38 of 41 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Not Great Literature, But A Page-Turner, March 11, 2004
This review is from: Dead Ends: The Pursuit, Conviction and Execution of Female Serial Killer Aileen Wuornos, the Damsel of Death (St. Martin's True Crime Library) (Mass Market Paperback)
It seems peculiar that Reynolds' 1992 account of the life and crimes of Aileen Wuornos has not been promoted in conjunction with the Oscar-winning film MONSTER, which was based on Wuornos's life. Perhaps the substantial liberties which the screenplay takes with the facts are the reason.
MONSTER is a work of art, whereas DEAD ENDS is a fast-paced factual presentation of the crimes. Ty, Lee's sidekick, is little like the character portrayed by Christina Ricci. First, she's unequivocally unattractive physically. Second, in reality she was much older than Ricci's character and was far more responsible for her own actions. She was not merely a thwarted adolescent whose repressive family loathed her same-sex tendencies. Finally, she lived with Aileen Wuornos for several years before the murder spree began. The scriptwriter clearly wished her characters to have understandable motivations; in contrast, in DEAD ENDS, readers never get enough background information to fully make sense of Ty and Aileen's lengthy relationship--particularly why Ty stayed on with Aileen for so long.
DEAD ENDS also is much less empathetic than MONSTER to Wuornos herself. Though it is clear that Wuornos grew up in a grotesquely dysfunctional family (her real father was a convicted pederast who probably hanged himself in prison; her adoptive father was her own grandfather, who committed suicide and very possibly murdered his wife, Wuornos's adopted mother; her real mother abandoned her and her brother while still a teenager; and on and on), DEAD ENDS lends little sympathy to this woman who murdered seven men in a sociopathic spree (which easily might have included far more victims, but for the machinations of Lady Luck).
Aileen Wuornos was not the first but the thirty-fifth female serial killer documented in American history; however, her methodology--using violence in a world which tolerates only masculine force--is what seems to have made her so repugnant to Reynolds and others. It was an interesting tact to take on the part of the screenwriter of MONSTER: in the film, the audience cannot help feeling sorry for this wreck of a woman.
On a planet where physical crimes by men against women astronomically exceed those by women against men, it is fascinating that the prosecutors of Aileen Wuornos, as well as Reynolds himself, find her so repulsive. Hollywood and the popular media project image after image of male violence inflicted upon females. How curious that in a global patriarchy, pathetic characters like Wuornos are so loathed (recall the furor caused by THELMA AND LOUISE?) while the groping Mr. Schwartzenegger is elected to the governership of California!
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22 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
This book wasn't worth the $ AT ALL, March 23, 2004
This review is from: Dead Ends: The Pursuit, Conviction and Execution of Female Serial Killer Aileen Wuornos, the Damsel of Death (St. Martin's True Crime Library) (Mass Market Paperback)
I am an avid fan of true crime books and this is by FAR the most one-sided book I've ever read. It wasn't about the crimes, it was about this author's personal feelings and dislike of Aileen Wuornos. He has a real problem with women, lesbians in particular. He made Ms. Wuornos out to be someone she wasn't. She had a hard life, yes and chose to committ crimes, but that wasn't what this book was about. Again, it wasn't worth the $. I actually threw my copy of this away.
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14 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Aileen Wuornos needed psychiatric help early in life!!!, July 5, 1998
Dead Ends..... is a true account of the consequences that come with the destruction of a young woman's youth. After being used up by men and treated like garbage (a beer bottle thrown out a car window) Aileen lost all trust for men. She didn't care what their nature was anymore because she would never trust another man, she hated all men at this desperate point in her life. And in her mind, all men she could trap in her web of hatered for men would pay dearly for the pain she had suffered for so many years by the hands of men. If someone would have loved her and shown her love, and caring nurturing , getting her psychiatric help, like so many of us need today, things may have been some what different in the out come of her future! I do believe that she did know what she was doing when she killed all of the men, but she was already to far gone with her sickiness. ( lack of having love as a child and good direction for life)She was paying every man back for what she was put through as a child and as a woman.... This book is a must read if you are a true crime reader!
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