Female Serial Killers & Gambling

Female Serial Killers & Gambling

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1807 – Ching Shih – China

“In 1810, amnesty was offered to all pirates, and Ching Shih took advantage of it. She ended her career in 1810, accepting an amnesty offer from the Chinese government. She kept her loot, married her lieutenant and adoptive son Cheung Po Tsai, and opened a gambling house.”

1895 – Marie Therese Joniaux-Ablay – Antwerp, Belgium

“It was proved beyond the shadow of a doubt that the beautiful Mme. Joniaux, a born gambler, a woman who had been detected cheating at cards in private circles, trying to cheat at Spa, incurring suspicion at Monte Carlo, borrowing money under false pretences, obtaining jewellery one day and pawning it the next, had, when all her sources of credit were exhausted, turned to life insurances as a means of obtaining money. She had insured her relatives for large sums, and had deliberately poisoned them, in order to draw the stakes for which she had played.”

1927 – Alma McClavey (Theede) – Memphis, Tennessee, USA

Furthermore, since gambling was now Alma’s only vice Mike gave his wife pin money with which to gamble, saying he could afford it. In time, however, Mike found Alma’s gambling too expensive. He restricted her allowance. Irked by his parsimony and bored by his “goodness,” McClavey’s wife considered returning to the streets to earn gambling money. But as often as she considered it, Alma rejected the thought of letting her husband down that way.

1938 – Anna Marie Hahn – Cincinnati, Ohio, USA

“Shackled by gambling debts Anna-Marie Hahn turned to the position of a live in attendant for elderly men. She stealthily poisoned each of her clients, tallying up more than ten murders in the span of five years. Hahn was careful, always covering her tracks and never drawing too much attention to her murders. But she was eventually arrested and put on trial for murder in the fall of 1937. Found guilty, and executed in Ohio's electric chair on December 7, 1938.” [Source: Pinterst]

1996 – Elfriede Blauensteiner – Vienna, Austria

She was a lunatic’s lunatic. Elfriede Blauensteiner was one of the most unique serial killers of modern times. A compulsive roulette gambler who in one year alone dropped into the casino, Spielcasino Baden, on no less than 230 occasions, she was suspected of 15 murders and confessed to six, offering “good” reasons why each needed to be polished off. When investigators asked about other murders she was suspected of having committed her reply was “How much will you pay me for it?”

2006 – Remedios Sanchez Sanchez – Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain

On July 6, 2006, Remedios Sánchez Sánchez, 48, following a police search of her home in Barcelona, was arrested.  She was charged with a series of attacks on elderly women whom she robbed, three of whom were murdered and five others who survived stranglings. Sánchez was apprehended by police in a gambling parlor playing a slot machine.

2008 – Manuela Gonzalez Cano – Villard-Bonnot, Isere region, France

2009 – Lin Yuru – Nantou County, Taiwan

A woman named Lin Yuru, 28, was charged April 7, 2010 in Nantou County, Taiwan with the serial murders her mother, mother-in-law and her husband, in an insurance fraud scheme hoping to raise money to pay off gambling debts incurred from the purchase of Mark Six lottery tickets.

Lin, aged 28, was addicted to betting on underground lottery since 2003. As a result she chalked up huge gambling debts totaling many millions of Yuan.

2014 – Andrea Giesbrecht – Winnipeg, Canada

Andrea Giesbrecht, AKA Andrea Naworynski, a 40-year-old married woman, was arrested Oct. 20, 2014 and charged with six counts of concealing bodies of six newborn infants. The corpses were discovered October 20 by U-Haul employees when emptying a storage unit after Giesbrecht failed to make payments. Police initially believed there were three or four bodies found in various states of decomposition and preserved in a liquid; later raised the total to six. For over a decade she had been a chronic gambler and her losses had frequently been the source of tension between Andrea and her husband.

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SEE MORE: Female Serial Killer Collections

 

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Coleen M. Thompson, Serial Killer Nurse – Maryland, 2003

Coleen M. Thompson, as a nurse working in the intensive care ward at the Shady Grove Adventist Hospital in Rockville, Maryland, decided to play God(ess). During her 13-month tenure there 211 patients died. Following the death of a patient who has been hospitalized for pneumonia, Adela Urbana, 63, on July 5, 2003, Thompson was suspended and investigated.

It was learned that Thompson had deliberated withheld care for Urbana and at least four other patients causing their deaths.

