The haunting final moments of notorious serial killer Aileen Wuornos are being revisited in a new Netflix documentary that’s reigniting public fascination with one of America’s most infamous female murderers. Known as the “Damsel of Death,” Wuornos killed seven men between 1989 and 1990 — claiming each murder was an act of self-defense against men who tried to assault her while she worked as a sex worker along Florida highways.
The new film, titled *Aileen Wuornos: The Last Ride*, features never-before-seen footage of her final interviews and newly unearthed recordings from death row, including her eerie last words spoken moments before execution. Those chilling words — “I’ll be back, like Independence Day, with Jesus. June 6, like the movie, big mother ship and all. I’ll be back.” — have once again sent shivers through viewers and criminologists alike.
Wuornos was executed by lethal injection on October 9, 2002, at the Florida State Prison after more than a decade on death row. She was 46 years old. According to witnesses, she appeared calm as she entered the chamber, declined her last meal, and smiled faintly before delivering her final, cryptic statement. “It was like she thought she was in on some cosmic secret,” said one former prison guard interviewed by BBC News. “She wasn’t scared — she was defiant.”
Netflix’s new doc on Aileen Wuornos features her chilling last words before execution: “I’ll be back… with Jesus.” @PopBase
The documentary sheds light on the chaos of her final years, including bizarre outbursts caught on tape and her growing belief that she was part of a government conspiracy. “Aileen became convinced she was being tortured through sonic control,” explained criminologist Dr. Martha Jennings. “She said she could hear voices in the prison air vents, calling her a ‘serial killer angel.’ It’s a terrifying glimpse into her mental unraveling.”
Producers of the Netflix series gained access to over 30 hours of unseen recordings, many captured just weeks before her death. In them, Wuornos swings between anger, paranoia, and eerie calm. “I did what I had to do,” she says in one clip. “They deserved to die — and now, I’m done.”
Her story — one of trauma, violence, and vengeance — continues to divide viewers even decades later. Advocates say she was a victim of abuse who never got the help she needed; others argue she was a cold-blooded killer who manipulated her past to justify murder. “Aileen’s life is the ultimate tragedy of America’s forgotten women,” said Guardian journalist @carolinedunn. “She was made by violence — and consumed by it.”
Wuornos’s life has been depicted many times before, most famously in the Oscar-winning film *Monster*, starring Charlize Theron. But the new Netflix documentary includes newly declassified files from her psychiatric evaluations and previously unreleased prison video logs, offering fresh insight into her deteriorating mental state. “She was lucid one moment, delusional the next,” said psychologist Dr. Robert Klein. “It’s a chilling portrait of rage meeting madness.”
“She smiled before her execution and said she’d return ‘with Jesus and a mothership.’” — Witness to Aileen Wuornos’ final moments. @guardian
Wuornos’s crimes shocked the nation not only for their brutality but for their rarity — a female serial killer who claimed to kill for survival rather than pleasure. Between 1989 and 1990, she shot and killed seven men in Florida, later admitting to the murders but insisting she acted in self-defense. “Every one of them tried to rape me,” she said during her trial, her voice trembling. “I fought back. Isn’t that what you’re supposed to do?”
The new documentary revisits evidence long buried by time, including audio from police interrogations and photos from the scenes where the bodies were found along highways. “It’s a chilling reminder of how anger and trauma can twist a life beyond recognition,” said investigative journalist Laura Powell. “She wasn’t born a monster — she was made one.”
Social media reaction to the series has been explosive. On X, the hashtag #AileenWuornosNetflix trended within hours of release, with users expressing a mix of horror and empathy. “You can’t watch it and not feel something,” one viewer wrote. “She’s terrifying, but also heartbreaking.”
“She wasn’t scared. She was calm. Almost… peaceful.” — Guard describes Aileen Wuornos’s final minutes on death row. @itvnews
Producers have also included footage from her final psychiatric interview, conducted just 48 hours before her execution. In it, Wuornos looks straight into the camera and says, “I’m at peace. I’ll walk with God now.” But her eyes, as one reviewer from The Independent noted, “tell a different story — one of fury, confusion, and unhealed wounds.”
Her ashes were scattered in her home state of Michigan by her friend, musician Don Botkins, who appears in the final scenes of the documentary. “She wanted to go home,” he says softly. “No matter what she did, that’s all she ever wanted.”
Two decades later, Aileen Wuornos remains an unsettling figure — a killer, a victim, and an enigma whose final words continue to echo through pop culture and criminal history. “I’ll be back,” she promised before she died. For many watching her story unfold again, it feels like she never really left.