Serial Killer Girls

NOTE: Among the 28 cases listed here only that of Mary Bell is well-known. The Australian cases of Helen Patricia Moore is known in that country but is little-known elsewhere, Clementine Barnabet has begun to get a little attention in the past few years, but previously ignored by the experts. The others, even those over a century old have been overlooked by criminologists.

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► 1816 – Rachel Clark – Carlisle, Pennsylvania, USA – “young girl” (“several deaths”)

A domestic servant who poisoned to death several members of the household in which she was employed and left one of her victims crippled.

► 1865 – Marie-Françoise Bougaran – Brest & Lesneven, France – “servant girl,” age 15 at time of apprehension. (3 deaths)

A servant girl, she murdered three children in two different families in an astonishingly disgusting and brutal manner and confessed she had a compulsion that would have led to murdering the rest of the children in the household she was serving in at the time of her arrest.

► 1867 – Elizabeth Wheeldon – Shirland Delves, near Alfreton, Derby, England – age 17 at time of apprehension. (2 deaths)

She poisoned two children of her at employer on different occasions so that she would have less work to do.

► 1871 – Agnes Norman – London, England – age 15 at time of apprehension. (4 deaths & 1 attempt)

Two or three children, a dog, two cats, six or eight birds, and some gold fish, had all fallen victims to Agnes Norman unnatural propensity for killing before she was discovered and arrested,” at the age of 15. One little boy, aged eleven years, testified that one night he awoke by feeling something hurting him, and upon looking up found this delectable young woman, who lived as a servant in the same house, stooping over him with one hand on his mouth, and the other tightly grasping his throat. [edited from linked source]

► 1872 – Martha Whetstone – St. Louis, Missouri, USA – age 16 when discovered. (4 deaths)

A nurse girl whose charges died; four children, including her own sister, in a space of four months.

► 1874 – Henrietta Weibel – New York, N. Y., USA – age 15 (13?) at time of apprehension. (1 death & 1 attempt)

One murder, another attempted. She stated she had a mania for setting fires and burning babies.

► 1876 – “La Flèche Serial Killer Girl” – La Flèche, France – age 12 at time of apprehension.(2 deaths of babies; plus adults?)

After having smothered the children of her mistress she was removed to the hospital of La Flèche, and there felt impelled by some unnatural force to assassinate the patients.

► 1881 – Margaret Messenger – Cumberland, England – age 14 at time of apprehension; 13 at time of first murder. (2 deaths)

14-year-old Margaret Messenger laid an infant face downward in a boggy place, placed a stone upon its head, and so suffocated it.  She even confessed later on that she had herself killed the baby alone and unaided. At the time of committing the crime she was only 13, and had but just attained her 14th year when brought to trial. She also confessed “that she had murdered another child of the same family – the little boy who was drowned in the well a short time before – having purposely thrown him in, ‘The idea occurred to her, to quote her own words,’ as she was chopping sticks in the yard and she took him to the well and drowned him. [edited from linked source] 

► 1885 – Rebecca Samuels – Barnesville, S. C., USA – age 12 at time of apprehension; age 10 (or perhaps 11) at time of first murder. (2 deaths)

A girl, 12 years old, has been convicted of the a six weeks’ old infant that she was nursing. She soaked the child in a pot of concentrated lye. This is the second crime of the same kind she has committed within the past two years.

► 1889 – Marie Doiselet – Bar-sur-Aube, France – age 13 at time of apprehension. (2 deaths)

13-year-old Marie Doiselet  was engaged as nursemaid in the house of a neighbour, named Caratnauti, and was entrusted with the care of his two children, one aged six months and the other two years and a-half. The youngest died suddenly on June 23, and the other under precisely similar circumstances on July 23. Suspicions were excited, and it turned out that the youthful murderess had killed each of them by placing a handkerchief over the mouth and nose, and pressing heavily on the chest until suffocation ensued. She confessed the crime and the methods of its execution, and said she wanted to get rid of the trouble of looking after the children. [edited from linked source] 

► 1892 – Bottoms Girl – Atoka, Kentucky, USA – age 6 at time of apprehension. (1 death; stated desire to kill more babies in the future)

This astonishing case involves a 6-year-old obsessed with a desire to murder babies. She was successful, after planning the deed long in advance, in murdering her 18-month-old sister and expressed the desire to kill more babies in the future.

