Female Serial Killers & Arson

1873 – Sarah Earhardt – Germantown, Ohio, USA

Minor crimes, such its the poisoning of juvenile animals and the burning of numerous houses, are also said to be among the number of her achievements.

1874 – Henrietta Weibel – The Bronx, New York, USA

Henrietta Weibel, aged 15, was arrested, on a charge of attempted murder and incendiarism, she having on Wednesday night, attempted to burn the infant child of Mrs. Franck, a boarder at the Leopold Palace Hotel, and afterwards made two endeavours to set fire to the house. The baby was lying asleep when the girl set fire to the bed clothes. Another servant extinguished the flames, but the little child was nearly suffocated.

1875 – Sofie Johannesdotter – Fredrikshald (Halden), Norway, USA 

“Sofie Johannesdotter was arrested following the burning down of the Stang house where Sofie was employed as a house servant.”

1886 – Harriet Nason – Rutland, Vermont, USA –  “predicted” two fires

Neighbors of Mrs. Nason ascribe to her remarkable powers in the way of prophesying fires. Her house on Grove street, it is said, was burned in accordance with her prediction about three years age. Subsequently she had another fiery vision. This alarmed another family in the same block and a watchman was employed. But the second fire occurred on scheduled time, though not until Mrs. Nason had been notified by the owners of the property to vacate. The popular impression is that Mrs. Nason is afflicted with a most dangerous and insidious form of insanity and that all the results of her secret work are not yet known.

1886 – Harriet Ann Stevens – Wangaratta, Australia

The evidence disclosed a strong circumstantial case that Mrs. Stevens first poisoned the deceased, and then after robbing him set fire to his house.

1890 – Marianna Skublińska – Warsaw, Poland

During the night of the 17th she set fire to her lodging, after having first murdered the children committed to her charge.

Then this inhuman woman went and stood in the yard of the house among the excited crowd and quietly waited to see what would happen. As the house was only built of wood, she evidently hoped it would be completely destroyed. But one of the inmates of the house suddenly remembered the woman in the garret and her charges, and called out to the firemen to save the children.

Then Skubliuski was for the first time soon standing in the yard, and when she was asked if the children were already saved, she answered that they were no longer with her. In the meanwhile, the firemen had so far succeeded in subduing the fire that one of them penetrated into Skublinski’s lodging, and, not knowing what she had said, immediately began to search for the children. He soon found one little corpse, and then two more.

1893 – Lizzie Halliday – Burlingham, New York, USA

Mar. 17, 1888 – convicted of arson, Philadelphia, Pa. under the name “Maggie Hopkins.”

May-Jun. 1893 – John Halliday, crippled step-son, burned to death in the “old mill” residence of Mrs & Mrs. Halliday & John, arson fire set by Lizzie. She was arrested and sent to insane asylum at Middletown.(date source: Schechter)

1893 – Mattie C. Shann – Trenton, New Jersey, USA

It is alleged that Mrs. Shann poisoned her victims with a solution of bichloride of mercury, that she at the life of her daughter in the same manner, and that she burned three houses in Princeton. The motive for her arts was the recovery of insurance money.

1901 – Jane Toppan – Boston, Massachusetts, USA

It was an irresistible propensity which impelled her to kill her best friends, and to commit the four crimes of arson to which she also confessed.

1904 – Rachel Galtie – Auch, France

She had a friend in the wife, of a navy Captain, a Mme. Larrieu. This woman was preparing to leave her house on a visit, and the amiable Mme. Galtie offered to help her pack up. The service was politely declined, but Mme. Galtié was not to be put off so easily, and was at her friend’s house when the trunks were about to be closed. At that moment an alarm of fire was raised, and the basement of the Larjie home was found to be in flames. The discovery of a straw mattress staked in petroleum and of a box of matches close by proved that the fire must have been the deliberate work of a criminal, Mme. Galtié, in a state bordering on hysterics, explained that she had seen a strange man enter the house, and then rush away a moment after the fire had declared itself.

1908 – Belle Gunness – La Porte, Indiana, USA

1917 – Leopoldine Kasparek – Vienna, Austria

In every case the murderess managed to escape unnoticed and her crimes remained mysteries for many months, until she was finally caught in the act when she strangled Mrs. Marie Wurish, a 70-year-old widow, and applied the torch to the house of the old woman to cover up the murder.

1929 – Lisa Karl – Rheims, France

Mlle. Karl, characterized as “the most loathsome woman in France, was the leader of a band of fierce brigands. She beat the inn keeper to death with a wine bottle, and Clarisse  later aided her in burning the body with gasoline.

1929 – Sarah Elizabeth Powers – Macon, Georgia, USA

1949 – Clarice Spurlock – Evansville, Indiana; Memphis, Tenn., USA

Clarice Spurlock was suspected of murdering her parents in two separate poisonings. She was formally charged with arson for setting fire to their garage. She was also suspected of slow-poisoning her husband.

1954 – Nannie Doss – Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA

The Lanning Murder & Supsequent Arson: Nannie murdered her third husband, Arlie J. Lanning in 1950, after two and a half years of marriage. Lanning's house was willed to his sister and within two months the house burned down before the dead man’s sister could take possession. The now homeless Nannie moved in temporarily with her mother-in law, saying until she received the fire insurance check.  Before she left, however, her mother-in-law died in her sleep. Nannie then stayed with her sister Dovie, who was dying of cancer and soon, she too perished. [RSE, adapted from: Charles Montaldo Nannie Doss “One of the most prolific female serial killers in U.S. history.” About.com]

1963 – Virginia Hill – Falmouth, Kentucky, USA

“At 26, Mrs. Virginia Hill has lost six of her seven children. Two died of natural causes. She admitted killing one other and setting a fire in which three more died, officials said.”

1965 – Hazel Dulcie Bodsworth – Hopetwn, Victortia, Australia

1967 – Janie Lou Gibbs – Cordele, Georgia, USA

Gibbs’ husband of 18 years, Charles Clayton Gibbs, 39, died January 21, 1966. Her youngest son, Marvin Ronald Gibbs, 13, died August 29, 1966, followed by her middle son, Melvin Watess Gibbs, 16, on January 23, 1967. She inherited $31,000 from their deaths and tithed 10 percent to her church. The Gibbs’ home at Arabi burned after her  husband’s death and she moved to her present home in Cordele.

