‘For the whole time I was at the table she was. She asked me what I would do. I said, “I’d ask for forgiveness, you know. I’d forgive myself.” Because she was really very, very upset. Of course, anybody that upset we really watch for suicidal tendencies.’
‘Her emotional state was enough to at least concern you?’
‘Yes, it was. She told me she had killed six, not ten.’
‘Where did the figure ten come from?’
‘I had no idea, sir. She said, “I killed six, I did not kill ten.”’
‘Did you at any point in time during that contact with her – you’re familiar with Miranda warnings…?’
‘Yes, sir. I just told her that she had the right to counsel before she even, you know… after she had said… I said, “Well, you should have an attorney. You should be telling this to an attorney.” She said she wanted to get it off her chest, and she would talk to anyone. She said, “I’ll talk to investigators, I’ll talk to detectives. I want to get it off my chest. I want to go to heaven.” She kept crying.’
‘Did she describe any conversations she may have had recently with this Tessie?’
‘Only that she loved her very much, and that she was a Christian and goes to church a lot, and had nothing to do with it, and really hated to see her go through this; and “she’d probably never talk to me again”. Her words.’
‘In talking about this situation, wanting to talk to someone, based on what she is telling you, why did she seem to want to get this off her chest?’
‘Because she said she was a Christian. She said she had really studied the Bible before. She wanted to go to heaven. She was afraid she was not going to heaven. She said they were going to give her the electric chair.’
‘Did she mention anything about wanting to protect this Tessie?’
‘No. She said she had nothing to do with it. She had told her about something in one of those episodes that she had had. She was drunk, in a drunken state, and she had confessed this. And Tessie really didn’t know anything about it.’
‘Did it seem important to her to want to make sure people knew that Tessie didn’t have anything to do with it?’
‘Not really. It was more like she wanted to go to heaven. She was more worried about that.’
Shortly after 10am on Wednesday, 16 January 1992, Lee met investigators Lawrence Horzepa of Volusia County and Bruce Munster of Marion County. Her interview was both video and audio recorded. Her love for Tyria was such that she had to clear her lover’s name; if she did confess, maybe she would go to heaven.
Lee was appointed two Volusia County assistant public defenders, Raymond Cass and Donald Jacobsen, but it was in the presence of assistant public defender Michael O’Neill that she confessed to the murders of Richard Mallory, David Spears, Charles Carskaddon, Peter Siems, Troy Burress, Walter Gino Antonio and Charles Humphreys. For the moment, however, she would go it alone.
The two detectives knew they were on a knife edge with this first interview. Even though Tyria was in a position to have been an accessory after the fact, she would not now face prosecution. However, the officers, from past experience, knew that the best-laid plans often fail. If Lee changed her mind in a pique, going public that Tyria was equally as responsible as she was, there would be a national uproar. But they had an ace up their sleeve. Unbeknown to Lee, they knew how desperately she loved Tyria Moore. She would die for her.
Nevertheless, the cops had to be on their best behaviour. They plied her with coffee and cigarettes, and gave her a warm jacket to wear in the chilly office. With such attention, linked to her need to protect her former lover, the only true love in her otherwise loveless life, and seemingly a desire to find favour with the Lord – a sentiment which she later spat upon – Lee’s confession poured from her like a torrent.
Bruce Munster began the interrogation. Here are excerpts from the pertinent areas:
Munster: What I’m going to do is I’m going to preface the tape so that there isn’t any doubt about anything that’s going on. I’ll be straight up front with you if you’ll be straight up front with me, OK?
Wuornos: I would like to know if I wanted to… if I wanted to be straight up with one thing right here and now?
Munster: Sure.
Wuornos: The reason I’m confessing is there’s not another girl. There is no other girl. The girlfriend of mine is just a friend. She is working all the time and she… she worked at the Casa del Mar. She was always working. She was not involved with any of this… and the person that was murdered. She didn’t know it was… until after the car was wrecked. See, she didn’t know anything. She’s really, really a good person, an honest person, a working person and she doesn’t do anything wrong. She doesn’t do drugs and all that stuff. She’s a real decent person that works a lot. She was my… my… roommate.
Horzepa: OK, so then what you’re telling us is you’re voluntarily coming forward to talk to us now.
Wuornos: Yeah. To let you know that I’m the one that did the killings.
Horzepa: OK. Munster: OK. Now, let me read you your rights, OK? You have the right to remain silent. The constitution requires that I so inform you of this right and you do not talk to me if you do not wish to do so. You do not have to answer any of my questions. Do you understand that?
Wuornos: Yes.
Munster: If you want an attorney to be present at this time or any time hereafter you are entitled to such counsel. If you cannot afford to pay for counsel, we will furnish you with counsel if you so desire. Do you understand that?
Wuornos: What does counsel mean?
Munster: An attorney.
At this point Lee started to cry.
Wuornos: Well, what’s an attorney going to do? I… I know what I did. I’m confessing what I did and go ahead and put the electric chair to me… I should never have done it. See, most of the times I was drunk as hell and I was a professional hooker and these guys would take my offer. I’d give them a little shit sometimes, you know, and so when they started getting rough with me, I went… I just opened up and fired at them. Then I thought to myself, Why are you giving me such hell for when I just… I’m just trying to make my money… and you’re giving me a hassle.
At this point, the interview stopped while Lee regained her composure.
Wuornos: I don’t understand why I would have… what would an attorney do? Help me from keeping… getting the death penalty?
Munster: I don’t know that.
Wuornos: I don’t know. I don’t know that either.
Munster: It’s your decision, Lee, I can’t make it for you.
Wuornos: If I did get the death penalty, do they stick you in a little room all the time? Munster: I don’t know. I don’t know.
Wuornos: I’m a good person inside, but when I get drunk, I don’t know what happens when somebody messes with me. When somebody hassles me, I mean, I’m like, don’t fuck with me.
Munster: Yeah.
Wuornos: I mean anybody would be like that. And… in other words, really deep inside I was going to… when I was a little girl I always wanted to be a nun. And when I got older, I wanted to be a missionary, and I really got into… then I had some back problems. Then I fell in love with somebody and I had bad… when I love somebody, I love them all the way. But what I did, I don’t understand why I did it. I just don’t. I just know that they… they kind of gave me a hassle. When somebody gave me a hassle, I decided to whip out my gun and give it to them. Of course I didn’t really want to kill them in my heart, but I knew I had to. Because I knew, if I left some witness, then they’d find out who I was and then I’d get caught. I have to tell. I have to tell the truth.