► 1892 – Ella Holdridge – Tonawanda, New York, USA – age 14 at time of apprehension. (1 dearh; 3 attempts, saved by doctor; other attempts)

Ella Holdridge, 14-years old, had a passion for attending funerals. When a lull came about, offering no opportunities for her favorite form of amusement, she solved the problem by poisoning a number of children in series. She remarked with respect to the corpse one of her victims, Louisa Stormer who she said “made the prettiest corpse ever put under New York soil.” Ella confessed that she not only poisoned the children at an the orphanage where she worked, Susie (10) and Jennie (5) Eggleston and Henry Garlock (5), but actually murdered Louisa Stromer. She described with great earnestness and tragic effect the horrible sufferings of her victims and seemed to gloat over the death of Louisa Stormer who she said “made the prettiest corpse ever put under New York soil.” [edited from linked source]

► 1894 – “Novgorod Teenage Serial Killer Nurse” – Novgorod, Russia – age 14 when apprehended. (17 deaths)

She confessed to murdering 17 babies “because they bothered her, and she disliked the trouble of attending to them.”

► 1895 – Annabell – Fairfield County, South Carolina – age 14 at time of apprehension. First murder at age 11. (2 deaths)

At the age of 11 she murdered a baby. At the age of 14 she murdered and dismembered another, then tortured a 6-year-old boy in an effort to force him to confess to the crime she had committed.

► 1896 – Fanny Scofield – Oswego, New York, USA – age 13 at time of apprehension. (2 deaths)

After the death of one child was determined to have been caused by poison, it was realized that the sibling of the victim who had been thought to have been murdered in the same way some time earlier by 13-year-old Fanny Scofield [edited from linked source]

► 1904 – Jeanne Bonnaud – Chatain, Haute Vienne, France – age 17 at time of apprehension. (4 deaths; 2 attempts)

A young girl of seventeen, named Jeanne Bonnaud confessed to an extraordinary series of infant murders. She murdered several children including her sister before being caught trying to push two others down a well. [edited from linked source]

► 1906 – Mary Maher – Dunkitt, County Kilkenny, Ireland – age 11 when discovered (3 deaths, 1 attempted murder; suicide)

During a three-month period, Mary Maher murdered three sisters (aged 1, 3, 4 ½), attempted to murder another sister, aged 8, and then, a week later, committed suicide.

► 1906 – Lillian B. Thornman – York, Pennsylvania, USA – age 15 at time of apprehension. (4 deaths; 2 attempts)

Lillian B. Thornman, a thirteen-year-old girl, fatally burned the three-year-old child of Robert Dorsey of York, Pennsylvania. The girl, who was employed to do light work around the house literally fried the child was writhing and screaming in its agony an aunt entered the room and rescued it, but the child had been roasted from head to foot and cannot live. The servant girl in jail tonight confessed that she had fatally burned three other children in a similar manner, giving their parents the impression that they had fallen on the stove accidentally while climbing to reach something. [edited from linked source]

► 1907 – Ida Schnell – Munich, Germany – age 13 at time of apprehension. (6 deaths)

Ida Schnell admitted that she had killed not only the baby whose body had been exhumed, but five others for whom she had been engaged as nurse. She confessed, further, that she had taken the lives of these infants by plunging a hairpin into the lower part of the back of their heads till they ceased to cry. Asked as to her motive, the girl said that the crying of the infants roused in her unconquerable revulsion, and excited her to such a degree that she lost all control over herself, and would do anything to make them quiet. Next morning she confessed to the sixth murder. [edited from linked source]

► 1911 – Clementine Barnabet – Lafayette, Louisiana, USA – age 18 at time of apprehension. (22 deaths)

Clementine Barnabet, self-confessed “ax woman of the sacrifice sect,” was found guilty of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment. The woman confessed to 17 murders and testimony introduced in her trial showed that she had slain 22.

