No comments about Aileen Wuornos superstar.(Critical Essay)(Cover Story): An article from: Cineaste.

No comments about A ride on the ferris wheel.(Reel Life): An article from: Clinical Psychiatry News.

No comments about Life imitates art.(Editorials)(Movie incident echoes Eugene police scandal)(Editorial): An article from: The Register-Guard (Eugene, OR).

No comments about Dead Ends: The Pursuit, Conviction and Execution of Female Serial Killer Aileen Wuornos, the Damsel of Death (St. Martin's True Crime Library).

No comments about On a Killing Day: The Bizarre Story of Convicted Murderer Aileen "Lee" Wuornos.

1 comments about On a Killing Day the Bizarre story of Convicted Murderer Aileen Lee Wuornos.

1. I have just seen "Monster" several times and was so interested in finding out why this woman ended up so thoroughly messed up. For some reason Amazon's seach engine did not bring up any books on Aileen Wournos other than this one, so I bought it.
   
   Find another book. First of all the print is so tiny it's like reading fine print. The author, instead of writing the usual biograpy starting with the beginning of the person's life, or starting with the end and flashing back, is all over the map. It's like the manuscript fell on the floor, was picked up in a slap happy manner, then published.
   
   I don't think author Delores Kennedy could get an interview with Wournos and seems like the only information she got was from the same sources as everyone else: the newspapers and some court transcripts. However, I believe she got lots of interviews with Wournos's hangers-on, the people who she grew up with and some who were there just for the money and attention.Nothing new in the photo section. More pictures of hangers-on than Aileen.
   
   I'm trying to finish this book, but it puts me to sleep every night. Find another book if you're interested in this tragic woman. This for sure ain't it.

4 comments about Dead Ends: The Pursuit, Conviction and Execution of Female Serial Killer Aileen Wuornos, the Damsel of Death (St. Martin's True Crime Library).

1. Dead Ends..... is a true account of the consequences that come with the destruction of a young woman's youth. After being used up by men and treated like garbage (a beer bottle thrown out a car window) Aileen lost all trust for men. She didn't care what their nature was anymore because she would never trust another man, she hated all men at this desperate point in her life. And in her mind, all men she could trap in her web of hatered for men would pay dearly for the pain she had suffered for so many years by the hands of men. If someone would have loved her and shown her love, and caring nurturing , getting her psychiatric help, like so many of us need today, things may have been some what different in the out come of her future! I do believe that she did know what she was doing when she killed all of the men, but she was already to far gone with her sickiness. ( lack of having love as a child and good direction for life)She was paying every man back for what she was put through as a child and as a woman.... This book is a must read if you are a true crime reader!



2. It seems peculiar that Reynolds' 1992 account of the life and crimes of Aileen Wuornos has not been promoted in conjunction with the Oscar-winning film MONSTER, which was based on Wuornos's life. Perhaps the substantial liberties which the screenplay takes with the facts are the reason.

   MONSTER is a work of art, whereas DEAD ENDS is a fast-paced factual presentation of the crimes. Ty, Lee's sidekick, is little like the character portrayed by Christina Ricci. First, she's unequivocally unattractive physically. Second, in reality she was much older than Ricci's character and was far more responsible for her own actions. She was not merely a thwarted adolescent whose repressive family loathed her same-sex tendencies. Finally, she lived with Aileen Wuornos for several years before the murder spree began. The scriptwriter clearly wished her characters to have understandable motivations; in contrast, in DEAD ENDS, readers never get enough background information to fully make sense of Ty and Aileen's lengthy relationship--particularly why Ty stayed on with Aileen for so long.

   DEAD ENDS also is much less empathetic than MONSTER to Wuornos herself. Though it is clear that Wuornos grew up in a grotesquely dysfunctional family (her real father was a convicted pederast who probably hanged himself in prison; her adoptive father was her own grandfather, who committed suicide and very possibly murdered his wife, Wuornos's adopted mother; her real mother abandoned her and her brother while still a teenager; and on and on), DEAD ENDS lends little sympathy to this woman who murdered seven men in a sociopathic spree (which easily might have included far more victims, but for the machinations of Lady Luck).

   Aileen Wuornos was not the first but the thirty-fifth female serial killer documented in American history; however, her methodology--using violence in a world which tolerates only masculine force--is what seems to have made her so repugnant to Reynolds and others. It was an interesting tact to take on the part of the screenwriter of MONSTER: in the film, the audience cannot help feeling sorry for this wreck of a woman.

