Serial Killers: The Lurid Tale Of Aileen Wuornos

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Recommended: The Case of Aileen Wuornos

(Attention Getter) We are fascinated by them, hypnotized by their true-crime exploits in books, and motion pictures. We bestow unabashed affection upon these multiple murdering sociopaths known as serial killers. As gendered pronouns indicate, serial killing is a man’s game.
II. (Reveal Topic) Thus in Florida 1991, news broke that a woman named Aileen Lee Wuornos had achieved the homicidal equivalent of serial killing.
III. (Credibility Statement) After researching and reading multiple reliable books and articles, I bring to you the life of Aileen Wuornos.
IV.(Relevancy Statement) It would be great to live in a world where you can enjoy being a kid but unfortunately, the world is not like that. So I would like to bring awareness of an unfortunate story of a girl from our very own Troy, Michigan.
V. (Preview) The major stages of Aileen Wuornos’ life comprise of her childhood, killing spree, and the varying descriptions of media during conviction.

(TRANSITION: The lurid tale of Aileen Wuornos starts out with a background, pitiful, and all too familiar.

BODY
I. (MAIN POINT 1) Aileen Wuornos’ childhood is a grim tale of abuse, neglect, and sexual promiscuity.
A. (SUBPOINT) Born in a seedy Detroit suburb, her mother abandoned her and her brother at the age of four; her father, a convicted child molester, killed himself in prison. The children were sent to live with her grandparents, who continued a daily round of abuse, physical and sexual.
1. (SUB-SUBPOINT) Nick Broomfield from his documentary The Selling of a Serial Killer describes Aileen trading oral sex for cigarettes since the age of nine in the bleak environs of Troy, Michigan (Broomfield).

2. (SSP) Mean streets furnished all the education Wuornos ever had ...

... middle of paper ...

...n October 9, 2002 by lethal injection.

TRANSITION: The media’s role in Aileen Wuornos’ case might have been too intruding but it does provide us a little insight on America’s first woman serial killer.
CONCLUSION
I. (Summary Statement) The story of Aileen Wuornos still continues to be a lurid tale through her horrific childhood, homicidal binge, and the media’s role in her case.

II. (Memorable Closing Statement) Aileen Wuornos was no Jack the Ripper or Ted Bundy but she certainly wasn’t either an innocent victim. Serial killers often kill prostitutes. Who misses them? But when one anonymous prostitute turns the tables and kills the man, she subverts more than gender expectations. So what is she? Is she the monster in her own life, frustrated by her failings, and driven to kill? Or is she as every dramatic interpretation sees, in the end, the real victim?

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