TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — On Nov. 30, 1989, a Clearwater man became the first victim of a serial killer. Aileen Wuornos, originally from Michigan, had been working as a prostitute in Florida after multiple run-ins with the law. Over the next year, Wuornos would kill six more times before being arrested in Volusia County for an outstanding warrant.
Two of her victims were found in Tampa Bay counties, Citrus and Pasco, according to records from the Florida Supreme Court, preserved online by Justia U.S. Law. While not America’s first female serial killer, Wuornos was the first woman to be profiled by the FBI as a serial killer.
Richard Mallory owned an electronics store in Palm Harbor and lived in Clearwater. Wuornos shot Mallory and dumped his car with his wallet, condoms, and an empty bottle of vodka in Ormond Beach on Dec. 1, 1989. His body was found in a junkyard in Daytona Beach two weeks later.
She later confessed to killing six other men while traveling the Florida interstate and working as a prostitute.
Wuornos admitted to killing seven people:
- Richard Charles Mallory
- David Andrew Spears
- Charles Edmund Carskaddon
- Peter Abraham Siems
- Troy Eugene Burress
- Charles Richard “Dick” Humphreys
- Walter Jeno Antonio
She was only found guilty of killing six, the body of a seventh victim, Peter Siems, was never found.
Wuornos was eventually put on death row. She was executed on Oct. 9, 2002 by lethal injection, according to the Florida Department of Corrections. She’s one of two women who have been executed in the state of Florida. At this time, there are three women on death row in Florida.
