Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer

Dir: Nick Broomfield

2003

****

Nick Broomfield’s 1992 documentary, Aileen Wuornos: The Selling of a Serial Killer, focused on the exploitation of America’s first female serial killer. Wuornos killed seven men while they were sleeping with her for money. She became a born again Christian when Arlene Pralle adopted her while she was in prison and converted her, before convincing her to plead guilty and face execution. Her lawyer was Steven Glazer, aka ‘Dr. Legal’, an ex-musician and old hippy who might possibly be the least tactful man ever to have worked in the legal system. During the initial investigation, the police were found to have compromised the proceedings by falsifying evidence while attaining the sale of the story to Hollywood producers. Broomfield was done with the story but had kept in contact with Wuornos, seeing the injustice she had suffered and feeling sympathy for her after knowing her true story. He may have intended a follow up film but he wasn’t expecting to be called as a witness to an evidentiary hearing. The film starts with Broomfield being called to the stand and his 1992 film discussed as a piece of evidence. His calm answers are a complete contrast to nearly every other witness and he puts the prosecution in its place beautifully but without malicious intent. As Broomfield spends time with other witnesses he gets to know many people from Wuornos’ past, learning of the hardship and abuse she grew up with. He shows the other side to the story, the side the far-right ignore and accuse anyone who mentions it a liberal fool. While many of the Christian-right feel a blood lust towards Wuornos, a small group of supporters try to express the injustice that has occurred, the unfairness of the original trial and the fact that Wuornos is clearly not of sound mind. By this point she is used as election leverage, Jeb Bush promising would-be voters that he would off her as soon as he possibly can, should they elect him – and it worked. In an attempt to please both sides of the argument, Bush orders several psychiatric examiners to evaluate Wuornos’ mental health before a death sentence is finally passed. It takes no more than fifteen minutes for them all to declare her sane and fit for lethal injection. Broomfield is given Wuornos’ last interview the day before her execution whereby she talks of being tortured while in prison and claims that the prison used "sonic pressure" to control and alter her mental state. Wuornos’ last words of execution were "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 mothership and all. I'll be back." Broomfield, who becomes a point of interest after recording her last interview, is then hounded by the world’s press in the moments after she is put to death. Clambering for a bit of sensation, Broomfield simply asks the crowd if he is the only one who feels uncomfortable by the fact that someone who clearly has mental health issues has just been put to death and questions Bush’s psychiatric examiners who think talk of mind-controlling sonic pressure is a sane thing for a person to suspect. In the end, Wuornos wanted to die and fought against the people who tried to help her. It’s a sad tale with big implications, whether or not anything has been learned from it is another thing though. It’s a more focused film than the first and of a much higher quality but it’s far from rewarding – a brilliant film, but incredibly frustrating to watch.