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A folk hero or national hero is a type of hero, real, fictional, or mythological. The single salient characteristic which makes a character a folk hero is the imprinting of the name, personality and deeds of the character in the popular consciousness. This presence in the popular consciousness is evidenced by mention in folk songs, folk tales and other folklore. Folk heroes are also the subject of literature and some films.

Statue of Pier Gerlofs Donia, a Frisian folk hero

Although some folk heroes are historical public figures, they generally are not. Because the lives of folk heroes are generally not based on historical documents, the characteristics and deeds of a folk hero are often exaggerated to mythic proportions.

The folk hero often begins life as a normal person, but is transformed into someone extraordinary by significant life events, often in response to social injustice, and sometimes in response to natural disasters.

One major category of folk hero is the defender of the common people against the oppression or corruption of the established power structure. Members of this category of folk hero often, but not necessarily, live outside the law in some way.

Historically documented folk heroes[link]

• Johnny Appleseed – United States, he introduced the apple to large parts of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois
• Arminius – Germany, was a chieftain of the Cheruski who defeated the Roman army in the battle of Teutoburg Forest
• Billy the Kid – United States, a 19th-century American frontier outlaw and gunman
• Black Hawk – Midwestern United States, a Sauk Indian warrior who resisted white settlement
• Sitting Bull – shaman leader of the Hunkpapa Lakota
• Bonnie and Clyde – United States, bank robbers who evaded retribution in the 1930s
• Boudica - Great Britain - Warrior Queen who led an Uprising against the Roman Empire in Britain
• Daniel Boone – An American pioneer in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
• Brian Boru – Ireland, Irish High King who "drove the Danes out of Ireland" at the Battle of Clontarf.
• John Brown – United States, attempted to lead a slave revolt in the south by raiding Harper's Ferry, helped spark the Civil War.
• Aylett C. (Strap) Buckner – United States, an Indian-fighter of colonial Texas
• Calamity Jane – United States, a tough Wild West woman
• Lady of Ch'iao Kuo – China, warrior, politician, queen of the Hsien
• Joseph Cinqué – West African man of the Mende tribe, leader of the Amistad slave rebellion.
• Gregorio Cortez – Mexican-American folk hero
• Carmine Crocco – Italy, shepherd, fought the Savoy's Royal Army after the Italian unification.
• Davy Crockett – United States, an Indian-fighter, Congressman, and died as a hero fighting in the Alamo
• Nils Dacke – Sweden, leader of a 16th-century peasant revolt
• Zerai Deres – Ethiopia and Eritrea, Eritrean-born man lionized for his act of vengeance against the Italian Fascists in Rome during an imperial celebration
• Anton Docher - United States, Roman Catholic missionary and defender of the native Americans in New Mexico, he fought for five years in the French colonial army
• Pier Gerlofs Donia – Frisia, legendary giant warrior, freedom fighter and leader of the Arumer Black Heap
• Ahmad Shah Durrani – The founder of the Afghan Durrani Empire
• Engelbrekt Engelbrektsson – Sweden, rebel and temporary regent in the 15th century
• Guy Fawkes – Roman Catholic restorationist from England who planned the Gunpowder Plot
• Mike Fink – United States, the toughest boatman on the Mississippi River and a rival of Davy Crockett
• José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia - First consul of Paraguay
• Eppelein von Gailingen – Germany, robber baron
• Geronimo – United States, Apache warrior, fought United States army for years defending his people and homeland
• Lazar Hrebeljanovic – Serbian, ruler of Moravian Serbia, who fought and perished at the Battle of Kosovo, to which his name and life are inextricably tied.
• Genghis Khan – Mongolian ruler of the Steppe during 13th century, founder of the Mongolian empire
• Owain Glyndŵr - Wales, nobleman who led a rebellion against the Kingdom of England
• Tomoe Gozen – Japan, female samurai warrior
• Husein Gradaščević – Bosnia, called "Dragon of Bosnia", led the resistance of Bosnians and uprising for autonomy of Bosnia against the Ottoman Empire
• Che Guevara – Argentine Marxist revolutionary, politician, author, physician, military theorist, and guerrilla leader.
• Nathan Hale – United States, a captain in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War
• Simo Häyhä – A legendary Finnish sharpshooter in the Winter War with 505 confirmed kills
• Wild Bill Hickok – United States, lawman, gunfighter, gambler, scout, Civil War soldier, stage coach driver, performer, abolitionist
• Piet Hein – Netherlands, captured the Spanish treasure fleet
• Hone Heke – Māori chief who chopped down British flagpole three times
• Joe Hill – United States, union leader and songwriter wrongfully convicted of murder in 1915
• Andreas Hofer – Austrian and particularly Tirolian hero who resisted the Bavarians and Napoleon
• Ishikawa Goemon – Japan, bandit hero notorious for robbing the rich and giving to the poor, though some accounts suggest he may have kept much of his ill-gotten gains. Before being boiled in oil, he saved his infant son at the cost of his own life.
• Jesse James – A Wild West outlaw who supposedly robbed from the rich and gave to the poor (in reality his crimes only profited himself and his gang).
• Juraj Jánošík – Slovakia and Poland, outlaw living in the Tatra mountains, defending Carpathian peasants from the tyranny of Hungarian landlords
• Casey Jones – United States, railroad engineer who remained in his locomotive and died in a collision while braking in order to save his passengers and sounding the whistle to warn the crew of the other train
• Kaluaiko'olau – United States - Hawaiian who evaded deportation for leprosy by hiding in the Hawaiian rain forests^[1]
• Ustym Karmaliuk – Ukrainian counterpart of Robin Hood, who led a peasant rebellion
• Ned Kelly – Australia, outlaw
• Martin Krpan – Slovene smuggler, strongman
• Lam Sai-wing – China, martial artist and student of Wong Fei Hung
• Ten Tigers of Canton – China, group of ten fighters in southern China
• Lampião – outlaw, leader of a Cangaço band in Northeast Brazil
• Abraham Lincoln – President of the United States during the Civil War
• Francisco Solano López - President of Paraguay during the Paraguayan War
• Ned Ludd – Britain, leader of the Luddites in the 1810s
• Louis Mandrin - France, bandit of the 18th century liked by the population because he attacked the tax collectors
• Prince Marko – Serbia and Bulgaria, a Macedonian prince during Ottoman rule, known for opposing the conquerors in his sovereign lands, and a source of many epic poems
• Jack Mary Ann – a folk hero from the Wrexham area of north Wales whose fictionalised exploits continue to circulate in local folklore.
• James Mckenzie – New Zealand, outlaw and inspiration to landless immigrants in early colonial New Zealand
• Juan Moreira - Legendary Argentine outlaw, famed as a skillful knife fighter he is considered one of the most important figures in Argentine history
• Maharana Pratap – India, a 16th-century Hindu ruler and Rajput hero
• Miyamoto Musashi – Japan, a skilled swordsman, soldier, philosopher and author
• Miloš Obilić – A Serbian knight from Zeta who killed the Ottoman ruler Sultan Murad I in the Battle of Kosovo, 1389
• Redmond O'Hanlon – Irish, rapparee of the 17th century
• Philippe Petit – Tightrope artist who walked between the two towers of the World Trade Center
• Pazhassi Raja – India, fought against British Raj in south India (Kerala) with guerrilla war tactics
• Louis Riel – Canada, founder of Manitoba, led two rebellions against the Dominion of Canada
• Dorus Rijkers – the Netherlands, sailor and savior of over 500 men, women and children as the captain of a rescue-boat, in the late 19th century and the early 20th century
• Mir Chakar Rind - Pakistan, a 15th century Baloch chieftain and folklore hero found in the Hani and Sheh Mureed tale
• José Rizal – Philippines, a critic of the Spanish Colonizers, was gun-fired by his executioners in Bagumbayan (now Rizal Park)
• Rob Roy – Scotland, outlaw whose word was his bond
• Juan Santamaría – Costa Rican national hero
• Sarutobi Sasuke – Japan, incredibly acrobatic spy said to have been raised by monkeys and trained in the Ninja heartland of Iga and Koga provinces during the golden age of the Ninja.
• Laura Secord – Canada, heroine of the War of 1812
• Daniel Shays – An American farmer who led Shays' Rebellion in the late 18th century over debt and taxes
• Skanderbeg – Albanian national hero who led the resistance of Albanian people against the Ottoman Empire
• Soapy Smith – Infamous 19th-century Colorado and Alaska bad man.
• The Smith of Kochel – Germany, a well-known national hero, especially in Bavaria
• Spartacus – Thracean gladiator led the largest slave revolt against the Roman Republic
• Tipu Sultan – Indian, a Muslim who fought and defeated the British in the Mysore wars
• Ivan Susanin – Russian peasant who saved the tsar in the early 17th century's Time of Troubles
• Tamanend – United States, an Indian chief who became the source of many folk legends during the American Revolutionary War
• Yermak Timofeyevich – Russian Cossack leader who began the Russian conquest of Siberia
• Joseph Trumpeldor – Israel, leader of the Jewish forces at Tel Hai
• Nat Turner – Leader of Nat Turner's Rebellion (also known as the Southampton Insurrection), a slave rebellion that took place in Southampton County, Virginia in August 1831
• Dick Turpin – England, highwayman
• Vercingetorix - France, chief of the Arverni tribe, who united the Gauls in a revolt against Roman forces of Julius Caesar
• Viriathus – Portugal, the leader of the freedom fighters of the confederated Iberian tribes who resisted colonial Rome
• William Wallace – Scotland, knight who led a rebellion against England in the early 14th century
• Wong Fei Hung – Chinese doctor, martial artist and revolutionary
• Huo Yuanjia – Chinese martial artist
• Jan Žižka – Czech knight, commander of Hussite armies in 15th century
• Mohamed Bouazizi - Tunisian fruit vendor who immolated himself in protest of government mistreatment and sparked a successful revolution in that country and the 2010–2011 Middle East and North Africa protests
• Paul Revere - an American silversmith and a patriot in the American Revolution whose 'Midnight Ride' warned of the arrival of the British.
• Son Tinh - a Vietnamese God of Mountain who defeated Vietnamese God of Sea. Son Tinh represents the desire of defeating natural disasters.
• Thánh Gióng - a Vietnamese young soldier who defeated invaders. Thanh Giong represents the spirit of patriotism and nationalism of Vietnam.
• Chữ Đồng Tử - a Vietnamese marsh boy who married a princess of Hung King without his approval. Chu Dong Tu represents love, family and wealth.
• Liễu Hạnh - a Vietnamese Mother Goddess. Lieu Hanh represents morality and mental life.
• Samuel Steele - Canada, an mountie who bring peace to Canada West, and the Yukon for laws and order.
• Big Joe Mufferaw- Canada, a larger then life French Canadian woodsman took his life as a lumberjack in Ottawa.