In one instance, involving an 86-year old man being kept alive by an intravenous pump, Thompson tried to coax a fellow nurse to "allow the patient to die.” Lillian Van Zandt, 82, died after Thompson failed to give her medicine needed to stimulate her heart.  A colleague told investigators that Thompson likely had turned off the IV pump attached to 69-year-old Harry Hancock before a doctor pronounced him dead.

Thompson killed a patient hospitalized for complications from a hip replacement with a heavy dose of morphine that had never been prescribed by a doctor. Aware that the drug would certainly kill the patient Thompson made an official “declaration of death” while the patient Geraldine Baxter, 69, was still living.

July 17, 2003 a Montgomery County judge yesterday sentenced Thompson to a mere 45 days in jail for intentionally failing to care for five critically ill patients in 2002 and 2003. The prosecution had sought a minimum of five years sentence, well short of the maximum possible sentence for the five charges is 25 years. Prosecutors said there was no direct evidence that could prove that Thompson deliberately killed the patients she had died due to her neglect..

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CHRONOLOGY

May 2002 – began working at the Shady Grove Adventist Hospital, in through a nurse-staffing agency.

Oct. 22, 2002 – John Lieb admitted to Shady Grove in critical condition with a bowel obstruction.

Mar. 30, 2003 – Lillian Van Zandt (83) dies.

Jul. 5, 2003 – failed to take appropriate measures in caring for Adele Urbana (63) whose condition rapidly deteriorated during a five-hour period July 5 and 6.

Jul. 6, 2003 – Adele Urbana (63) dies.

Jul 16, 2003 – Maryland Board of Nursing suspends Thompson's license.

Mar. 8, 2005 – pleads guilty.

May 17, 2005 – C. Thompson (36), sentenced.

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5 VICTIMS:

Harry L. Hancock, 69.

Geraldine Baxter, 68.

Lillian Vanzandt, 83.

Raymond H. McGivern, 86.

Adele Urbana, 63.

 

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Sources:

“Nurse's home searched in deaths probe,” July 18, 2003.

David Snyder, “Md. Nurse Who Neglected Patients Gets 45 Days,” The Washington Post, May 18, 2005

David Snyder and Fredrick Kunkle, “Ex-Nurse to Plead Guilty in 5 Deaths at Shady Grove,” The Washington Post, Oct. 28, 2004 

 

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For more cases, see Sicko Nurses 

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Francine Brunfaut, Suspected Serial Killer Nurse – Belgium, 2004

Francine Brunfaut, a retired Belgian nurse liked to visit elderly residents of the Retraite St-Ignace old age home at Laken. They apparently loved the attention. That’s why they made out their wills to her. But soon after they died. In three cases – all elderly people who bequeathed substantial assets to Brunfaut – a kidney drug, Diamox, which none of them ought to have taken, was discovered in their remains during autopsies ordered after hospital management became suspicious in 2003 when 88-year old Georgette died.

Brunfaut was charged and put in jail where she stayed for a year awaiting trial. By late 2004 investigators had added a further 16 suspicious deaths to her presumed victim roster. Yet the circumstantial evidence provided by autopsies meet prosecutorial standards for homicide charges. It was eight years before Brunfaut was tried and then, only on charges of fraud and forgery.

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1999 – José, a friend, died, autopsy found Diamox. Hamme-Mille.

2002 – Richard (73), patient, died; autopsy found Diamox. Retraite St-Ignace, Laken.

2003 – Georgette (88) patient, died; autopsy found Diamox. Retraite St-Ignace, Laken.

2004 – arrested, remain jailed for a year.

Oct. 8, 2004 – investigated for a further16 deaths.

Mar. 27, 2012 – Francine (68) would only be prosecuted for scams and the forgery of an invoice.

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For more cases of this type, see Serial Baby-Killer Moms.

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Rachel Lynette New, Serial Baby-Killing Mom – Texas, 2009

Rachel Lynette New, 36, of Tarrant County, Texas was arrested after DNA evidence linked her to three infants whose corpses were found. Two of the bodies were found in August 2009 under a mobile home that is about 30 to 40 feet from a field where a human fetus was found in a suitcase in March 2008, investigators said. The first corpse, an infant boy, was found by the mobile-home owner’s father. Rachel New and her brother had lived in the mobile home for about a three and a half years. It was known that she had been pregnant three times while residing there.

