Grace Baldridge and actress, Cecilia Betsill, talk highway hooker-turned-serial killer, Aileen Wuornos. The duo discuss Aileen’s difficult childhood and how that may have influenced her murder spree.
I LOVE LOVE LOVE this show!!! I think this was fair in the episode about Charles Manson, they delved into his childhood and his similar abandonment issues. I feel bad for her, I feel like if she had been killed as a prostitute it would just be another Wednesday. She was a throw away of society, people are kind of shocked by here because she is supposed to be a victim, not a perpetrator. It’s just kind of expected that prostitutes aren’t people, and you can treat them any which way, same with a lot of portions of society. This was frightening because it didn’t fit the serial killer M.O of a white male killing women or children or other disenfranchised groups that pill is familiar and a lot easier for society to swallow. Regardless what she did was totally wrong, but it doesn’t make the story any less tragic.
Ted Bundy was also raised with his mother as his sister and his grandparents as his parents.
It’s interesting how she was described as a “man-hater.” Male serial killers tend to kill women and I’ve never heard one of them described as a “woman-hater” even though it’s pretty obvious that they are.
Also, Christina Ricci was miscast. I like her but they should have gotten someone to play a dyke. They weren’t afraid to make Charlize ugly but apparently Aileen plus a dyke is a bridge too far.
I’ve never been much interested in Aileen from a serial killer perspective. I never really got the impression that she was remotely competent and what we see in her case isn’t so much a serial killer as a mentally ill person who has a break with humanity. She’s had years of anger issues compounded with mental and learning problems, abuse, neglect, then add self-medicating with an apparently self-absorbed enabler and the desperation of hard-living poverty, there’s no way it wasn’t a recipe for disaster.
I can empathize with that, I know very well what it’s like to feel the world through mental illness and the deck stacking against you. I’ve felt things escalate in scary ways with my own reactions and interpretations of situations, so I can even see how she’d end up committing the first murder in a reactionary capacity {which I suspect had little to do with the guy and more to do with her own temper and deteriorating mental state}. While you want to give the benefit of the doubt to her that it could have been self-defense the first time due to Mallory’s {32 years prior} rape conviction, my problem is it wasn’t exactly her first rodeo with armed robbery, assault or reckless use of a handgun.
Like you said, she is often painted very heavily with the “broken bird” brush. When you look at it from a serial killer perspective, there’s very little “meat” there for the media. The killings weren’t very gruesome, they didn’t have a trademark flair outside of being committed by a female prostitute. There was no big mystery or a town held in terror over a prowler in the night. It was impersonal, dispassionate, a means to an end. All the stuff that gets you back after the commercial happened in her youth and after her capture, so that’s where the focus is. She was never out for the kill, she was looking for something else. Money, respect, stress relief by picking fights, whatever it was, murder seemed predominately a side effect, IMO.
I wonder a lot about nature versus nurture. I have adhd and my son shows some of the same qualities, but does he have adhd too or is he learning it from copying my behavior? It’s probably a little of both, but the debate is pretty fascinating.
maybe it’s in the genetic profile. how else can you explain Dahmer or Bundy, e.g., or Gacy or Rader (BTK) or Bianchi/Buono (Hillside Strangler) — i could go on and on with the names of men who fit the profile? it’s a WHY question, and it perhaps has a “Y” gene involved. like, WHERE ARE THE OTHER FEMALE SERIAL KILLERS? even among suicide bombers, females are in the minority.
i like the WHY stories better than the WHO stories — please consider doing Andrea Yates and Clara Harris! let me know if you place any blame on the shoulders of their husbands, as i do.
I was forced into a similarly strange family dynamic ever since age 7. My mother never wanted me & tried to have an abortion during pregnancy. My Dad left when I was 7 then remarried quickly as did my mother, who had primary custody. I was a daddys girl forced to live with an abusive mother & was brainwashed daily by her constantly telling me how horrible my dad was. When I went thru deep depression & suicide attempt, I was kicked out at 1am, had to live at my dads house with his wife & her 4 kids. Not only did they eat almost nothing, which f-ed up my blood sugar so I had hypoglycemia for a while, but I was the only fat one there with super skinny ppl. The other kids were treated vastly better, even with my dad bringing a majority of the income, I watched the other kids get everything they wanted, including helping 2 of the girls get vehicles. I am now 32, have been living alone for 10 yrs, yet have never once had assistence in getting a vitally needed vehicle of my own. When I lived there, every kid had their own bedroom, while my dad converted a tiny 4′ x 6′ bathroom into my bedroom.
One year for Christmas I had been asking for the new Playstation 2 for a long time, even started trying to save for one. On Christmas morning, I was dismayed to watch my twin step sisters open the same console I had wanted, along with 2 games each & a $100 gift card they got every year from their grandparents. I opened a set of 4 YA fantasy novels. That was heartbreaking, and this preferential treatment to the other kids continues to this day.
My point being, having a selfish, crappy family & abusive, controlling, bipolar mother who literally couldn’t care less, did not make me into a killer…
If I believed in prayer, I’d pray for your life to be happy from now on.
Best I can do is put that strong, warm wish our into the
universe.
Since you’re part of TYT, I know you must be a caring person who
wants good for all.
Stay strong~!
Bernice, you’ve had it hard. Aileen also had it hard. and you’re right — you didn’t become a murderess, while she did. it would appear to be a nature and not a nurture thing, don’t you think?
Comments
Heaven’s Gate mass suicide. I would love to see one on that. I can’t afford the research team you guys have
please can i haz download link? australian internet is shiiiiiite so i gotta plan my downloads… streaming is not always easy!
cheers !
