WEBVTT - The Backstory: Blueprint For a Serial Killer 0:00:00.200 --> 0:00:03.320 Her childhood wasn't hard, it was brutal, and it left 0:00:03.400 --> 0:00:07.080 marks that not only didn't fade, they grew. Aileen Carol 0:00:07.160 --> 0:00:11.200 Warnos was born on February twenty ninth, nineteen fifty six. 0:00:11.680 --> 0:00:15.000 Leap year, leap day. Born literally on a day that 0:00:15.080 --> 0:00:18.759 barely exists. That's sort of poetic in a grim way, 0:00:19.160 --> 0:00:21.360 because for most of her life she was treated like 0:00:21.440 --> 0:00:25.080 she didn't exist either. I'm Patty Steele. Does any of 0:00:25.120 --> 0:00:29.680 that excuse her for becoming a prolific serial killer? That's 0:00:29.760 --> 0:00:37.480 next on the backstory. We're back with the backstory. There's 0:00:37.600 --> 0:00:40.400 no justifying what she did, but it is interesting to 0:00:40.440 --> 0:00:44.159 hear her backstory. Aileen Warnos had a rough start in 0:00:44.240 --> 0:00:48.120 life and it never got better. Her parents were kids themselves. 0:00:48.440 --> 0:00:52.800 Her mom, Diane, was fourteen when she married Aileen's father, Leo, 0:00:52.960 --> 0:00:57.480 who was eighteen. The marriage quickly fell apart. Within two years, 0:00:57.480 --> 0:01:01.320 Diane was gone, abandoning Aileen, who was just six months old, 0:01:01.600 --> 0:01:04.720 as well as her older brother Keith. Her father was 0:01:04.760 --> 0:01:07.560 already out of the picture, doing time for the rape 0:01:07.560 --> 0:01:10.480 of a child. Aileen never got a chance to meet him. 0:01:10.640 --> 0:01:14.640 He hanged himself in prison before she turned fourteen. So 0:01:14.840 --> 0:01:18.520 who raised her Her grandparents on her mom's side, Laurie 0:01:18.600 --> 0:01:21.760 and Britta. But the word raised is kind of doing 0:01:21.800 --> 0:01:25.840 some heavy lifting here. Laurie was a heavy drinking, controlling 0:01:25.920 --> 0:01:30.480 guy with a cruel streak. Aileen said. Laurie beat her, regularly, 0:01:30.640 --> 0:01:34.120 called her vile names, and emotionally just tore her apart 0:01:34.680 --> 0:01:38.959 until she believed she was worthless. And then there's Grandma Britta, 0:01:39.040 --> 0:01:43.279 also an alcoholic, she rarely protected Aileen or even bothered 0:01:43.319 --> 0:01:46.600 to look up when she was being abused. Aileen later 0:01:46.680 --> 0:01:50.680 claimed her grandfather and some of his friends sexually abused her. 0:01:51.160 --> 0:01:54.400 The patterns clear. She learned early on that adults were 0:01:54.400 --> 0:01:57.360 not to be trusted, that love could hurt, and that 0:01:57.480 --> 0:02:01.360 home wasn't safe, and for her, the outside world was 0:02:01.400 --> 0:02:04.360 no better. By the time she was just nine years old, 0:02:04.480 --> 0:02:08.760 Eileen was trading sex for money, food and cigarettes. Kids 0:02:08.760 --> 0:02:11.519 her own age made fun of her, boys used her, 0:02:11.880 --> 0:02:16.240 her classmates called her cigarette pig, and adults they simply 0:02:16.240 --> 0:02:19.200 ignored her. From the time she was a small girl, 0:02:19.600 --> 0:02:24.680 Aileen was already surviving instead of living. This traumatized child 0:02:24.919 --> 0:02:28.400 was already adapting to a world where being exploited was 0:02:28.440 --> 0:02:32.560 part of the game. Her body was her only bargaining chip. Then, 0:02:32.639 --> 0:02:35.920 