Crime, Conspiracy, Cults and Murder - Ep. 32 | Victim Or Monster?? | Aileen Wuornos

Episode Date: January 22, 2025

Let's uncover the story of Aileen Wuornos, one of America’s most notorious female serial killers. From a troubled past to the murders of seven men in Florida, we explore her claims of self-defense and the dark path she followed... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Serial killers come in all shapes and sizes and have existed since the beginning of time. However, the rise in popularity makes us look back and wonder why they have existed at all. From psychological inability to a bad childhood, it's hard to pinpoint exactly what went wrong. However, a murderer isn't specific to one type of person. It could be anyone, and that someone today is Eileen Wormose. Otherwise known as the Damsel of Death. Crime, conspiracy, cults, serial killers, and murder. All things that I love to consume, and I know you do, do you sick, beautiful, deliciously delectable, smart, fabulous, very well-dressed freak.

Yes, today we are talking about the infamous Eileen Wernos, one of the most famous female serial killers of all time, at least in the media. So without further ado, let's unbuckle our seatbouts, go Mach 5 down the highway. slam on the brakes and bust through this windshield into this female serial killer together. Eileen Warno, otherwise known as Eileen Pittman, was born in Rochester, Michigan on February 29th, 1956. And her childhood was already off to a bad start due to her parents not really being model citizens that you would expect them to be. Her mother, Diane Warnos, was a 14-year-old girl when she got married to her father, Leo Pittman, who was 18 years old. Not like crazy uncommon for the time, but they were pretty young, to say the least. So they had their first child,

Eileen's older brother, Keith. And the couple was married two years before Diane filed for divorce. And that was two months before, Eileen would be conceived, with her mother only being 16 at the time. Like, what was I doing on a 16, man? I was sneaking out of the house going to 7-Eleven to get shitty pizza and slim gyms. So Eileen would never actually meet her father. And years later, in 1967, he would be charged and imprisoned with a life sentence for kidnapping and graping a seven-year-old girl. And her father clearly suffered from mental health issues, but one of which was schizophrenia, and he would later hang himself in his cell in 1969. And this would be a strain on Diane, now having to take care of two of her children all alone. She was a teen mom and made a decision to

abandon her children, pretty much, leaving them with her parents. Lori and Britta Warnos, who, honestly, weren't much better than Eileen's first parents. The couple were unfortunately raging alcoholics, but they were the only people willing to take care of the two children, later adopting them on March 18th, 1960. And Eileen's childhood would just delve deeper into chaos as time went on. Sorry, I've got to put my glasses on. I don't know why I always start these without putting my glasses on.

Because who, oh my God, wow, I can see, crazy. Grandma Chris coming at you. Anyway, so at only 11 years old, Eileen would start engaging in drugs and using cigarettes on a daily basis and also using her body as currency. She would begin doing Lady of the Nighting, if you will, and it wasn't always with strangers. Apparently, she had even engaged in those kind of activities with her own brother, Keith. So we're already starting off just in some of the worst ways you can as a child being born into parents that can't take care of you. One of them has serious mental health issues, commits crimes.

you know, obviously sluer, sliddle as well as schizophrenic, and the mother's not willing to take care. It's just, and the parents are alcoholics. Like, talk about a recipe for disaster. And when we talk about nature versus nurture, I think this is a whole lot of nurture. With Eileen's case personally, I mean, I know there's nature in there somewhere, especially with the mental health issues that her father had. But she was not set up for success. Not that I'm giving any excuse for killing anyone. Okay, I never do that.

but it's unfortunate is what it is. And Eileen's childhood would just get even rougher, with her grandfather beating her with a belt on a daily basis. And eventually, the beatings became more of a thrill than pain for her due to her warped mind. And her grandfather would also eventually essay her, leading her to assume different positions for beatings, even while naked sometimes.

Just heartbreaking stuff. And during this time, at 14 or 15 years old, Eileen would actually give birth to a boy who was sent to an unwed mother's home. And there, the boy would be adopted from her in 1971. Other sources claim that she ran away from home, but other states that she was kicked out by her grandfather. And to sustain life on her own, she would begin delving more into Lady of the Nighting to survive on her own.

And in that same year, her grandmother passed away from liver failure. So all of this just made it harder and harder to find friends in her community. She had no family at this point being excluded from her original mother to being kicked out by her grandfather just left her feeling incredibly isolated at this point. And dropping out of school also didn't help this case and her priorities were clearly set on other things.

