Particle.news
Download on the App Store

Netflix’s 'Aileen: Queen of the Serial Killers' Revisits Wuornos With Rare Interviews

Reviewers cite valuable archival access alongside frustration at its light treatment of legal and trauma issues.

Overview

  • The feature-length documentary, released October 30 on Netflix, assembles death-row interviews, Dateline outtakes and courtroom footage to re-examine the case.
  • Audio from a 1997 interview features Wuornos saying she carried a gun for protection so she could make it home to her girlfriend, adding context to her shifting accounts.
  • The film’s portrayal of Wuornos’s relationship with Tyria Moore counters Monster by depicting Moore as financially independent and their bond as established.
  • Critics describe the collage-style structure as engaging but sometimes confusing, noting the film gestures at issues like self-defense, false confession and the death penalty without fully unpacking them.
  • The documentary revisits core facts — seven killings in Florida in 1989–1990, an arrest at The Last Resort Bar in 1991, multiple death sentences and a 2002 lethal injection — without reporting new legal developments.