Moore: You turned me against everybody. I won’t trust a person for the rest of my life.
Wuornos: I love you very much.
Moore: I know that.
Wuornos: Will you get over me?
Moore: Yeah… I don’t think it’ll be any problem at all.
Wuornos: OK. I’m sorry. I know this hurts. It is hurting you a lot. It hurts me because I don’t have a family and I’m thinking about you. And you got a family. I know. I wish I had you so I could hold you and hug you and kiss you and tell you how much I’m sorry. Here is a kiss… OK, I’m going to eventually confess. What time do you check out? There’s a tap on the phone.
Moore: Eleven… really?
Wuornos: Yep.
Moore: I didn’t even hear it.
Wuornos: I heard a little tick.
Moore: Well, I’m getting ready to leave so, if you want to go ahead and get it over with, go for it.
‘I was sure it was being taped,’ Lee said later. ‘The way she was talking. I felt it. The way she was able to come back to Florida so quickly. She was staying in a motel for $50 a night. Where’d she get $50 a night? But she kept crying, “They’re going to destroy me. I might as well kill myself. I need you to talk to the cops so they’ll leave me alone.” So I went and told the police that she had nothing to do with the crimes. But I also told them 37 times that it was in self-defence.’
Lee did have one friend at the Volusia County Branch Jail. Marjorie Bertolani was a jail officer who befriended Lee; in her depositions, she recalled the conversations she had with her.
‘What did she inform you?’
‘I told my corporal, you know, that Ms Wuornos wanted to speak to me. She looked really upset. So Corporal Cresta let me inside the block. When I got to the sally port she had gone to the telephone. She signalled for me to come in. I went over to a couple of other girls that were by a table. Ms Wuornos was on the telephone. She was very upset…
‘I was going to go ahead and leave again and Ms Wuornos got off the phone and signalled for me to come over to the table. And I sat down with her at the day-room table. She was sobbing. She was very, very upset. She asked me if I… she said she had done something terrible, and she wanted to get something off her chest. She asked me if I was a Christian. I told her, yes, I was.
‘She proceeded to tell me that she had done some bad things. And she was one of the people that was wanted on these murders. And I just kind of… I really didn’t know much about the case. I knew she was our mystery guest, you know. We just treat them like anybody else.
‘She told me she had this lover named Tessie. She had nothing to do with the murders. And they had gotten drunk one night, and she had said something to this girl, and that she wanted to confess. And I asked her if she had an attorney. She said, “No.” I said, “Well, I suggest you get yourself one.” I told her, “You know, anything that you said to me I have to tell to my supervisors.”
‘She said, “Well, I wanted to get it off my chest,” and she would speak to anybody, investigators, police, anybody. She said she wanted to go to heaven. She was afraid she wouldn’t go to heaven. That’s why she was telling me. That’s why she wanted to confess to someone.’
‘What shift were you working that day?’
‘Eight to four shift.’
‘This occurred at what time?’
‘This was about ten o’clock.’
‘In the morning?’
‘Yes, sir.’
‘Had she, to your knowledge, up to that point been pulled from her cell and taken to any other area of the jail?’
‘You mean like to be questioned or something?’
‘Yes.’
‘No, not at all. Nobody bothered her at all.’
‘Was she, to your knowledge, taken later that day?’
‘Yes, she was.’
‘The block that she was in, they have a telephone inside that area?’
‘Yes, they do.’
‘And they can make collect calls out of there?’
‘Yes, sir. She was trying to get hold of this Tessie. I don’t believe she got hold of her that day. She was really upset. I don’t know who else she had called.’
‘You’re saying that she was visibly upset. Was she crying?’
‘Yes, she was sobbing.’
‘For longer than a brief moment?’
‘For the whole time I was at the table she was. She asked me what I would do. I said, “I’d ask for forgiveness, you know. I’d forgive myself.” Because she was really very, very upset. Of course, anybody that upset we really watch for suicidal tendencies.’
‘Her emotional state was enough to at least concern you?’
‘Yes, it was. She told me she had killed six, not ten.’
‘Where did the figure ten come from?’
‘I had no idea, sir. She said, “I killed six, I did not kill ten.”’
‘Did you at any point in time during that contact with her – you’re familiar with Miranda warnings…?’