► 1912 – Ivanova Tamarin – “Kurdio,” or “Kulda,” Estonia (?)  – age 17 at time of apprehension. (27 deaths)

A mother and her daughter and accomplices she robbed, murdered, mutilated and cannibalized 27 persons.

► 1921 – Ineigo Kaneiko – Kumakura, Japan – age 18 at time of apprehension. presumably 16 or 17 at time of first murder. (18 deaths)

A young Japanese woman named Kaneko, along with her husband,  was arrested and tried on a charge of poisoning 18 people whose lives she had insured in her favour. Good-looking and well-educated, she cleverly tricked both doctors and insurance companies. First she murdered her sister, with whose husband she had fallen in love.  At the trial, her husband confessed after a severe cross-examination, during which the woman shouted, “You are like all men – an arrant coward!” [edited from linked source]

► 1925 – Alsa Thompson – Los Angeles, California, USA – age 7 at time of apprehension. Claimed to have committed first murder at age of 6 (?). (multiple attempts; possibly 3 deaths)

Alsa possibly murdered her 2-year old twin sisters and woman she had boarded with following her parents’ separation. Later she poisoned the next family she boarded with, as well as attacking with a razor blade her baby sister and another child. Killed canaries and a cat with poison.

► 1930 – Kathleen Riefer – Saarbrucken, Rhenish Prussia – age 12 at time of apprehension. (1 death; 4 attempts, with serious injury)

“A 12-year-old girl, who has confessed to the killing of a four-year-old infant, and to inflicting savage injuries on four others.”

► 1968 – Mary Bell – Scotswood, England – age 11 at time of apprehension. (2 deaths; several attempts, one with serious injury)

The only case on this collection that is truly well-known. Bell is sometimes not treated as a proper serial killer since she killed two victims only. Yet this young killer had indeed attempted to murder two others. He proclivity was clearly of the serial kind. She most likely would have continued these activities if it were not the inherent restrictions  on her activities that are automatically conferred by the life of a child.

► 1980 – Helen Patricia Moore – Claymore, Australia – age 18 at time of apprehension; age 17 at time of first murder. (4 deaths; 2 attempts, crippling one victim)

Australian Baby-sitter, Helen Patricia Moore, murdered five children aged from one to seven years, and crippled another, aged 2, between Mar. 1, 1979 and Mar. 24, 1980. Moore was only 17 when she began her serial killing career. She was convicted and after serving only 13 years of a “life sentence” was released from prison.

► 2001 – Jummai Hassan – Maiduguri, Nigeria – age 13 at time of apprehension. (51 deaths)

13-year-old Jummai Hassan, of Maiduguri, Nigeria, confessed to being a member of a cult based in Lagos and that she has killed 51 people, including her father, since she was initiated seven years ago. She had been arrested in the past for burning down a woman’s house, quarrelling with her mother and throwing a girl into a ditch, the police chief said. But each time she was taken to court, she escaped conviction, he said. The alert about the killings came when the two-year-old boy Ibro Joseph went missing earlier this month. The girl confessed that she killed and buried the toddler. She police investigators to a grave where the body was exhumed. Jummai Hassan, in her confession said, “We always use a powder to kill. Once we apply it on a person, he dies and we take away his heart.” [edited from linked source]

► 2009 – “Sao Paulo Girl” – São José do Rio Preto, Brazil – age 17 at time of apprehension; age 15 at time of first murder. (30 deaths)

A 17-year-old girl confessed to stabbing to death 30 men within the period of two years.

