The image of a maniac killer in the eyes of the public has practically taken shape. Usually they immediately remember Chikatillo or Jack the Ripper. Such a man is often driven by sexual motives, and he commits his crimes with maximum cruelty.

However, forensic science knows many cases when a bloody criminal turns out to be ... a woman. Experts say that in their cruelty such maniacs can not yield to strong men. Let's talk about the ten most famous female killers in history, based on the deeds of some of them, movies were even made.

Bella Sorenson Guinness. This killer was nicknamed "The Black Widow", she has 42 victims. The motives of her actions were greed and money, the woman received perverse pleasure from her actions. Bela was born in Norway, then moved to the USA. Here she became the wife of an entrepreneur from Chicago. Her two daughters strangely died over time. The symptoms resembled colitis, but historians believe that this may have been the work of their mother. After all, all the signs spoke of poisoning, the death of children made it possible for Bella to receive insurance. Soon the husband also died, unexpectedly poisoned by his own medicines. The widow received insurance in this case as well. The funds received enabled Bella to purchase the farm. But her husband's relatives decided that the death was not accidental, suspecting Bella herself of the crime. She, without wasting time in vain, meanwhile put on stream the murder of her lovers. She advertised, organizing love correspondence. Middle-aged men came to her house, wanting to meet an interesting widow. Bella easily lured guests into her bed, they did not assume that the pretty woman was a cold-blooded killer. All men have had accidents. As a result, the woman was able to bury 42 husbands, eventually accumulating more than a quarter of a million dollars. However, evil could not go unpunished. "Black Widow" ended her life also tragically. She simply disappeared, eventually her body was found in the forest. Someone beheaded the woman, and then burned the body. True, there were rumors that the found body did not belong to Bella at all, but she herself was able to hide and avoid punishment.

Jane Toppan. In this list, this is the first representative of medicine. Jane, as a nurse, attacked her sick and infirm patients. A fat woman grew up restless, thanks to her difficult childhood. Her father was insane and refused to care for her. She herself ended up growing up in Boston, in an orphanage. Foster parents were also extremely poor, which only increased her anger towards others. When Jane was studying to be a nurse, teachers noted her strange interest in photographs of autopsied bodies. But this behavior did not prevent her from completing her education and starting to work with patients. Patients immediately liked her, a pleasant nurse was called "Jolly Jane". But in the course of her work, the woman discovered that she literally gets sexual pleasure from injecting drugs into patients and then finding them on the verge of life and death. Jane took care of many sick people. When they were unconscious, she touched them, while experiencing sexual arousal. In 1885, Toppan tightened her experiments, turning them into murders, as a result she was arrested, convicted of proven 11 deaths. When Jane was under arrest, she confessed to another 31 murders. The examination proved that "Jolly Jane" could not be found guilty due to her insanity. After sentencing, the killer spent the rest of her life in a psychiatric hospital.

Countess Elizabeth Bathory. The exact number of victims of this "bloody countess" remained unknown, historians speak of 30-650 victims. Legends say that a capricious woman loved to take baths with the blood of her victims, who certainly were young girls. The countess believed that such bathing could prolong her youth, and even improve the condition of her skin. The woman abused her power in every possible way, bringing to death many of her subjects. The crimes were characterized by extreme sadism, while the Countess herself experienced sexual pleasure. The woman forced her subjects to lick the blood from the bodies of her naked victims. This addiction to blood ranked Elizabeth Bathory among the historically reliable vampires. She lured the most beautiful girls to her castle, and then to the dungeon, promising them work. The accomplice of the bloody killer was her husband, Ferenc Nadashdy. He gave his wife a castle so that she could use her wedding gift to carry out bloody torture. Rumors of numerous murders reached the Habsburg court. The emperor ordered to deal with the bloody killer. However, the high-profile trial did not take place. Noble relatives preferred to hide the countess in the dungeon of their own castle, where she died three years later at the age of 54.

Rosemary West. The only confirmed number of victims of this killer was 10 people. This woman was a colleague of another serial killer, Fred. Rosemary (or Rose) together with him made a pair of dangerous criminals, evil and heartless. Fred and Rosa pretended to be kind, inviting young girls to their place, promising them help with accommodation and food. But a terrible fate awaited the unfortunate victims. Rosemary herself had eight children, she worked for a long time as a prostitute in her own brothel house. They also sold drugs there. The woman began to get a perverse pleasure from causing pain. The couple sadistically mocked the victims, tearing off their fingers, removing their kneecaps. Together with her husband, Rosa eventually managed to kill 10 people, including her own daughter Heather. The corpses of the wife were buried in their own garden, wielding during 1967-1987. The court subsequently found the woman guilty of the murder of her stepdaughter Michelle. Most likely, the number of victims was much higher, because Fred testified that he could be the killer of 20 more girls who went missing at that time. A jury sentenced the killers to life imprisonment. After the trial, all the judges were assigned to a session with a psychotherapist, the picture of deeds that opened up was so terrifying.

