Netflix revisits Aileen Wuornos story in chilling true-crime documentary Queen of Serial Killers

Netflix’s new true-crime documentary explores Aileen Wuornos’s disturbing life, crimes, and confessions

Netflix is adding a chilling new entry to its true-crime lineup this Halloween with Aileen: Queen of the Serial Killers, a documentary revisiting the story of Aileen Wuornos — one of America’s most infamous female serial killers. The production, directed by Emily Turner and produced by BBC Studios in collaboration with NBC News Studios, aims to re-examine Wuornos’s life and crimes through her own words and previously unheard recordings.

Wuornos, who was executed in 2002, gained notoriety for murdering seven men across Florida between 1989 and 1990. According to Capital Punishment in Context, the victims — mostly middle-aged motorists — were robbed and had their vehicles stolen, with items later found in pawnshops. Wuornos claimed she acted in self-defense during her encounters, though she was ultimately convicted of six murders and sentenced to death in 1992.

Born in Michigan in 1956, Wuornos’s early years were marked by trauma and neglect. Reports indicate she endured severe abuse at the hands of her grandparents after being abandoned by her mother at age four. By 15, she was homeless and surviving through prostitution — a life that would later intersect fatally with her victims.

Her first known victim, Richard Mallory, was a 51-year-old electronics store owner and convicted rapist, whom she shot in December 1989. Over the next year, Wuornos killed six more men, including construction worker David Spears and former police chief Dick Humphreys. The discovery of her fingerprints on a victim’s car ultimately led to her arrest in January 1991.

Investigators later enlisted her girlfriend, Tyria Moore, to help obtain a confession — a recorded conversation in which Wuornos admitted to the killings to protect Moore from legal consequences.

Director Emily Turner described the upcoming documentary as a “complex exploration” of Wuornos’s psyche rather than a sensationalized retelling. “Aileen said, ‘I’m going to talk to you about the truth of my crimes,’ and from watching this interview, a very different version of her comes through — contradictory, very human, at times quite disturbing,” Turner shared.

Aileen: Queen of the Serial Killers premieres globally on Netflix on October 30, 2025, offering a raw look at the troubled life and chilling crimes of the woman once labeled the “Damsel of Death.”