not belong to her. She says she begged Aileen not to tell her anything as she did not want to be an accomplice to her crimes. She claimed to be scared of Aileen.

The detectives explained to Tyria that as she had knowingly used stolen cars and money and knew about one or more murder victims, they could arrest her as Aileen’s co-conspirator and accessory. They instead offered Tyria a deal: if she could elicit a confession out of Aileen and become a prosecution witness, they would give her prosecutorial immunity.

Tyria agreed to the detectives’ offer, and the following day returned to Florida with them. The police department housed her in a Daytona motel and had her make contact, under their supervision
, with Aileen in jail.

Tyria first made contact with Aileen on the taped jail phone on January 14th, 1991. She told Aileen that she was scared because the police were questioning her family about the two of them
, and she was petrified the Florida highway murders would be blamed on her. Aileen, still unaware that the police suspected her of the murders, tried to reassure Tyria that there was nothing to worry about.

“I’m only here for that concealed weapons charge in
‘86 and a traffic ticket,” she assured Tyria.

The taped phone calls from Tyria to Aileen in jail continued, with Tyria breaking down and begging Aileen to clear her name. Aileen continued to try and reassure Tyria that she had nothing to worry about. Aileen said of the police sketches of them that had appeared in the newspapers,

“I tell you what, man, I wasn’t one of those little suspects. I think somebody at work -- where you worked at -- said something that it looked like us. And it isn’t us, see? It’s a case of mistaken identity.”

Tyria continued to call and beg Aileen to clear her name. Throughout the phone calls during those three days, Aileen constantly told Tyria how much she loved and missed her. Tyria never once said she loved Aileen.

Finally, on January 16
th
, 1991, Aileen, who listed her occupation as a "professional call girl,” made the decision to protect her lover, no matter what the cost to herself. A three hour videotaped confession, in which Aileen was dressed in an orange prison jumpsuit, was made to the police. In the video tape, Aileen smoking heavily, sometimes laughing, sometimes crying, confessed that she had shot the men in self defense as the men had attempted to rape or violently abuse her and that Tyria was entirely blameless. Throughout the confession, her public defender, Michael O’Neil, repeatedly reminded Aileen of her rights. He tried to convince her not to make any statements, not to give any confession about anything, and that it was her right to remain silent. He strongly advised her to exercise that right. However, no matter what he said, she chose to ignore all of his advice.

Aileen when first charged.

In her confession she said, “I just wish I never would’ve done this shit. I wish I never woulda got that gun. I wish to god I never was a hooker. And I wish I never woulda done what I did. I still have to say to myself, I still say that it was in self-defense. Because most of ‘em either were gonna start to beat me up or were gonna screw me in the ass,--and they’d get rough with me, so I’d fight ‘em. And then I’d –as I’d get away from ‘em, I’d
run to the front of the car or jump over the seat or whatever, grab my gun and just start shootin’.”

According to O’Neil, her total focus was on protecting the love of her life Tyria, and she showed no concern for herself and her own fate.

Shortly after her confession, the police found a lockup Aileen had rented under one of her aliases, Cammie Marsh Greene. It contained the possessions of the dead men.

When the police released the confession to the media, Aileen became a national celebrity, and her face became plastered all over the local and national media. A plethora of book and movie deals were offered to detectives, lawyers, relatives, Tyria
, and Aileen herself. A filmmaker, Jackie Giroux, secured the film rights to Aileen’s story. Aileen and her then attorney, Russell Armstrong, signed the contract.

Aileen initially thought that she might make millions of dollars from her story until she
learned that the state of Florida had a law prohibiting criminals from profiting from their crimes.

The Gun used to fire the shots

While, in prison, Aileen received a letter from a "born-again" Christian Arlene Pralle. Arlene was a small, doe-eyed, forty-odd-year-old woman who managed a horse boarding and breeding business near Ocala in Marion County, Florida, where she also bred wolves. Arlene believed that wolves represented a significant part of one’s spiritual life. In her letter to Aileen, she claimed that Jesus had instructed her to write to her. Included in her letter was her home telephone number which Aileen made a collect call to on January 30
th
, 1991.

Arlene Pralle

Aileen, alone and friendless, was easy prey for a woman such as Arlene, and the two women became “friends” or at least that is what Aileen believed. Arlene began visiting Aileen in Volusia County Jail once a week and talked to her every evening on the telephone. Arlene became a thorn in Aileen’s defense lawyer’s side. Tricia Jenkins, one of the defense team, said many times Aileen would not co-operate with them unless they also attended to Arlene’s needs.

Throughout 1991, Arlene would appear on TV and radio talk shows and give interviews to the tabloid press or to anyone else for money. Aileen believed her
“friend” was trying to help her and was unaware, for a while, that she was making money from the interviews she gave. To a Vanity Fair reporter, Arlene said her and Aileen’s relationship was soul binding and that they were like Jonathan and David in the bible.

“It’s as though part of me is trapped in jail with her. We always know what the other is feeling and thinking.”

In a radio interview, Arlene claimed that, “if the world could know the real Aileen Wuornos, there is not a jury that would convict her”.

Arlene and her husband adopted Aileen legally on November 22nd, 1991. Arlene claimed that God had told her to. To reporters Arlene said, “We don't talk about the case, but in my heart I know that Aileen is not a serial killer. She has a heart of gold, and she cares about other people more than herself. God has brought us together."

Aileen believed that she would be acquitted, and after the trial she was planning to go home to her ‘mother’ Arlene and help her with the horses and wolves.

On January 14th, 1992, Aileen Wuornos went on trial in Daytona Beach for the cold bloodied murder of Richard Mallory. Aileen pleaded not guilty
, and her defense was that he had attempted to rape her and in self-defense she had shot him as she feared for her life. Normally, in criminal trials, previous wrongful acts are inadmissible. However, in Florida because of the ‘Williams Rule’ the prosecuting attorneys were allowed to introduce evidence related to Aileen’s other crimes to demonstrate a pattern of criminal activity. The witnesses and evidence piled against her were extremely damaging. In particular that of her former lover Tyria Moore who recounted Aileen returning home and in a relaxed manner stating, as they watched the television, "I killed a man today,” and at no time Tyria said did she make any mention of, or had any noticeable indications of, an attack. During her testimony, Tyria refused to make eye contact with Aileen.

Tyria giving evidence

Aileen was understandably gutted and frequently wiped tears from her eyes as Tyria’s testimony buried her. This was the love of her life for which she had taken 100% responsibility for the crimes to save Tyria from any responsibility for the murders. The prosecution painted a picture of Richard Mallory as an upstanding member of society.

Against her public defender’s advice, Aileen took to the witness stand. The defense team was worried that because of Aileen’s inability to remain calm, she would become her own worst enemy.