Aileen Wuornos was born on February 28, 1956 in Rochester, Michigan, to parents Leo Pittman and Diane Wuornos Pratt. They were married when Diane was only fifteen, had two children, and were divorced within two years. Aileen was born a few months after the divorce. Pittman was a sociopath and child molester. He was in and out or mental hospitals and prisons; ultimately he was strangled in prison in 1969. Diane was unable to manage her children and in 1960 abandoned them to the care of her parents, Lauri and Britta Wuornos. The Wournoses adopted the children and raised them as their own.

Aileen's childhood was a troubled one. She and her brother were rebellious and incorrigible. They became wards of the court. In 1971, at fourteen, Aileen gave birth to her baby boy at a home for unwed mothers. The boy was placed for adoption. Aileen dropped out of school and began...