1979 – Audrey Marie Hilley – Anniston, Alabama, USA

As examples, the FBI agent noted two arson fires at the Hilley house, one when Frank Hilley was still alive, the second when Carol and her grandmother were in the house alone. Urine tests to detect any arsenic were also ordered for people known to have visited the Hilley residence, including police who investigated the fires. “One time some investigators went to that house and afterwards they became sick,” the agent said. “It’s possible they had been given some type of poison. “There was a family that lived next to her for years,” he added. “The children were sick all the time, but doctors could never find out why. ... ‘This family eventually moves and the kids get well in no time at all.” Investigators say they’ve determined the victims were given small doses of arsenic over an extended period.

1982 – Judith Neelley – southern USA

On September 11, 1982, a Youth Development Center employee, Ken Dooley’s home was shot at four times. The following day, fellow employee Linda Adair’s home was firebombed with a Molotov cocktail. Phone calls were made to the victims following the attacks by a female who claimed to have been sexually abused at the Youth Development Center, but neither victim could identify the caller’s voice.

1983 – Judias Buenoano – Orlando, Florida, USA

She was convicted of multiple counts of grand theft (for insurance fraud), and is thought to have committed multiple acts of arson (again, for purposes of insurance fraud).

1989 – Blanche Taylor Moore – Winston-Salem, North Carolina, USA

On January 23, 1985. a mysterious fire broke out at her Burlington home. Blanche blamed a pervert for the blaze, and firemen confirmed arson as the cause, accepting her tale of a nameless man seen loitering around the property. Blanche collected a little fire insurance, investing the cash in a new mobile home. When fire razed the trailer a month later, she blamed that pervert again and collected another insurance check. Someone better finally entered Blanches life on Easter Sunday, 1985. A handsome divorcée at age fifty-one, Rev. Dwight Moore was the pastor of the Carolina United Church of Christ.

1995 – Debora Green – Kansas City, Kansas, USA

Set fire to her house killing two of her children. When one escaped, she tried to avoid saving her. She had poisoned her husband who became disabled from the effects. She blamed her murdered son for the fire and the poisoning of his father.

1998 – Virginia Rearden McGinnis – San Diego, California, USA

1998 – María Concepción Ladino Gutiérrez  - Bogota, Colombia

One her victims was an elderly woman jeweler whom she sprayed with gasoline and set on fire.

1998 – “PK” – Switzerland

After the third attack PK admitted to her therapist that she wanted to commit arson again and was committed to a mental hospital. It was there, when she began talking about stalking and killing women, that she became a suspect. She eventually confessed to all three attacks.

2000 – Credonia Mwerinde – Kanungu, Uganda

As a young woman, Credonia was obsessed by fire. She had torched the possessions of a man who had failed to acquiesce to her romantic desires. . In another instance, she led her followers to the banana plantation of a relative who refused to join the cult.

Sister Credonia Mwerinde, leader of Ugandan Marianist cult of the Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Comandments located in Kunungu murdered hundreds of her followers on March 17, 2000 by locking them in a worship facility called the ark that was pyrotechnically rigged. All door and windows were secured so that none could escape and then the building was set afire. The official death toll was set at 738. The fire was so intense that the many of the victims’ skulls exploded. Their corpses, many of them children, were buried in several mass graves. Sister Credonia disappeared and has not as of this date been apprehended. 

2003 – Janet Smith – Largo, Florida & Mountain Home, Arkansas, USA

2003 – Dana Stodolova – Kutna Hora, Czech Republic 

November 16, 2001, staying with Dana’s mother in Slavošov, they robbed a neighbor Jaroslava Šanda (75). The retrieved 40,000 crowns but the victim managed to pull the nylon stocking from Jaroslav face. Jaroslav strangled him to death so he would not be identified. They put the body in bed and surrounded it with lighted candles as a way of burning the house in a delayed manner. The autopsy was faulty and missed signs of strangulation.

2004 – Kusuma Nain – Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, India

2006 – Sheila LaBarre – Epping, New Hampshire, USA

One of her victims, named “Countie, 24, met LaBarre through a personal ad in February 2006. He moved in with her soon after and was last seen alive that March, being pushed by LaBarre in a wheelchair at Wal-Mart, his face and hands covered with cuts. A few days later, when police went to LaBarre's home to check on him, they found her tending a burning pile of trash containing what later was identified as Countie's bones.”

2007 – Shirley Winters – Syracuse, New York, USA

Winters had been indicted previously in the death of Ron Winters after authorities exhumed the baby's remains. His death originally had been blamed on Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. But Judge Joseph Fahey dismissed that earlier indictment in June after concluding the grand jury presentation was tainted because the county medical examiner also testified about her belief that the deaths of two of Winters' other children in a 1979 Jefferson County house fire were also homicides.

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

2008 – Lydia L. – Gottingen, Germany

Once drawn into her web of “love,” she victim would be murdered either through overdose of drugs, or by suffocating him using a plastic bag – in order to simulate a natural death. Another victim was burned to death in his own home. In one case, the murder duo arranged a fake robbery in order to created a cover story for a murder.

2009 – Kanae Kijima – Tokyo, Japan

Keizo Ando, 80, an invalid, died May 2009, house fire.

2014 – Marli Teles de Souza – Cacador, State of Santa Catarina, Brazil

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►Burning Child Alive

1829 – Martha “Patty” Cannon – Johnson’s Corners, Maryland, USA

1874 – Henrietta Weibel – Fresh Farms, The Bronx, N, Y., USA (15-y-o)

1875 – Julia Fortmeyer – St. Louis, Missouri, USA

1890 – Marianne Skoblinska – Warsaw, Poland

1906 – Lillian Thorman – York, Pennsylvania, USA (13-y-o)

1907 – Mrs. Fred West – Des Moines Iowa, USA

1912 – Mme. Couturier – Le May-Sur-Èvre, France

“She fastened her two year-old daughter to a post, and then having laid a fire set the child’s clothes ablaze. The helpless infant was burnt to death after having suffered terrible agony. The unnatural mother watched the whole affair. … Two other children of the prisoner died [the previous] year in suspicious circumstances.”

