Aileen Wuornos Unmasked: Inside the Crimes, Convictions, and Dark Legacy

Netflix has a new true-crime doc landing right on Halloween week, and it is not exactly light viewing. It is called 'Aileen: Queen of the Serial Killers,' and yes, the title is blunt on purpose. If you only know Aileen Wuornos in passing, this one digs straight into the reality of who she was, what she did, and how it all ended.

What Netflix is releasing

This is a Netflix original documentary, streaming globally on Thursday, October 30, 2025. The hook: it features never-before-seen interviews Wuornos gave while on death row. The film pairs those tapes with archival footage and the investigators' materials from the case and trial, aiming to piece together the life that led to her murders and the fallout after she was caught.

Quick refresher on the case

From December 1989 through November 1990, Wuornos killed seven men in Florida. She was doing sex work at the time, and she later claimed each man had tried to assault her, saying she shot them in self-defense. The weapon was a .22 caliber pistol.

Her run ended in early 1991, when police arrested her at a biker bar called The Last Resort in Volusia County, Florida. (Yes, that is actually the name of the bar.) By then, she already had a long record stretching back years, with charges that included DUI, failure to appear in court, assault, and armed robbery, among others. Reports also note a deeply troubled personal history, including multiple suicide attempts between her mid-teens and early twenties.

She was ultimately convicted and sentenced to death. Wuornos was executed in 2002.

How the doc frames it

The pitch here is not just a greatest-hits recap of a notorious case. Those death-row interviews are the big swing: unfiltered Aileen, talking about her life and her mindset as she waited for the end. Layered with the old case files and courtroom clips, the film is promising a fuller picture of the person behind the headlines — and the crimes — without pretending any of it is easy to watch.

Timeline snapshot

• Dec 1989–Nov 1990: Seven men killed in Florida; Wuornos later claims self-defense in each case
• Jan 1991: Arrested at The Last Resort biker bar in Volusia County
• 1990s: Convicted and sentenced to death after a high-profile trial
• 2002: Executed
• Oct 30, 2025: 'Aileen: Queen of the Serial Killers' premieres on Netflix

Bottom line: it's a grim, complicated story told with access that has not been widely seen before. If you are up for a deep dive into one of Florida's most infamous cases, this drops just in time for spooky season.