true stories

Dear Dawn: Aileen Wuornos in Her Own Words is a significant book because it is probably the only chance we will ever have to hear Wuornos’ life story the way she herself narrated it. Wuornos wrote to her close childhood friend, Dawn Botkins, from death row for over ten years. This prolific volume of letters has been abridged and reproduced by editors Lisa Kester and Daphne Gottlieb with Dawn’s permission and help. Dear Dawn comes a decade after Wuornos’ execution. Reading the letters in the book, one gets a sense that “Lee” was trying to grasp at the truths of her own life as she wrote them down for Dawn—to get her story on paper before her death.