1920 – Dagmar Overbye – Copenhagen, Denmark

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►Pyromania & Serial Killers

[I]t’s more than sheer malice that underlies the incendiary crimes of serial killers. According to specialists in the psychology of perversion, there is always an erotic motive at the root of pyromania. “There is but one instinct which generates the impulse to incendiarism,” writes William Stekel in his classic work on aberrant behavior. “That is the sexual instinct, and arson clearly shows its connecting points with sex.” True, there are often “secondary motives” behind a pyromaniac’s acts – anger, frustration, revenge. But above all (as Stekel writes). “the incendiary is sexually excited by the flames; he likes to watch them burn.” In short, serial murderers who enjoy starting fires do so for the same reason that they love to torture and kill.

It turns them on.

[Harold Schechter, Fatal: The Poisonous Life of a Serial Killer, Pocket Books, 2006, 127]

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SEE MORE: Female Serial Killer Collections

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[1811-2/25/21; 2424-12/29/22]

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The Stranglers : Female Serial Killers

1819 – Ane Nielsdatter – Copenhagen, Denmark – str. w. handkerchief

1847 – Mary Runkle – Whitesboro, Oneida County, New York, USA

1871 – Agnes Norman – London, England – str. w. hands

1883 – “Kakoorgachi Serial Murderess” – Kakoorgachi, India

1896 – Amelia Dyer – Caversham, England – str. w. edging tape (millinery)

1908 – Jeanne Weber – Paris, France – strangle w. hands

1911 – Rachel Lynn – Atlanta, Georgia, USA – str. w. silk cord.

1912 – Maria Reyes – Mexico City, Mexico

1917 – Leopoldine Kasparek – Vienna, Austria – str. w. hands

1930 – Katharina Riefer – Saarbrucken, Rhenish Prussia, Germany

1930 – “Shanghai Female Jack the Ripper” – Shanghai, China (2 victims)
1938 – Anna Vucored – Konjice, Yugoslavia (Slovenia)

1949 – Martha Beck – Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA

1954 – Elsie Rodgers – Burton-on-Kent, Statfordshire, England

1965 – Myra Hindley – Hattersley, England  – str. wr. silk scarf, or ligature

1968 – Mary Bell – Scottswood, England

1980 – Carol M. Bundy – Los Angeles, California, USA

1980 – Stella Williamson – Gallitzin, Pennsylvania, USA

1985 – Rosemary West – Gloucester, England 

1990 – Diana Lumbrera – Garden City, Kansas, USA

2002 – Junko Ogata – Kurume, Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan

2006 – Juana Barraza – Mexico City, Mexico – str. w. stethoscope.

2007 – Celine Lesage – Valognes, France

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SEE MORE: Female Serial Killer Collections

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The Austrian Strangler: Serial Killer Leopoldine Kasparek - 1916

FULL TEXT (Article 1 of 2): Vienna — One of the most sensational murder trials in the history of the Austrian capital occupied the criminal court of the Fifth District four days last week and ended with the conviction of the defendant, Mrs. Leopoldine Kasparek, who will have to die on the gallows if Emperor Charles does not save her by an act of grace.

Altho [sic] only 23 years old, the convicted woman to one of the most desperate and heartless criminals in the annals of the police. She comes from a respectable family and is the wife of a soldier who has been fighting on the Russian front since the first months of the war. After her husband was called to the court she started on her criminal career by committing numerous thefts, robberies and extortions. In 1915 and 1916 she was arrested repeatedly, but always escaped with short terms of imprisonment, because she pleaded that she had been driven to her crimes by want.

Since she left the workhouse the last time the woman attempted at least 14 murders and robberies, and in four or five cases she was successful. All of her victims were wealthy elderly women whose confidence she won in some way. Her method was simple enough. After gaining admittance to the apartments of the old ladies she strangled them into insensibility and then ransacked the houses. Ten of her victims recovered, but three were found dead and one died in a hospital.

In every case the murderess managed to escape unnoticed and her crimes remained mysteries for many months, until she was finally caught in the act when she strangled Mrs. Marie Wurish, a 70-year-old [error, 56] widow, and applied the torch to the house of the old woman to cover up the murder.

After her arrest the murderess made a daring attempt to escape from prison. To get herself transferred from the jail to a hospital, she swallowed a large darning needle, which had to be removed from her body by an operation. As soon as she had strength enough she attacked one of her nurses, an elderly Sister of Mercy, whose garb she donned after strangling her almost to death. She succeeded in getting out of the hospital, but was recaptured within half an hour.

At her trial the murderess manifested a cynicism almost unbelievable in a woman. She did not show the slightest trace of remorse, bragged of her deeds and cursed the judges and the jurors. After death sentence had been pronounced upon her it took the combined efforts of six policemen to drag her put of the courtroom, and on the way back to her prison cell she fought like a tigress.

[“Sensational  Murder Trial Held In Vienna - Wife of Soldier on German Front Convicted of the Crime - One of Most Hardened Criminals In Country, Altho Only 23 Years Old.” Syndicated, Lima Sunday News (Oh.), Aug. 12, 1917, p. 13(?)]

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FULL TEXT (Article 2 of 2): To-day’s German crime story, though it is related by the Munich post, comes from Vienna. It concerns the doings of a “pleasant-spoken and rather good-looking young woman,” Frau Leopoldine Kasparek, who had a hobby for strangling people: –

Leopoldine Kasparek, aged twenty-three, was convicted before the Vienna Penal Court on the charges of murdering her husband [sic; error] and two other persons, as well as on those of incendiarism, robbery, fraud, theft, and libel.

“Kasparek had for some time made it a practice to gain entrance to houses inhabited by women living alone, whom she proceeded to strangle, subsequently appropriating their money.

One of her victims, a woman named Marie Wurisch, who was half-blind, was not only half-strangled, but was burned to death by Kasparek, who saturated her clothing with paraffin and set fire to it, the house in which the woman dwelt being burned to the ground.

