Prostitute Says Man She Killed Had Raped, Tortured Her First

DELAND, Fla. - A prostitute who admits killing seven men on Florida highways over a two-year period testified yesterday that the first man raped and tortured her before she managed to get her gun out of her purse.

Aileen Wuornos said Richard Mallory, who had picked her up, tied her to the steering wheel of his car and sodomized her. She quoted him as saying "You're going to do anything I want you to do, and if you don't, I'll kill you."

"I thought to myself, I got to fight or die," Wuornos told the 12-member jury in a soft voice.

Wuornos hadn't been expected to testify. The defense then rested its case and closing arguments were set for Monday.

Wuornos, 35, is being tried for first-degree murder in the 1989 killing. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.

She has admitted killing Mallory and six other men on Florida highways in 1989 and 1990. She has been charged with four of the killings. The others are still being investigated.

Her testimony came the day after the state played parts of a videotaped statement made after Wuornos' arrest last year in which she confessed to killing Mallory and said, "I deserve to die."

Wuornos testified that Mallory untied her after the first rape, then tied an electrical cord around her neck and began strangling her and raping her again. She said she spat in his face and he shouted "You're dead, bitch."

"I grabbed my bag and whips my pistol out, and he was coming toward me with his right arm and I shot immediately," she said.

She said she shot the 51-year-old Clearwater businessman three times while inside the car. She shot him again outside the car after he started stumbling toward her, she said.

Prosecutors say she took Mallory's car and belongings and hid his body in woods north of Daytona Beach. The body was found 13 days later.

She has told investigators that she later shot and killed six other men who picked her up for sex and then became violent.

When asked why she hadn't mentioned the rape and threats during the three-hour videotaped statement, Wuornos said she was confused because she was suffering from withdrawal from alcohol.