Possibly apocryphal folk heroes[link]

• King Arthur - Legendary British warlord.
• Cúchulainn - Ireland, folk legend and the pre-eminent hero of Ulaid in the Ulster Cycle
• Fionn mac Cumhaill - Ireland, warrior, leader of the Fianna. Primary figure in the Oisin cycle.
• Till Eulenspiegel or Tijl Uilenspiegel - Germany and the Low Countries, trickster
• Fong Sai-Yuk - China, martial arts folk hero
• Grettir the Strong. Icelandic outlaw
• Hung Hei-Gun - China, martial arts folk hero
• Nai Khanom Tom - Thailand, master of Muay Thai
• John Henry - United States, mighty steel-driving African-American
• Robin Hood - England, outlaw usually associated with the motto "Steal from the rich, give to the poor"
• Rummu Jüri - Estonia, outlaw who stole from the rich to give to the poor
• Siegfried - Germany, the legendary dragon-slaying hero in Nibelungenlied
• Hua Mulan - China, heroine who disguised herself as a man in order to join an army
• Molly Pitcher - United States, heroine of the American Revolutionary War
• William Tell - Switzerland, began the rebellion against the Austrians
• Juan Bautista Cabral - Argentina, soldier who supposedly saved José de San Martín's life during the Battle of San Lorenzo against the Royalists in 1813.

Folk heroes known to be fictional[link]

• Pecos Bill - United States, giant cowboy who "tamed the wild west"
• Paul Bunyan - United States, giant lumberjack of the North Woods
• Febold Feboldson - United States, farmer who could fight a drought
• Martín Fierro - Argentina, hero of the eponymous poem by Jose Hernandez
• Koba - Georgia, folk hero whose legend bears a resemblance to Robin Hood
• Joe Magarac - United States, steelworker made of steel
• Alfred Bulltop Stormalong - United States, immense sailor whose ship was so big it scraped the moon

See also[link]

• Culture hero

References[link]

Italian national hero Giuseppe Garibaldi has been dubbed the "Hero of the Two Worlds" in tribute to his military expeditions in both South America and Europe

A hero (heroine is usually used for females) (Ancient Greek: ἥρως, hḗrōs), in Greek mythology and folklore, was originally a demigod, their cult being one of the most distinctive features of ancient Greek religion.^[1] Later, hero (male) and heroine (female) came to refer to characters who, in the face of danger and adversity or from a position of weakness, display courage and the will for self sacrifice—that is, heroism—for some greater good of all humanity. This definition originally referred to martial courage or excellence but extended to more general moral excellence.

Stories of heroism may serve as moral examples. In classical antiquity, hero cults that venerated deified heroes such as Heracles, Perseus, and Achilles played an important role in Ancient Greek religion. Politicians, ancient and modern, have employed hero worship for their own apotheosis (i.e., cult of personality).