So just again, like, it's just an ingredient in the unfortunate serial killer soup. Like, I feel like in the case of Eileen, this actually could have been avoided. Like this was just the system failing her, her parents failing her, Everybody just failed her. Again, not an excuse, but really unfortunate.

So this whole shitstorm would collectively mold her into the murderer that she unfortunately became. So determined to make it in the world herself, she started to travel pretty extensively at this point. And her means of travel would usually be alongside the highways. I got to keep telling you, don't hitchhike. Okay, Auntie Chris, or right now, Grandma Chris says never hitchhike, all right? Don't do it. Okay. But she would get rides along the highway and she would do that by selling her body through prostitution to continue to raise money for herself to make a life for herself. So she didn't really have any choice at this point or she didn't feel that she had any choice at this point. And this was obviously dangerous for anyone at any age. But for a girl that was a teenager especially, it was especially dangerous. And this wouldn't be the only crime that she committed now that she was on her own. falling upon other minor offenses with the law. At 18 years old in 1974, she was arrested for a DUI, for example.

Also, disorderly conduct and firing a 22 from a moving vehicle. And she would eventually stumble across a 69-year-old man named Louis Gratzfell, a yacht club president she met while hitchhiking her way to Florida. And this was her golden ticket to a better life, and she married him very quickly. So she was basically speed running anything that came her way. And marriage did not stop her. She would continue to commit crimes also, specifically an assault in a local bar. And she would also allegedly hit fell her husband with his own cane,

which made him realize that he had made a grave mistake. And he would later file a restraining order against her and get their marriage annulled. Which, by the way, was only two weeks into their relationship. That, that's, those are some Kim K numbers. So she was obviously not really built for long-lasting relationships, but we look back at her childhood and that kind of makes sense. Again, to be beating someone with a cane is not good. I don't know what else is going on behind closed doors,

but she's just, she's just not coming from a good place. She came for monsters and that's what made her become a monster herself. And she would later get wind of her brother Keith's passing, getting $10,000 in life insurance as a payout. And she would blow this money instantly on a car, only to later crash it and completely wreck it. And she would have extra money, but blew it all away, living on luxuries, such as nicer motels and just more. So she wasn't the happiest person, of course, and supposedly in 1978, at only 22 years old, she tried sluer slide by shooting herself in the stomach.

And this wasn't actually the first time, as from 14 to 22, she attempted around six times. So she wasn't in a great situation and her mental health was obviously very unstable and she was going from a relationship to another relationship from town to town with no friends or family to back her up in any way. So she just felt lost. And what she really needed was money, but since she spent all of her brother's life insurance, she had to get it by other means. So her first crime would be armed robbery on May 20th, 1981. She walked into a convenience store in Edgewood's, Water, Florida, stealing $35 and two packs of cigarettes.

And she would spend some time in prison and she would be released on June 30th, 1983. And a year later, on May of 1984, she was arrested again, and this time for forgery in Key West, while trying to cash forge checks. And in 1986, she would be arrested again in Miami for car theft, resisting arrest and obstruction of justice. She just couldn't stop. It was almost like she was addicted to the crime. wasn't smart enough to not get caught.

However, everything would change when she would walk into a gay bar called the Zodiac, which yes, I see the parallels of that with another serial killer being named in a serial killer walking into it. Just those lines crossing. So on December 13th, 1989, a man's corpse would be found in a wooded area

off of I-95 with two bullets in his chest. And later, it would be discovered that this body was a man named Richard Mallory. Richard was a 51-year-old owner of an electronics repair shop in Clearwater, Florida. And Richard was a flawed man to say the least for his addiction to ladies of the night, if you will. And one day, he would close up his shop kind of abruptly and then just disappeared. Which was not a shock to most because he was known to binge drink and go on these casual binges as well. And he didn't really have any close connections for anyone to notice that he disappeared, at least soon.