‘Yes, sir. I just told her that she had the right to counsel before she even, you know… after she had said… I said, “Well, you should have an attorney. You should be telling this to an attorney.” She said she wanted to get it off her chest, and she would talk to anyone. She said, “I’ll talk to investigators, I’ll talk to detectives. I want to get it off my chest. I want to go to heaven.” She kept crying.’
‘Did she describe any conversations she may have had recently with this Tessie?’
‘Only that she loved her very much, and that she was a Christian and goes to church a lot, and had nothing to do with it, and really hated to see her go through this; and “she’d probably never talk to me again”. Her words.’
‘In talking about this situation, wanting to talk to someone, based on what she is telling you, why did she seem to want to get this off her chest?’
‘Because she said she was a Christian. She said she had really studied the Bible before. She wanted to go to heaven. She was afraid she was not going to heaven. She said they were going to give her the electric chair.’
‘Did she mention anything about wanting to protect this Tessie?’
‘No. She said she had nothing to do with it. She had told her about something in one of those episodes that she had had. She was drunk, in a drunken state, and she had confessed this. And Tessie really didn’t know anything about it.’
‘Did it seem important to her to want to make sure people knew that Tessie didn’t have anything to do with it?’
‘Not really. It was more like she wanted to go to heaven. She was more worried about that.’
Shortly after 10am on Wednesday, 16 January 1992, Lee met investigators Lawrence Horzepa of Volusia County and Bruce Munster of Marion County. Her interview was both video and audio recorded. Her love for Tyria was such that she had to clear her lover’s name; if she did confess, maybe she would go to heaven.
Lee was appointed two Volusia County assistant public defenders, Raymond Cass and Donald Jacobsen, but it was in the presence of assistant public defender Michael O’Neill that she confessed to the murders of Richard Mallory, David Spears, Charles Carskaddon, Peter Siems, Troy Burress, Walter Gino Antonio and Charles Humphreys. For the moment, however, she would go it alone.
The two detectives knew they were on a knife edge with this first interview. Even though Tyria was in a position to have been an accessory after the fact, she would not now face prosecution. However, the officers, from past experience, knew that the best-laid plans often fail. If Lee changed her mind in a pique, going public that Tyria was equally as responsible as she was, there would be a national uproar. But they had an ace up their sleeve. Unbeknown to Lee, they knew how desperately she loved Tyria Moore. She would die for her.
Nevertheless, the cops had to be on their best behaviour. They plied her with coffee and cigarettes, and gave her a warm jacket to wear in the chilly office. With such attention, linked to her need to protect her former lover, the only true lov
e in her otherwise loveless life, and seemingly a desire to find favour with the Lord – a sentiment which she later spat upon – Lee’s confession poured from her like a torrent.
Bruce Munster began the interrogation. Here are excerpts from the pertinent areas:
Munster: What I’m going to do is I’m going to preface the tape so that there isn’t any doubt about anything that’s going on. I’ll be straight up front with you if you’ll be straight up front with me, OK?
Wuornos: I would like to know if I wanted to… if I wanted to be straight up with one thing right here and now?
Munster: Sure.
Wuornos: The reason I’m confessing is there’s not another girl. There is no other girl. The girlfriend of mine is just a friend. She is working all the time and she… she worked at the Casa del Mar. She was always working. She was not involved with any of this… and the person that was murdered. She didn’t know it was… until after the car was wrecked. See, she didn’t know anything. She’s really, really a good person, an honest person, a working person and she doesn’t do anything wrong. She doesn’t do drugs and all that stuff. She’s a real decent person that works a lot. She was my… my… roommate.
Horzepa: OK, so then what you’re telling us is you’re voluntarily coming forward to talk to us now.
Wuornos: Yeah. To let you know that I’m the one that did the killings.
Horzepa: OK.
Munster: OK. Now, let me read you your rights, OK? You have the right to remain silent. The constitution requires that I so inform you of this right and you do not talk to me if you do not wish to do so. You do not have to answer any of my questions. Do you understand that?
Wuornos: Yes.
Munster: If you want an attorney to be present at this time or any time hereafter you are entitled to such counsel. If you cannot afford to pay for counsel, we will furnish you with counsel if you so desire. Do you understand that?
Wuornos: What does counsel mean?
