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aleja

11:18 am

Monster (2003)

Real-life inspiration: Aileen Wuornos

Status: Executed at Florida State Prison, October 9, 2002

Cause of death: Lethal injection

What happens in the movie: She may resemble a Britney Spears who swapped fame for Twinkies, but Aileen Wuornos is definitely not all that innocent. Charlize Theron pulls an Oscar-winning performance out of a bag of blue-collar horrors as a lesbian prostitute who kills seven men after being brutally raped by one of her clients. She’s finally convicted of the murders when her lover Selby (Christina Ricci) tricks her into confessing.

What really happened: Monster depicts Wuornos as a victim who acted in self-defence rather than a cold-blooded killer, but forensic evidence suggests that the traumatic story of rape at the hands of her first victim couldn’t be true. The movie also shows that Wuornos couldn’t get a job due to her criminal record for prostitution when, in reality, her rap sheet included no prostitution-related offences but a lengthy record of armed robbery, grand theft auto and possession of firearms. These have to go down as fairly significant oversights when you consider that Aileen Wuornos shot all her victims, robbed them and stole their cars. Also, Monster portrays Selby as a teenage runaway. In reality, her name was Tyria Moore and she was in her mid-20s, overweight and toothless. Presumably Hollywood couldn’t allow two pretty starlets to rough it up for in the name of accuracy.