All about Aileen Wuornos’ husband and son

Aileen Wuornos was born into an unstable family in Michigan.

According to Britannica, her teenage parents, Diane Wuornos and Leo Pittman, separated around the time she was born on February 29, 1956. When Eileen was almost four years old, Diane abandoned Eileen and her older brother Keith, and the children were subsequently legally adopted by Diane’s parents, Lauri and Britta Wuornos. According to a May 2005 editorial in the Journal of Forensic Science, Eileen never knew her father, who died by suicide in prison in 1969 after serving a life sentence for raping a 7-year-old girl.

According to the 2003 documentary Irene: The Life and Death of a Serial Killer, in her early teens, Irene was sent to an institution for unwed mothers after becoming pregnant and was not allowed to return home.

Eileen eventually headed to Florida, where she met and married 69-year-old Louis Gratz Fell in 1976. However, their marriage did not last long, and Irene’s life took an even darker turn. The details are chronicled in Netflix’s Irene: Queen of Serial Killers, which premiered on October 30th.

In 1991, Irene admitted to killing seven men in Florida between 1989 and 1990, claiming it was in self-defense because the men had raped or attempted to rape her while she was working as a prostitute. She was eventually convicted of murdering six of the men and sentenced to death six times. Wuornos was executed by lethal injection on October 9, 2002, after serving 10 years on death row.

Here’s everything you need to know about Aileen Wuornos’ early life, including the birth of her son and her early marriage to her husband.

Aileen Wuornos welcomed her son in 1971

According to Britannica, Irene became pregnant around the age of 14. Although her father’s identity is unknown, she claims that she was raped by a friend of her grandfather’s, and this information appears to have been confirmed by her childhood friend Dawn Botkins in Irene: Queen of the Serial Killers.

According to the Journal of Forensic Science, Eileen kept her pregnancy a secret for six months because she feared her grandparents’ reaction. Upon learning of the birth of her baby, she was sent to an institution for unwed mothers, where she gave birth to a son in 1971, but gave him up for adoption.

Irene married wealthy yachtsman Louis Gratz Fell in May 1976.

According to the Journal of Forensic Science, Eileen’s younger brother Keith died of cancer in 1976. That same year, Irene, a 20-year-old Florida resident, married wealthy yachtsman Louis Gratz Fell, 69, according to Biography.com.

“I was trying to fall in love. It’s not cool to be alone. It becomes really painful,” she said in an archival interview that aired on “Irene: Queen of Serial Killers.”

According to the New York Times, Fell married a woman named Katherine Fell in 1928. They welcomed a daughter before divorcing in 1932.

Fell filed a restraining order against Irene a few weeks after their marriage.

Weeks after their marriage, Fell filed for a restraining order, claiming that Irene had a “violent and uncontrollable temper” and that he had hit her with a cane, according to the Tampa Bay Times.

Irene denied these allegations and claimed that Fell had attacked her.

Irene and Fell’s marriage was annulled in July 1976.

Irene and Fel’s union was short-lived. According to Biography.com, their marriage was officially annulled on July 19, 1976, just nine weeks after they married.

Fell passed away on January 6, 2000 at the age of 92.

Eileen later dated Tilia Moore. During their relationship, Moore became suspicious of Irene and eventually forced her to confess to the crime.