How Aileen Wuornos spent her last day on death row, and how Monster changed it

Netflix’s Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story delves into Aileen Wuornos, the American serial killer who killed seven men in Florida between 1989 and 1990, and shows her life and crimes right up to the day she is executed. But Ryan Murphy’s version of her final day on death row isn’t entirely accurate. 

In the fictional series, Wuornos is made out to be obsessed with Lizzie Borden and even stays at her Maplecroft home after her death. All of that is completely made up to explore “a legacy of female rage” and help to “understand” Borden’s psychology, Beatty told Tudum. 

During the final few episodes, we see Wuornos sit down and eat a KFC as her final meal on death row, right before she’s about to be given the lethal injection. Her final words in the show are: “I’m just another woman put to death for something a man would’ve gotten away with.”

Credit: Netflix

In real life, the American serial killer refused her final meal, chose to just have a cup of coffee and quoted sci-fi films Independence Day and The Terminator. She said: “Yes, I would 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, I’ll be back.”

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The night before she was executed, Wuornos was visited by a close family friend and they spent three hours together from 9pm to midnight. 

Wuornos was then woken up at 5.30am and requested a towel and washcloth to freshen herself up. She read the Bible for most of the morning, declined her final meal and had her coffee. She was taken to the execution chamber and pronounced dead at 9.47am, aged 46. 

Speaking about why Wuornos is in Monster, Beatty said: “The show is exploring a legacy of female rage and reaction to the set of circumstances that they are presented with. I think there’s a connection (between Borden and Wuornos) that Ryan and Ian were interested in mapping and exploring.

“Every season of Monster has been an exercise in understanding the person’s psychology. Are they born or are they made? I knew from the beginning that Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan were really interested in exploring what brings a woman to the point of violence.”

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