Dr. Jameca CooperForensic Psychology Consultant, Emergence Psychological Services · Board Certified Counseling Psychologist and Forensic Psychology Consultant

The real reason she killed her 7 victims…#truecrime #netflix #psychologistreacts

12 Nov 2025 · 1 min

Watch on YouTube

1:23

In this commentary Dr. Jameca Cooper examines the underlying causes behind serial killer Aileen Wuornos's murders of seven men. She argues that while anger and revenge are often cited, the primary driver is Wuornos's extensive history of childhood trauma: abandonment by her father, sexual abuse by her grandfather, incest with her brother, rape by a family friend at age 13 resulting in pregnancy and adoption, and subsequent entry into sex work. Cooper connects each layer of abuse to a progressive development of distrust toward men, chronic anger, and a desire for revenge, presenting these factors as a natural psychological progression that culminated in Wuornos's violent actions.

Chapters

Let's talk about the real reason serial killer Aileen Wuornos killed her 7 victims. Everyone automatically goes to anger and revenge. They may play a part in it, but a small piece from my perspective. Aileen came from a very extreme background of child abuse. Let's start from the beginning. She was abandoned by her father, sent to live with her grandparents who were raising her. Meanwhile, her grandfather was sexually abusing her. Then there's the incest she had with her brother. She was also raped by a family friend at age 13, became pregnant, gave birth to the child, and gave the child up for adoption. Shortly after she became of age, she went directly into sex working, which comes with a whole host of trauma in and of itself. So when you look at the anger and revenge and the distrust of men, It all seems to be a natural progression from her childhood background and sexual abuse. She was abused by multiple men in her background, so of course that creates this environment of not trusting men and anger and revenge for how she was treated as a child and/or how she was abandoned and neglected as a child. So many pieces of the puzzle.