Etymology[link]

Sir Galahad, a hero of Arthurian legend, detail of a painting by George Frederic Watts

Coined in English 1387, the word hero comes from the Greek "ἥρως" (heroes), "hero, warrior",^[2] literally "protector" or "defender"^[3] the postulated original forms of these words being *ἥρϝως, hērwōs, and *ἭρFα, Hērwā, respectively. It is also thought^{[citation needed]} to be a cognate of the Latin verb servo (original meaning: to preserve whole) and of the Avestan verb haurvaiti (to keep vigil over), although the original Proto-Indoeuropean root is unclear.

According to the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, the Indo-European root is *ser meaning "to protect". According to Eric Partridge in Origins, the Greek word Hērōs "is akin to" the Latin seruāre, meaning to safeguard. Partridge concludes, "The basic sense of both Hera and hero would therefore be 'protector'."

Classical hero cults[link]

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When Cleisthenes divided the ancient Athenians into new demes for voting, he consulted the Oracle of Delphi about what heroes he should name each division after. According to Herodotus, the Spartans attributed their conquest of Arcadia to their theft of the bones of Orestes from the Arcadian town of Tegea.

Heroes in myth often had close but conflicted relationships with the gods. Thus Heracles's name means "the glory of Hera", even though he was tormented all his life by Hera, the Queen of the Gods. Perhaps the most striking example is the Athenian king Erechtheus, whom Poseidon killed for choosing Athena over him as the city's patron god. When the Athenians worshiped Erechtheus on the Acropolis, they invoked him as Poseidon Erechtheus.

In the Hellenistic Greek East, dynastic leaders such as the Ptolemies or Seleucids were also proclaimed heroes.^{[citation needed]}

Analysis[link]

The classic hero often came with what Lord Raglan (a descendant of the FitzRoy Somerset, Lord Raglan) termed a "potted biography" made up of some two dozen common traditions that ignored the line between historical fact and mythology.^{[citation needed]} For example, the circumstances of the hero's conception are unusual; an attempt is made by a powerful male at his birth to kill him; he is spirited away; reared by foster-parents in a far country. Routinely the hero meets a mysterious death, often at the top of a hill; his body is not buried; he leaves no successors; he has one or more holy sepulchres.

The first Hero:

Hero (mythical priestess), in Greek mythology, priestess of Aphrodite, goddess of love, at Sestos, a town on the Hellespont (now Dardanelles). Hero was loved by Leander, a youth who lived at Abydos, a town on the Asian side of the channel. They could not marry because Hero was bound by a vow of chastity, and so every night Leander swam from Asia to Europe, guided by a lamp in Hero's tower. One stormy night a high wind extinguished the beacon, and Leander was drowned. His body was washed ashore beneath Hero's tower; in her grief, she threw herself into the sea.

The validity of the hero in historical studies[link]

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The philosopher Hegel gave a central role to the "hero", personalized by Napoleon, as the incarnation of a particular culture's Volksgeist, and thus of the general Zeitgeist. Thomas Carlyle's 1841 On Heroes, Hero Worship and the Heroic in History also accorded a key function to heroes and great men in history. Carlyle centered history on the biography of a few central individuals such as Oliver Cromwell or Frederick the Great. His heroes were political and military figures, the founders or topplers of states. His history of great men, of geniuses good and evil, sought to organize change in the advent of greatness.

Explicit defenses of Carlyle's position were rare in the second part of the 20th century. Most philosophers of history contend that the motive forces in history can best be described only with a wider lens than the one he used for his portraits. For example, Karl Marx argued that history was determined by the massive social forces at play in "class struggles", not by the individuals by whom these forces are played out. After Marx, Herbert Spencer wrote at the end of the 19th century: "You must admit that the genesis of the great man depends on the long series of complex influences which has produced the race in which he appears, and the social state into which that race has slowly grown....Before he can remake his society, his society must make him."^[4]

The Swedish Diplomat Raoul Wallenberg saved the lives of tens of thousands of Jews in Budapest during World War II.

As Michel Foucault pointed out in his analysis of societal communication and debate, history was mainly the "science of the sovereign", until its inversion by the "historical and political popular discourse".

The Annales School, led by Lucien Febvre, Marc Bloch and Fernand Braudel, would contest the exaggeration of the role of individual subjects in history. Indeed, Braudel distinguished various time scales, one accorded to the life of an individual, another accorded to the life of a few human generations, and the last one to civilizations, in which geography, economics and demography play a role considerably more decisive than that of individual subjects. Foucault's conception of an "archeology" (not to be confused with the anthropological discipline of archaeology) or Louis Althusser's work were attempts at linking together these various heterogeneous layers composing history.^{[clarification needed]}

Among noticeable events in the studies of the role of the hero and Great man in history one should mention Sydney Hook's book The Hero in History^[5]

In the epoch of globalization an individual can still change the development of the country and of the whole world so this gives reasons to some scholars to suggest returning to the problem of the role of the hero in history from the viewpoint of modern historical knowledge and using up-to-date methods of historical analysis^[6]

Within the frameworks of developing counterfactual history, there are made attempts to examine some hypothetic scenarios of historical development. And the hero attracts much attention because most of those scenarios are based on the suppositions: what would have happened if this or that historical individual had or had not been alive^[7]

Heroic myth[link]

The four heroes from the 16th century Chinese novel Journey to the West

The concept of a story archetype of the standard "hero's quest" or monomyth pervasive across all cultures is somewhat controversial. Expounded mainly by Joseph Campbell in The Hero with a Thousand Faces, it illustrates several uniting themes of hero stories that hold similar ideas of what a hero represents, despite vastly different cultures and beliefs.^{[citation needed]}

Folk and fairy tales[link]

Vladimir Propp, in his analysis of the Russian fairy tale, concluded that a fairy tale had only eight dramatis personæ, of which one was the hero,^{[8]:p. 80} and his analysis has been widely applied to non-Russian folklore. The actions that fall into a such hero's sphere include:

1. Departure on a quest
2. Reacting to the test of a donor
3. Marrying a princess (or similar figure)

He distinguished between seekers and victim-heroes. A villain could initiate the issue by kidnapping the hero or driving him out; these were victim-heroes. On the other hand, an antagonist could rob the hero, or kidnap someone close to him, or, without the villain's intervention, the hero could realize that he lacked something and set out to find it; these heroes are seekers. Victims may appear in tales with seeker heroes, but the tale does not follow them both.^[8]:36

The modern fictional hero[link]

Hero or heroine is sometimes used to simply describe the protagonist of a story, or the love interest, a usage which can conflict with the superhuman expectations of heroism. William Makepeace Thackeray gave Vanity Fair the subtitle A Novel without a Hero.^[9] The larger-than-life hero is a more common feature of fantasy (particularly sword and sorcery and epic fantasy) than more realist works.^[10]

In modern movies, the hero is often simply an ordinary person in extraordinary circumstances, who, despite the odds being stacked against him or her, typically prevails in the end. In some movies (especially action movies), a hero may exhibit characteristics such as superhuman strength and endurance that sometimes makes him nearly invincible. Often a hero in these situations has a foil, the villain, typically a charismatic evildoer who represents, leads, or himself embodies the struggle the hero is up against. Post-modern fictional works have fomented the increased popularity of the antihero, who does not follow common conceptions of heroism.