Eileen Wuornos. This woman had a very difficult childhood, moreover, disfigured by incest from her grandfather. Is it any wonder that in the soul of a growing girl there was nothing but hatred for society and for men. Early sexual experience led to swagger. Already at the age of 13, Eileen became pregnant, and at the age of 15 she was kicked out of the house by her own grandfather. The woman had all the signs of a personality antisocial disorder. She repeatedly broke the law, robbing stores with weapons in her hands. Eileen even got married, the 70-year-old husband began to be physically abused. An elderly husband left his strange wife a month later, accusing her, moreover, of wasting his money. But she found herself another mate - the woman Tyria Moore. Eileen was forced to work as a prostitute, earning a living for both. But such an occupation was quite dangerous. One day Eileen killed a man. According to her, he had previously brutally raped her, so it was an act of self-defense. The feeling of blood took possession of the woman, she soon killed 6 more people in Florida. They were all drivers without passengers, middle-aged. They agreed to give the woman a ride and have sexual contact with her. The gun was invariably the murder weapon. Based on the story of Eileen, the film "Monster" was filmed, starring Charlize Theron. She received an Oscar for this, and the killer herself received the death penalty in 2002. Psychiatrists were convinced of the sanity of Eileen, who simply hated human life.

Andrea Yates. Often a series of crimes are committed under the influence of severe mental disorders. Schizophrenia can "reward" criminals with a voice that gives them instructions for action. Andrea Yates had just such a situation, it was a serious mental illness that caused the woman to kill her five children by drowning them in the bathtub. Of all the killers on our list, she is the most insane. The woman was never diagnosed with schizophrenia, but she had serious mental disabilities. This includes prolonged severe postpartum depression and a suicide attempt. The birth of a large number of children with a minimum interval as a result plunged the woman into a psychological hole. Her husband, a computer engineer from NASA, who wanted to have many descendants, can also be considered the culprit. True, he subsequently shifted the blame for what happened to the family psychiatrist. The specialist was accused of failing to realize the gravity of the situation and signal it. As a result, one day a woman decided to achieve a state of rest in a terrible way - for an hour she methodically, one by one, drowned all her babies in the bathroom. The oldest was only 7 years old, and the youngest was 6 months old. After the deed, the woman called 911 and her husband. Giving an interview, the criminal then confessed that she wanted to kill the children, since they were not righteous. Being a zealous Catholic, Andrea suddenly realized that her own sins would not allow her children to grow up to be exemplary Christians. In the end, taking their lives seemed like the best solution to her.

Beverly Allitt. And this serial killer was a nurse. The Englishwoman abused her position to satisfy her secret fantasies. Beverly attacked not the elderly, but defenseless children. She gave them an injection of potassium chloride or insulin, causing cardiac arrest. As in the case of other serial killers, the thirst for new crimes grew. In her ward, a nurse abused 13 children, killing four of them. All this happened over the course of two months. The victims were babies aged from two months to five years. In the case of two-month-old Becky Philips, the parents were so grateful to Beverly for taking care of the baby that they asked to be her godmother. But it was the nurse's injections that caused the subsequent paralysis and brain damage. Only after the last case with one and a half year old Claire, the hospital administration called the police, suspecting something was wrong in such a frequent cardiac arrest in children. It turned out that in all cases, Beverly was on duty. After the arrest of the nurse, psychiatrists talked to her, who revealed that Beverly had a disorder known as Munchausen's syndrome. Allitt was sentenced to life imprisonment in a special clinic that houses mentally ill criminals. Should she go free - after all, the families of the murdered children threaten her with physical violence?

Carla Homolka. This Canadian girl of Czech origin became addicted to Satanism in her youth. At one time she worked part-time in veterinary clinics, killing animals. Soon, 17-year-old Carla met 23-year-old Paul. He was interested in the sophisticated fantasies and sadistic orgies of his girlfriend. Having tried their ideas on themselves, the couple decided to move on to "live material". Carla lured young girls into her house, creating a real prison for them there. The sexual atrocities carried out by the couple surpassed anything ever known. As a result, three girls aged 13-15 became victims. Paul made them beg him for sex, raping him and filming it all. His girlfriend also took an active part in the action. After her arrest, Carla gave evidence that allowed her to be sentenced to only 12 years. But Paul will spend the rest of his life behind bars. Carla shied away from responsibility, shifting all of it to her partner. He acted as the executor of the plans of his girlfriend, the director. Psychologists also proved that the girl is practically healthy, although some deviations could provoke such a wave of cruelty.

Susan Smith. This woman also suffered from a personality disorder, which caused the death of her two sons, Alex and Michael. The woman was unhappy as a child, having experienced sexual abuse and incest. She claimed that her stepfather had raped her, and when the relationship opened, her mother blamed her for everything. This was the impetus for Susan to develop her narcissistic illusions. A young mother strapped her children into the back seat of her car, letting the car roll off the boat dock and into the lake. At the same time, Susan claimed for a long time that the children were kidnapped by a black man. The woman asked for help on television, the case received great publicity. But Susan was unable to pass the lie detector when asked if she knew the whereabouts of her children. As a result, her guilt was proven. The motive for the crime was the love of a rich admirer who did not want to see other people's children around him. The woman received a life sentence, already in prison having entered into sexual relations with at least two guards.

Diana Downs. In 1984, this woman killer was convicted. The court proved her guilt in inflicting severe physical injuries on three of her children, one of whom later died. Diana changed her love for children to a passion for a strange man. Her lover, Lew, somehow made it clear to her that other people's children did not appear in his plans for a life together. Then Diana began the cold-blooded destruction of the "hindrances" to her happiness. It was late at night when the woman put the children in the car and drove them to a deserted place. There, she killed 7-year-old Cheryl with a pistol, injuring Christy and Danny. The unfortunate until the last moment did not understand what their own mother was doing to him. Three-year-old Danny, as a result of shots at point-blank range, was paralyzed from the waist down, and eight-year-old Christy - speech failure and paralysis of half of the body. In court, Christie had difficulty explaining to the jury what had happened. Now child murderer Diana Downes is serving a prison sentence. Her vile nature also manifested itself here - she began to conduct frank correspondence with serial killer and maniac Randy Woodfield.

