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Sarah Paulson is in final talks to play Aileen Wuornos.
The actress will take on the role of the real-life serial killer in Season 4 of Ryan Murphy’s anthology series Monsters.
Previous seasons have told the stories of Jeffrey Dahmer, the Menendez brothers and Ed Gein.
Season 4 is currently in production.
It is focused on the Lizzie Borden axe murders of 1892.
Given that Wuornos was active between 1989 and 1990, it is believed that her story will be told as part of a broader examination of how society mythologises female killers.
Sarah and Ryan are frequent collaborators, having worked together on shows including All’s Fair, The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story and Impeachment: American Crime Story.
Who is Aileen Wuornos?
Aileen Wuornos was a serial killer who confessed to murdering seven men while working as a prostitute.
She claimed the acts were committed in self defence.
She committed her first murder in November 1989 when she shot Richard Mallory.
Following her conviction, she said he had beaten and raped her.
For 12 months, Wuornos continued her killing spree, getting picked up by clients and shooting them along various Florida highways.
She was eventually caught after police found her palm print in one of the victim’s cars, and she confessed to shooting seven men.
She was found guilty of killing her first victim and pleaded no contest or guilty to an additional five murders.
“I wanted to confess to you that Richard Mallory did violently rape me as I’ve told you. But these others did not. [They] only began to start to,” she said in March 1992, according to People.
She was not charged with one murder as the body of the victim has never been found.
Wuornos received six death sentences and was executed by lethal injection in October, 2002.
It is believed that she had an abusive childhood, but evidence presented in court refuted her claims that the murders were in self defence.
In 2004, Charlize Theron won the Academy Award for best Actress after playing Wuornos in the movie Monster.
