Aileen: Queen of the Serial Killers Revisits the Crimes and Life of Aileen Wuornos

Aileen Wuornos spent years at the center of one of America’s most notorious true-crime cases. Between 1989 and 1990, she killed seven men across central Florida, becoming an unusually high-profile female serial killer whose story has continued to generate debate long after her death.

Her case ended with a death sentence and execution in 2002, but Wuornos herself remained a subject of fascination in popular culture. Charlize Theron’s Oscar-winning performance in the 2003 film Monster brought her story to a much wider audience. More recently, Sarah Paulson portrays Wuornos in Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan’s Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story, which uses the later killer’s story as part of its exploration of the legacy of female violence.

Netflix’s documentary Aileen: Queen of the Serial Killers takes a different approach. Directed by Emily Turner, the film looks back at Wuornos’ life and crimes nearly four decades after they occurred, using archival material, interviews and Wuornos’ own recorded words to reconsider a case that has often been reduced to sensational headlines.

Produced by the BBC Studios Documentary Unit in collaboration with NBC News Studios, the documentary draws on audio interviews with people who knew Wuornos, archival footage from former Dateline correspondent Michele Gillen, and previously unseen death-row interviews with Wuornos herself.

What is Aileen: Queen of the Serial Killers about?

The documentary revisits the complicated story of Aileen Wuornos, examining both the crimes that made her infamous and the circumstances that shaped her life.

Rather than focusing solely on the murders, the film looks at Wuornos’ troubled background, her experiences before the killings and the questions that surrounded her motives. It also examines the judicial response to her crimes and the way her story was transformed into a cultural phenomenon.

Wuornos’ own voice is an important part of that approach. Her prison interviews give the documentary material that allows viewers to hear directly from the woman at the center of the case rather than relying entirely on later accounts of her life.

The film’s official synopsis describes it as an examination of Wuornos’ story through interviews, archival material and her own words, with particular attention to what happened and why.

Who was Aileen Wuornos?

Born in Michigan in 1956, Wuornos endured a deeply troubled childhood marked by abandonment and abuse. She moved through a series of foster homes and spent much of her life living on the margins of society.

In her early twenties, she hitchhiked to Florida. There, she survived through sex work and petty crime before eventually becoming the focus of a major murder investigation.

Between 1989 and 1990, Wuornos killed seven men in central Florida. Her status as a woman accused of a series of killings drew particular public attention because she did not fit the profile many people associated with serial murder at the time.

The circumstances of her childhood and her transient adult life have remained an important part of the discussion surrounding her case. They have also influenced how journalists, filmmakers and audiences have interpreted the events that led to the murders.

For Turner, that context is central to understanding Wuornos as more than a headline or criminal case.

“It’s so much easier to write off someone who’s done such heinous acts as a coldblooded murderer [rather than] a deeply damaged human,” Turner told Tudum. “Actually, she was made, and that’s chilling.”

The documentary uses that perspective to revisit the question of how Wuornos became the person the public ultimately came to know.

How was Aileen Wuornos caught?

Wuornos was apprehended in January 1991 following a multi-state investigation into the murders.

She was subsequently convicted of multiple murders and sentenced to death. She spent years on Florida’s death row before being executed by lethal injection in 2002. Netflix’s current materials describe her story as ending with her execution after the killing spree that began in 1989.

Her case remained in the public eye long after her conviction. The 2003 film Monster, starring Charlize Theron, became one of the most widely recognized dramatizations of her life. Theron’s performance earned her the Academy Award for Best Actress.

More than two decades later, Wuornos has returned to the screen through Sarah Paulson’s portrayal in Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story. In that series, Wuornos appears in a storyline set nearly a century after the historical Lizzie Borden case and becomes part of the show’s broader thematic connection between notorious women accused of violence. Netflix notes that the real Wuornos had no documented connection to Borden, making the series’ link a dramatic device rather than a historical one.

When was the documentary released?

Aileen: Queen of the Serial Killers premiered on Netflix on Oct. 30, 2025. Netflix currently lists the documentary as a 2025 title with a runtime of approximately 1 hour and 44 minutes.

The documentary was directed by Emily Turner and distributed by Netflix, with NBC News Studios identifying Turner as the director and Andy Berg, Liz Cole, Kirsty Cunningham and Elizabeth Fischer among the executive producers.

What makes the documentary different?

One of the film’s most significant elements is its use of archival material and Wuornos’ own recorded interviews.

The documentary combines police material, courtroom footage, archival reporting and first-person audio to reconstruct the case. Footage connected to former Dateline correspondent Michele Gillen provides additional historical context, while the prison interviews allow Wuornos to speak for herself.

That combination gives the film a deliberately investigative feel. Instead of relying entirely on dramatic recreations or retrospective commentary, it builds much of its narrative around material connected directly to the original investigation and the people involved.

The result is a grim and unsettling examination of a case that has already been told many times. Its emphasis is on the record surrounding Wuornos, her background and her own account of events, while leaving viewers to consider the larger questions about motivation, trauma, punishment and the justice system.

Netflix describes the documentary as a reconsideration of Wuornos’ life and crimes through a modern lens, while NBC News Studios similarly emphasizes the film’s use of interviews, archival material and Wuornos’ own words.

A difficult watch for true-crime audiences

The documentary deals with extremely sensitive material. Viewers should expect real crime-scene photographs involving Wuornos’ victims, descriptions of childhood sexual abuse and detailed accounts of sexual violence.

For audiences accustomed to investigative true crime, the film’s archival approach may recall documentaries built around original recordings and historical evidence rather than conventional dramatization. Its combination of archival footage, police material, courtroom video and first-person testimony makes the case feel particularly immediate and disturbing.

That approach also places the documentary in a long line of true-crime productions that attempt to move beyond the mythology surrounding infamous killers. Here, the central question is not simply what Wuornos did, but how her life, crimes, public image and eventual punishment came to be understood.

Watch the official trailer

Netflix released an official trailer featuring rare archival material and prison interviews with Wuornos. The trailer runs for approximately 1 minute and 48 seconds.

The documentary is available to stream on Netflix.