History knows examples when women showed cruelty, in comparison with which all stories about bloody maniacs are just children's fairy tales. Psychologists assure that women, although not as often as men, sometimes become serial killers and then act with particular cruelty and sophistication.

Queen Mary I, 1516-1558 The daughter of Henry VIII and his first wife went down in the history of England as a monarch who tried to return the country to the bosom of the Roman Catholic Church after her father, having quarreled with the Pope, declared himself the head of the new Anglican Church. The restoration took place against the backdrop of brutal executions of Protestants, persecution and murder of innocent people, for which the people nicknamed the Queen Bloody Mary. Under this name, she went down in history.

mira hindley, 1942-2002 A serial killer who, along with her accomplice Ian Brian, received the nickname "English Bonnie and Clyde." For several years, criminals kidnapped, abused and tortured to death five minor children aged 10 to 17 years. The bodies of the victims were later found by police in the swamps near Manchester. To the horror and disgust of the whole country, it turned out that the newly-minted Bonnie and Clyde were making audio recordings and photographs "for history", perpetuating their crimes. Having received a life sentence - the death penalty in England was abolished literally in a month of the arrest of a criminal couple, neither Hindley nor Brian repented of their deeds. On the day of the announcement of the verdict, Myra calmly ate ice cream in anticipation of the beginning of the meeting. A British court ruled that criminals had no right to commit suicide, so Brian, who had begun a hunger strike, was force-fed by injecting saline. Myra Hindley died in a prison hospital from a heart attack, saving herself from further imprisonment, and the world from a terrible criminal.

Isabella of Castile 1451-1504 Isabella of Castile and her husband Ferdinand of Aragon stood at the origins of the unification of Spain and the formation of a strong state: a dynastic marriage led to the union and unification of Castile and Aragon into one kingdom - Spain. The Queen is also known for her patronage of the famous traveler Christopher Columbus. Notorious for her cruelty towards non-Catholics: a passionate and devout Catholic, she appointed Tomás Torquemada as the first Grand Inquisitor of the infamous Spanish Inquisition and ushered in an era of religious purges. The Inquisition persecuted heretics, Moors, Marans, Moriscos. Under Isabella of Castile, most of the Jews and Arabs left Spain - about 200 thousand people, and the rest were forced to accept Christianity, which, however, rarely saved the converts from death at the stake.

beverly Ellit, R. 1968 An English nurse in the children's department, nicknamed the "angel of death", in 1991 killed four small hospital patients and seriously harmed the health of five more. A serial killer injected children with insulin or potassium to induce severe heart attacks and mimic natural demise. Motives for the crime are still unknown.

Bell Gunnes, 1859-1931 A Norwegian-American woman has become the most notorious female killer in US history. She killed both her husbands, her own daughters, several admirers and lovers. The main goal is to receive payments for life insurance. Over several decades, Gunnes killed about 30 people.

Mary Ann Cotton, 1832-1873 Poisoned about 20 people with arsenic. The police became interested in her when it turned out that all her closest relatives not only constantly die, but also die from the same disease - stomach colic. Throughout her life, the criminal killed several husbands, her children and even her own mother. The executioner, who led her hanging, deliberately prolonged her torment, "forgetting" to knock out a stool from under the condemned woman's feet.

Elsa Koch, 1906-1967 Elsa Koch, better known as the "Witch of Buchenwald", was the wife of a concentration camp commandant. She tortured prisoners, beat them with a whip, mocked and killed them. After that, a terrible collection remained: pieces of human skin with tattoos. She committed suicide in prison in 1967.

Irma Grise, 1923-1945 One of the most cruel women's concentration camp guards in Nazi Germany. While torturing prisoners, she resorted to both physical and psychological violence, beat women to death, and amused herself by shooting prisoners. She starved her dogs to set them on her victims, and personally selected hundreds of people to be sent to the gas chambers. Grese wore heavy boots, she always had, in addition to a pistol, a wicker whip. She was sentenced to death by hanging.

Katherine Knight R. 1956. First woman in Australian history to be sentenced to life in prison. In October 2001, during a family quarrel, she beat her roommate with a meat knife, after which she abused the dead body so that Chikatilo would have vomited.

Elizabeth Bathory, 1560-1614 Hungarian Countess, better known as the Bloody Lady. She tortured and killed servants and peasant women: she severely beat them, burned their hands, faces and other parts of the body with red-hot iron, skinned still living victims, starved them, mocked and raped them. In 1610, she was placed under house arrest on charges of murder, heresy, and witchcraft. During the process, the servants of the castle could not name the exact number of victims of the sadist: the close countesses, who found themselves in the dock, spoke of four to five dozen killed, the rest of the servants assured that they carried out hundreds of corpses. Bathory died a natural death in 1614, and her name was soon overgrown with legends no less sinister than those of Count Dracula.

