Aileen Wuornos had spent more than a decade on death row by the time Florida officials came to carry out her execution.

She was offered one final privilege before entering the death chamber: a special last meal.

Wuornos turned it down.

Instead, she asked for something remarkably ordinary.

A cup of coffee.

The small request became one of the final recorded details in the life of a woman whose crimes had already made her one of America’s most notorious convicted serial killers.

Wuornos was executed by lethal injection at Florida State Prison on Oct. 9, 2002.

She was pronounced dead at 9:47 a.m., six minutes after the execution process began.

Prison spokesman Sterling Ivy told reporters that Wuornos had awakened around 5:30 that morning.

She asked for a towel and washcloth, washed her face and remained calm as the execution approached.

She then declined the traditional special meal available to condemned Florida prisoners.

The state would have allowed her to request food costing up to $20.

Wuornos chose none of it.

She was given coffee instead.

The simplicity of that choice stands in stark contrast to the brutal and complicated case that brought her to death row.

Wuornos was linked to the deaths of seven men in Florida between 1989 and 1990 while she was working as a sex worker along the state’s highways.

But she was formally convicted and sentenced to death for six murders.

Peter Siems, the seventh man associated with the case, disappeared in 1990 and his body was never recovered, so Wuornos was never prosecuted for his death.

Her first murder conviction involved Richard Mallory.

Mallory’s abandoned vehicle was discovered on Dec. 1, 1989, and his body was found nearly two weeks later in a wooded area.

He had been shot multiple times.

Investigators later recovered some of his belongings from property connected to Wuornos, and she eventually confessed to killing him.

Wuornos insisted at her trial that Mallory had raped and assaulted her and that she shot him in self-defense.

Her account became one of the most disputed elements of the case.

Records that emerged later showed Mallory had previously been imprisoned in connection with an attempted sexual assault, a fact not presented to the jury during Wuornos’ original trial.

Wuornos’ explanations for the killings changed over time.

Early on, she claimed the men had attacked or attempted to assault her.

She later gave different versions, including statements suggesting robbery had been a motive.

At other times, including in later interviews, she returned to the claim that at least some of the killings had been committed in self-defense.

What is not disputed is that juries and courts ultimately held her criminally responsible.

Wuornos was convicted of Mallory’s murder in January 1992.

She later entered pleas in cases involving David Spears, Troy Burress, Charles Humphreys, Charles Carskaddon and Walter Antonio.

She ultimately received six death sentences.

Her case became a national obsession.

Part of that attention came from the rarity of a woman being identified as a serial killer.

Part came from the unusual circumstances surrounding the killings, her relationship with Tyria Moore and the ongoing debate over Wuornos’ claims of sexual violence.

Years later, her story became the basis for documentaries, books and the 2003 film Monster, in which Charlize Theron portrayed Wuornos and won the Academy Award for Best Actress.

By the final years of her life, Wuornos was actively seeking execution.

In April 2001, she asked the Florida Supreme Court to allow her to dismiss her lawyers and abandon further appeals.

A court later determined that she was competent to make that decision.

The Florida Supreme Court ultimately permitted her appeals to be dismissed, clearing one of the final legal obstacles to her execution.

Florida Gov. Jeb Bush signed her death warrant on Sept. 5, 2002.

Her execution was scheduled for the following month.

A psychiatric panel evaluated her before the sentence was carried out and concluded that she was competent to be executed.

Wuornos’ behavior and statements during those final years remained controversial.

She made contradictory remarks about the murders and at times spoke openly about wanting to die rather than remain incarcerated.

That makes it difficult to reduce her final days to a simple narrative of remorse, defiance or resignation.

Her last meal choice, however, is unusually well documented.

There was no steak.

No elaborate dessert.

No long list of favorite foods.

No attempt to use the ritual as one final indulgence.

When Florida offered Wuornos the opportunity to select a special meal before her execution, she declined it.

Instead, shortly before entering the death chamber on the morning of Oct. 9, 2002, one of the most infamous women ever placed on American death row had just one simple request.

Coffee.