Hero as self[link]

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It has been suggested in an article by Roma Chatterji"^[11] that the hero or more generally protagonist is first and foremost a symbolic representation of the person who is experiencing the story while reading, listening or watching; thus the relevance of the hero to the individual relies a great deal on how much similarity there is between the two. One reason for the hero-as-self interpretation of stories and myths is the human inability to view the world from any perspective but a personal one.

Psychology of heroism[link]

Social psychology has begun paying attention to heroes and heroism. A work by Zeno Franco and Philip Zimbardo^[12] points out differences between heroism and altruism, and they offer evidence that observers' perceptions of unjustified risk plays a role, above and beyond risk type, in determining the ascription of heroic status.

See also[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: hero

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Heroes

• Action hero
  • List of female action heroes
• Antihero
• Byronic hero
• Culture hero
• Folk hero
• Germanic hero
• Randian hero
• Reluctant hero
• Romantic hero
• Superhero
• Tragic hero
• Youxia
• List of genres
• Hero of Labour

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Dundes, Alan; Otto Rank, and Lord Raglan (1990). In Quest of the Hero. Princeton: Princeton University Press. 
• Hadas, Moses; Morton Smith (1965). Heroes and Gods. Harper & Row. 
• Hein, David (1993). "The Death of Heroes, the Recovery of the Heroic." Christian Century 110: 1298-1303. http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1058/is_n37_v110/ai_14739320 or http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=5000242002
• Kerenyi, Karl (1959). The Heroes of the Greeks. London: Thames & Hudson. 
• Khan, Sharif (2004). Psychology of the Hero Soul.. 
• Lord Raglan (1936/2003). The Hero: A Study in Tradition, Myth and Drama. Mineola, NY: Dover Publications. 
• Henry Liddell and Robert Scott. A Greek-English Lexicon http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057
• Rohde, Erwin (1924). Psyche. 
• Smidchens, Guntis (2007). "National Heroic Narratives in the Baltics as a Source for Nonviolent Political Action". Slavic Review 66,3: 484–508. 

External links[link]

Look up hero in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• The British Hero - online exhibition from screenonline, a website of the British Film Institute, looking at British heroes of film and television.
• Listen to BBC Radio 4's In Our Time programme on Heroism

Gordon Lightfoot
Gordon Lightfoot Interlochen, Michigan (2009)
Background information
Birth name	Gordon Meredith Lightfoot, Jr.
Born	(1938-11-17) November 17, 1938 (age 73) Orillia, Ontario, Canada
Genres	Folk, Folk Rock, country, pop
Occupations	Musician, singer-songwriter
Instruments	Vocals, guitar, piano
Years active	1950–present
Labels	United Artists Reprise Warner Bros. Linus

Gordon Meredith Lightfoot, Jr. CC OOnt (born November 17, 1938) is a Canadian singer-songwriter who achieved international success in folk, folk-rock, and country music, and has been credited for helping define the folk-pop sound of the 1960s and 1970s. He has been referred to as Canada's greatest songwriter^[1] and internationally as a folk-rock legend.^[2]

Lightfoot's songs, including "For Lovin' Me", "Early Morning Rain", "Steel Rail Blues", "Ribbon of Darkness"—a number one hit on the U.S. country charts^[3] with Marty Robbins' cover in 1965— and the 1967 Detroit riot-generated "Black Day In July" brought him international recognition in the 1960s. He experienced chart success in Canada with his own recordings, beginning in 1962 with the Number 3 hit "(Remember Me) I'm the One". Lightfoot's recordings then made an impact on the international music charts as well in the 1970s, with songs such as "If You Could Read My Mind" (1970) (Number 5 on the US charts), "Sundown" (1974), "Carefree Highway" (1974), "Rainy Day People" (1975), all reaching number 1, and "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" (1976) (reaching number 2).^[4]

Some of Lightfoot's albums have achieved gold and multi-platinum status internationally. His songs have been recorded by some of the world's most renowned recording artists, including Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Hank Williams Jr., The Kingston Trio, Marty Robbins, George Hamilton IV, Jerry Lee Lewis, Bob Dylan, Judy Collins, Barbra Streisand, Johnny Mathis, Viola Wills, Richie Havens, The Dandy Warhols, Harry Belafonte, Tony Rice, Sandy Denny (with Fotheringay), The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem, Scott Walker, Sarah McLachlan, John Mellencamp, Toby Keith, Peter, Paul and Mary, Glen Campbell, Anne Murray, and Olivia Newton-John.

Robbie Robertson of The Band declared that Lightfoot was one of his "favourite Canadian songwriters and is absolutely a national treasure."^[5] Bob Dylan, also a Lightfoot fan, called him one of his favourite songwriters, and in an often-quoted tribute to his fellow songwriter, Dylan once observed that when he heard a Gordon Lightfoot song he wished "it would last forever."^[6] Lightfoot was a featured musical performer at the opening ceremonies of the 1988 Winter Olympic Games in Calgary, Alberta. He received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree (arts) in 1979,^[7] and the Companion of the Order of Canada—Canada's highest civilian honor — in 2003.^[8] On February 6, 2012, Lightfoot was presented with the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal by the Lieutenant Governor of Ontario.

Early years[link]

Lightfoot was born in Orillia, Ontario. His father was the manager of a large dry cleaning firm. His mother recognized Lightfoot's musical talent and schooled him into a successful child performer. His first public tune was "Too Ra Loo Ra Loo Ral" (An Irish Lullaby) in grade four, which was broadcast over his school's public address system on a parents' day event.^[9] As a youth, he sang, under the direction of choirmaster Ray Williams, in the choir of Orillia's St. Paul's United Church. Williams, according to Lightfoot, taught him how to sing with emotion and how to have confidence in his voice.^[10] Lightfoot was a boy soprano; he appeared periodically on local radio in the Orillia area, performed in local operettas and oratorios, and gained exposure through various Kiwanis music festivals. He was twelve when he made his first appearance at Massey Hall in Toronto, after winning a competition for boys whose voices had not yet changed. As a teenager, Lightfoot learned piano and taught himself to play drums and percussion. He held concerts in Muskoka, a resort area north of Orillia, singing "for a couple of beers."^[11]

In high school, Lightfoot performed extensively and taught himself to play folk guitar. He was influenced during this time by 19th-century master American songwriter Stephen Foster.^[12] He was also an accomplished high school track-and-field competitor and set school records for shot put and pole vault, as well as being the starting nose tackle of his school's Georgian Bay championship winning football team.