Antonina Makarovna Makarova, Nicknamed “Tonka the machine gunner”, married Ginzburg (1921 - August 11, 1979) - the executioner of the Lokotsky district during the Great Patriotic War, who shot more than 1500 people in the service of the German occupation authorities and Russian collaborators.

In 1941, during the Great Patriotic War, being a nurse, she was surrounded and ended up in the occupied territory. She volunteered to serve in the auxiliary police of the Lokotsky district of the Lokotsky district (see Lokotsky self-government), where she executed death sentences, executing about 1,500 people (according to official data). For executions, she used the Maxim machine gun, issued to her by the police at her request.
At the end of the war, Makarova took out a fake nurse's certificate and got a job in a hospital, married veteran V.S., who was being treated in her hospital. Ginzburg, changed her surname.

Daria Nikolaevna Saltykova, nicknamed Saltychikha(March 11, 1730 - November 27, 1801) - a Russian landowner who went down in history as a sophisticated sadist and serial killer of several dozen serfs subject to her. By the decision of the Senate and Empress Catherine II, she was deprived of the dignity of a columned noblewoman and sentenced to life imprisonment in a monastery prison. The city house of Saltychikha in Moscow was located on the corner of Bolshaya Lubyanka and Kuznetsky Most streets, that is, on the site where the buildings now belonging to the FSB of Russia were later built. The estate, where she, as a rule, committed murders and tortures, was located on the territory of the village of Mosrentgen (Trinity Park) near the Moscow Ring Road in the Tyoply Stan area. Crimes concerning serfs Widows at the age of twenty-six received full possession of about six hundred peasants on estates located in the Moscow, Vologda and Kostroma provinces. The investigator in the case of the widow of Saltykova, court adviser Volkov, based on the data of the house books of the most suspect, compiled a list of 138 surnames of serfs, whose fate was to be ascertained. According to official records, 50 people were considered “dead from diseases”, 72 people were “missing without a trace”, 16 were considered “left to her husband” or “gone on the run”. According to the testimonies of the serfs, received during the "general searches" in the estate and villages of the landowner, 75 people were killed by Saltykova, mostly women and girls.
Before the death of her husband, Saltychikha did not show any particular propensity for violence. But about six months after being widowed, she began regularly beating the servants. The main reasons for punishment were dishonesty in mopping or laundry. The torture began with the fact that she struck the guilty peasant woman with blows with an object that fell under her arm (most often it was a log). The offender was then flogged by grooms and haiduks, sometimes to death. Saltychikha could douse the victim with boiling water or singe her hair on her head. Saltychikha also used hot curling irons for torture, with which she grabbed the victim by the ears. She often dragged people by the hair and at the same time banged their heads against the wall for a long time. Many of those killed by her, according to witnesses, did not have hair on their heads, Saltychikha tore her hair with her fingers, which indicates her considerable physical strength.
Victims were starved and tied naked in the cold. Saltychikha did not love and broke up couples in love who were going to get married in the near future. Crimes concerning the nobles In one episode, Saltychikha also got a nobleman. The land surveyor Nikolai Tyutchev, the grandfather of the poet Fyodor Tyutchev, was in a love relationship with her for a long time, but then he decided to marry the girl Panyutina. Saltykova decided to burn Panyutina's house, and gave her people sulfur, gunpowder and tow. But people got scared. When Tyutchev and Panyutina were already married and were on their way to their Oryol estate, Saltykova ordered her peasants to kill them. But Tyutchev found out about it.

Jokes are bad with women!

Often, many positive human qualities - compassion, love, care, sensitivity - are considered the distinguishing features of the female psyche, and negative ones - cruelty, aggression, insensitivity - are attributed to men.

But history knows examples when women showed cruelty, in comparison with which a forgotten wife's birthday present is an insignificant trifle.

FILM IN TOPICS.

We never dreamed. Mistresses of the Dark (series 1, 2 and 3)

Pannochka ("VIY")

Viy (1967).

Viy (2013).

Viy.

Daria Saltykova - "Saltychikha" (1730-1801)

Daria Nikolaevna Saltykova, nicknamed "Saltychikha" (1730-1801), a sophisticated sadist and murderer of at least 139 people, mostly women, girls and girls. She was sentenced to death, which was later commuted to imprisonment in a monastery prison. One could talk about the influence of the place: the city estate of Daria Saltykova was located not far from the Ivanovsky Monastery, at the intersection of the Kuznetsky Bridge with the infamous Bolshaya Lubyanka, but most of the murders took place on her estate in Troitsky near Moscow. One could talk about bad blood, but she was the daughter of a nobleman who was related to the Davydovs, Musin-Pushkins, Stroganovs and Tolstoy. For quite a long time, the grandfather of the poet Fyodor Tyutchev was in a love relationship with her. True, he married, as you know, another - for which Saltychikha almost killed him along with his young wife.

Daria was only 26 years old when she became a widow, and about 600 peasant souls came into her undivided possession. The next seven years of the lives of those who depended on her. were filled with pain and blood: they flogged people, poured boiling water over them, starved them, burned their hair on their heads, and kept them naked in the cold. The nickname "Saltychikha" gave rise to the image of a heavy, unwashed, vile old woman in my head. But she committed all her crimes at a fairly young age.

Catherine II received the first complaint against her almost immediately after accession to the throne - it was 1762, Saltychikha at that time was 31 years old. Who knows how the investigation against Saltychikha would have turned if Catherine II had not used her case as a show trial, which marked a new era of legality.