   On a planet where physical crimes by men against women astronomically exceed those by women against men, it is fascinating that the prosecutors of Aileen Wuornos, as well as Reynolds himself, find her so repulsive. Hollywood and the popular media project image after image of male violence inflicted upon females. How curious that in a global patriarchy, pathetic characters like Wuornos are so loathed (recall the furor caused by THELMA AND LOUISE?) while the groping Mr. Schwartzenegger is elected to the governership of California!




3. I am an avid fan of true crime books and this is by FAR the most one-sided book I've ever read. It wasn't about the crimes, it was about this author's personal feelings and dislike of Aileen Wuornos. He has a real problem with women, lesbians in particular. He made Ms. Wuornos out to be someone she wasn't. She had a hard life, yes and chose to committ crimes, but that wasn't what this book was about. Again, it wasn't worth the $. I actually threw my copy of this away.



4. I was going to buy this book, but when I looked at the inside and how it was written, I decided not to. My God, this writer can't spell - the grammar is horrible, and that was just on the first few pages. So I've decided not to buy it. Get Lethal Intent instead. Also about Aileen and very well written.

5 comments about Monster: My True Story.

1. I had a great time reading this book. Having seen the movie a few months back I decided to purchase 'Monster' to see what else went on with this story. What a tale! So much more to be known about Wournos and written by a man who has clearly had a lot of experience talking with this woman. Using his extensive interview experience with other serial killers he has created the definitive portrait Aileen Wournos. Those who enjoy reading about this kind of crime should check out 'Talking With Serial Killers' by the same author. Again, using masses of interview material Christopher Berry-Dee has produced an absolutely chilling document. And whats more, this guy can write!



2. It seems that the author (and I'm not talking about Aileen here, since she didn't write this book, no matter what Berry-Dee is trying to convince you) has taken lots of newspaper clippings and put this book together in a quick way to make money. Although it's not badly written there is something missing. There is hardly any references to her childhood and very much about her being interviewed. Lots of stuff I believe is taken from Nick Broomfield's Aileen documentaries. It's an ok read and I'm glad I got this one from the library and didn't buy it!



3. i purchased this book written by christopher berry dee,i was very very disappointed as it said on the cover aileen in her own words,there were the odd one or two quotes,as ive read sue russells book lethal intent,i could see alot of similarities in berry dee's book.as for the one of the main topics being corky reid,maybe he should have studied the case more,and not blamed aileen for his disapperance/murder,as he went into hiding to avoid large debts he had incurred.if you want a book given both sides of aileen i would not go for this book,i would purchase sue russells book



4. I actually met Corky Reid, who thought it strange, that Aileen Wuornos should take the rap for his death, when he was very much alive. Corky turned himself into the police and back to his family, very much alive and NOT THE EIGHTH VICTIM BY WUORNOS!
   How could THIS so called WRITER state he is writing a TRUE STORY, plus from the mouth of Aileen Wuornos (who obviously knew she did not kill Corky Reid!) and have such a BLUNDER as this?! The book should be taken off the shelf, or retitled, in my opinion, as it is not truthful! PLUS, I have read all the BOOKS written about Aileen Wuornos and the only one that makes any REAL STATEMENTS is LETHAL INTENT by Sue Russell, who actually met the people she writes about and QUOTES THEM!



5. I APPEAR IN THIS BOOK, BUT WHAT IS STATED ABOUT ME IS NOT TRUE; NOR DID THIS WRITER TRY TO VERIFY ANY TRUTH WITH ME.
   
   AT FIRST BLUSH, IT ALSO APPEARS THIS WRITER SIMPLY COPIED "QUOTES" FROM COURT DOCUMENTS, AND PARROTED "THOSE" AS "AILEEN WUORNOS' WORDS"; AS I SEE STATEMENTS (SUPPOSEDLY OUT OF MS. WURONOS' MOUTH) THAT WERE TAKEN (OUT OF MY MOUTH) FROM MY LEGAL DEPOSITIONS!
   
   TOO BAD THERE IS NO LEGAL RAMIFICATION FOR PLAGERISM FROM DEPOSITIONS, OR THIS WRITER WOULD BE OUT OF A JOB. AND, IN MY OPINION, DESERVINGLY SO, AS THE ONLY TRUTH IN THIS BOOK IS THE SPELLING OF THE AILEEN WUORNOS NAME.
   
   JACKELYN GIROUX

1 comments about The Female Homicide Offender: Serial Murder and the Case of Aileen Wuornos.