 

Rachel and her brother denied knowing anything about the remains. The brother has not been arrested, and it’s unclear if he’s also considered a suspect. The news report published at the beginning of the case state that there was no word on who the infants’ father is, and the investigator said it is not known whether the remains were the result of miscarriages or late-term abortions or were born alive and then killed.

[Edited from: Stacy Morrow, “Woman Arrested, Charged in Infant Corpse Mystery: DNA identifies mom of 3 infant corpses, deputies say,” NBCDFW (Fort Worth, Texas), Nov 12, 2009]

https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/Tarrant-County-Woman-Arrested-Charged-In-Infant-Corpse-Mystery-69922352.html

 

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FORT WORTH - Tarrant County deputies on Thursday arrested a 36-year-old woman identified through DNA as the mother of three babies whose decomposed remains were found under a porch and near the mobile home she formerly shared with her brother, Sheriff Dee Anderson announced.

 

Rachel Lynnette New, 36, was in an isolation cell in the Tarrant County Jail on Thursday, a sheriff’s spokesman said. Bail was set at $50,000.

 

For now, New faces one charge of tampering with or fabricating physical evidence, Anderson said at a news conference. The Tarrant County district attorney’s office is reviewing whether to file two more charges, he said.

 

The owners of property in the 6000 block of Tranquility Circle near Rendon found one set of infant remains beneath the porch of a mobile home after New and her brother, Paul New, 30, moved out in August. Investigators found another set of remains nearby.

 

The bones had been doused in chlorine bleach.

In March 2008, the property owners found a suitcase containing bones in a field about 40 yards from the mobile home, according to an arrest warrant affidavit.

~ Badly decomposed ~

Twenty-three people linked to the News or to the property owners were asked to give DNA samples for testing, Anderson said. Rachel New’s sample showed that she was the mother of all three infants, Anderson said.

The bodies – two boys and a girl – were so “badly decomposed and compromised,” Anderson said, that forensic investigators cannot tell whether the babies were born alive and killed, or were stillborn. They have also been unable to determine who the father was.

Further charges are possible as investigators examine the evidence and interview Rachel New’s associates, Anderson said.

Rachel New and Paul New have consistently denied knowing anything about the remains, Anderson said.

When confronted with the DNA results, Rachel New asked for a lawyer, and questioning ended, Anderson said.

Paul New has not been ruled out as a suspect, the sheriff said.

“We’re certain that some wrongdoing occurred here,” Anderson said. “If someone passes away, you cannot put them in a Tupperware container and pour bleach on them and hide them away.”

Investigators think bleach could have been used to speed the decomposition process or to mask the smell of the decomposing bodies, or both. The sheriff would not discuss other items found in the containers along with the infant remains.

~ Spellbound and speechless ~

Rachel and Paul New rented the mobile home from Rex and Auneta Southern. Rex Southern found the first set of remains, later identified as a boy with blond hair, in a suitcase hidden by thick vegetation, his wife said Thursday.

“I’m spellbound and speechless,” Auneta Southern said. “I’ve known [New] for more than three years and never had anything but nice conversations with her.”

On Aug. 23, the Southerns’ son, Justin Southern, found a cardboard box containing a set of remains under the mobile home’s front porch steps. A sheriff’s deputy discovered a pink plastic container that held a third set of remains, the affidavit stated.

Paul New had finished moving out of the mobile home shortly before that, the affidavit stated.

“We found one in 2008, and that was the most terrible thing we thought we’d ever have to live through,” Auneta Southern said.

It’s horrible enough once, but to have to live through the same story three times, it’s unbelievable. It’s like a movie.

[“Skeletal remains of two infants found under mobile home’s porch, Fort Worth Star-Telegram (Tx.), Nov. 13, 2009]

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For more cases of this type, see Serial Baby-Killer Moms.

 

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Doris B. – Serial Killer Nurse : Germany, 2005

German nurse Doris B. (49) was charged with killing three elderly patients with injections of morphine iduring the first half of 2005. Her trial at Regensburg district court began March 20, 2006 on two manslaughter charges and a charge of dangerous bodily injury. The nurse freely admitted to giving the patients at the St. Elisabeth Hospital in Straubing unauthorized doses of morphine but claimed her motive was to relieve suffering rather than to cause death.

NOTE: Only a single online source has been located, published while the trial was still in progress. UPDATE: The paper Mittelbayerische has coverage online (behind a paywall).

