Aileen Wuornos - A Dialogue of Theodicy

On Whose Side Was God?

Hope in a prison of Despair by Evelyn de Morgan (18870 (Public Domain)

The Netflix documentary, Aileen Wuornos, Queen of Serial Killers opens the dialogue of theodicy. A theodicy postulates it is reasonable to believe in God despite evidence of evil in the world, and it offers a framework that can account for why God allows evil to exist. Was Aileen Wuornos evil when she killed seven men, or did she act in self-defence since she claimed she was raped? The arguments are personified by two opposing born-again-Christians: 46-year-old Arlene Pralle, who was called by Jesus to adopt 35-year-old Aileen, and John Tanner, the prosecutor who was called by God for a greater purpose, who believed she was an evil prostitute who deserved the death penalty.

Aileen Wuornos Florida Department of Correction (Public Domain)

Aileen Wuornos was a female serial killer who confessed to murdering seven men; Richard Mallory, David Spears, Charles Carskaddon, Troy Burress, Charles Richard ‘Dick’ Humphreys, Peter Siems and Walter Geno Antonio between 1989 and 1990. She was put on trial for the murder of Richard Mallory in 1992. During that trial, prosecutors had used a controversial legal tactic, introducing evidence related to other alleged crimes to show a pattern of illegal activity. She pleaded no contest and confessed to killing the other men as well at later dates, as she wanted to “”. In the end she was found guilty of six murders and sentenced to death for all.

No-one doubted that Aileen was a prostitute. Her mother Diane Wuornos was a 14-year-old child when she married Aileen’s father, 18-year-old Leo Pittman, who was convicted for raping a seven-year-old girl. Aileen and her siblings were raised by her alcoholic grandparents after being abandoned by their mother. She alleged she was raped and abused by her grandfather, had sexual relations with her brother and became sexually active at school at the age of 11. At 14 she fell pregnant after being raped by a friend of her grandfather and gave the baby up for adoption. Aileen ran away from home at age 15. She claimed she was gang raped twice in high school and raped more than 30 times as a roaming prostitute. She told filmmaker Jasmine Hirst it did not bother her: “I am not a wussy woman.” She attempted suicide six times between the ages of 14 and 22. She was often in trouble with the law. At the age of 30 she met 24 year-old Tyria Moore and fell in love. “It was love beyond imaginable. Earthly words cannot describe how I felt about Tyria.”

Did Aileen kill in self-defence, was she raped and how could two opposing born-again-Christians argue she was good or evil – on whose side was God?