Kasparek, who pleaded guilty, declared that she needed money, and saw no way of making it in these hard times except by procuring it from persona who only spent it on luxuries. She further confessed that she had also murdered her husband, a waiter, because he was too niggardly in his allowances.

She admitted, too, that she had forged the signature of the chief of police to a bill of acceptance on which she had obtained the sum of £35, and that she had libelled and blackmailed Superintendent Klein, of the Criminal Investigation Department, against whom she had levelled accusations of assault. Sentence was postponed in order that the girl’s mental condition might be investigated.

[“Through German Spectacles  - Young Woman With A Hobby For Murder. - A Nice Young Thing.” The Oamaru Mail (New Zealand), Jul. 24, 1917, p. 6]

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Leopoldine Kasparek, A Woman as Murderer of Women

FULL TEXT (translated): In the midst of the annoying excitement and horrors of the war, a sensational criminal appears on the scene, a young woman of 22 years, that for a time drove on with ghastly calmness and regularity, and that it aimed at lonely old women as their victims. Now the young criminal, Leopoldine Kasparek, has finally been arrested and the public breathes with relief that such a dangerous character will be repaid in kind.

She is the daughter of a coffee house owner. Her husband was employed by her parents. The parents were against the marriage and had withdrawn their hand from the daughter. In April [1916], the Kasparek had committed a theft on a friend; she was sentenced to two months in jail. She was granted a sentence and she should have served the sentence on October 1. In the course of the investigation, she was found to have committed no less than eighteen crimes, including one she committed on an old woman living with her in the same house.

In the house at Erdbergstraße No. 14 in which the Kasparek lives, also lived the 56-year-old Mrs. Marie Wurisch. She had severe heart disease and did not see with her right eye. On October 17, a fire broke out in her apartment and the woman was found to be a charred corpse.

It was thought that the woman had died from an accident, but it was noticeable that a strangulation groove was found on the larynx. Now Kasparek has admitted this murder and ended her series of crimes by this terrible act.

She was taken to the state courts and seeks to avoid her conviction.

 [“Leopoldine Kasparek, ein Weib als Frauenmörderin.” Wiener Bilder (Austria), 24 Sep. 1916, p. 7; reproduced in: Roland Stadler, “Der Fall Leopoldine Kasparek 24. September 1916,” 1030wien

http://ki3.at/der-fall-leopoldine-kasparek

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Leopoldine Kasparek, ein Weib als Frauenmörderin.

FULL TEXT: Mitten in den nervenzerrüttenden Aufregungen und Greueln des Krieges tritt eine sensationelle Verbrecherin auf den Plan, ein junges Weib von 22 Jahren. das mit grauenvoller Ruhe und Planmäßigkeit eine Zeitlang sein Unwesen trieb und das es auf alleinstehende alte Frauen als ihre Opfer abgesehen hatte. Nun wurde die junge Verbrecherin, Leopoldine Kasparek, endlich verhaftet und die Oeffentlichkeit atmet befreit auf, daß ein so gefährlicher Würgengel gefährliche gefälschte Sparkassenbuch zurückzubekommen.

Sie ist die Tochter eines Kaffeehausbesitzers. Ihr Mann war bei ihren Eltern angestellt. Die Eltern waren gegen die Ehe und hatten ihre Hand von der Tochter abgezogen. Im April hatte die Kasparek an einer Freundin einen Diebstahl verübt; sie wurde zu zwei Monaten Kerker verurteilt. Es wurde ihr ein Strafausschub gewährt und sie hätte die Strafe am 1. Oktober antreten sollen Im Laufe der Untersuchung wurden ihr nicht weniger als achtzehn Delikte, darunter auch ein Mord nachgewiesen, den sie an einer Greisin begangen, die im selben Hause mit ihr wohnte.

In dem Hause Erdbergstraße Nr. 14, in dem die Kasparek wohnt, hat auch die 56jährige Frau Marie Wurisch gewohnt. Sie war schwer herzleidend und sah auf dem rechten Auge nichts. Am 17. Oktober ist in ihrer Wohnung ein Brand ausgebrochen und die Frau wurde als verkohlte Leiche gefunden.

Man dachte, die Frau sei durch einen Unfall zugrunde gegangen, aber es fiel auf, daß man am Kehlkopf eine Strangulierungsfurche fand. Nun hat die Kasparek diesen Mord eingestanden und die Reihe ihrer Verbrechen durch diese schreckliche Tat vollendet.

Sie wurde dem Landesgerichte eingeliefert und sieht dort ihrer Verurteilung entgegen.

[“Leopoldine Kasparek, ein Weib als Frauenmörderin.” Wiener Bilder (Austria), 24 Sep. 1916, p. 7; reproduced in: Roland Stadler, “Der Fall Leopoldine Kasparek 24. September 1916,” 1030wien]

http://ki3.at/der-fall-leopoldine-kasparek

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FULL TEXT (translated from German): This issue of Miss Leopoldine Kasparek received her provisional apprenticeship with her yesterday's submission to the state court. Mrs. Kasparek committed as much as possible the following facts: robbery, robbery, burning, burglary, theft and fraud. The police surveys have established the exact record of sin. It covers no less than sixteen isolated cases, namely:

Theft of a cash register with 300 kroner to the disadvantage of her sister-in-law Anna Nicolanda in May 1915;

Theft at the junk dealer Sarah Bernhard, who was killed in August of 1915; stole a handbag with 50 kroner and some smaller jewelery objects:

Attempted theft from the regimental physician Dr. Moritz Schmied on January 10, 1916;

Shoplifting at the junk dealer Johanna Kohn, who on January 11, 1916; stole a broach with 500 kroner;

Robbery of Marie Wurisch on February 16, 1916. Kasparek stole 120 kroner, a gold watch and golden rings;

Burglary of Mrs. Leopoldine v. Arenstorff on April 27, 1916. 1195 kroner was stolen, securities in the amount of 5000 kroner and valuables by 500 kroner;

Theft from Mrs. Wilhelmine Russenescu on July 23, 1916. Stole 83 kronen in cash, a handbag and a women's rubber coat;

