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►Female
Serial Killer Bandits Who Led Gangs of Men
“a woman bandit leader”
“Ching Shih
(1775–1844) was a prominent pirate in middle Qing Chin, who terrorized the
China Sea in the early 19th century. A brilliant Cantonese pirate, she
commanded 1800 ships and more than 80,000 pirates — men, women, and even
children.”
“Always on horseback, and followed by a small number of
bandits, she was at the head of all the robberies and murders committed in that
part of Spain.”
“A Turin letter states that among the
Neapolitan provinces which have to contend with the dreadful scourge of
brigandage there is that of Cattanzaro, which possesses the advantage of having
a band which is led by Maria Oliviero.”
1867 – La Gizzi –
Volturara district, Italy
COUPLE: She “was so bloodthirsty that she voluntarily
performed the office of executioner on every captive doomed to death by her
hand. It is related that on one occasion, after stabbing three of her captives,
she collected the blood that flowed from their wounds in a jar and then poured
it over the head of her lover, telling him that that should be his baptism of
blood.”
1891 –
Mila –
Požarevac, Serbia – gang leader (mutilated victims)
“She had a band of devoted Haiducks with whom she committed
her robberies. She never went about otherwise than in man's dress, with all her
weapons in her belt and a rifle over her shoulder. Young, handsome, and a
perfect markswoman, she was the idol of her band.”
1895 – Lizzie Harris – Moundsville, West Virginia &
Knox County, Kentucky
1897 –
Marie Ret – Paris, France
“Queen
of Stranglers” Marie Ret led a gang of brutal stranglers who preyed
upon primarily working class men and women. “The modus operandi was for
Marie to decoy the intended victim into the thick bushes surrounding the
fortifications. Once inside he was seized from behind by two
accomplices and garroted. To make assurance doubly sure the woman leader
herself plunged a dagger into the victim’s heart. After the body had
been stripped and the clothing rifled the corpse was cast into the
stagnant water of the moat.”
1902 – Hattie Bennett – Beaumont, Texas, USA
Excerpt from news report: “Mattie Bennett, in jail on a
charge of having murdered one of five men who have been found in the Neches
River, has confessed to Sheriff Landry that she was the head of an organized
band of negro women and white men who lured, drugged, beat and robbed many men.”
“With
a record of eighty-six murders to her account, the female bandit chief recently
captured by the Roumanian police, is now facing her trial. This young and
beautiful woman has terrorized the country for months at the head of a band of
ferocious robbers. All victims who attempted resistance were invariably killed
and the chief was in the habit of devising special tortures for persons who
refused to give up their valuables.”
“Augustina Mora, referred to as the “tigress of Cordoba,”
leader of a notorious bandit band of the region, has been captured with three
followers, after a fight.”
1910 – Marie Semit – Smolensk province, Russia – gang leader
“Marie
Semit was a schoolmistress of pronounced radical tendencies in the province of
Smolensk, when her revolutionary fever brought on delirium which became
epidemic. She organized a band of dauntless anarchists. These black knights
took to highway robbery under the command of Marie, who was attired in male
clothing.”
“The women confessed to being at the head of a band which,
during recent months, had robbed and murdered 40 people who had been decoyed to
the house by Olga, and mentioned thirty other peasants belonging to the band,
who were also arrested, while nine others escaped.”
COUPLE:
“Ten desperadoes were sentenced to death here today for the murder of more than
a hundred victims. Chief among the condemned was the notorious woman bandit,
Ekaterina Pishianova, wife of the leader of the gang, who himself was known to
the intimidated peasantry as “the Jack the Ripper of the Ural mountains.” The
woman was accused of killing her victims with an axe. The robbers had been
into a strong band of several score with rigid rules, the slightest infraction
of which was punishable with death.”
Anastasia Permiakova, a gipsy clairvoyant, with her husband
and six male and female accomplices, has been sentenced to death for the
horrible murders of 20 women and girls. Permiakova escaped from prison during
the revolution while serving a murder sentence. She then organised a murder
gang, pillaged villages and held up trains.
1938 –
Maria Gomes de Oliveira, “Maria Bonita” – Pernambuco State, Brazil
“Irmgard Kuschinski, maiden name Swinka (the name most commonly
used in reports on her case), a 36-year-old waitress was, along with accomplice
42-year-old Ernst Himpel (and occasionally
others), murderous robber who roamed Germany in the years following the end of
World War II, preying upon elderly women.”