Queen Mary-I (1516-1558)

Queen of England, fourth crowned monarch of the Tudor dynasty. Bloody Mary (the one whose name the popular cocktail is named after). The day of her death in the country was celebrated as a national holiday, because her reign was accompanied by massacres. Her father, Henry VIII, declared himself head of the church, for which he was excommunicated by the Pope. Mary went to manage a poor country that needed to be raised out of poverty.

Maria was not distinguished by good health (her father suffered from syphilis), but she was active and unforgiving - she could bring those who had opposed her yesterday, but not the Protestants, closer to her. Almost 300 Protestants were burned at the stake of the Inquisition, 3000 lost their seats and most of them chose to flee the country. It is unlikely that this was the punishment of the Lord, but in family life Mary was unhappy.

Her husband Philip, son of Charles V, was eleven years her junior, had no official say in the government, did not inherit the crown, and was unable to give her a child. Therefore, of his own free will, he left for Spain, then returned to England, and three months later he fled home again. Sick by nature, Mary became homesick, fell ill, and died. Buried "Bloody Mary" in Westminster Abbey. There is not a single (!) monument to this queen in the country.

Mira Hindley, (1942-2002)


Mira, the pretty blonde got herself a boyfriend, Ian Brady. Ian, a strong drinker, idealizing Hitler, Bonnie and Clyde, reading "Mein Kampf", "Crime and Punishment", the history of the Marquis de Sade attracted Mira's attention with his unusualness. He was her first man, but he quickly taught her such sexual entertainments that people who have been married for forty years are not aware of.

They loved to beat, bind each other - with ropes, chains - and take pictures. Soon these entertainments were not enough. Mira and Yen planned to rob banks, but in the meantime they caught children, mocked them, raped them, tortured them, recorded their screams for mercy on film, photographed them and killed them. They killed disgustingly, with everything that got on their hands - knives, shovels, telephone wires. 11 child victims of a criminal couple. At the trial, Mira said that the cause of everything was disappointment in Catholicism. But crimes did not fall under the article of "spiritual quest". During the process, she showed extreme composure, bordering on arrogance.

Being already in prisons, Mira and Ian planned to get married, corresponded, but this request was refused. Not all the bodies of the children they killed were found, in connection with this, Mira, unlike Brady, who never wanted to leave prison, insisted that she should have been set free over the years, and even made an unsuccessful attempt to escape. She died at the age of 60, about two weeks before, despite all the court conflicts, she could be released. Someone unknown pinned a note to her coffin: "Send to hell." Several feature films were made based on the crimes of this couple.

Isabella of Castile (1451-1504)

1492, a landmark year for Isabella, was marked by major historical events: the capture of Granada, which marked the end of the Reconquista, the patronage of Columbus and the discovery of America by him. In this year, another event occurred, which was the reason that today we mention Isabella.

Thomas de Torquemada - born in 1420, a monk of the Dominican order, founded in 1215 by the Spanish monk Domingo de Guzman and approved by a papal bull on December 22, 1216. This Order was the main support in the fight against heresy. Isabella wished to have Torquemada as her confessor, and Torquemada considered this a great honor. He infected the queen with his religious fanaticism, received the title of Grand Inquisitor and headed the Spanish Catholic Tribunal. In Spain, Torquemada resorted to auto-da-fé much more often than the inquisitors of other countries: in 15 years, 10,200 people were burned on his orders. The victims of Torquemada can also be considered 6800 people sentenced to death in absentia. More than 97,000 people were subjected to various punishments. First of all, baptized Jews were persecuted - Marranos, accused of adherence to Judaism, as well as Muslims who converted to Christianity - Moriscos, suspected of secretly practicing Islam. In 1492, Torquemada persuaded Isabella to expel all Jews from the country. By the way, the Catholic Church believes that Isabella has considerable merits before the Church.

Beverly Ellit (1968)

A serial killer, a nurse referred to as the "Angel of Death", has killed four children and made nine murder attempts. Sentenced to 40 years in prison. All of her crimes were committed between 1991 and 1993. She believed - perhaps (perhaps, since it has not been proven) that this is due to Beverly's mental disorder - that the children who were in the hospital and complaining about their poor health were simply trying to attract her attention so as not to be bored.

Nurse Evil gave the children who pissed her off insulin injections to make it look like the children died of natural causes. Fortunately, not all of her crimes were crowned with success, but they struck people with the fact that they were committed by a representative of one of the most humane professions and against those for whom we are responsible - children.

Bell Gunnes (1859-1931)


1.83 m tall and 91 kg in weight - this American of Norwegian origin was quite an impressive physique. The American "Bluebeard", except perhaps female, she killed two of her husbands, her three daughters, all those who suspected her, and those who fell into her zone of attention. It is believed that more than twenty people are on her conscience. She set fires, poisoned with poison, imperceptibly dropped huge meat knives on the heads of the victims.

She came from Norway hoping to find mountains of gold in America, but she worked as a maid in rich houses, desperately jealous of those she served. Money was her idfix. She insured the lives of her husbands and did everything to ensure that the insurance turned into cash, witnesses were mercilessly killed. Covering her tracks, she set fire to her house in 1908, in which her children died, but those remains that should have been considered her remains were not identified as the former Belle. In 1931, Esther Carlson was arrested in Los Angeles for killing her husband in order to obtain insurance ($ 2,000). She died in prison before her trial, but she could be identified by appearances as Belle Gunness. Death freed her from it.

