When Nick Broomfield first hauled a camera crew into the humidity of Florida in the early nineties, he wasn’t just looking for a murderer. He was looking for the circus. Honestly, what he found was something a lot more depressing and infinitely more "Florida" than a standard true crime thriller. The 1992 documentary Aileen Wuornos: The Selling of a Serial Killer didn't just introduce the world to the "first female serial killer." It showed us how a bunch of people—lawyers, cops, and "born-again" parents—tried to get rich off a woman who was clearly falling apart at the seams.
You've probably seen the movie Monster. Charlize Theron did the whole "ugly" transformation and won an Oscar for it. But that movie is a sanitized, Hollywood version of the chaos Broomfield captured in his raw footage. The documentary is less about the seven men Wuornos killed and more about the vultures circling the carcass of her legal defense. It's a weird, uncomfortable watch.
Why Aileen Wuornos: The Selling of a Serial Killer is more than just true crime
Most people go into this documentary expecting a profile of a killer. You want to know why she did it. You want to see the "man-hater" the media promised. Instead, you get a front-row seat to the most incompetent legal defense in history.
Basically, the film follows Broomfield as he tries to get an interview with Aileen. But to get to her, he has to navigate a pay-to-play system that feels more like a shady talent agency than a legal team.
The documentary highlights a massive problem: everybody wanted a piece of the Aileen Wuornos brand. The term "serial killer" wasn't just a legal classification. It was a marketing hook.
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The players in the "selling" of Aileen
If you haven't seen the film, the cast of real-life characters is almost too bizarre to believe.
- Arlene Pralle: A "born-again" Christian who claimed God told her to adopt Aileen. She became Aileen's legal mother while she was already on death row. She talks to the camera with these wide, unblinking eyes and handles the "media requests" like a shark.
- Steve Glazer: Aileen’s lawyer. He’s famously shown in the doc playing a guitar and singing, looking more like a failed folk musician than a death penalty attorney. He was nicknamed "Dr. Legal," which is hilarious and terrifying at the same time.
- The Cops: Three Florida detectives were caught trying to negotiate movie deals while the investigation was still active. They literally saw a paycheck where they should have seen a crime scene.
The $25,000 interview and the "Dr. Legal" fiasco
One of the most shocking parts of Aileen Wuornos: The Selling of a Serial Killer is the blatant bribery. Broomfield actually had to pay to get access. He ended up paying Steve Glazer and Arlene Pralle around $25,000 just to talk to his subject.
Think about that.
A defense attorney taking cash from a documentary filmmaker to let his client—who is facing the electric chair—talk on camera. Glazer’s defense was that he needed the money to pay for her "experts," but the film makes it pretty clear he was way out of his depth. He encouraged Aileen to plead "no contest" to several murders, basically fast-tracking her to the execution chamber. He didn't want a long, drawn-out trial because he couldn't afford it, or maybe he just didn't have the skills.
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It's heartbreaking. Aileen sits there in her orange jumpsuit, looking erratic and paranoid, while the people who are supposed to be saving her life are arguing about who gets the rights to her story.
What the documentary got right about Tyria Moore
Tyria Moore was Aileen’s girlfriend and, for a long time, the only person Aileen truly loved. But the documentary doesn't sugarcoat the betrayal. Tyria was the one who helped the police get the confession. She stayed in a hotel, on the phone with Aileen, crying and pretending she was going to be arrested unless Aileen confessed.
Aileen, thinking she was saving Tyria, spilled everything.
The documentary shows the aftermath of this. It shows a woman who was used by the one person she trusted, then used by the state, and finally used by her own defense team. By the time Broomfield gets his interview, Aileen’s mental state is a wreck. She’s talking about sonic waves and police conspiracies. While some of it was clearly mental illness, the doc makes you wonder: if everyone really was out to sell her story, was her paranoia really that crazy?
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Misconceptions the film tries to shatter
Google "Aileen Wuornos" and you'll see the words "man-hater." The media loved that narrative. It sold papers. But the documentary suggests something more complex.
Aileen wasn't some feminist vigilante. She was a deeply traumatized woman who had been abused since childhood and was working a high-risk job in a high-risk area. She claimed self-defense in the first killing (Richard Mallory), and it was later discovered Mallory actually was a convicted rapist. But because she was "the serial killer," that fact was buried under the weight of the media's "monster" narrative.
The film argues that the "selling" of her as a monster prevented her from getting a fair shake at a self-defense plea, at least in that first case.
Actionable insights for true crime fans
If you're diving into the history of this case or watching the documentary for the first time, keep these things in mind to get the full picture:
- Look past the "First Female Serial Killer" label. That tag was created by the FBI and run with by the media to create a "female Ted Bundy" narrative that didn't really fit the facts of her life.
- Watch the sequel. Broomfield made a follow-up called Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer (2003). It’s even more tragic and focuses on her final days before execution. It shows how much her mind had deteriorated.
- Research the "Williams Rule." This is a Florida legal loophole that allowed the prosecution to bring in evidence of her other murders during her very first trial. It’s a big reason why she never had a chance.
- Question the "Experts." When you watch Glazer or Pralle, ask yourself what they are actually doing to help her. The doc is a masterclass in seeing through people's "good intentions."
The legacy of Aileen Wuornos: The Selling of a Serial Killer is that it forced us to look at the "industry" of crime. It’s not just about the person who pulled the trigger. It’s about the people who hold the microphones, the lawyers who want to be stars, and the system that treats a human life like a hot commodity. Aileen was guilty of murder, no doubt. But the documentary proves that a lot of people were guilty of a different kind of exploitation.
To truly understand this case, you have to look at the financial trail. Check the court records regarding the detectives' resigned status and the disciplinary actions against her counsel. Comparing the raw interview footage in Broomfield's doc to the polished narrative in Monster reveals exactly how much of Aileen's reality was sanded down for public consumption. Read the 2003 evidentiary hearing transcripts if you want to see how the "selling" mentioned in the documentary was eventually used in a last-ditch effort to save her from execution. It didn't work, but it laid bare the systemic rot the documentary first uncovered.