Lightfoot moved to California in 1958. He studied jazz composition and orchestration for two years at Hollywood's Westlake College of Music, which had many Canadian students. To support himself, he sang on demonstration records and wrote, arranged, and produced commercial jingles. He was influenced by the folk music of Pete Seeger, Bob Gibson, Ian and Sylvia Tyson, and The Weavers.^[13] He rented a place in Los Angeles for a time, but missed Toronto and moved back.^[14] He has never lived in the United States since then, though he has done a lot of work in the United States, all under an H-1B visa.^[15]

Returning to Canada in 1960, Lightfoot performed with The Swinging Eight, a group featured on CBC TV's Country Hoedown, and with the Gino Silvi Singers. He soon became known in the Toronto coffee houses promoting folk music. In 1962, Lightfoot released two singles that were local hits in Toronto and received some airplay elsewhere in Canada. "(Remember Me) I'm the One" reached #3 on CHUM radio in Toronto in July 1962 and was a top 20 hit on Montreal's CKGM, then a very influential Canadian Top 40 radio station.^[16] The follow-up single was "Negotiations"/"It's Too Late, He Wins"; it reached #27 on CHUM in December. He sang with Terry Whelan in a duo called the Two-Tones. They recorded a live album that was released in 1962 called Two-Tones at the Village Corner (1962, Chateau CLP-1012).^[17]

In 1963 Lightfoot travelled to Europe. In the United Kingdom he hosted, for one year, BBC TV's Country and Western Show. In 1964 Lightfoot returned to Canada; he appeared at the Mariposa Folk Festival. During this time he began to develop a reputation as a songwriter. Ian and Sylvia Tyson recorded "Early Mornin' Rain" and "For Lovin' Me"; a year later both songs were recorded by Peter, Paul and Mary. Other performers recording one or both songs included Elvis Presley, Chad and Jeremy, George Hamilton IV, The Clancy Brothers, and the Johnny Mann Singers. Established recording artists such as Marty Robbins ("Ribbon of Darkness"), Leroy Van Dyke ("I'm Not Saying"), Judy Collins ("Early Morning Rain"), Richie Havens and Spyder Turner ("I Can't Make It Anymore"), and The Kingston Trio ("Early Morning Rain"), all achieved chart success with Gordon Lightfoot's material.

United Artists years[link]

Lightfoot, right, at a music industry function in Toronto in 1965

In 1965 Lightfoot signed a management contract with Albert Grossman, who also represented Bob Dylan. That same year, he signed a recording contract with United Artists and released his own version of "I'm Not Saying" as a single. Appearances at the Newport Folk Festival, the Tonight Show, and New York's Town Hall increased his following and his reputation. In 1966, he released his debut album Lightfoot!, which brought him increased recognition as both a singer and a songwriter. It featured many now-famous songs, including "For Lovin' Me," "Early Mornin' Rain," "Steel Rail Blues," and "Ribbon of Darkness." On the strength of the Lightfoot! album, which mixed Canadian and universal themes, Lightfoot became one of the first Canadian singers to achieve real stardom in his own country without having to move to the United States.

Lightfoot was commissioned by the CBC to write the "Canadian Railroad Trilogy" for a special broadcast on January 1, 1967, to start Canada's Centennial year. Between 1966 and 1969, Lightfoot recorded four additional albums for United Artists: The Way I Feel (1967), Did She Mention My Name? (1968), Back Here on Earth (1968), and the live recording Sunday Concert (1969). During those years, he consistently placed singles in the Canadian top 40, including "Go-Go Round", "Spin, Spin", and "The Way I Feel". His biggest hit of the era was a rendition of Bob Dylan's "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues", which peaked at #3 on the Canadian charts in December 1965. Did She Mention My Name? featured "Black Day In July", about the 1967 Detroit riots.

Internationally, Lightfoot's albums from this time were well-received, but did not produce any hit singles. Outside of Canada, he remained better known as a songwriter than as a performer.

Lightfoot's success as a live performer continued to grow throughout the late 1960s. He embarked on his first Canadian national tour in 1967, and also performed in New York City. Between 1967 and 1974, Lightfoot toured Europe and was well-received on two tours of Australia.

UA would later consistently release "Best of" album compilations in the 1970s, after Lightfoot became a success on his next label Warner Bros./Reprise.

Warner Bros./Reprise years[link]

Lightfoot was signed to Warner Bros./Reprise in 1970 and had a major hit in the United States with his recording of "If You Could Read My Mind". It sold over one million copies by early 1971, and was awarded a gold disc.^[18] The song was originally featured on his 1970 album Sit Down Young Stranger, which did not sell well. After the success of the song, the album was re-released under the new title If You Could Read My Mind. It reached #5 nationally and the success of the song represented a major turning point in Gordon Lightfoot's career. It also had the second recorded version of "Me and Bobby McGee", as well as "The Pony Man","Your Love's Return", and "The Minstrel of The Dawn".

Over the next seven years, he recorded a series of successful albums that established him as a singer-songwriter:

• Summer Side of Life (1971), with songs "Ten Degrees and Getting Colder", "Miguel", "Cabaret", "Nous Vivons Ensemble", and the title track
• Don Quixote (1972), with "Beautiful", "Looking at the Rain", "Christian Island (Georgian Bay)", and the title track, which is a concert favorite
• Old Dan's Records (1972), with the title track, the two-sided single "That Same Old Obsession"/"You Are What I Am", and the songs "It's Worth Believin'" and "Can't Depend on Love"
• Sundown (1974). Besides the title track, it includes "Carefree Highway", "Seven Island Suite", "The Watchman's Gone", "High and Dry", "Circle of Steel" ,and "Too Late for Prayin'"
• Cold on the Shoulder (1975). Along with title track are songs "Bend in the Water", "The Soul Is the Rock", "Rainbow Trout", "All the Lovely Ladies" and the hit "Rainy Day People"
• A double compilation LP Gord's Gold (in 1975) containing nine new versions of his most popular songs from the United Artists era
• Summertime Dream (1976), along with "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" are the songs "Race Among the Ruins", "Spanish Moss", "Never Too Close", and the title track
• Endless Wire (1978) with "Daylight Katy", "If Children Had Wings", "Sweet Guenevire", "The Circle Is Small", and the title track

During the 1970s Lightfoot's songs covered a wide range of subjects, including "Don Quixote", about Cervantes' famous literary character, "Ode to Big Blue", about the widespread killing of whales, "Beautiful", about the simple joys of love, "Carefree Highway", about the freedom of the open road, "Protocol", about the futility of war, and "Alberta Bound", which was inspired by a lonely teenaged girl named Grace he met on a bus while travelling to Calgary in 1971.^{[citation needed]}

In 1972 Lightfoot curtailed his touring schedule after contracting Bell's palsy, a condition that left his face partially paralyzed temporarily. Despite his illness, Lightfoot had several major hits during the 1970s. In June 1974 his classic single "Sundown" from the album Sundown went to No.1 on the American and Canadian charts. It would be his only number one hit in the United States. He performed it twice on NBC's The Midnight Special series. "Carefree Highway" (about Arizona State Route 74 in Phoenix, Arizona) was the follow-up single from the same album. It charted in the Top 10 in both countries.^[19] Lightfoot wrote it after traveling from Flagstaff, Arizona on Interstate 17 to Phoenix.