 

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Mar. 19, 2005 – patient Karl K., who died, morphine.

May 2, 2005 – arrested.

Mar. 20, 2006 – trial  begins, Regensburg  District Court. Two counts of manslaughter and one count of dangerous bodily injury.

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Source:

[“Prozess vor dem Landgericht Regensburg: Morphinspritzen einer Straubinger Krankenschwester ... ‘Ich wollte den Patienten immer nur helfen’,” Onetz, Mar. 21, 2006]

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PHOTO CAPTION: Die Beklagte Doris B. betritt den Gerichtssaal des Tribunal de Grande Instance Leads von einem Polizisten in Regensburg, Deutschland, Montag, 20. März 2006. Die Krankenschwester wird vorgeworfen, er tötete zwei Männer mit Morphin in der Elisabeth Klinik in Straubing und Gesichter Gebühren von Totschlag in zwei Fällen und gefährliche Körperverletzung in einem Drittland.

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For more cases, see Sicko Nurses 

 

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Meredith Borowiec, Serial Baby-Killing Mom Tossed Babies Into Dumpsters – Canada, 2009

Meredith Borowiec of Calgary admitted to dumping three newborn babies into a dumpster in 2008, 2009 and 2010. She was found guilty of infanticide in the deaths of two of her babies in 2013.

On Oct. 19, 2010, Borowiec was complaining of cramps and illness. Her longtime boyfriend Ian Turnbull said he had no idea she was pregnant because she was heavy set and always had “a bit of a belly.” Later the same day, Turnbull was on his way home from work when he heard the baby crying. He jumped into the dumpster, pulled out the hours-old newborn and later learned the child was his own. Borowiec was arrested after police and paramedics found her sitting on her front steps, watching as first responders investigated.

Borowiec was originally charged with attempted murder. But police continued to investigate and eventually charged her with two counts of second-degree murder after she confessed to giving birth to two other babies and throwing them in the same dumpster. At the time of her second arrest, Borowiec was pregnant again and gave birth in custody.

Borowiec stated she had her first child in 2008 and didn’t even look to see whether it was a boy or a girl before she wrapped the infant in a towel and put it in a garbage bag. She admitted to the same scenario in 2009 when she again gave birth into a toilet in her northwest Calgary apartment, wrapped the child in a towel and dropped it into the bathroom garbage before walking out to a large bin and disposing of it.

On November 26, 2013 she was found guilty in a Calgary court.on two counts of infanticide. An appeal upheld the convictions in the higher court and again in Supreme Court.

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Meredith Katharine Borowiec

Oct. 19, 2010 – father finds baby crying in dumpster.

Nov. 16, 2011 – interrogation, Borowiec told Det. Karla Malsam-Dudar about two earlier child births in her home where she bundled up the newborns in garbage bags and placed them in the trash.

Nov. 23, 2011 – charged with two murders.

July 2012 – while in custody at the Southern Alberta Forensic Psychiatric Centre, Borowiec gave birth to a fourth child, a boy who was given up for adoption. 

Nov. 26, 2013 – found guilty on two counts of infanticide; Calgary court.

Jul. 8, 2015 – Convictions of infanticide upheld by the court of appeal, Alberta Justice confirmed Wednesday. Meredith Borowiec was acquitted of murder for putting two of her newborns in a dumpster in 2008 and 2009 and convicted of the lesser charges of infanticide in November 2013.

Mar. 2016 – Supreme Court appeal; infanticide conviction upheld.

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For more cases of this type, see Serial Baby-Killer Moms.

 

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"Ota Ward Serial Baby-Killing Mother” – Japan, 2009

FULL TEXT: Tokyo – The decomposed bodies of four babies were found in plastic bags Sunday [ Jan. 25, 2009] in the Tokyo apartment of a woman who committed suicide last week, police said Monday. Several years are believed to have passed since the babies died because most of the bodies were skeletonized.

The 51-year-old woman, who began living alone in the second-floor apartment in Tokyo's Ota Ward more than 10 years ago, was found hanging Friday in a park in the same ward, police said.

She left a note saying, ''I have suffered from money issues. I can't pay rent any more.''

The younger sister of the woman and her husband found four plastic garbage bags in the apartment Sunday while organizing the woman's belongings, police said. When they opened one of the bags, there was a foul smell, and they contacted the police.

The four bodies were swathed separately in layers of plastic bags, police said. Autopsies will be conducted to determine whether the babies were the woman's.