Mary Ann Cotton (1832-1873)

Perhaps Belle got the idea for this diabolical form of enrichment from Mary Ann Cotton. This fine-looking woman was married three times, in total she spent forty years in a married state. It was a time when there were no remedies for the treatment of many diseases, and infant death was not a rare occurrence. Mary had children of her own by her husbands, but she married widowers with a considerable number of children from a previous marriage.

All were doomed to death. Mary insured all members of her families, then went to the pharmacy, bought arsenic and gradually, without attracting much attention, poisoned her children, and at the same time her husbands, clearing her way to a new marriage. Her impudence let her down when, after the death of her last husband, she sent two adopted sons to the next world and immediately went to claim an insurance reward. Before that, she carelessly, a few weeks before the murders, bought arsenic in a pharmacy. An investigation was carried out, an autopsy was carried out, the test for arsenic was positive.

Then they began to conduct research on the bodies of relatives who died at the hands of Mary - there was arsenic in each corpse. At the trial, she had the only argument: “So what, you don’t execute those who get rid of children in the womb. I did the same, but a little later and for money.” In prison, she had a daughter from her last husband, who was lucky to stay alive. Before the execution, this fragile-looking woman prayed, and a second before the black flag was raised over the prison, confirming the execution of the sentence, she said: "Heaven is my home." Not likely, Mary. Hardly. On your account either 12 or 15 human lives.

Elsa Koch (1906-1967)


Elsa was born in 1906 in Dresden. Little is known about her first years, but when she married Karl Koch in 1937, she was already working in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. The husband is promoted - they are appointed head of the Buchenwald concentration camp, and the friendly family goes there. In the camp, Elsa does not get bored, playing the role of a wife. She is the controller of the camp, Elsa "became famous" for her cruel treatment of prisoners. She loved to flog or beat people herself. If she came across a prisoner with an interesting tattoo, it was the last hours of his life. Elsa collected a collection of tattooed human skin. Samples with interesting natural marks also got there. Household items could also be made from this skin - for example, a chandelier. Even the bag that Elsa went out with was made of human skin.

Elsa's husband was arrested in 1944, later executed, and she hid from the authorities, knowing that while they were catching more "big fish". Elsa's turn came in 1947, during the investigation she managed to get pregnant, hoping to avoid punishment. But the prosecutor said that Elsa has more than 50,000 victims on her conscience, and pregnancy does not free her from anything. She was tried by the Americans in Munich, the investigation went on for almost four years. Elsa claimed that she was just a "servant of the regime".

Incredibly, in 1951 she was released from prison. Not for long, because she was immediately arrested by the German authorities, who noted during the investigation her special sadism and sentenced to life imprisonment. The son, who was born in prison, did not know who his mother was for a long time, but when he found out, he did not treat her like a "Buchenwale bitch" and visited her in prison. In 1967, Elsa ate her last schnitzel and hanged herself without remorse.

Irma Grise (1923-1945)


If not for the war, perhaps Irma would have become a pretty German peasant woman. But when she was 13, her mother committed suicide, and a couple of years later Irma dropped out of school. Her father had joined the NSDAP by this time .. Irma's education was not enough, but she showed herself in the organization of the female analogue of the Hitler Youth. She worked as a nurse, and in 1942 she entered the service in the SS, despite the displeasure of her father, and was immediately sent to work in the Ravensbrück concentration camp, then there was Auschwitz (Birkenau), where she was very quickly appointed to the position of senior warden - this was the second person in camp hierarchy.

She was 20 years old and she was very cruel. She beat women to death, shot prisoners according to the principle - "whoever gets hit." She starved dogs, and then set them on prisoners. She herself selected those whom she sent to death in the gas chamber. With her, besides the pistol, she always had a wicker whip, Irma Grese, known as the most cruel woman of the Third Reich, the prisoners called her "beautiful beast". She developed a reputation as a nymphomaniac who sexually abused prisoners and prisoners. Among the German staff, she also had enough "fans", one of them was the infamous "Dr. Death", Josef Mengele.

In 1945, she was taken prisoner by the British at the next "working" place - in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, Irma Grese was found guilty and sentenced to hang. On the last night before the execution, she laughed and sang songs with her accomplices. When the noose was thrown around her neck, not even a trace of remorse flickered across her face. Her last word was "Faster" to the executioner.

Kztrin Knight (1956)

On November 9, 2001, the harshest sentence possible in Australia was announced. Katherine Knight became the first woman in the country to be sentenced to life in prison marked "without the right to review the sentence."

Perhaps her decision on how to punish her husband's alleged infidelity may have been influenced by the fact that she worked in a slaughterhouse, with a particular interest in decapitating pigs. The first time she tried to kill her husband was on her first wedding night, when he "failed to fulfill her expectations."

As a warning to her husband and his alleged lover, Katherine caught the woman's dog and, in front of her eyes, cut out her throat with a single movement of a knife. In a few days, she will inflict 37 stab wounds on a man - her husband, after which she will dismember his body, put his head in a saucepan and, adding vegetables, will cook broth from it. Katherine tried to cook the meat of her murdered husband for dinner. Thank God, at least the police prevented her from doing this. During the trial, she pleaded guilty. But how can a simple confession wash away the guilt of a terrible crime, unthinkable in the day of a civilized society?