In 1976 Lightfoot had a hit song about a shipwreck on Lake Superior. In late November 1975 Lightfoot had read a Newsweek magazine article^[20] about the loss of the SS Edmund Fitzgerald, which sank during a severe storm on November 10 with the loss of all 29 crew members. His song, "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald", most of the lyrics of which were based on the facts contained in the article, reached number two on the United States Billboard charts, and was a number one hit in Canada. "Sundown" and "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" continue to receive heavy airplay on many classic rock stations. In 1978 Lightfoot had another top 40 hit on the United States Hot 100, "The Circle Is Small (I Can See It in Your Eyes)," which reached number 33. He continues his practice of meeting privately with the family members of the men who perished in the Edmund Fitzgerald sinking when his touring schedule allows.

During the 1980s and 1990s Lightfoot recorded six more original albums and a compilation for Warner Bros./Reprise: Dream Street Rose (1980), Shadows (1982), Salute (1983), East of Midnight (1986), another compilation Gord's Gold, Vol. 2 (1988), Waiting for You (1993), and A Painter Passing Through (1998).

The album Dream Street Rose has the folk-pop sound that Lightfoot established during the previous decade.^{[citation needed]} In addition to the title song, it includes songs such as "Ghosts of Cape Horn" and "On the High Seas". It also includes the Leroy Van Dyke 1950s composition "The Auctioneer," a bluegrass-like number that was a concert staple for Lightfoot from the mid 60s to the 80s.^{[citation needed]}

The album Shadows represents a departure from the acoustic sound of the 1970s and introduces an adult-contemporary sound.^{[citation needed]} Songs like "Shadows" and "Thank You for the Promises" contain an underlying sadness and resignation.^{[citation needed]} The 1982 American released single "Baby Step Back" marked his last time in the top 50 in that country. The 1983 album Salute produced no hit singles; the 1986 East of Midnight album had several Adult Contemporary songs like "A Passing Ship","Morning Glory", and "I'll Tag Along" (East of Midnight). A single from "East of Midnight", "Anything for Love", made the Billboard Country & Western chart.^{[citation needed]}

In April 1987, Lightfoot filed a lawsuit against composer Michael Masser, claiming that Masser's melody for the song "The Greatest Love of All"—recorded by George Benson (1977) and Whitney Houston (1985)—stole 24 bars from Lightfoot's 1971 hit song "If You Could Read My Mind." The transitional section that begins "I decided long ago never to walk in anyone's shadow" of the Masser song has the same melody as "I don't know where we went wrong but the feeling's gone, and I just can't get it back" of Lightfoot's song. Lightfoot later stated that he did not want people thinking that he had stolen his melody from Masser.^[21]

Lightfoot rounded out the decade with his follow-up compilation Gord's Gold, Vol. 2, in late 1988, which contained re-recorded versions of his most popular songs, including a re-make of the 1970 song "The Pony Man". The original had been brisk in pace, acoustic, and about three minutes long. This new version was slower, clocking in at four minutes plus.

During the 90s Lightfoot returned to his acoustic roots and recorded two albums. Waiting for You (1993) includes songs like "Restless", "Wild Strawberries", and Bob Dylan's "Ring Them Bells." 1998's A Painter Passing Through reintroduced a sound more reminiscent of his early recordings,^{[citation needed]} with songs like "Much to My Surprise", "Red Velvet", "Drifters", and "I Used to Be a Country Singer". Throughout the decade, Lightfoot played about 50 concerts a year.^[22] In 1999 Rhino Records released Songbook, a four-CD boxed set of Lightfoot recordings with rare and unreleased tracks from the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s plus a small hardback booklet for his fans that described how he created his songs and gave facts about his career.

In April 2000 Lightfoot taped a live concert in Reno, Nevada—a one hour show that was broadcast by CBC in October, and as a PBS special across the United States. PBS stations offered a videotape of the concert as a pledge gift, and a tape and DVD were released in 2001 in Europe and North America. This was the first Lightfoot concert video released. In April 2001 Lightfoot performed at the Tin Pan South Legends concert at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, closing the show. In May he performed "Ring Them Bells" at Massey Hall in honor of Bob Dylan's 60th birthday.

Illness and return to performing[link]

By January 2002 Lightfoot had written 30 new songs for his next studio album. He recorded guitar and vocal demos of some of these new songs. In September, before the second concert of a two-night stand in Orillia, Lightfoot suffered severe stomach pain and was airlifted to McMaster Medical Centre in Hamilton, Ontario. He underwent surgery for a ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm, and he remained in serious condition in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). Lightfoot endured a six-week coma and a tracheotomy, and he underwent four surgical operations.^[23] All of his remaining 2002 concert dates were canceled. More than three months after being taken to the McMaster Medical Center, Lightfoot was released in December to continue his recovery at home.

In 2003 Lightfoot underwent follow-up surgery to continue the treatment of his abdominal condition. In November he signed a new recording contract with Linus Entertainment and began rehearsing with his band for the first time since his illness. Also in 2003, Borealis Records, a related label to Linus Entertainment, released Beautiful: A Tribute to Gordon Lightfoot. On this album, various artists, including The Cowboy Junkies, Bruce Cockburn, Jesse Winchester, Maria Muldaur, and The Tragically Hip interpreted Lightfoot's songs. The final track on the album, "Lightfoot", was the only song not previously released by Lightfoot. It was composed and performed by Aengus Finnan.

In January 2004 Lightfoot completed work on his album Harmony, which he had mostly recorded prior to his illness. The album was released on his new home label of Linus Records on May 11 of that year. It was his 20th original album and included a single and new video for "Inspiration Lady." Other songs were "Clouds Of Loneliness," "Sometimes I Wish," "Flyin' Blind", and "No Mistake About It." The album contained the upbeat yet reflective track called "End Of All Time", reminiscent of the style of the Marshall Tucker Band and The Allman Brothers Band.

In July 2004 he made a surprise comeback performance, his first since falling ill, at Mariposa in Orillia, performing "I'll Tag Along" solo. In August he performed a five-song solo set in Peterborough, Ontario, at a flood relief benefit. In November he made his long-awaited return to the concert stage with two sold-out benefit shows in Hamilton, Ontario.

Lightfoot returned to the music business with his new album selling well and an appearance on Canadian Idol, where the six top contestants each performed a song of his, culminating in a group performance – on their own instruments – of his Canadian Railroad Trilogy. In 2005, he made a low-key tour called the Better Late Than Never Tour.

On September 14, 2006, while in the middle of a performance, Lightfoot suffered a minor stroke that eventually left him without the use of the middle and ring fingers on his right hand. He returned to performing nine days later and for a brief time used a substitute guitarist for more difficult guitar work.^[24][25] Since early 2007, Lightfoot has regained full use of his right hand and plays all of the guitar parts in concert as he originally wrote them.^[26] He continues to perform.^[27]

While a tour was being planned for 2008, Lightfoot's manager, Barry Harvey, died at age 56 on 4 December 2007. In late 2009, Lightfoot undertook a 26-city tour.

