Overview

"This psychological crime thriller takes us inside the mind of a unique female serial killer, a prostitute who murdered seven adult men-a case with which the author was intimately involved. The issues raised by this high-profile criminal case remain unresolved to this day. Women, even prostitutes, have the right to self-defense in theory, but in practice, the story is more complicated. This book will challenge everything you ever thought about prostitutes, serial killers, and justice in America. Aileen Wuornos is a damaged soul, a genuine American outlaw, a symbol of women's rage, a symbol of what can happen to severely abused children, and of how our justice system fails women. Chesler's involvement with a serial killer has haunted her ever since. She speaks in Aileen Wuornos' voice, as well as in her own, and delivers an incisive, original, and dramatic portrait of a cognitively impaired, traumatized, and alcoholic woman who had endured so much pain in her short life. When she'd had enough, the results were deadly. This is a poignant, sometimes humorous, never-before-told behind-the-scenes tale. Wuornos' story is handled with great sensitivity, but also with realistic detachment by Chesler as she probes the telling moment, the telling phrase. Was Wuornos suffering from post-traumatic stress after a life lived on a ""killing field?"" Was she also ""born evil?"" So many prostitutes have been torture-murdered by serial killers-how did Wuornos, once prey, become a predator? Requiem for a Female Serial Killer will also haunt you. It won't let you put it down. Take a walk on the wild side. The ghost of Aileen Wuornos beckons."

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9781943003433

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Reviews

Aileen Wuornos-female serial killer? Feminist folk-hero? A broken woman betrayed her entire life by a system that should have protected her? Perhaps all of the above, in one volatile package. In this amazing book, Phyllis Chesler takes you on a mind-bending journey through a story you thought you knew. Chesler sets out to write a book to make you question everything and succeeds. -Gregg Olsen, author, If You Tell: A True Story of Murder, Family Secrets, and the Unbreakable Bond of Sisterhood This book is a tour de force. It is both an imagined interpretation of the crimes of Aileen Wuornos, the female 'serial killer, ' and a description of the way that feminists in the US responded to her trial and execution. Chesler provides a fascinating and complex analysis. This book is a powerful account of the terrible harms of prostitution and violence against women. -Dr. Sheila Jeffreys, author, The Idea of Prostitution If you love true crime thrillers, as I do, you must read Requiem with its feminist psychological twist. You won't be able to put it down. Chesler, an eminent psychologist, gets inside the mind of a unique female serial killer. FBI profilers should be ordering their copies right now. This is a behind-the-scenes account which is very smart. Anyone who cares about life and death, madness, justice (or the lack of it) and riveting trials in an American courtroom, about the death penalty, and about rape trauma and the right to self-defense will be amazed and captivated by this never-before ventured analysis. -Alan Dershowitz, author, Guilt by Accusation: The Challenge of Proving Innocence in the Age of #MeToo

If you love true crime thrillers, as I do, you must read Requiem with its feminist psychological twist. You won't be able to put it down. Chesler, an eminent psychologist, gets inside the mind of a unique female serial killer. FBI profilers should be ordering their copies right now. This is a behind-the-scenes account which is, in turn, poignant, funny, sordid, raunchy, and smart, very smart. Anyone who cares about life and death, madness, justice (or the lack of it) and riveting trials in an American courtroom, about the death penalty, and about rape trauma and the right to self-defense will be amazed and captivated by this never-before ventured analysis. --Alan Dershowitz, author, Guilt by Accusation: the challenge of proving innocence in the age of #Me Too.

Author Information

Phyllis Chesler, Ph.D, is an Emerita Professor of Psychology and Women's Studies at City University of New York. She is a best-selling author, a legendary feminist leader, a retired psychotherapist an d an expert courtroom witness. Her work has been translated into many European languages and into Japanese, Chinese, Korean, and Hebrew. Dr. Chesler is a co-founder of the Association for Women in Psychology (1969), the National Women's Health Network (1974), and the Original Women of the Wall (1989). She is also a Fellow at The Middle East Forum. Dr. Chesler was an early 1970s abolitionist theorist and activist: She wrote and delivered speeches which opposed rape, incest, pornography, sex and reproductive prostitution, sex trafficking, and gender-based double standards of justice. Requiem is her nineteenth book. She is the author of the landmark feminist classic Women and Madness (1972, 2018) as well as many other notable books including About Men (1978); With Child: A Diary of Motherhood (1979); Mothers on Trial: The Battle for Children and Custody (1986, 2011); Sacred Bond: The Legacy of Baby M (1988); Letters to a Young Feminist (1998, 2018) Woman's Inhumanity to Woman (2002); and Women of the Wall: Claiming Sacred Ground at Judaism's Holy Site (2002). After publishing The New Anti-Semitism (2003, 2015), she published The Death of Feminism: What's Next in the Struggle for Women's Freedom (2005) and An American Bride in Kabul (2013), which won a National Jewish Book Award. She published Islamic Gender Apartheid: Exposing A Veiled War Against Women (2017), A Family Conspiracy: Honor Killings (2018) and, that same year, a memoir: A Politically Incorrect Feminist. Since the Intifada of 2000, and especially since 9/11, Dr. Chesler has focused on the rise of anti-Semitism, the demonization of both Israel and the West, and the nature of terrorism; the rights of women, dissidents, and gays in the Hindu, Sikh, and Islamic world. Dr. Chesler has published four studies about honor killings, and penned a position paper on why the West should ban the burqa; these studies have all appeared in Middle East Quarterly. Based on her studies, she has submitted affidavits for Muslim and ex-Muslim women who are seeking asylum or citizenship based on their credible belief that their families will honor-kill them. She has archived most of her articles at her website: www.phyllis-chesler.com. Dr. Chesler has been profiled in encyclopedias, including Feminists Who Have Changed America, Jewish Women in America, and in the latest Encyclopedia Judaica. Dr. Chesler has published widely over the years in the mainstream media (New York Times, LA Times, Washington Post, Times of London, London Guardian, Globe and Mail, etc.), as well as at FOX, FrontpageMag, Israel National News, Jewish Press, Middle East Quarterly, New York Post, PJ Media, Breitbart, Tablet Magazine, Quillette, Times of Israel, etc. She lives in Manhattan and is a very proud mother and grandmother.

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