1. Great Transaction - no problems, book in great shape, very happy - THANKS

5 comments about Lethal Intent.

1. Sue Russell's "Lethal Intent" is difficult to rate in that it has both very good and very poor aspects. On the positive side:
   1. The picture section of this book is outstanding. They are almost all of the main subject, Aileen Wuornos, including many interesting pictures from her childhood, and there is an excellent picture of her lover, Tyria Moore. Also there are none of the ubiquitous and usually boring pictures of cops, judges, etc. that are routinely found in this kind of book. I wish there had been a better picture of Wuornos as an adult, however.
   2. Wuornos' story itself is fascinating, and despite the length of the book, Russell, for the most part, moves the story along well, though she occasionally bogs the story down with too much detail.
   3. Russell writes the story objectively, letting the facts speak for themselves, rather than injecting herself into the story.
   4. This is not a rush job. Clearly a lot of work went into the writing of this book.
   5. I should make special mention of chapter 56., which is a summary of Aileen Wuornos' psychological make-up drawn from the opinions of numerous mental health professionals. It is an unbiased, well written, and highly interesting section of the book, and completes one of the book's themes which is Wuornos' psychological make-up and the factors that contributed to it. This theme and its summary are among the book's strongest points.
   
   On the negative side:
   1. The book is too long and in spots can become tedious.. It is really not necessary for Russell to include every scrap of Wuornos-related information she has gleaned, no matter how inconsequential. The police investigation is, in my opinion, the weakest part of the book; and the author repeats information on a regualar basis in this section.
   2. The book contains a number of factual inaccuracies. I like to look at an atlas while I read this type of book. This helps me get a sense of the place(s) of the book and adds to the overall completeness and to my enjoyment. In "Lethal Intent" Russell mentions Boonesville, MO. There is no such city. She probably meant Boonville, MO. She also refers to Kingsley, GA and to Casanova, MI. As far as I can tell, neither of these towns exist. She may be mean either Kingston or Kingsland, GA, and possibly Casnovia, MI. Geography is an area which can be easily checked for accuracy and the failure to do so obviously calls into question the accuracy of the whole book.
   Also in the area of accuracy, for example, on page 148, Russell quotes a Daytona Beach convenience store manager as saying to Wuornos, who is standing outside in the rain, "Why don't you step inside to take shelter?"
   He may have told Wuornos she could come in out of the rain, but somehow I doubt that any Daytona convenience store employee ever said that exact phrase to Aileen Wuornos. This is but one example of this kind of quote.
   4. The writing itself is often bad to the point of embarrassing. A few out of many possible examples: Page 377 contains the statement: "Children who have been burned and battered and tortured but who somehow rise above their deadly beginnings and end up as law abiding bank tellers." Bank tellers???!!! I found this odd enough to be laughable. This example also illustrates another of Russell's writing flaws, the regular adjective phrase used as a complete sentence. The book also is overrun with misplaced modifiers and other syntactical errors. While these do not create a misunderstanding of the author's intent, they are annoying and show a lack of professional literacy.
   A few other examples of Russell's writing which reach the level of uninintended humor and, ultimatley, stupidity: On page 170, she refers to the incident when Richard Mallory is killed by Wuornos after he has picked her up hitchhiking as his "drive of death". On page 189, Russell has Wuornos firing "nine bullets into his shaking, quivering body." Was it truly shaking and quivering? This kind of irritating melodrama is a constant through this book.
   Finally, in a crowning example of absurdity, on page 217 Russell reports that when Troy Burress, a delivery driver, was shot, his shirt "poignantly bore his name. Troy." Later on page 229, she says that "Poignantly, his shirt still bore his name" when his body was found.
   I personally wouldn't have expected otherwise and although perhaps my sense of poignancy is underdeveloped, I found this sequence to be ridiculous to the point that I laughed out loud.
   
   "Lethal Intent" has many fine points and many flaws. I rate it a 3 for the reasons mentioned.



2. Sue Russell is the author of "Lethal Intent," an over 500 ++ biography about the late Eileen Wournos. As you know, I'm sure, Eileen Wournos is the supposed the first-known female serial killer. The basic facts about Eileen's life and crimes as well as the injustices of the way she was treated make her a fascinating book subject.
   
   If Sue Russell is anything at all, it is ambitious. Or maybe determined is a better way to describe this author. The book is 557 pages long and after I finished it I had no greater knowledge about Eileen's life and psych than before I read it.
   