at fourteen, she got pregnant. The father was a much 0:02:35.919 --> 0:02:39.799 older family friend who had raped her. Her grandparents sent 0:02:39.800 --> 0:02:42.760 her away to a home for unwed mothers in Detroit, 0:02:43.240 --> 0:02:45.800 and in nineteen seventy one she gave birth to a 0:02:45.840 --> 0:02:49.160 baby boy, but he was taken away and adopted out. 0:02:49.320 --> 0:02:52.520 She never saw him again. By the time she was fifteen, 0:02:52.960 --> 0:02:56.200 Eileen was back at home, but then her grandmother died 0:02:56.320 --> 0:02:59.760 of liver failure almost immediately, and her grandfather kicked her 0:02:59.760 --> 0:03:03.840 out of the house. Now Aileen, still fifteen, was homeless, 0:03:03.880 --> 0:03:07.880 with no education, no job, no support, and nobody to 0:03:07.960 --> 0:03:12.000 turn to. She slept in abandoned cars and in the woods. 0:03:12.080 --> 0:03:15.200 She hitchhiked from town to town doing sex work just 0:03:15.200 --> 0:03:19.440 to eat. Her childhood was nothing but trauma, and that 0:03:19.600 --> 0:03:23.160 made her tougher and meaner, simply as a way of surviving. 0:03:23.960 --> 0:03:29.800 Psychologists later diagnosed her with borderline personality disorder and antisocial 0:03:29.960 --> 0:03:34.320 personality disorder based on her inability to regulate her emotions, 0:03:34.720 --> 0:03:38.840 her rage outbursts, her constant fear of abandonment, and her 0:03:38.880 --> 0:03:42.560 black and white thinking. She didn't trust people because people 0:03:42.560 --> 0:03:46.440 had never been trustworthy. She didn't believe in safety because 0:03:46.480 --> 0:03:50.160 she had never been safe. Aileen slowly realized that the 0:03:50.200 --> 0:03:53.600 world was a predator and she was the prey until 0:03:53.760 --> 0:03:57.760 she decided to fight back. Got to say, again, none 0:03:57.800 --> 0:04:01.680 of this justifies what she did. At least seven men died, 0:04:02.000 --> 0:04:07.360 seven lives extinguished, sons, brothers, fathers. But it begs the question, 0:04:08.000 --> 0:04:11.840 how does a person become capable of killing so many people? 0:04:12.600 --> 0:04:20.000 Aileen's life tells us she was abandoned, molested, beaten, homeless, raped, institutionalized, 0:04:20.160 --> 0:04:24.880 ridiculed and forgotten. She slowly cracked and no one noticed 0:04:24.960 --> 0:04:28.640 or cared until it was too late. Aileen once said, 0:04:28.880 --> 0:04:31.760 I wanted to be loved ever since I was a kid, 0:04:32.040 --> 0:04:35.120 just someone who would love me, but it never happened. 0:04:35.800 --> 0:04:38.640 Pretty haunting. That's a line from somebody who never had 0:04:38.680 --> 0:04:41.800 a chance to be human. She was born into violence, 0:04:41.960 --> 0:04:45.440 raised in it, used by it, and ultimately she became it. 0:04:46.400 --> 0:04:50.680 Aileen Warnos's childhood was the blueprint for her violence. When 0:04:50.720 --> 0:04:53.120 we talk about true crime, we focus so much on 0:04:53.279 --> 0:04:57.000 what they did, but sometimes the why is even more 0:04:57.160 --> 0:05:01.040 terrifying and a bit more interesting, because honestly, the why 0:05:01.279 --> 0:05:04.760 can be traced back to failures in parenting, in protection, 0:05:05.000 --> 0:05:08.559 in institutions, and in a society that should have seen 0:05:08.600 --> 0:05:11.280 her and helped her. By the time she was in 0:05:11.279 --> 0:05:15.040 her early twenties, Aileen had drifted to Florida, moving from 0:05:15.080 --> 0:05:18.040 town to town and again supporting herself through sex work. 0:05:18.720 --> 0:05:21.320 It was here that she met Tyrea Moore, a maide, 0:05:21.360 --> 0:05:25.159 at a motel. They got into a romantic relationship, and 0:05:25.240 --> 0:05:29.159 Aileen was smitten. Somebody finally cared for her, and she 0:05:29.240 --> 0:05:32.839 was determined to provide for them both. So around the 0:05:32.880 --> 0:05:36.400 same time, between nineteen eighty nine and nineteen ninety, the 0:05:36.440 --> 0:05:39.839 bodies of seven middle aged men were found scattered along 0:05:40.000 --> 0:05:44.400 highways in central Florida. Each had been shot multiple times, 0:05:44.640 --> 0:05:47.680 and their cars or trucks, as well as their belongings 0:05:47.680 --> 0:05:53.120 were missing. The victims included Richard Mallory, David Spears, Charles Carskadden, 0:05:53.240 --> 0:05:57.960 Troy Burris, Dick Humphreys, Peter Siemes, and Walter Antonio. The 0:05:58.000 --> 0:06:02.040 investigation kicked into high gear and then really gained momentum 0:06:02.240 --> 0:06:06.480 when Aileen and her girlfriend Tyrea were seen abandoning Peter 0:06:06.600 --> 0:06:11.200 Seem's carr after an accident. Witnesses gave descriptions and then 0:06:11.440 --> 0:06:14.960 fingerprints found on stuff that had been pawned linked Aileen 0:06:15.040 --> 0:06:19.400 to the crimes. Eventually, cops found Tyrea in Pennsylvania and 0:06:19.520 --> 0:06:22.600 convinced her to get a confession from Aileen in exchange 0:06:22.640 --> 0:06:26.359 for immunity. Tyrea made a number of phone calls to Aileen, 0:06:26.560 --> 0:06:30.760 pleading with her to confess to clear Tyrea's name. On 0:06:30.880 --> 0:06:35.200 January sixteenth, nineteen ninety one, Aileen confess to the murders, 0:06:35.440 --> 0:06:39.200 claiming self defense. She claimed that each of these men 0:06:39.400 --> 0:06:41.960 had either raped or attempted to rape her while she 0:06:42.040 --> 0:06:44.960 was working as a prostitute, and that she killed them 0:06:45.040 --> 0:06:49.040 in self defense. On the other hand, the prosecution argued 0:06:49.120 --> 0:06:52.279 the murderers were committed during robberies, pointing to the theft 0:06:52.360 --> 0:06:55.039 of the victim's belongings and the sale of their stuff 0:06:55.080 --> 0:07:00.560 at pawnshops. The trial of Aileen Ornos began on January five, thirteenth, 0:07:00.640 --> 0:07:04.760 nineteen ninety two, in Vlusha County, Florida. She was charged 0:07:04.800 --> 0:07:07.559 with the first degree murder of Richard Mallory, a fifty 0:07:07.600 --> 0:07:11.440 one year old electronics store owner. Although Aileen would eventually 0:07:11.520 --> 0:07:14.280 confess to killing the other six men, this was the 0:07:14.280 --> 0:07:17.520 only case that actually went to trial. She pleaded guilty 0:07:17.640 --> 0:07:21.480 or no contest. In the other cases, The prosecution painted 0:07:21.520 --> 0:07:24.360 the picture of a cold blooded killer who murdered her 0:07:24.440 --> 0:07:28.080 victims during robberies. They were able to introduce evidence from 0:07:28.080 --> 0:07:31.840 her other crimes under Florida's William's Rule, which allowed the 0:07:31.880 --> 0:07:36.000 prosecution to establish a pattern, and that crumbled her claim 0:07:36.040 --> 0:07:40.080 of self