Munster: An attorney.
At this point Lee started to cry.
Wuornos: Well, what’s an attorney going to do? I… I know what I did. I’m confessing what I did and go ahead and put the electric chair to me… I should never have done it. See, most of the times I was drunk as hell and I was a professional hooker and these guys would take my offer. I’d give them a little shit sometimes, you know, and so when they started getting rough with me, I went… I just opened up and fired at them. Then I thought to myself, Why are you giving me such hell for when I just… I’m just trying to make my money… and you’re giving me a hassle.
At this point, the interview stopped while Lee regained her composure.
Wuornos: I don’t understand why I would have… what would an attorney do? Help me from keeping… getting the death penalty?
Munster: I don’t know that.
Wuornos: I don’t know. I don’t know that either.
Munster: It’s your decision, Lee, I can’t make it for you.
Wuornos: If I did get the death penalty, do they stick you in a little room all the time?
Munster: I don’t know. I don’t know.
Wuornos: I’m a good person inside, but when I get drunk, I don’t know what happens when somebody messes with me. When somebody hassles me, I mean, I’m like, don’t fuck with me.
Munster: Yeah.
Wuornos: I mean anybody would be like that. And… in other words, really deep inside I was going to… when I was a little girl I always wanted to be a nun. And when I got older, I wanted to be a missionary, and I really got into… then I had some back problems. Then I fell in love with somebody and I had bad… when I love somebody, I love them all the way. But what I did, I don’t understand why I did it. I just don’t. I just know that they… they kind of gave me a hassle. When somebody gave me a hassle, I decided to whip out my gun and give it to them. Of course I didn’t really want to kill them in my heart, but I knew I had to. Because I knew, if I left some witness, then they’d find out who I was and then I’d get caught. I have to tell. I have to tell the truth.
When gently pressed further, Aileen started to open up while Munster and Horzepa wisely kept quiet. As any first-rate interrogator knows, they would have to listen to claptrap before they got to the most important issues at hand. Allow the suspect to waffle on and on before getting to the nub of the matter – a straight confession to multiple homicide.
Wuornos: And I just… I wanted to tell it… All I… I want to confess. I don’t want my girlfriend in trouble. She doesn’t deserve to go to prison or anything because she doesn’t know… she knows stuff of what I said in drunken spews, but she was not there. She did not know nothing and she did not… you know, she didn’t… she couldn’t believe me, I mean, if she… if she wanted to believe me, I’m sure she couldn’t hardly believe me, is what I’m saying. And she loved me. And I loved her. And she was like, I can’t believe me, is what I’m saying. And she loved me. And I loved her. And she was like, I can’t believe you would do something like this. So… I just want her to be very, very… I am doing this because I don’t want… I love her very much and she’s so sweet and so kind and so innocent. She’s just a real sweet girl. You know, I don’t want her to get into trouble. Because she didn’t do anything. See, I was… she was at work. Casa del Mar. While I was going out and hooking. I would hitchhike. A guy would pick me up and I’d ask if they were interested in helping me out because I’m trying to make rent money, you know. And they’d say how much and I’d say 30 for head, 35 straight, 40 for half and half, 100 an hour. And they, you know, then they’d say, well, I’ll take this or whatever and then, now… I’m telling you, I’ve dealt with a hundred thousand guys. But these guys are the only guys who gave me a problem and they started giving me a problem just… this year… the year that went by. So, I at the time, I was staying with some guy and I noticed he had some guns and I ripped off his .22, a nine-shot deal. And I carried that around while I was thumbing around – I couldn’t believe the cops never searched me. I got… I got a message for the cops. You see a hitchhiker? Search them. They would never search me. And, uh, uh, anyway, so when I’d get a hassle, if the person would give me my money and I… I wouldn’t do nothing to them. But if the person gave me my money and then started hassling me, that’s when I started taking retaliation. But I was… she was at work while I’d be in Ocala or Homosassa or… or, shoot, sometimes Fort Myers. I’d leave for sometimes a couple of days. It didn’t happen too often. But I would and I’d come back with a wad of money. She knew I was tricking, but she thought I was doing it decently, honestly. And I’d say I made a lot of money because I was… been gone for a while. She didn’t know I killed somebody. See what I’m saying? And then when she found out that I did, she left. She took off and went back home. I told her to go home. You’ve got something to do. Just go and leave. Get out of my life. Because I don’t want you involved. She didn’t do anything. Yeah, she said, yeah, and she started hating me. I don’t blame her. She said, it’s easy to hate you. It’s easy to get over you. And I lost someone very dear in my life that I cared about. And I loved her with all my heart. I just wish I never would have done this shit. I wish I never would have got that gun. I wish to God I was never a hooker. And I just wish I never would have done what I did. I still have to say to myself, I still say that it was in self-defence. Because most of them either were going to start to beat me up or were going to screw me in the ass… and I’d… as I’d get away from them I’d run to the front of the car or jump over the seat or whatever, grab my gun and just start shooting. Which they would be out of the car. Most of them would be nude because they took their clothes off, see. And then they didn’t, you know, didn’t think about running back to the car or anything. I would start shooting out… from out of the car, shoot at them. Did they find any prints on the car that was, uh, the wrecked one?
