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Calarogus Shark Media. Good morning, I'm Red Carter. Saturday, November eighth,
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twenty twenty five. January ninth, nineteen ninety one, Port Orange, Florida,
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the last resort biker bar. Two thirty in the afternoon.
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A blond woman in her mid thirties leans over the
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pool table, denim jacket, cigarette dangling from her lips, shooting
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pool with bikers who know her as Lee. She's there
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every day, drinks beer, plays pool. Nobody asks questions. Two
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men approach, plain clothes but clearly cops. Everyone in the
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bar can tell Laurie Grody. The blonde woman looks up,
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freezes for half a second, then bolts for the door.
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She doesn't make it. Officers tackle her in the parking lot,
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face down on the pavement, cuffs clicking shut. I'm not
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Laura Grody, she says. My name is Aileen Warnos, and
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I know what this is about. You think I killed
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those men. The officers look at each other. They weren't
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sure until that moment, but now they know they've got her.
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Aileen Carol Warnos, thirty four years old, highway prostitute and,
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according to Florida law enforcement, the most prolific female serial
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killer in American history. Seven men dead in thirteen months,
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all middle aged, all white, All picked her up along
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Interstate seventy five thinking they were hiring a prostitute. All
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shot multiple times with a point two two caliber pistol,
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All robbed, bodies dumped in the woods like garbage. But
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here's what makes this case different from every serial killer
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we've covered on this show. Aileen Warnos claimed the first
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killing was self defense, that Richard Mallory raped her, beat her,
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threatened to kill kill her, that she shot him to
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save her own life. And here's the uncomfortable truth. Richard
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Mallory had served ten years in prison for attempted rape.
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So maybe she was telling the truth. Maybe the first
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killing was justified. But then she kept killing six more
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men execution style, for their money, for their cars, for
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whatever they had in their wallets. So what is Aileen
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Warnos victim who became predator, serial killer who weaponized the
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self defense narrative or both. Netflix just dropped a new documentary,
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Aileen Queen of the serial Killers. America's obsessed with her again.
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The damaged woman who killed men for a living, The
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highway hooker who became a killer, the first woman to
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hunt like male serial killers hunt. But nobody's telling you
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the real story. How a child was raped at seven
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years old, pregnant at fourteen, homeless at fifteen, living in
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the Michigan woods and subsers row temperatures, and not a
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single person, not child protective services, not teachers, not police,
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not anybody helped her. So she grew up, started selling
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the only thing she had, her body on highways across America.
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And when John started getting violent, and they always get
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violent with prostitutes, she started shooting back. I'm Reed Carter today.
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The making of America's first female serial killer. How the
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system failed Aileen Warnos at every level, How she fell
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in love with the only person who ever made her
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feel human, and how between November nineteen eighty nine and
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November nineteen ninety seven men picked up the wrong hitchhiker
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on Interstate seventy five, Part one of two. This is
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Celebrity Trials. February twenty ninth, nineteen fifty six. Leap Year, Rochester, Michigan.
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Aileen Carol Pittman was born born to Diane Warnos, who
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was fifteen years old fifteen a child, having a child.
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The father Leo Dale Pittman never met his daughter, couldn't.
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He was in prison, diagnosed schizophrenic, convicted child molest her.
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When Aileen was thirteen years old, Leo hanged himself in prison.
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That's her biological father, a child molesting schizophrenic who killed
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himself before she ever knew him. When Aileen was four
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years old, Diane abandoned her, just left, walked away from
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her two kids, Aileen and her older brother, Keith, and
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never came back. Your tax dollars at work. A fifteen
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year old girl has babies, can't handle them, and the
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system does nothing until she abandons them. Aileen's maternal grandparents,
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Laurie and Britta Warnos, adopted the children, raised them in Troy, Michigan,
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gave them the Warnos surname. But that's where any kindness ended.
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Laurie Warnos was a violent alcohol beat The children regularly
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used a belt, fists, whatever was handy. Aileen later said
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he was meaner than hell, called her stupid, worthless, told
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her she'd never amount to anything. Britta Warnos was also
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an alcoholic, died of liver failure when Aileen was fourteen.
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Just gave up, drank herself to death while her granddaughter
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was being raped in the woods behind their house. Because
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that's what was happening. Starting at age seven, Aileen Warnos
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was being sexually abused. She claimed it was her grandfather,
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Later she said it was neighborhood boys. Doesn't matter who.