However, two young men would be looking for scrap metal off the Interstate 95 where they would find Richard Mallory. And when they found him, they would see two holes in his chest, which had 22 caliber bullets in them. And suspicions apparently fell on a stripper named Chastity, who actually claimed she did murder him. However, this was a dead end, as she said the story in a burst of anger, and it was just not true. And the case would later go cold. And investigators would learn later from Eileen's confession that she stole a radar detector, camera, and an undisclosed amount of money from him. And she would also state on trial and to investigators that it was in the interest of self-defense,

claiming that Mallory had graped her, beat her, and sodomized her, leading to her to take those specific actions. And those actions being shooting him twice in the chest. But this is stuff that we just don't know. It's kind of like we have to take her word for it, or we take the prosecutor's word for it. It's just something we're not sure of. And I mean, there's obviously a movie monster with a beautiful Charlize Theron who did such a wonderful job in that movie where they portrayed a certain way and whether that was the way that everything went. We don't know specifically, but do with that what you will.

Let's continue. So the next victim was a man by the name of David Spears, who was a 43-year-old man from Sarasota, Florida. And he was a heavy equipment operator who was last seen on May 19th, 1990. And he had apparently told his boss that he was traveling to Orlando, but apparently just never. made it there. And his truck would be found on June 1st, 1990, and his corp with several bullet holes in it, yet again from a 22. So the truck was unlocked, the license plate was missing, and the only other thing left on his corpse was a used condom. And his death would just be another mystery with no leads. And the next victim would be Charles Karskotan, a 40-year-old part-time

rodeo worker. And on June 6th, 1990, his body would be found in Pascoe County wrapped in an electric blanket. And the body was severely deteriorated and completely unrecognizable. Medical examiners couldn't even find fingerprints, so it was difficult to estimate the time of his death. And this body had nine holes in it, again, with a 22 caliber bullet. And this body wasn't identified until much, much later. But detectives relayed the case to Citrus County where other bodies had been found estimating a connection could be with both of them. Peter Syams would be the next victim, who was a 65-year-old retired merchant seaman. And in June, 1990, 90, he left Jupiter, Florida to travel to Arkansas to see his relatives.

And his car, a 1988 Pontiac Sunbird, I had a Pontiac Sunfire when I was a kid. I loved that car. Anyway, was found completely smashed up. Not my car, his car. And there was blood stains throughout the interior and the license plate was missing yet again. And his body, unfortunately, was not found. And there was small hope that he had survived. And the next victim would be Troy Burris, a 50-year-old sausage salesman who went on a regular delivery route on July 30th. But the manager, Johnny Thompson, noticed that he didn't return later that afternoon.

And calling around, he found out that he hadn't showed up for his last few delivery stops. So noticing that he went missing, the manager went looking for him and the police were notified. And at 4 a.m. the next morning, off the shoulder of State Road 19, the vehicle was found unlocked, with the keys and Troy completely missing. And it took five days until his body was found in a clearing off Highway 19 in Okala National Forest, where the body would be identified as Troy Burris by his wedding ring. Tisk, tisk, tisk. And the cause of death for Troy would be two shots from a 22 in the chest and one in the back. But unfortunately, they still had no leads at this point. And then there was Charles Humphrey, who was a 56-year-old retired United States Air Force major. He was actually

a former chief state of police and a former state child abuse investigator for Florida's Department of health and rehabilitative services. And on September 10th, he would celebrate his 35th anniversary of marriage. However, just the next day, he would completely disappear. And on September 12th, his body would be found in Marion County. And his body would be littered with seven bullet wounds, with one being in his head. And we would learn much later that all that was taken from him was $300. And a while later, in November, a nude body was found on a logging road in Dixie County and would be identified as Walter Antonio. And Antonio was a 60-year-old trucker who also worked as a security guard and a member of the Reserve Police. And the body was found with 22 caliber bullet holes, four of them to be

specific. And this would be the freshest body that they found being found only 24 hours after his death. And after hearing all of this, police went through each murder to figure out who the hell could be responsible. So the series of killings over the next few years were all questioned by detectives. What were their motives? What were their pattern? What was taken from each of the victims? Why did each one have a 22 caliber bullet wound? Why were all the bodies dumped in the woods? And why were the license plates taken away? And the answer would fall on a story from a witness who saw two women crash their car. So on July 4th, a car veered off the road near Orange Springs and landed in some bushes. And a witness, Rhonda Bailey, would see two women crash the car

and also scramble out of the car. They began to argue really loudly and throw beer cans out into the woods, cussing each other out and just being crazy. And she witnessed one of the women was bleeding from her arm. So she would approach her because she's a good civilian. And she would begin to converse with her. And the woman begged Bailey not to call the police stating her father was nearby. Then both women would just hop back into the car, which was in horrible condition, and drive off.