In February 2010 Gordon Lightfoot was the victim of a death hoax originating from Twitter, when a prankster spread a rumor that Lightfoot had died.^[28] Lightfoot was at a dental appointment at the time the rumors spread and found out when listening to the radio on his drive home.^[29] Lightfoot dispelled those rumors by phoning Charles Adler of CJOB, the DJ and radio station he heard reporting his demise, and did an interview expressing that he was alive and well.^[30]

Legacy[link]

Gordon Lightfoot's music career has spanned more than five decades, producing more than 200 recordings. He helped define the folk-pop sound of the 1960s and 1970s, with his songs recorded by artists such as Bob Dylan, Gene Clark, Dan Fogelberg, Jimmy Buffett, and Jim Croce.^[31][32] The Canadian band The Guess Who recorded a song called "Lightfoot" on their 1968 album Wheatfield Soul; the lyrics contain many Lightfoot song titles.

Lightfoot sound[link]

The signature Lightfoot sound, both in the studio and on tour, centres around Lightfoot's distinct baritone voice and folk-based twelve-string acoustic guitar. Over the years, a handful of key musicians contributed significantly to that sound. From 1965 to 1970, lead guitarist Red Shea was the most important supporting player, with bassists Paul Wideman and John Stockfish filling out the arrangements.

Performing in Toronto, 2008, playing twelve-string guitar

In 1969 bassist Rick Haynes joined the band, and lead guitarist Terry Clements joined the following year. Red Shea left the touring band in 1970, but continued to record with Lightfoot until 1975. He hosted his own Canadian variety show, played with Ian Tyson, and became band leader for Tommy Hunter's TV show in the 1980s on CBC. Shea played on most of Lightfoot's early hits, and his musical influence on later band configurations is undeniable. Shea died in June 2008 of pancreatic cancer. Haynes and Clements remained with Lightfoot and composed the core of Gordon Lightfoot's band.

In 1975, Pee Wee Charles added the important pedal steel guitar element to the band's sound, applying this traditional country instrument in a unique and creative way to Lightfoot's songs. Drummer Barry Keane joined the following year and in 1981, keyboardist Mike Heffernan completed the ensemble. This five-piece backup band remained intact until 1987, when Pee Wee Charles left the band to operate a radio station in Southern Ontario. Haynes, Keane, and Heffernan continue to tour and record with Lightfoot to this day. Terry Clements died on February 20, 2011, at the age of 63, following a stroke.^[33] Gordon Lightfoot will continue touring in 2011 with his new guitarist Carter Lancaster from Hamilton Ontario whom he calls a "great player".^[34]

Personal life[link]

Lightfoot has been married twice. His first marriage in April 1963 was to a Swedish woman, Brita Ingegerd Olaisson, with whom he had two children, Fred and Ingrid. They divorced in 1973, the marriage ending in part due to his infidelity (with his then girlfriend, Cathy Smith). He has acknowledged that his musical touring and the difficulty of fidelity in a long-distance relationship, contributed to the failure of at least two relationships:

When you're away from the woman, continually confronted by other women, you suddenly find yourself in a weak moment. Then you've gone and stepped over the traces and you gotta go home and confront your old lady. It's a two-way street. You're going to have to offer her the same deal. You can't ask the woman to be faithful if you're not going to be faithful to her. That's where it's broken down for me twice.^[35]

The song "If You Could Read My Mind" was written in reflection upon his disintegrating marriage. At the request of his daughter, Ingrid, he performs the lyrics with a slight change now: the line "I'm just trying to understand the feelings that you lack" is altered to "I'm just trying to understand the feelings that we lack." He has said in an interview that the difficulty with writing songs inspired by personal stories is that there is not always the emotional distance and clarity to make lyrical improvements such as the one his daughter suggested.

After being alone for 16 years between marriages, he married Elizabeth Moon in 1989. They have two children: Miles and Meredith.^[36]

He has played with some of his band members for more than 30 years.^[37]

Honours and awards[link]

Lightfoot's star on Canada's Walk of Fame

As an individual, apart from various awards associated with his albums and singles, Gordon Lightfoot has received sixteen Juno Awards—for top folk singer in 1965, 1966, 1968, 1969,^[38] 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976 and 1977, for top male vocalist in 1967, 1970, 1971, 1972 and 1973, and as composer of the year in 1972 and 1976. He has received ASCAP awards for songwriting in 1971, 1974, 1976, and 1977, and has been nominated for five Grammy Awards. In 1974 Lightfoot's song "Sundown" was named pop record of the year by the Music Operators of America. In 1980 he was named Canadian male recording artist of the decade, for his work in the 1970s.

Lightfoot was chosen as the celebrity captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs for the NHL's 75th anniversary season in 1991–1992.

Lightfoot was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 1986 and the Canadian Country Music Hall Of Fame in 2001. He was inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame in 1998.

In May 2003 he was made a Companion of the Order of Canada, the country's highest civilian honour. Lightfoot is a member of the Order of Ontario, the highest honour in the province of Ontario. In 1977, he received the Vanier Award from the Canadian Jaycees. In 2007 Canada Post honored Lightfoot and three other legendary Canadian music artists (Anne Murray, Paul Anka, and Joni Mitchell) with postage stamps highlighting their names and images.^[39]

Between 1986 and 1988 Lightfoot's friend Ken Danby (1940–2007), the realist painter, worked on a large (60 x 48 inches) portrait of Lightfoot dressed in the white suit he wore on the cover of the album East of Midnight. The picture was backlit by the sun, creating a visually iconic image of the singer.

Discography[link]

• Lightfoot! (1966)
• The Way I Feel (1967)
• Did She Mention My Name (1968)
• Back Here on Earth (1968)
• Sunday Concert (1969)
• Sit Down Young Stranger (1970)
• Summer Side of Life (1971)
• Don Quixote (1972)
• Old Dan's Records (1972)
• Sundown (1974)
• Cold on the Shoulder (1975)
• Summertime Dream (1976)
• Endless Wire (1978)
• Dream Street Rose (1980)
• Shadows (1982)
• Salute (1983)
• East of Midnight (1986)
• Waiting for You (1993)
• A Painter Passing Through (1998)
• Harmony (2004)
• All Live (2012)

See also[link]

• Canadian rock
• Music of Canada

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Gordon Lightfoot

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Gordon Lightfoot

• Order of Canada Citation
• Lightfoot page at Canadian Encyclopedia
• CBC Digital Archives: Gordon Lightfoot: Canada's Folk Laureate
• Gordon Lightfoot at the Internet Movie Database

Aileen Wuornos
Aileen Wuornos mug shot
Background information
Birth name	Aileen Carol Pittman
Also known as	[1] Sandra Kretsch Susan Lynn Blahovec Lee Blahovec Cammie Marsh Greene Lori Kristine Grody
Born	(1956-02-29)February 29, 1956[1] Rochester, Michigan
Died	October 9, 2002(2002-10-09) (aged 46) Florida State Prison, Bradford County, Florida, United States
Cause of death	Lethal injection
Conviction	6 counts of 1st degree murder
Penalty	Death
Spouse(s)	Lewis Gratz Bell (divorced)
Killings
Number of victims	7
Country	United States
State(s)	Florida
Date apprehended	9 January 1991

Aileen Carol Wuornos (February 29, 1956 – October 9, 2002) was an American serial killer who killed seven men in Florida in 1989 and 1990. Wuornos claimed that her victims had either raped or attempted to rape her while she was working as a prostitute, and that all of the killings were committed in self-defense. She was convicted and sentenced to death for six of the murders and had her sentence carried out by the state in the way of lethal injection on October 9, 2002.