I LOVE LOVE LOVE this show!!! I think this was fair in the episode about Charles Manson, they delved into his childhood and his similar abandonment issues. I feel bad for her, I feel like if she had been killed as a prostitute it would just be another Wednesday. She was a throw away of society, people are kind of shocked by here because she is supposed to be a victim, not a perpetrator. It’s just kind of expected that prostitutes aren’t people, and you can treat them any which way, same with a lot of portions of society. This was frightening because it didn’t fit the serial killer M.O of a white male killing women or children or other disenfranchised groups that pill is familiar and a lot easier for society to swallow. Regardless what she did was totally wrong, but it doesn’t make the story any less tragic.
Ted Bundy was also raised with his mother as his sister and his grandparents as his parents.
It’s interesting how she was described as a “man-hater.” Male serial killers tend to kill women and I’ve never heard one of them described as a “woman-hater” even though it’s pretty obvious that they are.
Also, Christina Ricci was miscast. I like her but they should have gotten someone to play a dyke. They weren’t afraid to make Charlize ugly but apparently Aileen plus a dyke is a bridge too far.
What? Just found this. A whole show with Grace! I could listen to her talk about anything.
I’ve never been much interested in Aileen from a serial killer perspective. I never really got the impression that she was remotely competent and what we see in her case isn’t so much a serial killer as a mentally ill person who has a break with humanity. She’s had years of anger issues compounded with mental and learning problems, abuse, neglect, then add self-medicating with an apparently self-absorbed enabler and the desperation of hard-living poverty, there’s no way it wasn’t a recipe for disaster.
I can empathize with that, I know very well what it’s like to feel the world through mental illness and the deck stacking against you. I’ve felt things escalate in scary ways with my own reactions and interpretations of situations, so I can even see how she’d end up committing the first murder in a reactionary capacity {which I suspect had little to do with the guy and more to do with her own temper and deteriorating mental state}. While you want to give the benefit of the doubt to her that it could have been self-defense the first time due to Mallory’s {32 years prior} rape conviction, my problem is it wasn’t exactly her first rodeo with armed robbery, assault or reckless use of a handgun.
Like you said, she is often painted very heavily with the “broken bird” brush. When you look at it from a serial killer perspective, there’s very little “meat” there for the media. The killings weren’t very gruesome, they didn’t have a trademark flair outside of being committed by a female prostitute. There was no big mystery or a town held in terror over a prowler in the night. It was impersonal, dispassionate, a means to an end. All the stuff that gets you back after the commercial happened in her youth and after her capture, so that’s where the focus is. She was never out for the kill, she was looking for something else. Money, respect, stress relief by picking fights, whatever it was, murder seemed predominately a side effect, IMO.
I wonder a lot about nature versus nurture. I have adhd and my son shows some of the same qualities, but does he have adhd too or is he learning it from copying my behavior? It’s probably a little of both, but the debate is pretty fascinating.
Why can’t I download the video of this show? Some of us don’t have great connections and it is frustrating to sit and wait for it to buffer.
Gigi, please fix the download audio. Error message comes up. Thanks. Keep rockin.
maybe it’s in the genetic profile. how else can you explain Dahmer or Bundy, e.g., or Gacy or Rader (BTK) or Bianchi/Buono (Hillside Strangler) — i could go on and on with the names of men who fit the profile? it’s a WHY question, and it perhaps has a “Y” gene involved. like, WHERE ARE THE OTHER FEMALE SERIAL KILLERS? even among suicide bombers, females are in the minority.
i like the WHY stories better than the WHO stories — please consider doing Andrea Yates and Clara Harris! let me know if you place any blame on the shoulders of their husbands, as i do.
This show is awesome. I don’t think anyone in the main show has mentioned it but I look forward to it every week.
There’s no, download video
I was forced into a similarly strange family dynamic ever since age 7. My mother never wanted me & tried to have an abortion during pregnancy. My Dad left when I was 7 then remarried quickly as did my mother, who had primary custody. I was a daddys girl forced to live with an abusive mother & was brainwashed daily by her constantly telling me how horrible my dad was. When I went thru deep depression & suicide attempt, I was kicked out at 1am, had to live at my dads house with his wife & her 4 kids. Not only did they eat almost nothing, which f-ed up my blood sugar so I had hypoglycemia for a while, but I was the only fat one there with super skinny ppl. The other kids were treated vastly better, even with my dad bringing a majority of the income, I watched the other kids get everything they wanted, including helping 2 of the girls get vehicles. I am now 32, have been living alone for 10 yrs, yet have never once had assistence in getting a vitally needed vehicle of my own. When I lived there, every kid had their own bedroom, while my dad converted a tiny 4′ x 6′ bathroom into my bedroom.
One year for Christmas I had been asking for the new Playstation 2 for a long time, even started trying to save for one. On Christmas morning, I was dismayed to watch my twin step sisters open the same console I had wanted, along with 2 games each & a $100 gift card they got every year from their grandparents. I opened a set of 4 YA fantasy novels. That was heartbreaking, and this preferential treatment to the other kids continues to this day.
My point being, having a selfish, crappy family & abusive, controlling, bipolar mother who literally couldn’t care less, did not make me into a killer…
Bernice~
If I believed in prayer, I’d pray for your life to be happy from now on.
Best I can do is put that strong, warm wish our into the
universe.
Since you’re part of TYT, I know you must be a caring person who
wants good for all.
Stay strong~!
~UPAYA~
Bernice, you’ve had it hard. Aileen also had it hard. and you’re right — you didn’t become a murderess, while she did. it would appear to be a nature and not a nurture thing, don’t you think?
error message when I click on download low rez video