Elizabeth Bathory (1560-1614)

The Guinness Book of Records calls her the most "prolific" serial killer. Whether her cruelty was natural or acquired - now this is no longer clear. But it is known that this Hungarian woman was the wife of Ferenc Nadaszcz. Ferenc showed tremendous cruelty towards the captured Turks, with whom there was a war at that time, for which he received the nickname "Black Bek". As a wedding gift, "Cherny Bek" gave the "Bloody Countess" the Chakhtitsky Castle in the Slovak Lesser Carpathians, where she gave birth to five children and killed 650 people.

According to legend, Elizabeth Bathory once hit her maid in the face. Blood from the maid's nose dripped onto the skin of the countess, and it seemed to Elizabeth that her skin began to look beautiful in those places where drops of blood fell. Rumor has it that in Elizabeth's castle cellars, the victims bled, this blood filled the bath, which Elizabeth took. The cruelty of the Black Countess was fully manifested after the death of her husband. And first of all, girls and young people suffered from the temper of Elizabeth

women. Erzsébet's brother was the ruler of Transylvania (remember where Count Dracula was from?), so she never stood trial and did what she wanted until her death.

IRMA GRIZ (1923 - 1945)

The daughter of a simple German peasant, Irma Griz, who lived from 1923 to 1945, is rightfully considered the most cruel woman of the Third Reich. In her youth, she lost her mother - she committed suicide when Griz was 13. Later, the girl's father joined the Nazi party, and by that time she herself headed the Nazi organization, which is a kind of analogue of the Hitler Youth, only it consisted exclusively of females.

In 1942, Irma Grise joined the SS and almost immediately went to "work" in the Auschwitz concentration camp, where she received the post of senior warden, that is, she became the second person in this concentration camp. When Grizzly was 20 years old, her cruelty reached its peak. Many called her "irresistible beast" because she stood out for her attractive appearance. The famous Josef Mengele, better known by the nickname "Doctor Death", was one of the most ardent admirers of Grizz.

20-year-old Irma Gries personally selected the prisoners of Auschwitz, who were to go to the gas chamber, shot people, firing at random, set dogs on the prisoners, who had not been fed for a long time before. Grizz always carried two types of weapons with her - a pistol and a wicker whip. In 1945, Irma Grise was captured and sentenced to death by hanging. All night before the execution, she sang songs and laughed with her friends, who also served in Auschwitz. When the executioner threw a noose around her neck, she was given the opportunity to say the last word. Irma Grise, on whose face there was not a single sign of fear or remorse, turned to the executioner and said: "Come quickly."

http://www.directadvert.ru/news/txt/?id=40374&da_id=3385104

17. Vera Renzi. 1903 - 1948

16. Sisters González

15. Eileen Wuornos. 1956 - ...

14. Rosemary West

12. Bella Sorenson Guinness

7. Beverly Ellit, 1968-…

6. Bell Gunnes, 1859-1931

5. Mary Ann Cotton, 1832-1873

4. Elsa Koch, 1906-1967

3. Irma Grise, 1923-1945

2. Katherine Knight, 1956-…

20. Antonina Makarovna Makarova. 1921 - 1979

Antonina Makarovna Makarova, nicknamed "Tonka the machine gunner" - the executioner of the Lokotsky district during the Great Patriotic War, who shot more than 1,500 people in the service of the German occupation authorities and Russian collaborators.

In 1941, during the Great Patriotic War, being a nurse, she was surrounded and ended up in the occupied territory. She voluntarily entered the service of the auxiliary police of the Lokotsky district, where she executed death sentences, executing about 1,500 people (according to official figures). For executions, she used the Maxim machine gun, issued to her by the police at her request.

At the end of the war, Makarova got a fake nurse's ID and got a job in a hospital, married veteran V. S. Ginzburg, and changed her last name.

For a long time, the KGB authorities could not find her due to the fact that she was born Parfenova, but was mistakenly recorded as Makarova. She was arrested in the summer of 1978 in Lepel (Belarus), convicted as a war criminal and, by the verdict of the Bryansk Regional Court of November 20, 1978, sentenced to capital punishment - the death penalty (becoming the only woman sentenced to capital punishment in the USSR after the period of Stalinist repressions ). On August 11, 1979, the sentence was carried out.

19. Marquise de Brainvilliers. 1630 - 1676

She poisoned her father, husband, children, two brothers and sisters with the help of her lover, cavalry captain Gaudin de Sainte-Croix, who was fond of alchemy. There were rumors of her other poisonings - in particular, her servants and many of the poor whom she visited in Parisian hospitals. Godin de Sainte-Croix betrayed the poisoner, but he died unexpectedly in 1672 for unknown reasons. The marquise fled, hiding in London, Holland and Flanders, but was found in a Liege monastery and escorted to France in 1676.

Her attempt to commit suicide failed, and after a long trial (April 29 - July 16, 1676), during which the criminal first completely denied her guilt, and then, out of fear of torture, confessed to all atrocities, the Marquise de Brainvilliers was tortured by drinking , beheaded and burned.

18. Petrova Maria Alexandrovna. 1978 - ...

Petrova, Maria Alexandrovna ("Zyuzinskaya maniac") - Russian serial killer who hunted in Moscow.

Maria Petrova has been swimming since childhood. She was unsociable, closed. Once she was raped. The rapist was a young man. After Petrova was harassed at work by an elderly colleague, she hated all men.