defense. For their part, Aileen's defense team argued 0:07:40.120 --> 0:07:45.640 that she suffered from borderline personality disorder and antisocial personality disorder, 0:07:45.840 --> 0:07:49.160 which impaired her judgment. They claimed she killed Mallory in 0:07:49.240 --> 0:07:52.960 self defense after he violently raped her, but the judge 0:07:53.000 --> 0:07:57.680 denied the defense's request to introduce Mallory's prior conviction for 0:07:57.720 --> 0:08:02.480 attempted rape as evidence. On January twenty seventh, nineteen ninety two, 0:08:02.600 --> 0:08:06.480 the jury found Aileen guilty of first degree murder. Four 0:08:06.560 --> 0:08:09.800 days later, she was sentenced to death. Since the murder 0:08:09.840 --> 0:08:12.160 was committed during a robbery and it was what they 0:08:12.240 --> 0:08:17.160 called especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel, Aileen waived her right 0:08:17.280 --> 0:08:21.360 to provide more evidence during sentencing. In the months following 0:08:21.400 --> 0:08:24.360 her conviction, she pleaded no contest to three of the 0:08:24.400 --> 0:08:27.360 other murders, saying she wanted to get right with God. 0:08:28.000 --> 0:08:30.920 She later pleaded guilty to two more murders and got 0:08:30.960 --> 0:08:34.600 two more death sentences. In the seventh case, no charges 0:08:34.640 --> 0:08:38.559 were filed because the body was never found. Aileen Warnos 0:08:38.600 --> 0:08:42.320 was executed by lethal injection on October ninth, two thousand 0:08:42.320 --> 0:08:45.319 and two, at the age of forty six. Her last 0:08:45.320 --> 0:08:48.280 words were a little bit puzzling. I'm sailing with the 0:08:48.400 --> 0:08:51.720 rock and I'll be back like Independence Day with Jesus 0:08:51.880 --> 0:08:56.040 June sixth, like the movie Big Mothership and all I'll 0:08:56.080 --> 0:09:00.320 be back. Her trial and convictions sparked debates of the 0:09:00.360 --> 0:09:03.480 treatment of women in the criminal justice system and the 0:09:03.520 --> 0:09:07.440 impact of childhood trauma. The life and crimes of Alien 0:09:07.480 --> 0:09:10.480 Warnos were later depicted in the two thousand and three 0:09:10.600 --> 0:09:16.240 film Monster. Charlie's theren won an Academy Award for Best Actress. 0:09:20.480 --> 0:09:23.520 Hope you're enjoying the Backstory with Patty Steele. Please leave 0:09:23.520 --> 0:09:27.320 a review and follow or subscribe for free to get 0:09:27.320 --> 0:09:31.320 new episodes delivered automatically. Also feel free to DM me 0:09:31.400 --> 0:09:33.199 if you have a story you'd like me to cover. 0:09:33.520 --> 0:09:37.240 On Facebook, It's Patty Steele and on Instagram Real Patty 0:09:37.280 --> 0:09:44.680 Steele I'm Patty steel The Backstory is a production of iHeartMedia, 0:09:44.760 --> 0:09:48.760 Premier Networks, the Elvis Durand Group, and Steel Trap Productions. 0:09:49.120 --> 0:09:52.680 Our producer is Doug Fraser. Our writer Jake Kushner. We 0:09:52.760 --> 0:09:56.200 have new episodes every Tuesday and Friday. Feel free to 0:09:56.240 --> 0:09:59.200 reach out to me with comments and even story suggestions 0:09:59.280 --> 0:10:02.640 on Instagram at Real Patty Steele and on Facebook at 0:10:02.720 --> 0:10:06.320 Patty Steele. Thanks for listening to the Backstory with Patty Steele, 0:10:06.679 --> 0:10:09.800 the pieces of history you didn't know you needed to know.