Intended theft with Mrs. Lina Benedikt on August 8, 1916. Kasparenk had advertised that she that she was looking for a post. She resolves several suggestions to introduce herself, and also found herself with Mrs. Benedict; but it was not exempted, but at any rate it is intended to carry out a theft;

Robbery of Zäilie Hötschul on August 21, 1916;

Theft of Marie Nekic's service book on August 22, 1916;

Attempted theft at Mrs. Berta Holländer earlier this month (Sep. 1916). As a result of Mrs. Hollander's caution Kasparek could not realize her intention;

Attempted theft from Mrs. Sophie Beran earlier this month (Sep. 1916). Since Mrs. Beran was not alone, the Kasparek could not reach her goal here;

Attempted theft from a woman from the Wieden on the 9th Sep. 1916. There, too, the plan failed by the lady's caution;

Robbery from Stephanie v. Mack on the September 10, 1916;

Stealing theft at Mrs. Sophie Morawetz on the September 11, 1916. This plan, too, failed because of the lady's caution;

The luring out of a gold gentleman's watch worth 170 kroner at a jeweler's out of the country road.

Then the Kasparek also found a silver-plated cigarette dumpling, which crossed the German and Austrian flags in the corner and, in any case, also resulted from a crime. Of the entire prey was a part of the robber healthy, About another part was found with her pledges. The rest was sold by the woman.

[The Crimes of Frau Kasparek (Die Verbrechen der Frau Kasparek), Fremden-Blatt (Vienna, Austria), Sep. 20, 1916, p. 9] [Abbreviations: “v. M. month before; “d. M. “ this month; “l. J.” previous year]

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Leopoldine Kasparek – Born Nov. 12, 1883, Vienna; Died 1921, Neudorf penitentiary.

MURDER VICTIMS (n progress)

Aug. 1915 – Sarah Bernhard, junk dealer, murdered.

Feb. 16, 1916 – Frau Marie Wurisch (56), non-fatally strangled, burned to death.

Aug. 21, 1916 – Zäilie (Cäcilie) Höstschul (80) – Strangled to death.

Sep. 10, 1916 – Frau Stefanie von Mack (72) – Strangled to death.

(Ten of her victims recovered, but three were found dead and one died in a hospital.)

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Leopoldine Kasparek died in May 1921 at Neudorf penitentiary.

[translation: Some time ago, at the Neudorf penitentiary, the murderess Leopoldine Kasparek died during the expiation of the criminal detention imposed on her. original: Vor einiger Zeit ist in der Strafanstalt Neudorf die Frauelimörderin Leopoldine Kasparek während der Abbüßung der über sie verhängten Strashaft gestorben. – Source: Untitled notice, Der Bezirksbote für den politischen Bezirk Bruck an der Leitha, (Schwechat, Austria),  8. Mai 1921 p. 1]

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FULL TEXT: Ihren vorläsigen Abschulz hat hie Angelegenheit der Frau Leopoldine Kasparek mit ihrer gestern erfolgten Einlieserung an das Landesgericht erhalten. Frau Kasparek hat, soviel bis jetzt fetzgestellt weden konnte, folgende Stastaten begangen: Raubmord, Raub, Brandlegung, Einbruchsdiebstahl, Diebstal und Betrug. Die polizeilichen Erhebungen haben das genaue Sündenregister sestgestellt. Es Umfasst nicht weniger als sechzehn Einzelfälle, und zwar:

Diebstahl eines Spasrkassebuches mity 300 Kronen zum Nachteile ihrer Schwägerin Anna Nicolanda im Mai 1915;

Diebstahl an der Trödlerin Sarah Bernhard, der sie im August v. J. (1915) eine Handtasche mit 50 Kronen und einige kleinere Schmuckgegenstönde stahl:

Einschleichediebstahl bei dem Regimentsarzt Doktor Moritz Schmied am 10. Jänner 1. J. (1916);

Ladendiebstahl bei der Trödlerin Johanna Kohn, der sie am 11. Jännere l. J. (1916) eine Briestosche mit 500 Kronen stahl;

Raubmord am Marie Wurisch am 16. Februar l. J. (1916) Geraubt hat die Kasparek 120 Kronen, eine goldene Uhr und goldene Ringe;

Dienstdiebstaghl bei Frau Leopoldine v. Arenstorff am 27. April l. J. (1916) Gestohlen wurden 1195 Kronen bar, Wertpapiere in der Höhe von 5000 Kronen und Wertsachen um 500 Kronen;

Einschleichediebstahl bei Frau Wilhelmine Russenescu am 23. Juli l. J. (1916) Gestolen wurden 83 Kronen bar, eine Handtasche und ein Damengummimantel;

Beabsichtiger Diebstahl bei Frau Lina Benedikt. Die Kasparenk hatte selbst am 8. v. M. (Aug.. 1916) inseriert, dass sie einen Dienstposten suche. Sie erheilt mehrere Aussorderungen, sich vorzustellen, und fand sich auch bei Frau Benedict ein; sie wurde aber nicht ausgenommen, hat aber jedenfalls einen Diebstahl auszuführen beabsichkeit;

Raub an Zäilie Hötschul am 21. August l. J. (1916);

Diebstahl des Dienstbotenbuches der Marie Nekic am 22. v. M. (Aug.. 1916);

Einschleichediebstahl bei Frau Berta Holländer Anfang dieses Monat (Sep. 1916). Infolge Vorsicht der Frau Holländer konnte die Kasparek ihre Absicht nicht verwirklichen;

Einschleichediebstahl bei Frau Sophie Beran Anfang dieses Monate (Sep. 1916). Da Frau Beran nicht allein war, konnte die Kasparek auch hier zu ihrem Ziele nicht gelangen;

Einschleichediebstahl bei einer Frau aus der Wieden am 9. d. M. (Sep. 1916) Auch dort schlug der Plan durch Vorsicht der Dame fehl;

Raub an Stephanie v. Mack am 10. d. M. (Sep. 10, 1916);

Einschleichediebstahl bei Frau Sophie Morawetz am 11. d. M. (Sep, 1916) Auch dieser Plan ist durch die Vorsicht der Dame gescheitert;

Herauslockung einer goldenen Herrenuhr im Werte von 170 Kronen bei einem Juwelier aus der Landstrasse.