► 2011 – “La Perris” (alias) – Medellin, Colombia – age 17 at time of apprehension. (multiple adult deaths presumed; 1 child death; 2 attempts, both with serious injury)

In 2011, 17-year-old "La Perris," was arrested in Medellin, Colombia, for possession of a firearm. Police also expect that La Perris was involved with training or assisting young assassins in the Antioquia department's capital city of Medellin. La Perris was allegedly involved with an attack on a 16-year-old girl, which killed one girl and injured a 13-year-old and 6-year-old in the process. According to General Yesid Vasquez, the attack occurred because the two girls refused to be part of her gang. The 6-year-old is in critical condition at San Vincent de Paul hospital, after suffering a shot to the neck and cardiac arrest. [edited from linked source]

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Listed by age at time of apprehension:

6 – 1892 – Bottoms Girl – Atoka, Kentucky, USA

7 – 1925 – Alsa Thompson – Los Angeles, California, USA

11 – 1906 – Mary Maher – Dunkitt, County Kilkenny, Ireland

11 – 1968 – Mary Bell – Scotswood, England

12 – 1876 – “La Flèche Serial Killer Girl” – La Flèche, France

12 – 1885 – Rebecca Samuels – Barnesville, S. C., USA

12 – 1930 – Kathleen Riefer – Saarbrucken, Rhenish Prussia

13 – 1889 – Marie Doiselet – Bar-sur-Aube, France
13 – 1896 – Fanny Scofield – Oswego, New York, USA

13 – 1907 – Ida Schnell – Munich, Germany

13 – 2001 – Jummai Hassan – Maiduguri, Nigeria

14 – 1881 – Margaret Messenger – Cumberland, England

14 – 1892 – Ella Holdridge – Tonawanda, New York, USA

14 – 1894 – “Novgorod Teenage Serial Killer Nurse” – Novgorod, Russia

14 – 1895 – Annabell – Fairfield County, South Carolina

15 – 1865 – Marie-Françoise Bougaran – Brest & “Lanseven,” France

15 – 1871 – Agnes Norman – London, England

15 – 1874 – Henrietta Weibel – New York, NY

15 – 1906 – Lillian B. Thornman – York, Pennsylvania, USA

16 – 1872 – Martha Whetstone – St. Louis, Missouri, USA

17 – 1867 – Elizabeth Wheeldon – Shirland Delves, near Alfreton, Derby, England

17 – 1904 – Jeanne Bonnaud – Chatain, Haute Vienne, France
17 – 1912 – Ivanova Tamarin – “Kurdio,” or “Kulda,” Estonia (?)

17 – 2011 – “La Perris” (alias) – Medellin, Colombia

18 – 1911 – Clementine Barnabet – Lafayette, Louisiana, USA

18 – 1921 – Ineigo Kaneiko – Kumakura, Japan

18 – 1980 – Helen Patricia Moore – Claymore, Australia

“young girl” – 1816 – Rachel Clark – Carlisle, Pennsylvania, USA

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False confession:

► 1894 – Johanna Moran (16), Nelly Connolly (15½) – Sydney, Australia – Two girls residing at the Parramatta Industrial School gave detailed confessions of murdering babies. No bodies or other evidence corroborating the claims were located. It was assumed the confessions were a ruse concocted to find a way to leave the confines of the school.

► 2013 – Miranda Barbour – USA – 18-year-old arrested for murder confesses to over 22 other murders committed beginning at the age of 13. The serial murder confession was made several months following her arrest. The truth of the confession will soon be tested. As yet the claim of being a serial killer is unconfirmed.

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The study of psychopathic tendencies among children conducted by Florida psychologist Danial A.  Waschbusch is germane to the subject of serial killer girls.

Jennifer Kahn, “Can You Call a 9-Year-Old a Psychopath?” New York Times, May 11, 2012

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