AllMovie

Nick Broomfield directed this controversial documentary about Aileen Wuornos, a Florida prostitute who confessed to killing seven men between 1989 and 1990. Though Wuornos claimed to have acted in self-defense, she was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death. While Wuornos was befriended by Arlene Pralle, an eccentric, born-again Christian determined to save Aileen's soul, her lawyer, Steve Glazer, was primarily concerned with whatever money could be gleaned from Wuornos' grisly notoriety. (At one point, he offered to give Broomfield an exclusive interview with Wuornos, and all her personal effects following her death, for 25,000 dollars.) Aileen Wuornos: The Selling of a Serial Killer examines Wuornos' short, strange career as a media figure, and takes a closer look at her crimes as well as at irregularities in the police investigation of the murders.