Naman Shrestha
Netflix’s ‘Aileen: Queen of the Serial Killers’ is a true crime documentary film that delves deep into the psyche of Aileen Wuornos, a female serial killer who wreaked havoc in the state of Florida by claiming multiple victims in the span of a year. The documentary also mentions her victims, one of whom was 51-year-old Richard Charles Mallory. During the investigation, several dark secrets were uncovered about his life, but it didn’t change the serial killer’s verdict.
Richard Mallory Was the First Victim of a Female Serial Killer
Born on October 18, 1938, in Palm Harbor, Florida, Richard Charles Mallory was an electronics store owner in the city of Clearwater, where he was seemingly leading a content life. On the fateful day of November 30, 1989, the 51-year-old man was last seen picking up a woman along Interstate 75 in Florida. Within a couple of days after his sudden disappearance, his abandoned vehicle was found in a remote area of Ormond Beach. Inside the car, the authorities found several of his belongings, including his wallet and an empty bottle of vodka.
About a couple of weeks later, on December 13, the police also discovered his remains in a wooded area in a Daytona Beach junkyard, several miles away from his abandoned vehicle. Upon further inspection of the remains, the authorities determined that the cause of his death was multiple gunshot wounds to his body, including three in the chest. After collecting all the potential pieces of evidence from the scene, the police immediately launched a homicide investigation.
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Richard Mallory’s Killer Claimed Self-Defense in Her Confession
While the authorities were busy investigating Richard Mallory’s murder, more similar murders took place in Florida. When they found several of his belongings at a local pawnshop, the detectives were led to a sex worker named Aileen Wuornos, who was also suspected of committing other killings in the area. The investigators found more incriminating evidence against the woman, leading to her arrest on January 9, 1991, at a local biker bar called The Last Resort in Volusia County. Initially, she denied having anything to do with the murders. However, after receiving pressure from her former girlfriend, Tyria Moore, the accused confessed to killing Richard Mallory and other men.
In her confession, Aileen claimed that she hitchhiked into his vehicle and went into a secluded area to have an intimate moment. According to her, the 51-year-old man allegedly beat, raped, and sexually assaulted her, after which she shot him to death, allegedly in self-defense. She also told the authorities that he had allegedly admitted to committing rapes in the past. However, it wasn’t until later that his conviction of attempted rape in Maryland came to the surface. Due to the crime, Richard was reportedly admitted to a correctional institution from 1958 to 1962 to receive the necessary treatment.
According to reports, in 1961, Richard was believed to have strong sociopathic tendencies that could affect his environment in a negative way. During Aileen Wuornos’ trial in January 1992, the evidence of Richard’s rap sheet was not allowed to be used. After nearly two weeks of trial, on January 27, Aileen was found guilty of killing Richard Mallory. Eventually, she was sentenced to death for the same, despite the defense’s attempts to prove that she was mentally unstable and had a borderline personality disorder. After several attempts at retrial, the female serial killer was executed by lethal injection on the morning of October 9, 2002.
