Sexecutioner

On November 30, 1989, in a lonely place off Florida's Interstate 95, 51-year-old Richard Mallory shuddered under the impact of four .22-caliber slugs being pumped into him by a naked, hard-faced blonde hooker. While he suffered a slow, agonizing death, she stripped him of his valuables and drove his Cadillac back to the motel where her lesbian lover was waiting. In 1990, her killing spree kicked into high gear, with three men slain in as many weeks. Of the six of her seven male victims whose bodies were found, some were nude; all had been shot dead and robbed.

"Woman With The Death-Row Eyes"

In January, 1991, pawnshop records led to the arrest of Aileen Carol Wuornos, 34, aka "Lee," an abusive, alcoholic man-hater with a murderous hairtrigger temper. Wuornos began prostituting herself at age 12 for cigarettes and beer. At 15 she bore an illegitimate child, at 16 she took to the highways as a hitchhiking hooker. In 1986, with a lengthy rap sheet and prison term under her belt, she entered into a relationship with Tyria Moore, 24. Tired of turning $20 tricks, Wuornos decided to rob her customers of everything they had—including their lives.

Her arrest and trial prompted a worldwide media frenzy. Ultimately Wuornos received six separate death sentences. Here is the definitive account of a killer who confounded the profiling experts, forever changing their concepts of the crimes of which a woman is capable. LETHAL INTENT-Sue Russell