Netflix’s new true-crime documentary Aileen: Queen of the Serial Killers revisits the infamous case of Aileen “Lee” Wuornos with intimate access and haunting archival footage, revealing the personal reason behind her confession and the relationship that shaped it. While Wuornos’ story inspired the 2003 film Monster, the documentary drills into the real-life moments that complicated her public image, including a taped phone call that changed everything.
The Phone Call That Led To A Confession
One of the documentary’s most striking sequences centers on a recorded conversation between Wuornos and her then-girlfriend, Tyria Moore, captured while Wuornos was in jail. Moore tells her, "Lee, [the police] are coming after me," setting off an emotional response that would alter the course of the case.
"I’m not gonna let you go to jail. Ty, I love you. If I have to confess everything just to keep you from getting in trouble, I will," Wuornos replies, her voice breaking. The film positions this moment as a crucial turning point, illuminating how love and loyalty factored into a case that had, until then, been defined by headlines and fear.
Wuornos went on to confess, and the legal fallout was swift and severe. In 1992, she was convicted of six murders tied to a spree that spanned central Florida between 1989 and 1990. The documentary contextualizes the confession within her relationship with Moore, offering a more complex view of Wuornos’ motivations than the decades of media coverage typically allowed.
Self-Defense Claims, Trial, And Execution
Throughout her prosecution, Wuornos repeatedly insisted that the men she killed had either raped her or attempted to rape her, framing each homicide as an act of self-defense. As reported by Deadline, those claims did not sway the court. Following her trials, Wuornos was sentenced to death and ultimately executed by the state of Florida in 2002.
What Aileen: Queen of the Serial Killers seeks to add is nuance — not absolution — through rarely seen interview material and newly contextualized recordings. The film includes footage of Wuornos from Florida’s death row, where she confronts her actions and public image with a mix of candor and contradiction. She asserts in one segment that the "real Aileen Wuornos isn’t a serial killer," then adds, "I was so lost I turned into one," a statement that underscores the documentary’s exploration of identity, trauma, and accountability.
A Portrait Beyond The Headlines
Director Emily Turner told People that interviewing Wuornos yielded a complicated portrait. "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 explained. That tension — between the notorious label and the person living with what she did — is the film’s central focus.
The documentary also traces Wuornos’ life before the murders, depicting a childhood and adolescence marked by abandonment and violence. After being left by her parents at age 4, Wuornos was adopted by her grandparents in Michigan. She became pregnant at 13 and gave up the baby for adoption. She alleged physical abuse by her grandfather and said she was sexually assaulted by teenage acquaintances. The film follows her as she ran away at 16, drifted through survival sex work, and endured persistent instability.
"I’m hitchhiking, and I’m hooking," she says in one archived interview. "I slept under viaducts, in abandoned homes, in cow pastures. I must have been raped, I’d say, about 30 times, maybe more." These accounts don’t rewrite the crimes, but they do reframe the conditions that preceded them, offering context to the self-defense narrative she maintained.
The Relationship At The Heart Of The Case
Beyond the courtroom and the headlines, Aileen: Queen of the Serial Killers spends considerable time on Wuornos’ four-year relationship with Moore. The pair met in 1986 at a bar in Daytona Beach, Florida, and their bond became foundational to Wuornos’ daily life and, eventually, to her case.
"I loved her so bad," Wuornos says of Moore. She adds that Moore was the "only reason I carried that darn gun. I wanted to make sure that I got home alive—so I’d be another day breathing with her." Those statements, set against the taped phone call and subsequent confession, deepen the film’s examination of how intimacy, fear, and survival intersected for Wuornos.
What Viewers Can Expect On Netflix
Aileen: Queen of the Serial Killers aims to deliver a more comprehensive account through interviews, archival reporting, and death row footage, spotlighting perspectives that have long been overshadowed by sensationalism. It neither exonerates nor sensationalizes; instead, it builds a clearer narrative around why Wuornos said what she said — and why she finally confessed.
For viewers familiar with Monster or with the broad strokes of Wuornos’ case, the Netflix documentary provides new vantage points and direct testimony that challenge easy conclusions. By foregrounding the taped confession call, the self-defense claims, and the director’s probing conversations, the film presents a measured, sometimes disquieting portrait of one of America’s most notorious figures.
Aileen: Queen of the Serial Killers premieres on Netflix on Thursday, October 30.