Dann wurde bei der Kasparek auch eine versilberte Zigarettendole gefunden, die in der Ecke die deutsche un die österreichischeFlagge gekreuzt hat und jedenfalls auch von einem Verbrechen herrührt. Von der gesamten Beute wurde ein Teil bei der Räuberin gesunden, Ueber einem anderen Teil fand man bei ihr Pfandscheine. Den Rest hat die Frau verkauft.

[Die Verbrechen der Frau Kasparek, Fremden-Blatt (Vienna, Austria), Sep. 20, 1916, p. 9] [Abbreviations: “v. M. month before; “d. M. “ this month; “l. J.” last year]

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For similar cases, see: Female Serial Killer Bandits

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Links to more cases: Female Serial Killers Who Like to Murder Women

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MORE: Female Serial Killers & Arson

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[(9/22/11)-1254-9/23/18-1648-11/26/18; 2005-12/29/20]
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The Creepiest Female Serial Killers: 20 Cases

Sure, all 900-plus female serial killers known to The Unknown History of MISANDRY are creepy, but here are some cases that seem to involve an especially weird sense of demonic empowerment. The original post only contained 20 cases, but has since been added to.

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1610 – Elizabeth Báthory – Catchtise, Hungary – sadistic pervert who tortured and murdered huge numbers of young women.

1834 – Honorine Pellois – Bas-Val, Orne, France – age 10 (2 murders; & 1 attempt) –  Honorine, aged ten, threw two young girls – each not much more than two years old – in a well on June 16 and 18, 1834. On the 20th she attempted to drown an eleven year old boy but was unsuccessful in her ploy. The justice of the peace first thought that they were accidents, but the community of Bas-Val suspected the girl, known for her cruelty to other children, whom she would torture by throwing dust in their eyes and then rubbing nettles into them. She also liked to strangle animals. Honorine eventually admitted she killed the two girls because they were said to be prettier than she. She delighted in seeing the suffering of family members of her victims.

1865 – Marie-Françoise Bougaran – Brest & Lesneven, France – “servant girl,” age 15 at time of apprehension. (3 deaths & 2 attempts) – Marie-Françoise Bougaran, a 15-year-old serial killer, invented one of the most ingenious, and perverse, methods, on record. As a house servant she murdered four children under her care and two victims were saved having been removed from her supervision before it was too late. She would force-feed her victims with feces and then, inserting a knife into their throats and cut open a vein, insuring septic infection. Three victims died. Two were saved by removing them from the murderess.

1871 – “Dahr-al-Ahmur Serial Killer” – Dahr-al-Ahmur, Lebanon – kidnapped, poisoned and cut up 8 children to get even with a “rival in love.”

1871 – Agnes Norman – London, England – Arrested at age 15: Two or three children, a dog, two cats, six or eight birds, and some gold fish, had all fallen victims to her unnatural propensity for destruction before her crime was discovered. 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.

1885 – Rachel Ostrovoskafa – Odessa, Ukraine – leader of a baby-killing cult.

1890 – Marianne Skoublinska – Warsaw, Poland – A professional baby-murderer who charged to get rid of unwanted children who fed scores of children to her pigs and bragged about having the fattest pigs in the region. She was apprehended after she torched her own home – with five children inside – to collect insurance money.

1892 – Ella Holdridge – Tonawanda, New York – She was only 14 at time of her apprehension. Ella 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.”

1892 – Guadalupe Martinez de Bejarano – Mexico City, Mexico – Sexually tortured and murdered 3 orphan girls. Her son’s participation was not clear, but he was at least a passive participant.

1895 – Gaetana Stimoli ("Stomoli") – Aderno, Catania, Sicily – murdered 23 children. She “made it a practice to allure little children to her den with sweatmeats, after which she gave them a drink of wine containing undiluted phosphoric acid. The victims barely got home when they were seized with agonising pains, in which they died. … [H]aving lost two children of her own, she believed their death had been caused by incantation – (they had been bewitched) … and to avenge them she poisoned the children of others! The woman’s den was minutely searched and found to contain all the armoury or “stock-in-trade” of witchcraft …”

1895 – Marie Jager – Hodmezovassarhely, Hungary – poisoner who murdered a huge number of babies and adults for both profit and thrills.

1903 – “Cairo Female Cannibal Serial Killer” – Cairo, Egypt – kidnapped, cooked and ate children.

1903 – Elisabeth Wiese – Hamburg, Germany – Elisabeth Wiese was a “baby farmer” and abortionist. Deeply superstitious, she performed magic rites and believed she was in communication with spirits. She murdered babies, and was accused of burning them alive. Some of the females she allowed to live and she raised them to become prostitutes who would bring her additional revenue.

1904 – Jeanne Bonnaud –  Chatain, Haute Vienne, France – A young girl of eighteen, 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.

1905 – “Dubovo Vivisection Ogresses” – Dubovo, Ukraine (Russian Empire) – Two women, newcomers to a Ukranian village, kidnapped and murdered children to perform scientific experiments on their bodies. Police saved them from lynching and jailed them but they killed their jailers and escaped.

1906 – Mrs. Gustav Holmen – Stockholm, Sweden – a recently rediscovered case involving the suspected of murder of 1,000 babies.

1906 – Ida Schnell – Munich, Bavaria, Germany – teenage child-care provider who had a special technique for murdering babies.

1906 – Lillian B. Thornman – York, Pennsylvania, USA – A 15-year old servant girl murdered a child who was “roasted from head to toe” by placing the youngster on the stove. After her arrest it was learned she had previously murdered three other children in the same manner, getting away with the crimes by having concocting stories of accidents.

1906 – Mary Maher – Dunkitt, County Kilkenny, Ireland – This is one of the most remarkable female serial killer cases of all time and it fits into one of the most remarkable categories of serial killers: young children who have a mania to murder. The case is notable for the killer’s youth, 11 years old, the fact that all her victims were sisters, the fact that she seems to have wanted to work as a nurse girl (possibly in order to kill children outside the family, and most astonishing of all that she committed suicide. Mary Maher’s story is even more sensational than the infamous 11-year old English girl, Mary Bell. In 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. 

