This psychological crime thriller takes us inside the mind of a unique female serial killer, a prostitute who murdered seven adult men-a case with which the author was intimately involved. The issues raised by this high-profile criminal case remain unresolved to this day.
Women, even prostitutes, have the right to self-defense in theory, but in practice, the story is more complicated.
This book will challenge everything you ever thought about prostitutes, serial killers, and justice in America.
Aileen Wuornos is a damaged soul, a genuine American outlaw, a symbol of women’s rage, a symbol of what can happen to severely abused children, and of how our justice system fails women.
Chesler’s involvement with a serial killer has haunted her ever since. She speaks in Aileen Wuornos’ voice, as well as in her own, and delivers an incisive, original, and dramatic portrait of a cognitively impaired, traumatized, and alcoholic woman who had endured so much pain in her short life. When she’d had enough, the results were deadly.
This is a poignant, sometimes humorous, never-before-told behind-the-scenes tale. Wuornos’ story is handled with great sensitivity, but also with realistic detachment by Chesler as she probes the telling moment, the telling phrase. Was Wuornos suffering from post-traumatic stress after a life lived on a ‘killing field?’ Was she also ‘born evil?’ So many prostitutes have been torture-murdered by serial killers-how did Wuornos, once prey, become a predator?
Requiem for a Female Serial Killer will also haunt you. It won’t let you put it down.
Take a walk on the wild side. The ghost of Aileen Wuornos beckons.
Cuprins
Introduction: Haunted by a Serial Killer 9
Section one: Murder in the Woods Chapter one: The Hooker and the Whoremonger and the First Man’s Down 17
Chapter two: Lee’s Incessant War against Neighbors and Bus Drivers 27
Chapter three: Two Additional Male Corpses and a Lap Dancer on the Run 41
Chapter four: Three More Men Murdered-‘Ya Talkin’ to Me?’ 53
Chapter five: A Former Police Chief Down 67
Chapter six: A Second Former Police Officer Down-And Then There Were Seven 83
Section two: Feminists, Lawyers, and an Astrologer
Chapter seven: Abolitionists Envision a Political Trial in Florida’s Deep South 103
Chapter eight: Biker Bars, a Horse Farm, and Very Colorful Characters 116
Chapter nine: I Speak to the Serial Killer and Meet with Her Public Defenders 128
Chapter ten: Ocala-They Burn Crosses and Abortion Clinics Right Down to the Ground 141
Chapter eleven: Raping and Battering in the Deep South 158
Chapter twelve: In the Closet of the Zodiac-An Astrologer Casts Wuornos’s Chart 171
Section three: Sunshine, yes, but ain’t no justice here Chapter thirteen: Do Prostitutes Have the Right to Defend Themselves Against Rape? 183
Chapter fourteen: The Fool for Love Confesses, Is Tried and Convicted, and We Meet on Death Row 194
Chapter fifteen: Love Letters 209
Afterword: Requiem for a Female Serial Killer 227
Acknowledgments 245
About the Author 247
Despre autor
Phyllis Chesler is an Emerita Professor of Psychology and Women’s Studies at City University of New York. She is a best- selling author, a legendary feminist leader, a psychotherapist and an expert courtroom witness. Dr. Chesler has published thousands of articles and, most recently, studies, about honor-related violence including honor killings. She has published many classic works such as Women and Madness, Mothers on Trial. The Battle for Children and Custody, and Woman’s Inhumanity to Woman. She is about to publish her fifteenth book in October, 2013, titled An American Bride in Kabul.
Dr. Chesler has lived in Kabul and Jerusalem and now lives in New York City. She has led campaigns and lectured in Europe, the Middle East, and the Far East.
Dr. Chesler is co-founder of the Association for Women in Psychology (1969), the National Women’s Health Network (1974), and the International Committee for the Jerusalem based Women of the Wall (1989).
A revised and updated edition of Women and Madness was published in 2005; a new edition of Woman’s Inhumanity to Woman with a new Introduction was published in 2009; and a Twenty Fifth anniversary edition of Mothers on Trial with eight new chapters was published in 2011. In 2009, 2010, and 2012, Dr. Chesler published three pioneering academic studies on honor killings and an academic article about the Burqa. All four studies appeared in Middle East Quarterly. Her work has been translated into many European languages and into Japanese, Chinese, Korean, and Hebrew.
Since 9/11, Dr. Chesler has focused on the rights of women, dissidents, and gays in the Islamic world; on anti-Semitism and the demonization of Israel; the psychology of terrorism; the nature of propaganda; and honor-related violence. She has testified for Muslim and ex-Muslim women who are seeking asylum or citizenship based on their credible belief that their families will honor kill them.
Over the years, Dr. Chesler has appeared in the mainstream, leftwing, and rightwing media. She has been on The Today Show and The O’Reilly Factor; on Donahue, Geraldo, and Oprah–and on the 700 Club; Israel National radio, and Al-Hurrah. Dr. Chesler has been on Nightline, Court TV, the History Channel, MSNBC, NPR, the Mac Neil-Lehrer Report and CNN–and on FOX News.
Dr. Chesler has been published, interviewed, and reviewed in The Washington Post, The International Herald Tribune, The Times of London, The New York Times, The Weekly Standard, National Review, Il Foglio, Ha’aretz, Frontpage.com, Salon, The Globe and Mail, The London Guardian, Israel National News, The Jewish Week, The Jewish Press, Psychology Today, Science Magazine, etc.
There are over 4 million references to Dr. Chesler’s work online. She has been profiled in many encyclopedias, including Feminists Who Have Changed America, Jewish Women in America, and in the latest Encyclopedia Judaica. Approximately 100, 000+ people visit her website each year and from more than 180 countries. Her articles are archived at her website http://www.phyllis-chesler.com/ where she may also be contacted.
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