An article published in Singapore
gives the name “Yoke Ying” and states that she was a large woman who got her
nickname from swaggering about with a hand-grenade on her belt and that the
government said she had been “involved in several murders.”
1958 – Putli Bai
– Chati, India – gang leader
“Word reached New Delhi Saturday of the murder of 11
villagers in a revenge raid led by a woman dubbed India’s bandit queen.
Newspaper accounts from Rewa said the gang also wounded five persons in the
nearby village of Datia and carried off several others into central India’s
Vindhya hills. The gang reportedly was led by Putli [Putli Bai], a woman said
to be in her 20s who has become one of India's top public enemies. The
dispatches said Putli led her men info Datia Wednesday because she suspected
its inhabitants had given information about her to the police.”
“Otherwise known
as la Madrina, the Godmother, the Black Widow, Mama Coca and the Cocaine Queen
of Miami, Griselda Blanco has been heralded ‘The most bloodthritsy female
criminal of our time’. Born in 1943, Blanco committed her first murder aged 11,
was a prostitute from the age of 12, and went on to become a drug lord
specializing in cocaine. Known for her sociopathic tendencies and her
extravangant collections of fine art and jewels, Mama Coca was a major figure
in the ‘Cocaine Cowboy Wars’ of Miami in the late 1970’s. She is thought to
have masterminded over 200 murders in Miami during this time.”
“The known death toll is seven, plus one poisoning in which
the victim survived the attempted murder, as well as at least twenty swindles.
The number being indeterminate due to the dupes’ very reasonable fear of
violent reprisal from the “witch’s” male accomplices.”
2005 –
Shirin Gul – Kabul & Jalalabad, Afghanistan –
gang which included her own son
“Shirin Gul, “The Kebab Killer,” was convicted in
Afghanistan of killing 28 men in collaboration with her husband and his in-laws.
The family was part of a large regional gang that specialized in stealing and
selling cars, particularly taxis. Accomplices were used to transport taxis over
the Pakistani border to the town of Miram Shah, where the cars were sold there
for more than $10,000 each. The three accused men admitted that they had
invited the men into their home with offers of tea and kebabs, which contained
sedatives. Then they would kill and rob them. According to some reports, Shirin
would also lure taxi drivers to her house for sexual intercourse. Her lover
Rahmatullah, her 18-year-old son, Samiullah, and four others believed to be
involved in the killings. Rahmatullah had murdered her first husband. Police
think her first husband, Mohammed Azam, was probably an accomplice in the early
murders but was himself killed when Shirin Gul and Rahmatullah became lovers.”
“Police have suspected Henderson was involved in as many as
five other murders and a number of other shootings. However, no other charges
have been filed. The Kansas City, Missouri Police Department claimed that
Henderson was a leader of the violent 12 Street gang who associated with gangs
from 24th street through 27th, 51st, and 57th Street. Their alliance was titled
"512", "5 ace 2", or "5 ace deuce". However, the
claims of the police were never substantiated.”
“Nancy Manriquez Quintanar “La Flaca,” 25-year-old arrested
in the municipality of Ecatepec, is linked to at least nine violent murders
committed in the eastern state of Mexico, as part of the criminal organization
‘Los Zetas.’”
“Zschäpe is said
to have had the indispensable task of giving the terrorist unit the appearance
of normality and legality among other things by maintaining an inconspicuous
façade at their respective places of residence and by securing their joint flat
as a safe haven and headquarters for their actions. In addition, she is said to
have been “significantly responsible for the logistics of the group”. Thus she
had managed the stolen money from the robberies and had rented caravans several
times, including a vehicle used in one of the crimes, according to the Office
of the Attorney General reports in the bill of indictment.”
“While Podkopaev is portrayed by many reports as the gang
leader, other accounts suggest his wife was the moving force behind their evil
acts. She refused to say why she hated policemen. One theory is that she had a
lover who was a policeman who left her for another woman. Police now suspect
that she later murdered the officer and his new lover.” [Will Stewart,
“Russia's Ma Barker and her family of middle class murderers: ruthless nursery
teacher, her dentist husband and their daughters ‘killed at least 30 people
including women and children,’” MailOnline (London, England), Sep. 17, 2013]
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SEE MORE:
Female Serial Killer Collections
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