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What matters is that a seven year old child was
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being raped repeatedly and nobody stopped it. By age eleven,
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Aileen was trading sexual favors for cigarettes, drugs, and food.
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Eleven years old. Let me say that again, eleven years old,
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trading sex to survive, to get what she needed because
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the adults in her life weren't providing for her. Make
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it make sense. A child is being raped, trading her
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body for basic necessities? And where are child protective services?
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Where are teachers? Where are neighbors who must have seen something?
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Where is anybody? Age fourteen Spring nineteen seventy, Aileen was
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raped again. This time she got pregnant. Fourteen years old
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and pregnant from rape. Her grandfather found out threw her
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out of the house. She was homeless, four months pregnant,
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fourteen years old, living in the woods behind her family's home.
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Picture this Troy, Michigan winter temperatures dropping below zero. A
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fourteen year old pregnant girl sleeping in abandoned cars in
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the woods, in any shelter she could find, prostituting herself
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to survive, because that's the only skill anyone ever taught her.
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March twenty third, nineteen seventy one, Aileen gave birth in
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a Detroit maternity home. Baby boy immediately given up for adoption.
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She never had held him, never saw him. Nine months
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of pregnancy at fourteen years old, and the baby was
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just taken. She went back to the streets. Two weeks
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after giving birth, her grandmother, Brita, died liver failure from alcoholism.
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Aileen wasn't allowed at the funeral. Her grandfather still refused
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to let her come home, so she kept living in
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the woods, kept prostituting, kept surviving the only way she
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knew how. Age fifteen, her grandfather relented let her move
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back home, but it didn't last. He was still violent,
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still abusive, still told her she was worthless. Within months,
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he threw her out again, this time permanently. Your tax
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dollars at work. A fifteen year old rape victim forced
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into prostitution, abandoned by every adult who should have protected her,
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and the system did absolutely nothing. Aileen warn Us was
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failed at every level by her parents, by her grandparents,
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by child protective services, by schools, by police, by everyone.
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She started hitchhiking Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Florida, wherever the road
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took her, sleeping in cars, motels when she could afford them,
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truck stops, rest areas, trading sex for money, food, shelter
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rides to the next town. Age eighteen, nineteen seventy four,
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her brother Keith died throat cancer, twenty one years old.
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He was the only family member who ever showed her kindness.
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Life insurance paid out ten thousand dollars. Aileen inherited it.
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Finally had money, finally had a chance to start over.
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She blew through it in two months, bought a car, clothes, drugs, alcohol, partied,
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gave money away. Had no concept of saving or planning
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because nobody ever taught her, nobody ever showed her how
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to function as an adult. By the end of nineteen
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seventy four, she was broke again, back on the streets,
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back to a prostitution. May nineteen seventy six, Aileen, twenty
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years old, married sixty nine year old Lewis Fell. He
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was president of a yacht club, had money. She thought,
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maybe this was her ticket out. Maybe this rich old
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man would take care of her. It lasted nine weeks.
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Aileen beat him with his own cane during an argument.
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Fell filed for an nullment, said she was violent, unpredictable,
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impossible to live with. The marriage was dissolved. She was
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back on the streets by August. The pattern was set.
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Aileen Warnos drifted across America, arrests for drunk driving, disorderly conduct, assault,
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firing a pistol from a moving vehicle. Nothing stuck, nothing
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stopped her. She just kept moving. By the mid nineteen eighties,
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she'd settled in Florida, Daytona Beach area. Worked the highways
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as a prostitute. Interstate four, Interstate seventy five, Highway one.
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Stood on the side of the road with her thumb out,
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got into cars with stra men, did whatever they paid for,
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then moved on to the next one. Some johns were decent,
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some were violent. Some beat her, some robbed her, some
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raped her. That's the reality of sex work. You're the
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most vulnerable person in every transaction. No legal protection, no recourse.
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If a john decides to hurt you, You're on your own.
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And for years Aileen survived it, got beaten up, got robbed,
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got raped, got arrested, got released, just kept going because
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what else was there. Then in June nineteen eighty six,
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everything changed. She met someone who made her feel human,
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someone who made her feel loved, someone who would ultimately
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betray her completely. But for four years, Tyria Moore was
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the only good thing in Aileen Warnos's life. June nineteen
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eighty six, Zodiac Bar in South daytona beach gay bar. Aileen,
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thirty years old, was drinking alone, celebrating she'd just gotten
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five thousand dollars in an insurance settlement from a car accident,
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finally had money again, was buying drinks for everyone. Tiria
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Moore walked in, twenty four years old, hotel made originally
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from Ohio, came to Florida looking for something different, something better.
