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Couple adopts woman jailed in highway deaths

 
Published Nov. 8, 1991|Updated Oct. 14, 2005

A couple who run a horse farm have adopted a 35-year-old suspected serial killer who police say posed as a prostitute and lured five middle-aged men to their deaths along Florida highways. "The reason we did it is we want her to know what it feels like to have a family that really cares about her," said Arlene Pralle who, with her husband, Robert, received court approval Wednesday to adopt Aileen Carol Wuornos.

"We are her legal mother and father."

Wuornos is being held without bail at the Citrus County Jail. She has been indicted in the deaths of five men in Marion, Pasco, Citrus and Volusia counties. She also is suspected in the death of a man in Dixie County

and in the disappearance of a man whose car was found in Marion County.

Trial is scheduled for January in the death of Richard Mallory, 51, a Clearwater video technician whose body was found in Volusia County.

"It makes no difference to myself or my husband whether she's guilty or innocent," Mrs. Pralle, 44, said from her Levy County farm, where she breeds show horses. "She is still a human being and deserves to have a friend."

Wuornos, a Michigan native, was abandoned by her mother as an infant and left in the care of her grandparents. She has been on her own since she was 16, Mrs. Pralle said.

Mrs. Pralle, a born-again Pentecostal Christian, said she and her husband "felt completely prompted by God to reach out to" Wuornos after reading about her arrest in January.

Mrs. Pralle said she talks to Wuornos on the telephone at least twice a night, writes her daily and visits her once a week.

"I told her, "You're going to think I'm crazy, but Jesus himself told me to write to you,' " Mrs. Pralle said.

The Pralles, who have no children of their own, filed an application to adopt in late summer, said their Gainesville attorney, Steve Glazer.

Wuornos consented to the adoption but was not present during the hearing.

Both Glazer and Mrs. Pralle said the adoption was not set up so that the couple or Wuornos could benefit from any money made from movies or book deals on Wuornos' life.

Florida's "Son of Sam law" restricts felons from making profits on their stories, although dependents of felons can receive 25 percent of royalties, according to Attorney General Bob Butterworth's office.

Joe Bizzaro, a spokesman for Butterworth, said the Pralles would have to show they were dependents of Wuornos to gain money from any book or movie deals.

"That would be rather difficult under the circumstances," Bizzaro said.

Wuornos has been indicted on charges of murdering Mallory, David Spears, 43, and Troy Burress, 50, who were found shot to death in woods.

Other charges involve Charles Humphreys, 56, a former police chief in Alabama who was found shot to death in Marion County in September 1990, and Charles Carskaddon, 40, who was found dead in Pasco County in June 1990.

The body of Walter Gino Antonio, 60, a sheriff's reservist, was found in Dixie County last November, but no indictment has been returned in that killing. Wuornos reportedly confessed to killing Peter Siems, 65, a part-time missionary who vanished in September 1990. His body has never been found.