1908 – Jeanne Weber – Paris, France – got her kicks from strangling children, including her own. She was defended by France's greatest "experts" and acquitted of murder twice, allowing her to continue her passion for strangling children to death. She murdered ten children and two were rescued from her attempts.

1909 – Olga Ivanova Tamarin – Kurdino village, Novaya Ladoga, Russia – With her 17-year-old daughter and accomplices she robbed, murdered, mutilated and cannibalized 27 persons.

1911 – Clementine Barnabet – Lafayette, Louisiana, USA – axe-murderess who claimed she was a voodoo cult leader.

1912 – Louise Lindloff – Chicago, Illinois, USA – clairvoyant who serially poisoned her whole family for insurance money and after her arrest claimed their spirits were visiting her to protect her from false charges.

1912 – Enriqueta Martí – Barcelona, Spain – occult cannibal pedophile child-trafficker. She once forced a little girl to eat portions of the body of a child the woman had slain. Enriqueta would rent out the children she had abducted to pedophiles and also supplied these customers with "magic potions" she made from the boiled down remains of the children she murdered.

1912 – Maria Reyes – Mexico City, Mexico – kidnapped and murdered babies and toddlers.

1913 – Madame Kusnezowa – Archangel, Russia – Another child care provider who was charged with having murdered more than 1,000 children.

1917 – Leopoldine Kasparek – Vienna, Austria – Leopoldine Kasparek “attempted at least 14 murders and robberies, and in four or five cases she was successful. All of her victims were wealthy elderly women whose confidence she won in some way. “One of her victims, a woman named Marie Wurisch, who was half-blind, was not only half-strangled, but was burned to death by Kasparek, who saturated her clothing with paraffin and set fire to it, the house in which the woman dwelt being burned to the ground.”

1924 – Anastasia Permiakova – Perm, Russia – Anastasia Permiakova was a retired gang leader who became a fortune teller with an admitted uncontrollable compulsion to murder. She lured young women, telling them they must expose the back of their necks so that marks or moles could be read to tell their fortune. As the girls pulled their hair and bowed their heads they were attacked with an axe.

1925 – Dinorah Galou – Agen, France – suspected of being a serial killer of children, she was most certainly a child trafficker, involved in renting out babies who were victims of a bizarre torture technique used by street-beggars.

1928 – Anujka de Poshtonja (Anna Pistova; Baba Anujka) – Panchova, Banat district, Serbia (“Jugoslavia”) – She was called “The Witch of Vladimirovac.” Born into a prosperous family, Anujka became rich from selling poison (which she told police was love potion”) the wives of wealthy farmers poison. She was over 90 when she was finally prosecuted and sentenced to prison. When Anujka was arrested she tried at first to frighten the young police sergeant who came to her, he reported. “I work with the devil, young man,” she said. “If you imprison me you’ll remember it to your dying day. Don’t play with the forces of evil.”

1928 – Axenia Varlan (Maria Varlane) – Fundul Galbenei, Hîncesti District, Moldova – Axenia Varlan murdered at least nine persons. When police searched her premises human ears and other human remains were found. She confessed to have cut them off the corpses of her victims, to keep them as "memories." Over a period of  four years she murdered and then cut into pieces her four children, her mother, her father, her mother-in-law, her brother-in-law and a sister of the latter. At her trial psychiatrists declared her a classic sadist.

1933 – Viktoria Rieger – Szeged, Hungary – passed as a man and hated the male sex. She devised a clever murder method, which she, "Smoking Peter," would instruct the wife to set up the husband in a faked suicide by hanging scenario.

1938 – Moulay Hassen (Oum el Hassen) – Fez, Morocco – Hassen, once a famous dancer became a madame for prostitutes, kidnapped, tortured and serially murdered many young women (as well as boys). She was discovered to be a serial killer following the discovery of dismembered body parts of one of her victims. She fed human flesh to her cats. She was convicted and sentenced to death, but due to her powerful political connections she was freed to continue her criminal career. Convicted of new crimes she was sentenced to only 15 years in prison.

1941 – Felicitas Sanchez Aguillon – Mexico City, Mexico – baby farmer who tortured and mutilated babies she was paid to care for and place up for adoption.

1941 – Leonarda Cianciulli – Reggio Emilia, Italy – cooked her victims who were all female, made their boiled down remains into dessert cakes and into bars of soap.

1944 – Carmen Matamoros de Tejeda – Panzacola, Tehuantepec Dist, Oaxaca, Mexico – “When police of Mexico City swooped on an eerie house and garden in the quiet town of Panzacola to free a nude, half-crazed, 18-year-old girl, whose chained body bore savage imprints of teeth, strange welts, and hideous scars, they uncovered a cesspool seething with the paraphernalia of witchcraft and black magic. But more petrifying was the subsequent discovery of the bones and bodies of two tiny babies …”

1950 – Georgia Tann – Memphis, Tennessee, USA – pedophile pervert who kidnapped and sold babies, murdering an enormous number (unsalebable merchandise). Tann's accomplice in child trafficking, a nationally famous "child welfare expert" and Memphis Juvenile Court judge, Camille Kelly, was equally evil.

1950 – Miriam Soulakiotis – Keratera, Greece – cult leader, pervert who tortured young women before murdering them.

 

1954 – Piroska Jancsó Ladányi – Törökszentmiklós, Hungary –Along with her mother, Prioska strangled five girls to death, an 11-year old, three 13-yesar-olds and a 17-year old. Her mother wanted the victims clothing to sell and Prioska wanted to engage in sexual activities with the corpses. She was hanged as the age of 20.