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They locked eyes across the bar, both lesbians, both outcasts,
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both broke well. Tyria was broke, Aileen had money for
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the first time in months. They talked for hours, drank together,
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played pool. By the end of the night, they went
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home together. By the end of the week, they'd moved
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in together. Aileen called Tyria Tie. Tyria called Aileen Lee.
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They were inseparable. Aileen said Tyria was the first person
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who ever made her feel truly loved, the first person
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who looked at her and saw something worth caring about.
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Tyria was soft spoken, passive, let Aileen make all the decisions,
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didn't work much, was content to stay home, watch TV,
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take care of their apartment while Aileen worked, and work
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meant prostitution. Tyria knew what Aileen did. Knew she was
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out on Interstate seventy five every day, knew she was
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getting into cars with strange men. Knew exactly how rent
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was being paid, how food was being bought, how their
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life was being funded. But Tyria never worked, never contributed,
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just stayed home and waited for Aileen to come back
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with money. The relationship was toxic from the start. Aileen
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was possessive, jealous, violent when she drank, which was constantly.
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They fought through things, screamed at each other, broke up
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and got back together a dozen times. But Aileen was devoted,
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completely obsessively devoted. Tyria was the only person in her
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entire thirty year life who had ever made her feel wanted,
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made her feel like she mattered, made her feel like
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she wasn't just trash to be used and thrown away.
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So Aileen kept working the highways, kept getting into cars
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with strangers, kept taking whatever abuse came with the job,
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because it kept Tiia happy, kept them fed, kept them together.
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The johns got more violent. Florida highways in the late
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nineteen eighties were dangerous for prostitutes, serial killers targeting sex workers.
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Green River Killer in Washington, Gary Ridgway, murdered forty nine women,
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most of them prostitutes, and nobody cared because society doesn't
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care when prostitutes die. Aileen knew the risks. Every prostitute knew.
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You get in a car, you're gambling with your life.
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Most johns are fine, some are rough, some are violent,
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and some want to kill you. Aileen carried a gun,
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a twenty two caliber pistol, small, easy to conceal. She
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told herself it was for protection. If a john got violent,
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she could defend herself, make him stop, get away. For years,
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she never used it, just kept it in her bag,
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a comfort, a backup plan, a way to feel like
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she had some control. Then November thirtieth, nineteen eighty nine,
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she picked up Richard Mallory and everything changed. Interstate seventy five,
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near Daytona Beach. Aileen Warnos, thirty three years old, standing
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on the side of the highway with her thumb out
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a white nineteen seventy seven Cadillac pulled over driver Richard Mallory,
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fifty one years old, owned an electronics repair shop in
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clear Water, heavy drinker, criminal record, But Aileen didn't know that.
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Just saw a middle aged white guy in a nice car,
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another John. She got in. They negotiated fifty dollars. He'd
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drive to a secluded area, they'd have sex, then he'd
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drive her back standard transaction. Mallory drove to a remote
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dirt road in Vlusha County, isolated woods on both sides,
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nobody around. What happened next depends on who you believe
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Aileen's version. Mallory became violent, raped her, beat her, tied
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her to the steering wheel with her own belt, sodomized her,
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said he was going to kill her. When he was done,
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she managed to get her gun from her bag, shot
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him self defense life or death, him or her. The
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physical evidence Richard Mallory was shot three times with a
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point two two caliber pistol, once in the left shoulder,
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once in the chest, once in the neck. At least
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one shot was fired while he was moving away from her,
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possibly trying to flee the crime scene. Malory's body was
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found two weeks later, December thirteenth, in the woods off
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I seventy five, partially decomposed, covered with a piece of carpet.
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His Cadillac was gone, his wallet was gone. His belongings
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were pawned at shops in Daytona Beach. Here's what the
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jury never heard at trial didn't find out until years later.
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Richard Mallory served ten years in prison for attempted rape
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nineteen fifty seven conviction in Maryland. He violently assaulted a woman,
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threatened to kill her, tried to rape her, spent a
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decade in prison. So when Aileen Warnos said he raped her,
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when she said he became violent when she said she
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thought he was going to kill her, maybe she was
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telling the truth. Maybe this was legitimate self defense. A
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convicted rapist picked up a prostitute and tried to rape