American sex worker and murderer Aileen Wuornos was BOTD [29 February] in 1956. Born in rural Michigan, her father was imprisoned at the time of her birth, later committing suicide, and she was abandoned by her mother when she was four. Adopted by her alcoholic grandparents, she was subjected to physical and sexual abuse from an early age. By 11, she was trading sex for cigarettes, drugs and food at her school, and became pregnant at 14 after being raped by a friend of her grandfather. She gave birth to a son in 1971, whom she gave up for adoption. Thrown out of home at 15, she lived as a vagrant, supporting herself via sex work. Her adult life was compounded by alcoholism, suicide attempts, and repeated imprisonments for assault and robbery. In 1986, she began a relationship with Tyria Moore, whom she met at a gay bar. They began living together, with Wuornos supporting them via sex work. In 1989, she murdered a client after he assaulted and raped her. Over the next 12 months, she murdered six more men in similar circumstances. Arrested in 1991, she was tried for the murders over a two-year period. Originally claiming that she acted in self-defence, she later admitted that some of the murders had been motivated by robbery. She received six death sentences and became a tabloid media sensation, dubbed as America’s most infamous female serial killer, with many media reports conflating her lesbianism with her crimes. After a decade on Death Row, she was executed by lethal injection in 2002, aged 46. Her story was the subject of Nick Broomfield’s 2003 documentary Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer, based on a series of interviews Broomfield made with Wuornos before her execution. Patti Jenkins’ biographical drama film Monster, also released in 2003, starred a heavily-prostheticised Charlize Theron as Wuornos, who won an Oscar for the role. Wuornos’ legacy has been revisited in recent years by feminist and queer commentators, critiquing the sexist and homophobic aspects of her media portrayal and her demonisation by the tabloid press.