[“Bodies of 4 babies found in Tokyo apartment,” Japan Today, Jan. 26, 2009]

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For more cases of this type, see Serial Baby-Killer Moms.

 

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Anita C. : Accused Serial Killer Mother – Netherlands, 2010

In Geleen, Limburg Province, Netherlands, 41-year-old  Anita C. (41) had been known by many as the “most beautiful girl of the village.” In August 2010, Anita visited a hospital complaining of abdominal pains and was found to have recently given birth. Police were alerted and her home was search. The body of a baby was found in a garden shed. Further search turned up two more were found buried in the garden. It was later determined the first had died in 2007.

Prosecution requested 8 year sentence, taking into account slightly diminished sense of responsibility due to mild retardation. Anita seemed to not even know when she was pregnant, nor did others, according to a family friend.

The court in Maastricht acquitted Anita C. of murder and manslaughter on three of her newborn babies. According to the court, it could not be proved that the children lived after birth and that their mother Anita killed them.

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For more cases of this type, see Serial Baby-Killer Moms.

 

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Holly Grigsby, Serial Killer – 2011, USA

Holly Grigsby, 25, and her boyfriend David “Joey” Pedersen (31), are “white supremacists.” Pedersen, who has a long criminal record, prominently displays a “SWP” white supremacy tattoo on his neck. Pedersen is the founder of a white-supremacist prison gang, and he told Grigsby about his desire to start a revolution with a killing rampage targeting Jewish leaders.

They planned a series of murders starting with Peterson’s own relatives, which was curtailed after four murders that were committed September 26 through October 3, 2011.

The victims wrere Pedersen’s father, David “Red” Pedersen, 56, and stepmother, 69-year-old Leslie “DeeDee” Pedersen, who were killed Sept. 26 in Everett, Wash. On October 1, Cody Faye Myers, 19, of Lafayette, was shot to death near Newport. On October 3, 53-year-old Reginald Alan Clark was killed in Eureka, California. The pair financed their campaign with stolen credit cars and vehicles.

The couple said they killed Pedersen’s father because he molested two young relatives and also killed his wife because she knew and still supported him. She said she was in the passenger seat and took the steering wheel after her boyfriend fired a shot to the back of his father, Red Petersen’s head. They then drove to the Pedersens’ home in Everett. Grigsby said she herself slit Leslie Pedersen’s throat, and they headed south in Red’s Jeep with his body inside. After the crossed into Oregon they shot and killed 19-year-old Myers and stole his car. They shot Myers, who was Christian, because his name sounded Jewish.

When she was arrested, Grigsby said they were on their way to Sacramento to “kill more Jews.” Grigsby and Pedersen were arrested outside Yuba City, California.

In March, 2014 Grigsby pleaded guilty to racketeering charges connected to the four killings, and the plea agreement called for a life sentence with no chance for release.

Joey Pedersen pleaded guilty to two counts of carjacking resulting in death — one for the death of teenager Cody Myers on the Oregon coast and the other for the killing of Reginald Clark in Eureka, Calif. He was sentenced to life in prison.

[Robert St. Estephe, Dec. 16, 2018; edited from various sources]

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CHRONOLOGY:

Sep. 26, 2011 – David “Red” Pedersen, 56; 69-year-old Leslie “DeeDee” Pedersen, killed, Everett, Wash.

Oct. 1, 2011 – Cody Faye Myers (19), of Lafayette, shot to death near Newport.

Oct. 3, 2011 – Reginald Alan Clark (53) killed, Eureka, Calif.

Oct. 5, 2011 – Arrested.

Aug. 23, 2012 – Grigsby faces 14 counts of racketeering, kidnapping, carjacking and other charges related to the death of four people last September and October. David “Joey” Pedersen, 32, of Salem, is also charged in the federal indictment that was handed up by a grand jury last week.

Jul. 15, 2014 – Sentenced

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Gene Johnson, “Chilling new details surface in deadly crime spree case: Authorities recover bloody clothing, a knife and stolen credit cards,” NBC News (AP), Oct. 11, 2011

Lynne Terry, Holly Grigsby pleads not guilty in federal court in Portland on racketeering charges, The Oregonian (Portland), Aug. 23, 2012

Steven Dubois, “Woman guilty in Northwest killing spree is sentenced to life without parole,” The Associated Press, Jul. 15, 2014

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More: Serial Killer Couples 

 

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