Munster: Yes.
Wuornos: Did they find that Tyria’s prints and my prints were on it?
Munster: Yes.
&n
bsp; Wuornos: OK. So that’s why I’m confessing because, see, she didn’t know it was a car by a victim. She just thought I had… somebody loaned it to me. And we just went around and driving around all the time and drinking and driving. And then I told her I was too drunk and I asked her if she wanted to drive and then she had a… she said OK, so she… we’re driving down the road and she was going a little too fast and I told her to slow down and she couldn’t control the curve and that’s when we wrecked. Then I went through the fence, got in the back of the car after it was wrecked, went through the fence, drove it down the road while it was still smashed to hell. I had blood all over my shoulder and shit and then I told her, I said, ‘Listen, I’m going to tell you something.’ She said, ‘What?’ I said, ‘We can’t let the cops know anything right now. This is a cop car. I killed somebody, Ty.’ She said, ‘What!’ I said, ‘I killed somebody.’
The officers nodded their heads in sympathetic agreement. Smiling warmly, Munster lit Lee another cigarette and passed it into Lee’s trembling fingers. Lee took a long draw on the cigarette and sighed.
Wuornos: Even if she knew – which Ty did – most of the times I would tell her shit off the wall when I’m drunk. I think when I’m drunk, I get crazy. And if I told her something I told her like… OK, because remember the guy with the red car… carpet? [Charles Mallory]. That was found under the red carpet on 90… uh, US 1? That was me. OK, I told her, I said, I came home and I said, ‘I was riding my bicycle and I stopped in the woods and dropped it off and I found a guy under a carpet.’ And I told her that. She said, ‘What!’ And I said I found a guy underneath a carpet. Then later on, when I was really drunk, and it’s like truth serum or something, I told her I killed him. But I don’t know if she could believe it or not. But she was pretty much like, ‘No, you’re kidding.’ And I was, ‘Yeah, I did.’ But then I don’t… can’t say that I really said that I really meant it because I don’t remember because I’d be drunk but I’d be telling her stuff and she didn’t… wouldn’t want to believe it, see. Uh… so, what I’m saying is that, even though I might have said something to her, she didn’t really know the truth. She’s very innocent. Really. She’s not… look at Casa del Mar. Tyria Moore’s her name, she worked there all the damn time, all the time this stuff was happening and when I… the last person who got hurt, she was up in Ohio. She is innocent. It was me. I can tell you… blow by blow, as much as I can, everything. I’m being as honest as I can. And she’s… I told her if anybody comes to talk to you, just be as honest as you can be. Tell them that I told you or anything, because you are very innocent of this stuff and I don’t want you to get in trouble for it because you didn’t do anything. I may have told you stuff when I was drunk and everything else, but you didn’t know if you believed me or not because… And she said, ‘But I… I remember you taking a car and we were moving our stuff.’ I said, ‘I know, but remember when I told you I was borrowing it? She said, ‘No, I don’t remember that.’ I said, But… I… and… but… I don’t know. It’s all I can say is I know that she did… she… she’s innocent. That’s what I am saying. She’s not partake… she did not partake in any of this. And… if… only thing that she would partake in anything, it would be knowing… it would be my lips saying to her something and she didn’t know if she could believe me or not, is what I’m saying. See, she was… she was very innocent.
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