1963 – Magdalena Solis – Villagran, Mexico – “The High Priestess of Blood” – “Magdalena Solis also known as the High Priestess of Blood, was a serial killer, a member of a cult in Mexico that was responsible for orchestrating several murders, and participated in drinking the blood of the victims. She was convicted of 8 murders and sentenced to 320 years in prison. Santos and Cayetano Hernandez recruited Magdalena Solis and her brother Eleazor to pose as mystical gods so their gang could exhort money and sex from their followers. Early in 1963, the Hernandez brothers convinced the remote village of Yerba Buena that the Inca gods of the mountain were willing to give them fabulous wealth in exchange for their undivided loyalty and sexual favors. The men and women of the village became sexual toys for the brothers in the hopes of bringing good fortune to the village.” [Wikipedia, excerpt] 

1964 – Delfina, Maria, Carmen & Maria Luisa de Jesús González – San Francisco del Rincon, Mexico – cult prostitution ring.

1968 – Mary Bell – Scotswood, Newcastle, England – 11-year-old girl who murdered two boys, 5 and 4, plus several previous attempted murders.

1980 – Charlene Gallego – Sacramento, California, USA – sadistic pervert, raped and murdered teenage girls.

1982 – Judith Neelley – Fort Payne, Alabama, USA – Dominant and sadistic wife in a serial killer couple in which the husband was easily led. Before the murders began, Judith, at the age of 16 and while 9-months pregnant, committed an armed robbery while her husband waited in a getaway car. She liked to torture her victims, young females.

1989 – Sara María Aldrete – Matamoros, Mexico – Aldrete was a cult leader who engaged in human sacrifice. “Victims’ body parts were cooked in a large pot called a nganga.”

1989 – Tammy Eveans Corbett – Brighton, Illinois, USA – Murdered 3 babies and never showed remorse. In her own words: "when Amy and Robbie died, they both kicked their legs real hard like a little baby would kick their legs trying to swim in the water."

1993 – Karla Homolka – St Catharines, Ontario, Canada – sadistic pervert, raped and murdered young women, including her own sister along with her sadistic pervert husband. Because of Marxism-based theories of power relations, police were fooled into thinking Karla was a passive victim of the "partriachal" power of her husband, thus she got off with an outrageously light sentence.

1994 – Rosemary West – Gloucester, England – with her husband Frederick as her crime partner, she murdered and sexually abused 11 females, including her own daughter and step-daughter.

1996 – Ludmilla (Lyudmila) Spesivtsev – Novosibirsk, Siberia, Russia – with son, Sasha, killed an estimated 32 teenage girls, who were raped by the son and cut up and cooked by the mother.

2000 – Credonia Mwerinde – Kunungu, Uganda – cult leader suspected of murdering three of her brothers and confirmed as the instigator of the arson mass murder of over 700 cult members.

2003 – Jaroslava Fabianova – Decin, Czech Republic – The "Czech Wornos" was a prostitute who preyed upon elderly men, whom she would hack to death with a meat cleaver or beat on the head with a hammer. She was convicted of murder and then paroled repeatedly, each time when freed committing the same sort of time.

2007 – Antonie Stašková (Staskova) – Ústí nad Labem, Czech Republic – the story of this chronic child abuser mom is beyond belief.

2013 – Joanna Dennehy – Bifield, Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, England  – This 31-year-old Englishwoman told her friend, “I want my fun. I need you to get my fun.” This fun consisted of finding a male stranger to stab in the heart. Ms. Dennehy was able to, over a period of several weeks, to engage in this form of amusement on five occasions, resulting in three deaths.

2015 – Elena Lobacheva – Moscow, Russia – 25-year old sexual sadist, with her 20-year-old male accomplice, whose alternative sexuality preference involved stabbing 12 men (up to 107 times), all strangers, randomly selected, to death, and photographing them “with their stomachs cut open.” She was inspired by the movie “Bride of Chucky,” and has a tattoo of the character on her arm. Quote: “Randomly stabbing the body of a dying human brought me pleasure comparable to sexual pleasure.

2015 – Tamara Samsonova – St. Petersburg, Russia – The “Granny Ripper,” arrested July 27, 2015, kept a diary of her deeds. She is suspected of up to 14 murders, all of them involving dismemberment of the victims’ bodies, the parts of which were distributed throughout St. Petersburg. The final victim was dismembered while still alive. Internal organs were removed from bodies and it is suspected Samsonova may have eaten these parts, particularly lungs. The investigation continues.

2016 – Juana, “La Peque Sicaria” – Baja California, Mexico – Juana, a 28-year-old executioner for Los Zetas in Tamaulipas cartel. She was in charge of multiple decapitations and confessed to be excited by blood, using it – and, apparently, severed body parts – as a sexual stimulant.

2016 – Cecilia Steyn – Krugersdorf, South Africa – Electus Per Deus cult. 11 murders.

 

2016 – Miranda Steyn – Krugersdorf, South Africa – Electus Per Deus cult. 11 murders.

2017 – Anna Young – Micanopy, Alachua County, Florida – The House of All Prayer cult – Anna Young punished children to death. Her husband's death was "suspicious." She ordered one cult member to cut off his sexual organ, which he did.

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New research has discredited these cases previously included here.

1926 – Maria Vukosava Jovanovic (DISCREDITED) – Kikinda, Serbia ("Jugoslavia") – She poisoned two husbands and organized a “club,” named “St. Lucretia,” its name a joke that plays on the parallel names of a saint and the world’s most notorious poisoner. The club was devoted to planning the murders of husbands for their assets or in order to make way for new paramours.

1926 – Josefa Szanyi (Josephine Tzany) (DISCREDITED) – Budapest, Hungary – an avowed predatory misandrist who sought out men, mostly married ones, to seduce and then murder, 12 of them. 

 

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http://female-serial-killers-index.blogspot.com/2015/08/female-serial-killers-image-collection.html

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“Female serial killers … haven’t received anywhere near the same amount of attention from the media or from criminologists as males have. Even researchers on psychology have tended to focus on male populations. There’s a common erroneous assumption that because females are “nurturing,” they won’t be violent. But we’ve had female serial killers who have shot, stabbed, smothered (with her enormous weight), and even used chain saws and ice picks.” [D. P. Lyle, MD, “Forensic Psychologist Dr. Katherine Ramsland Talks About Serial Killers,” The Writer’s Forensics Blog, June 25, 2009]

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As of August 2016, "The Creepiest Female Serial Killers: 20 Cases" has had over 270,000 views. [54 cases; 11/14/18-296,518]

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