But after driving for a little bit, the car would eventually just give up and die, which then they would abandon and just start walking. And when police would investigate the vehicle, they found it to be a Pontiac Sunbird with a windshield that was smashed. And it was Peter Seams car, one of the victims. So the police eventually got a read on the two women, that of Tyrea Moore and Eileen Warnos. And previous witnesses said that they had sold one or the other an RV,

while another said that they stayed at a motel and knew their names. And eventually, detectives and police were able to locate where Eileen was located. She was at a biker bar called La Last Resort in Volusia County, Florida. Sorry if I said that wrong. And they needed someone to speak to Eileen undercover. And that person would be Officer Mike Joyner. So he would go undercover with the name, this is a great name. Buckethead.

Very believable. Because supposedly nobody used their real names in this specific biker bar, so this wasn't like too shocking. And he knew what she would want and how to get her attention by flashing money around her and offering her cigarettes and free. beer. That's like a how to get with Eileen 101. And this would open up her mouth easily, to say the least. She would talk about her girlfriend, Tyrea Moore, how she moved out and left her alone and how she was lonely because of it. And the next day, Eileen would call the guy, the undercover cop, to bring all the

money and that she would show him a really good time. And before they could even get to the motel, let alone leave the bar, both Mike and Eileen were arrested on January 9th, 1991. And unfortunately, police didn't have much to go by, despite her prints matching the ones found in dead Peter Seams car. And police had tracked down Tyrea in Pennsylvania asking for her involvement in the murders. And she would plead completely innocent to them and said she would work for the police in order to get a confession out of Eileen. Snitches gets stitches. And she would call Eileen Wernos, stating that she didn't want to get arrested. Lee, they're coming after me. I know they are.

No, no, not. And why are they asking so many questions then? Honey, listen, listen, listen, I'm not going to let you go. I let you're fine. I don't know whether I should keep on living or if I should. No tie, Tyler. What if they don't believe me? I don't do it now.

Get it over with. And during all this, though, she was breaking down stating that she only did these murders in self-defense. The men that would pick up and take her for rides would, would abuse her and beat her and sometimes even grape her. And investigators just wanted more questions answered, but they'd have to wait until the trial to get the whole picture. But at this point, they did know that Eileen Warnos was the murderer. And the trial would be chock full of information,

and Warnos threw everything out onto the table. And during the trial in January 1992, it went case by case of all the murders she committed and the men that she harmed. And she said she did it to support her lover and stole in order to support her lover. lifestyle. Not a good excuse. And police would be directed to a storage shed where they would find clothing, watches, toolboxes, and more. And supposedly, these all belonged to her victims. And the narrative that it was purely self-defense was then questioned. Why would someone protect themselves and

then steal the belongings of the person that they killed? So Eileen obviously didn't want to go to trial for a bunch of murders, but she also just wanted to get it over with, which was evident in her confession. But despite all this, the trials would go on. And the trial, it was for the first murder, which would set the narrative for the pattern of the other murders. The prosecution introduced her patterns with the other murders and how she knew what she was doing and she knew that it was wrong, murdering multiple men for their possessions. But what she didn't expect is that she did this all for love, basically. And that her lover, her lover, would hit the stand to criticize and completely abandon her,

putting everything on her. And it's just brutal. It's brutal. We were sitting on the floor watching TV, and she just come out and said, I have something to tell you. And I asked her what. And she said that she had shot and killed a man that day. And reportedly during the whole trial, she didn't even look at Eileen. She completely avoided eye contact, stated her story and just walked out without looking at Eileen at all. And on January 27, 1992, Eileen Warnos was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death. But Eileen's story would later change on March of 1992 during her plea hearing. The plea hearing was meant for the other murders specifically, where she pleaded no contest.

She said all the killings were not, in fact, for self-defense, but for financial gain, or even to eliminate the witnesses she robbed. And this plea would just give her more death sentences, which I think is kind of moot, a moot point at that point. She's going to die anyway. You know, why give her multiple? It doesn't really make sense. but they would just continue to add up as the trials went on, eventually reaching a total of six death sentences.

