Women Serial Killers of the 20th Century (20 page)

Peter Siems

On August 4
th
, the body of sausage salesman, Troy Burress, age 50, was found in a wooded area near State Road 19 in Marion County, Florida. He had been shot twice with a .22 pistol.

Troy Burress

On September 12
th
, the body of Dick Humphreys, an investigator specializing in injured and abused children, was discovered in Marion County. He had been shot seven times with a.22 pistol.

Dick Humphreys

On November 19
th
, the almost naked body of Walter Jeno Antonio, a trucker and Police Reservist age sixty-two, was found in Dixie County, Florida on a remote road. He had been shot four times with a .22 gun.

Walter Jeno Antonio

It did not take too long for the police in the various Florida Counties to realize that they were dealing with a multiple killer. As more and more leads and forensic tests results came in, they realized they were searching for a female killer maybe even two. The names that constantly kept recurring were Tyria Moore, Aileen Wuornos, and her various aliases.

In November
of 1990, the police asked the media for help. The police drew up composite sketches of two women they were seeking in relation to a series of murders. Reuters published the story about the men’s slayings on Florida Highways with the police sketches. Newspapers throughout Florida published the report.

Newspaper headlines screamed
:

ANGELS OF DEATH

“Eight Men Dead And Police Ask Why?”

Tyria, on seeing the reports fled
, to her sister’s house in Pittston, Pennsylvania telling Aileen that she was just going to visit for Thanksgiving. She was terrified she would be arrested with Aileen. Tyria failed to return.

Aileen wrote to Tyria, "You’re my left and right arm, my breath, I'd die for you."

Aileen had never murdered before she met Tyria and never committed any more murders after Tyria left.

For a short time after Tyria left, she had a brief affair with a man
named Dick Mills, who later sold his story to the now disgraced British tabloid “The news of the World.” The headline read:

MY SEX ROMPS WITH KINKY MAN KILLER

He later said the story was widely inaccurate but admitted that he did have a brief affair with Aileen, as they were two lost souls. During their time together, he saw no indications that she was a “man-hater,” as the press portrayed her.

More leads were fed to the police who urgently began hunting Aileen and Tyria on January 5th, 1991. Their rootless life style did not help in the search but eventually two undercover drug detectives known as "Drums" and "Bucket" discovered Aileen on January 8th at a Port Orange Pub. They held off arresting her to see if she would take them to Tyria. They followed her to another bar, the Last Resort, a biker bar in Harbor Oaks, Volusia County. In this bar, she passed out on an old car seat. It was
to be her last night of freedom.

The Last Resort Bar

Serial Killer?

The following day, January 9th, 1991, the police
made the decision to detain Aileen on an outstanding warrant for Lori Grody, one of Aileen’s aliases.’ They arrested her on the steps outside the Last Resort. They made no allusion to her of the murders, as at that time they had no Tyria Moore or murder weapon.

The police then located Tyria Moore at her sister’s home in Pennsylvania. Two Florida detectives
, Bruce Munster of Marion County and Jerry Thompson of Citrus County, flew to Pennsylvania to confront her. Tyria, when confronted by the detectives, was clearly frightened as she was read her rights.

Tyria denied vehemently that she had anything to do with the murders. In her statement to the police, she claimed that Aileen had admitted to the murder of Richard Mallory on the day it had happened. She claimed she was shocked and begged Aileen not to tell her anything else; she did not want to know. Tyria claimed in her statement that she suspected that Aileen had killed more than one man because she returned home with cars and various other items that did not belong to her. She says she begged Aileen not to tell her anything as she did not want to be an accomplice to her crimes. She claimed to be scared of Aileen.

The detectives explained to Tyria that as she had knowingly used stolen cars and money and knew about one or more murder victims, they could arrest her as Aileen’s co-conspirator and accessory. They instead offered Tyria a deal: if she could elicit a confession out of Aileen and become a prosecution witness, they would give her prosecutorial immunity.

Tyria agreed to the detectives’ offer, and the following day returned to Florida with them. The police department housed her in a Daytona motel and had her make contact, under their supervision
, with Aileen in jail.

Tyria first made contact with Aileen on the taped jail phone on January 14th, 1991. She told Aileen that she was scared because the police were questioning her family about the two of them
, and she was petrified the Florida highway murders would be blamed on her. Aileen, still unaware that the police suspected her of the murders, tried to reassure Tyria that there was nothing to worry about.

“I’m only here for that concealed weapons charge in
‘86 and a traffic ticket,” she assured Tyria.

The taped phone calls from Tyria to Aileen in jail continued, with Tyria breaking down and begging Aileen to clear her name. Aileen continued to try and reassure Tyria that she had nothing to worry about. Aileen said of the police sketches of them that had appeared in the newspapers,

“I tell you what, man, I wasn’t one of those little suspects. I think somebody at work -- where you worked at -- said something that it looked like us. And it isn’t us, see? It’s a case of mistaken identity.”

Tyria continued to call and beg Aileen to clear her name. Throughout the phone calls during those three days, Aileen constantly told Tyria how much she loved and missed her. Tyria never once said she loved Aileen.

Finally, on January 16
th
, 1991, Aileen, who listed her occupation as a "professional call girl,” made the decision to protect her lover, no matter what the cost to herself. A three hour videotaped confession, in which Aileen was dressed in an orange prison jumpsuit, was made to the police. In the video tape, Aileen smoking heavily, sometimes laughing, sometimes crying, confessed that she had shot the men in self defense as the men had attempted to rape or violently abuse her and that Tyria was entirely blameless. Throughout the confession, her public defender, Michael O’Neil, repeatedly reminded Aileen of her rights. He tried to convince her not to make any statements, not to give any confession about anything, and that it was her right to remain silent. He strongly advised her to exercise that right. However, no matter what he said, she chose to ignore all of his advice.

Aileen when first charged.

In her confession she said, “I just wish I never would’ve done this shit. I wish I never woulda got that gun. I wish to god I never was a hooker. And I wish I never woulda done what I did. I still have to say to myself, I still say that it was in self-defense. Because most of ‘em either were gonna start to beat me up or were gonna screw me in the ass,--and they’d get rough with me, so I’d fight ‘em. And then I’d –as I’d get away from ‘em, I’d run to the front of the car or jump over the seat or whatever, grab my gun and just start shootin’.”

According to O’Neil, her total focus was on protecting the love of her life Tyria, and she showed no concern for herself and her own fate.

Shortly after her confession, the police found a lockup Aileen had rented under one of her aliases, Cammie Marsh Greene. It contained the possessions of the dead men.

When the police released the confession to the media, Aileen became a national celebrity, and her face became plastered all over the local and national media. A plethora of book and movie deals were offered to detectives, lawyers, relatives, Tyria
, and Aileen herself. A filmmaker, Jackie Giroux, secured the film rights to Aileen’s story. Aileen and her then attorney, Russell Armstrong, signed the contract.

Aileen initially thought that she might make millions of dollars from her story until she
learned that the state of Florida had a law prohibiting criminals from profiting from their crimes.