The innocent-looking girl in this picture grew up to be one of the most evil female serial killers in the world.

The child, born in 1956 in Rochester, Michigan, had a tumultuous childhood.

When she was just four years old, she and her brother were abandoned by their mother.

This traumatic incident occurred almost exactly while the girl’s father was sentenced to life in prison, after kidnapping and r**ing a seven-year-old girl.

He later died by s**cide in prison.

Michigan
The young girl grew up in Rochester, Michigan. Credit: Adobe Stock
The child was left in the care of her maternal grandparents, and while many would hope that life got better for the little ones, their story seemed only to get sadder.

The woman later claimed that her grandmother was an alcoholic, while her grandfather allegedly physically and s**ually assaulted her while she was in their care.

If this heartbreaking start in life wasn’t enough tragedy, the girl became pregnant at just 14 years old after being r**ed, and it was claimed that her brother might have been the father.

After giving birth to the little boy, she soon placed him for adoption, hoping that he would have a better childhood.

When their grandmother died, the young woman dropped out of school and supported herself with pr**titution work.

Life of crime
Between 1970 and 1980, she was arrested for numerous petty crimes – but no one would ever imagine what she would go on to commit later in life.

After being arrested for disorderly conduct, drunk driving, assault, shoplifting, prostitution, her brother died in 1976, and her grandfather committed s**cide.

From there, she hitchhiked to Florida, where she went onto commit more crime, and faced imprisonment for an armed robbery in 1982.

It was reported that the woman suffered severely with mental health conditions following her unimaginably traumatic childhood, and attempted to take her life six times between the ages of 14 and 22.

Crime
She went onto commit petty crimes in the 1970s. Credit: Adobe Stock
It was while working as a pr**titute in Florida that she committed her first murder.

Her victim was Richard Mallory, a 51-year-old electronics shop owner.

Two weeks after she had shot him three times, his body was found in a woodland area outside of Daytona.

She initially claimed she and Mallory argued in the secluded area over money and an alleged s**ual assault, which led to a fight.

She later testified that Mallory attempted to assault her without paying her, and ultimately she shot him in self-defense after he allegedly r**ed, beat, and sodomized her.

The confession
Following this, the woman confessed to killing seven more men over a 12-month period, between December 1989 and November 1990.

All of her victims were middle-late aged white men, and included a construction worker, a rodeo worker, a truck driver, and a retired chief of police, and more.

She admitted in numerous phone calls to murdering the men, but claimed every time that they had attempted to s**ually assault her and that she shot them in self-defense.

Aileen Wuornos
Aileen Wuornos received six death sentences. Credit: Netflix
She was subsequently charged with first-degree murder for the death of six men, one she wasn’t charged for due to investigators being unable to find the body, despite a confession to killing him.

After receiving six death sentences, Aileen Wuornos, who earned the nickname ‘Damsel of Death,’ was executed by lethal injection on October 9, 2002.