That's a lot of death. She's not a damn cat. What the fuck? But it was hard to know what to believe directly. Was it possible she was abused or even graped by some of these men or even one of these men? We won't know. But the defense in the first case tried to point that arrow in the direction of Richard Mallory, who actually had a history of sociopathic tendencies,

as evident from correctional facility documents. But no matter what, Eileen would be sentenced to death. And her life on death row was not pretty according to her. Due to her isolation from others, her mental state was just horrendous. Being on death row, you have limited contact, which in my personal opinion was the opposite of what someone like her needed. This is what basically led her to her insanity in the first place in crimes. She also claimed that during her time on death row that prison workers would

taint her food with dirt, spit, and even urine. She even claimed to overhear them talking about pushing her mental health over the line so she would commit slewer slide before the execution to save time. And worse as well, she said that she heard them talking about graping her before her execution, and the list just goes on and on from strip searches to cat calling. She wasn't living hell before her execution again, allegedly. However, there was an upside for her. Interviews would be conducted with her by a documentarian, Nick Broomfield. And the film just went into depth about some of the personal reasons why she did what she did. And in an interview, she even stated that she honestly did kill in self-defense and was so tired of being on death row,

she just wanted to die. And she would be on death row for about 10 years, so that's a long time to suffer being locked up when you're thinking you should just be dead. And her mental state was just deteriorating as the days went by. In her last days, she was, She said her mind was being taken over by radio waves and she was under a spell. They had the inner calm on in the room and they kept lying that it wasn't on. And they were using sonic pressure on my head since 1997. Sonic pressure. And every time I was trying to write something, and I think they had some kind of eye in the cell. I'm not sure.

But every time I started writing something, it went up higher. So I'm thinking that probably had the T-D-Sell. TV rigged. The TV or the mirror something was rigged. They got a huge satellite on the compound. After they put the huge satellite on the compound, could have been either rigged to the TV set or the mirror or something. Because the electrician, when he put the mirror on the wall, he said, doesn't that look like a computer? The back of it, and they stuck it to the wall. Did that affect your mind in some way, the sonic? It was crushing my head, and they were using sonic pressure.

But the media just loved her, and not in a supporting way, exactly, but more of an entertaining way. almost like she was a circus monkey that was being analyzed in a cage. Which, in my opinion, is messed up. Like, if you murder someone, I think you're a piece of shit and that's not right. But there's treating a human like a human, especially in specific circumstances. But she would eventually get her wish. From her original sentencing to death on January 31st, 1992, she would finally be executed by lethal injection on October 9, 2002.

at 46 years old. And her death would just spark more media attention, with people questioning the fairness of humanity of the death sentence to allow someone to live so much longer than they needed to suffer daily until eventually being executed a decade later. And this also sparked talks amongst the feminist community, acknowledging the mistreatment of female inmates in prison systems due to her claims of abuse while on death row. And on the other side of the coin, people believed she got off easy and didn't suffer. I was glad she was going. And someone said to me, well, don't you feel bad because she was abused? And I said, no, I don't. I said, everybody has been abused in their life.

But what was put into question all these years was how much involvement her lover Tyrea Moore had. And how she got off literally Scott Free. And we know that during her confession, she admitted to doing all of this to please and fund her extravagant lifestyle. And by Tyrea's own admission in court, she was she showed that she knew of the crimes committed because Eileen told her. And this has also sparked a split amongst those who talk about this case, stating that Tyrea could have absolutely been directly involved. And in my opinion, if you know that shit's going on,

call the po-po, you know? Otherwise, you're an accessory. Like you know that this is happening. You're guilty by association, basically. But the case of Eileen Wernos is a very sad story of someone who was abused throughout her life, felt unloved and went searching for it in all the wrong places. A life of crime and drug abuse just led her on a path that she could not return from. And the loss of all of those lives just led to her death penalty.

And I think this story specifically raises questions about how important mental health care really is. The fact that someone could live their entire life abused and misused and just wronged in life and then end up becoming a murderer and then treated the same. It's just all not good. Again, not excusing anyone for murder. I think that's fucking terrible, and I think there's other ways around it. But when people aren't helped in life, it's hard for those people with those trauma blinders on to see any other way out. Just overall, really, really sad.

But I'd love to hear what you have to say about this whole case down below. I feel for the families that lost these men. Do I agree with what these men were doing? No. Do I agree with what Eileen did? Absolutely not. Just unfortunate. Just unfortunate.

But let me know what else you guys want to. see down below. If you want something sweet after this sour sour case, uh, go grab some candy. It's sour.g. If you want, if you want, we got new flavors every week. Little guys, I've been eating them probably a little too much, but they're delicious. So, uh, but until the next video, I will see y'all beautiful face then. Bye.