Florida Executes Female Serial Killer

Wuornos Declines Final Meal

STARKE, Fla. -- Prison officials in Florida executed convicted serial killer Aileen Wuornos Wednesday morning.

Wuornos was pronounced dead at 9:47 a.m. EDT, but the process of injecting lethal drugs into both of her arms started promptly at 9:30, according to WESH-TV news reporter Claire Metz, who witnessed the execution.

A brown curtain was drawn back, and witnesses saw Wuornos turn to them, make a bizarre face, kind of smile, roll her eyes and turn away; she was strapped in completely, unable to move anything but her head, Metz reported.

At 9:31, she shut her eyes, and her head jerked backward; at 9:32, her mouth seemed to drop open, her eyes opened to slits, and it appeared she was gone, according to Metz.

It's an execution that many believed was a long time in coming. Wuornos' final ride, in a hearse from the death chamber, was a far different road than the one that led to her execution. Victims' family members aren't sorry that she's gone.

"She got off really easy. These men suffered. These men's families suffered tremendously all these years. I mean it was cold-blooded murder," said Wanda Pouncey, a victim's daughter.

"I wish it would have been a little bit more, a little harder on her. It was very, very easy. Very easy ... even the years in prison that she did. It was a piece of cake. It was a cake walk," said Teri Griffith, a victim's daughter.

For years after her arrest, Wuornos claimed she was the victim. But on death row two years ago, she told Metz she killed the men in cold blood, something she's repeated again and again this year.

"I robbed them, and I killed them as cold as ice, and I would do it again, and I know I would kill another person because I've hated humans for a long time," Wuornos stated.

Volusia County State Attorney John Tanner prosecuted Wuornos and felt obligated to witness the execution.

"She liked to be in control. In fact, these killings, as much as anything, were acts of ultimate control, and we've seen that in serial killer patterns in the past. She killed these men to bring about the ultimate in control over their lives, which was to terminate it," Tanner said.

Wuornos was allowed to make a final statement, and there was no time limit on it, but it probably took her only 30 seconds.

"I'd just like to say I'm sailing with the rock, and I'll be back like Independence Day, with Jesus June 6. Like the movie, big mother ship and all, I'll be back," Wuornos said.

Previous Stories:

• October 8, 2002: Female Serial Killer Awaits Execution
• September 6, 2002: Bush Orders Wuornos Execution Next Month
• April 2, 2002: Female Killer Doesn't Have To Fight Execution
• June 13, 2001: Serial Killer Wuornos Wants To Stop Appeals

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