Early life[link]

Childhood[link]

Wuornos was born as Aileen Carol Pittman in Rochester, Michigan, on February 29, 1956.^[2] Her mother, Diane Wuornos, was 15 years old when she married Aileen's father, Leo Dale Pittman, on June 3, 1954. Less than two years later, and two months before Aileen was born, Diane filed for divorce. Aileen had an older brother named Keith, who was born in February 1955.

Wuornos never met her father, Leo Pittman. He was in prison for the rape and attempted murder of a seven-year-old girl^[2] when she was born. He was considered to be a schizophrenic, was convicted of sex crimes against children,^[3] was in and out of prison, and hanged himself in prison in 1969.^[1][4] In January 1960, when Aileen was almost four years old, Diane abandoned her children, leaving them with their maternal grandparents, Lauri and Britta Wuornos, who legally adopted Keith and Aileen on March 18, 1960.^[4]

At age 11, Wuornos engaged in sexual activities in school in exchange for cigarettes, drugs, and food. She had also engaged in sexual activities with her own brother.^[3] Wuornos claimed that she was sexually assaulted and beaten as a child by her grandfather, an alcoholic. According to her accusations, before beating her, he would force her to strip out of her clothes.^[3] In 1970, at age 14, she became pregnant,^[5] having been raped by a friend of her grandfather.^[3] Wuornos gave birth at a home for unwed mothers, and the child was placed for adoption.^[4] A few months after her baby was born, Wuornos dropped out of school^[3] at about the time that her grandmother died of liver failure; Wuornos and her brother subsequently became wards of the court. When she was 15, her grandfather threw her out of the house, and she began supporting herself as a prostitute and living in the woods near her old home.^[4]

Early criminal career[link]

On 27 May 1974, Wuornos was arrested in Jefferson County, Colorado, for driving under the influence (DUI), disorderly conduct, and firing a .22-caliber pistol from a moving vehicle. She was later charged with failure to appear (FTA).^[6]

In 1976, Wuornos hitchhiked to Florida, where she met 69-year-old yacht club president Lewis Gratz Fell. They married that same year, and the announcement of their nuptials was printed in the society pages of the local newspaper. However, Wuornos continually involved herself in confrontations at their local bar and eventually went to jail for assault. She also hit Fell with his own cane, leading him to get a restraining order against her. She returned to Michigan^[7][8] where, on 14 July 1976, she was arrested in Antrim County, Michigan, and charged with assault and disturbing the peace for throwing a cue ball at a bartender's head.^[9] On July 17, her brother Keith died of esophageal cancer and Wuornos received $10,000 from his life insurance. Wuornos and Fell annulled their marriage on July 21 after only nine weeks.^[10]

On 20 May 1981, Wuornos was arrested in Edgewater, Florida, for the armed robbery of a convenience store, where she stole $35 and two packs of cigarettes. She was sentenced to prison on 4 May 1982, and released on 30 June 1983.^[11] On 1 May 1984, Wuornos was arrested for attempting to pass forged checks at a bank in Key West. On 30 November 1985, she was named as a suspect in the theft of a revolver and ammunition in Pasco County.^[11]

On 4 January 1986, Wuornos was arrested in Miami and charged with grand theft auto, resisting arrest, and obstruction of justice for providing identification with her aunt's name. Miami police officers found a .38-caliber revolver and a box of ammunition in the stolen car.^[12] On 2 June 1986, Volusia County, Florida, deputy sheriffs detained Wuornos for questioning after a male companion accused her of pulling a gun, in his car, and demanding $200. Wuornos was found to be carrying spare ammunition, and a .22 pistol was discovered under the passenger seat she had occupied.^[13]

Around this time, Wuornos met Tyria Moore, a hotel maid, at a Daytona gay bar. They moved in together, and Wuornos supported them with her prostitution earnings.^[14] On 4 July 1987, Daytona Beach police detained Wuornos and Moore at a bar for questioning regarding an incident in which they were accused of assault and battery with a beer bottle.^[15] On 12 March 1988, Wuornos accused a Daytona Beach bus driver of assault. She claimed that he pushed her off the bus following a confrontation. Moore was listed as a witness to the incident.^[15]

Murders[link]

• Richard Mallory,^[1] age 51, 30 November 1989—Electronics store owner in Clearwater, Florida. Wuornos' first victim was a convicted rapist whom she claimed to have killed in self-defense. Two days later, a Volusia County, Florida, Deputy Sheriff found Mallory's abandoned vehicle. On December 13, Mallory's body was found several miles away in a wooded area. He had been shot several times, but two bullets to the left lung were found to have been the cause of death. It was on this murder that Wuornos would eventually be condemned.
• David Spears,^[1] age 43—Construction worker in Winter Garden, Florida. On 1 June 1990, his nude body was found along Highway 19 in Citrus County, Florida. He had been shot six times.
• Charles Carskaddon,^[1] age 40, 31 May 1990—Part-time rodeo worker. On 6 June 1990, his body was found in Pasco County, Florida. He had been shot nine times with a small-caliber weapon.
• Peter Siems,^[1] age 65—In June 1990, Siems left Jupiter, Florida, for New Jersey. On 4 July 1990, his car was found in Orange Springs, Florida. Moore and Wuornos were seen abandoning the car, and Wuornos' palm print was found on the interior door handle. His body was never found.
• Troy Burress,^[1] age 50—Sausage salesman from Ocala, Florida. On 31 July 1990, he was reported missing. On 4 August 1990, his body was found in a wooded area along State Road 19 in Marion County, Florida. He had been shot twice.
• Charles "Dick" Humphreys,^[1] age 56, 11 September 1990—Retired U.S. Air Force Major, former State Child Abuse Investigator, and former Chief of Police. On 12 September 1990, his body was found in Marion County, Florida. He was fully clothed and had been shot six times in the head and torso. His car was found in Suwannee County, Florida.
• Walter Jeno Antonio,^[1] age 62—Police Reservist.^{[16][page needed]} On 19 November 1990,^{[16][page needed]} Antonio's nearly nude body was found near a remote logging road in Dixie County, Florida. He had been shot four times. Five days later, his car was found in Brevard County, Florida.