   Why is that?
   
   Simple answer, the book is way too long and way too sloppily and shoddily written.
   
   Long answer, the author was totally biased, slanted, not to mention a very poor writer. I will describe further below...
   
   It was like she wrote this book with a hatchet dipped in venom. Each page was so miserably written because Ms. Russell was intent on defaming Eileen's character. It seemed like the author had a personal vendetta against Eileen. Because at least 30% of the book was written to describe Eileen as a wanton woman of ill refute who should have been stoned to death for dare speaking to the all-mighty man.
   
   When the author describes how Eileen started prostituting (at the age of 12) she made it sound like this was normal and rational. She didn't describe what went on in Eileen's family life (the severe sexual abuse, physical abuse and psychological abuse or her biological parents abandoning her) that lead up to these horrible events. Ms. Russell also made it sound like the males were the victims and Eileen was the one taking advantage of them. Anyone with connected brain-cells will agree that the 12 year-old prostitute is the victim; not the men that took advantage of her and raped her.
   
   The other 70% of "Lethal Intent" was about the families of the men that solicited Eileen. The book included their families' opinions. However, very little (or no) facts were included. These interview subjects were hardly unbiased and did not offer any new information to the book. If someone hurt my loved-one of course I would not have any kind words to say about him or her. In her writings, Ms. Russell showed sympathy towards the families of the johns, but what about the little girl that was raped repeatedly? Where is the sympathy and compassion for her?
   
   The author was more than glad to pass on her British accent through her writing. She used British phrases and dialect which is rather inappropriate for an American book that is mass-distributed by an American publisher. The editor should have picked this up and made the corrects. But I'm sure going this one extra step would have been one step too many for a book that was already so tersely written since the author was only interested in cashing in on Eileen's marketing value.
   
   And, the pictures in the book was below sub-par quality. I have seen most of them before, online and in other books. These were nothing new and certainly not the type of pictures that I would expect to find in an in-depth 500+++ page biography.
   
   I suggest Sue Russell takes up a new vocation.



3. Ms. Russel has written the definitive account of the life and crimes of Aileen Wuornos, of that there can be no doubt. This is a large book, over 500 pages long. It does a fine job of describing the dysfunction in her family of origin, the abuse she endured as a young child and woman living with her grandparents, the possible hereditary influences of her criminal natural father, and the steadfast denial of her own culpability, claiming until very close to the end of her life that she acted seven times in self-defense. All these details are presented comprehensively. Although I have no ability to check the facts independently, the book seems reasonably well researched.
   On the other hand, the book is unevenly written, and much of the text, especially in the first half of the book, is presented in less-than-stellar rhetorical form. In other words, it has the feel of a barroom conversation between two people of less than average intelligence. A kind of street feel to it would perhaps be my impression. The text is clearly written at a grade-school level, presumably to enhance its popularity to its intended target audience.
   I was distracted by Russel's occasional forays into psychological diagnoses of Aileen's mental state and motivations.. There were several incidences in which Russel attempted to 'analyze' Aileen, but, as she claims to be a journalist, not a psychologist, these passages constitute merely one person's non-professional opinion. I feel the book would have been better had they been edited out.
   I purchased this book after seeing a History Channel biography of Aileen. As a clergyman, the psychology of this woman's motivations intrigued me. I was seeking a more academic analysis of her life and times, from a clinical point of view, to better help me to understand such patterns if I should see them in others. I suppose I should not have expected such treatment from what is clearly a book intended for the 'true crime' aficionado. However, this is not really a fault of the book. It is rather a fault of my expectations.
   I found Lethal Intent to be a page-turner, sustaining interest until the last page. I read it in spite of myself, which, I suppose, testifies to its ability to entertain. If you are looking for a very long, comprehensively researched but less-than-beautifully-written story about a very intriguing woman of crime, then this book is worth a try.



4. This book is so badly written that I almost can not read it. The language is bad, the narrative jumps here and there without any discernable intention. There are too many details, and the story is so jumbled that it is almost impossible to follow. I do not recommend this book. See the film "Monster" instead.



5. My assignment was to complete a psychological character anyalysis on Aileen Wuornos. This book proved to be invaluable. Being unable to literally interview the "client", utilizing the works of Sue Russell enabled the understanding of the character via friends, family, peer interviews in the book. I highly recommend it just to give an understanding how a personality as Aileen Wuornos is developed via life experiences, etc. Great resource and good reading.