AILEEN WUORNOS’ FINAL MINUTES: THE LAST WORDS OF FLORIDA’S INFAMOUS DEATH-ROW INMATE

STARKE, FLORIDA — On the morning of October 9, 2002, Aileen Wuornos walked into Florida’s death chamber for the final time.

The 46-year-old convicted murderer had spent more than a decade on death row after being convicted of killing Richard Mallory, a Florida man whose death became the first murder for which Wuornos received a death sentence.

She had also been convicted in connection with several other killings.

That morning, Wuornos was scheduled to die by lethal injection at Florida State Prison in Starke.

A FINAL MORNING BEHIND PRISON WALLS

Wuornos woke at approximately 5:30 a.m., according to prison officials.

She declined a traditional last meal and instead had coffee. Officials said she had also spent time reading the Bible and had refused visits from clergy.

A prison spokesman described her as calm during her final hours.

She had previously been given the opportunity to make a final statement before the execution began.

Outside the prison, demonstrators opposed to the death penalty gathered as corrections officers prepared for the execution.

Inside, witnesses were taken through the procedures required before entering the viewing area.

Contemporary accounts differ over the precise number of witnesses. CNN reported that 24 people were expected to witness the execution, including media representatives, victims’ relatives and people connected to the case. Another contemporary account reported 32 witnesses.

WUORNOS ENTERS THE DEATH CHAMBER

Wuornos was strapped to a gurney and connected to intravenous lines.

Witnesses watched through the viewing window as prison officials prepared the lethal injection.

The procedure was not conducted in silence.

A microphone positioned above the condemned inmate allowed witnesses to hear her final statement.

Then came the words that would become one of the most remembered parts of Wuornos’ execution.

HER FINAL WORDS

Immediately before her death, Wuornos delivered a bizarre final statement.

She spoke about sailing with Jesus and said she would return, invoking the imagery of the movie “Independence Day.”

“I’ll be back,” she said.

The statement was broadcast widely after the execution and became the final public words associated with one of America’s most notorious female killers.

Rather than making an apology or asking for mercy, Wuornos used her final moments to deliver a message consistent with the unusual statements she had made during the final years of her life.

THE INJECTION BEGINS

The lethal-injection process began at approximately 9:30 a.m.

Contemporary reporting said the drugs were administered through IV lines in both arms.

Witnesses could see Wuornos’ reactions through the chamber window as the chemicals took effect.

The process lasted several minutes.

At 9:47 a.m. Eastern time, officials pronounced her dead.

She was 46 years old.

Her body was subsequently transported for the mandatory post-execution autopsy.

THE VICTIMS’ FAMILIES WATCHED

Members of the families of Wuornos’ victims were among those who witnessed the execution.

One victim’s daughter later told CNN that she believed her father was present with her emotionally as she watched Wuornos die.

For some relatives, the execution represented the final chapter of a case that had begun more than a decade earlier.

For others, it could not undo the deaths that had brought them to the prison that morning.

THE CASE THAT MADE WUORNOS INFAMOUS

Wuornos became one of the most widely known female serial killers in the United States after authorities linked her to the deaths of several men in Florida between 1989 and 1990.

She maintained at various points that some of the killings had been committed in self-defense, but she was ultimately convicted of multiple murders.

Her case attracted enormous media attention and later inspired books, documentaries and the 2003 film “Monster,” which portrayed her life and crimes.

Yet the execution itself reduced a years-long legal saga to a matter of minutes.

THE END OF A DEATH-ROW STORY

At the end, there was no dramatic courtroom reversal and no last-minute reprieve.

There was only the death chamber, the witnesses behind the glass and a condemned woman delivering her final words before the state carried out the sentence.

At 9:47 a.m., Aileen Wuornos was pronounced dead.

Her final statement — strange, defiant and unmistakably hers — became the last public chapter of a case that had fascinated and horrified the country for more than a decade.