On March 1, 2002, Petrova killed a 20-year-old boy with two knife blows. Subsequently, she explained this by harassment on his part, but the witnesses did not see this. The murder took place at the Shalom Theater bus stop near Varshavskaya metro station.

Subsequently, Petrova made 4 more attacks with intent to kill, but all of her victims survived. All attacks were carried out with the same handwriting - stab wounds in the peritoneum and neck.

Petrova was absolutely not afraid of being caught. She committed crimes in front of dozens of people and in the same area. The arrest was made on the night of April 23, 2002.

Petrova soon confessed everything. She was charged with 2 murders and 4 attempted murders. The forensic psychiatric examination found Petrova insane, and sent her to compulsory treatment.

17. Vera Renzi. 1903 - 1948

Vera was born into a wealthy family, descended from the Hungarian nobility. She was an uncontrollable child, already at the age of fifteen she often ran away from home with her friends, many of whom were much older than her. She had an obsessive desire to be friends with men. By nature, Vera was very jealous and suspicious. The first time she married a rich businessman from Bucharest, many years older than her. They had a son, Lorenzo. Vera began to suspect her husband of infidelity and one day, in anger, she poured arsenic into his wine. She told family and friends that her husband had abandoned her son. A year later, she announced that she had heard rumors that her estranged husband had died in a car accident. She soon remarried. This time, her chosen one was a man close in age. However, they often quarreled, and Vera tormented herself with suspicions about her husband's infidelity. A month later, her husband disappeared, and she again told family and friends that he had left her. A year later, Vera stated that she had received a letter from him, where he said that he would never return home.

Vera did not marry again, but entered into relationships with men, including married ones. Her lovers were people of different strata and different social status. And they all disappeared without a trace months, weeks, or even days after the start of the novel. Vera always made up stories that men were unfaithful and left her. One day, the deceived wife of one of her lovers followed her unfaithful husband. When the man disappeared, she called the police, Vera's house was searched and 32 zinc coffins were found in the wine cellar, each of which contained a male corpse in different stages of decomposition. Vera was arrested and admitted to poisoning the 32 men with arsenic when they cheated on her or lost interest in her. She also said that she liked to sit in a chair among the coffins with her former admirers. Vera also confessed to the murder of two husbands and a son. She said that somehow her son came to visit her and accidentally saw coffins in the basement. He began to blackmail her, and she poisoned him and disposed of the body.

16. Sisters González

The Gonzalez sisters are Mexican serial killers.

Sisters Delphine and Maria ran a brothel. The sisters hired prostitutes through advertisements. When they fell ill or ceased to please the clients, they killed them. The sisters also killed clients if they saw that they had large sums of money with them. In total, the police found 80 female and 11 male bodies. In 1964, the Gonzalez sisters were sentenced to forty years in prison. In prison, Delphine died due to an accident. Maria disappeared from sight after her release.

The Gonzalez family had several sisters. Carmen and Maria Luisa helped Maria and Delphine to commit crimes. Carmen died in prison of cancer; Marie Louise went mad for fear of revenge.

15. Eileen Wuornos. 1956 - ...

Many experts call her "the first woman maniac in the United States"

The psyche of Eileen Vuornos was disfigured as a child: her parents were teenagers who very soon dispersed, her mother disappeared in an unknown direction, and her father went to prison for child molestation, where he hanged himself. Baby Eileen was placed in the care of her father's parent.

She lived with her grandparents until the age of 13. According to her own statements, she was raped by her grandfather, although later psychiatrists questioned this fact. At the age of 14 she was kicked out of the house, and at the age of 15 she was already a wanderer and engaged in prostitution.

Over the years, her anger and anger towards men grew.

She had all the signs of antisocial personality disorder, Eileen broke the law, robbed gun stores, and even married a 70-year-old man whom she physically raped. As a result, her elderly husband left her.

Shortly after the divorce, Eileen met a woman named Tyra, with whom she began a torrid affair. To feed herself and her friend, Eileen went to work on the panel. Working on the roads selling your body was a dangerous business. And one day she killed a man. Eileen stated that she was brutally raped and killed the rapist in self-defense. However, she soon killed seven more people in Florida.

14. Rosemary West

Rosemary (also known as Rose) was the very embodiment of evil and soullessness. Rosemary and her husband Fred met young girls (most often students) on the street and invited them to visit, promising food, housing and compassion. The fate that awaited these unfortunate girls and young women was indeed terrible.

Rosemary, a mother of eight, was a prostitute and sexual sadist who took pleasure in hurting others. Along with her husband, she committed ten brutal murders, including the murder of her own child, a daughter named Heather. Rosemary was also convicted of the murder of her stepdaughter Michelle. Many other victims may also have suffered and been tortured and killed by the couple, as Fred made it clear that as many as 20 more missing girls could have been killed by him.

"To kill as many people as possible - helpless people, than any other man or woman who has ever lived ..." - this is how she explained the motives for her crimes.

Jane Toppan is a nurse, maniac, and sociopath who has suffered from obesity all her life.

In 1885, Toppan began training as a nurse. During the training, one of the professors noticed an unhealthy interest in the student in looking at autopsy photographs, but no one attached much importance to this, and Jane Toppan graduated with honors from her studies and began to care for patients who found her pleasant and nicknamed "Joy Jane".

And Merry Jane, in turn, used her patients as guinea pigs in experiments with morphine and atropine, changing the prescribed dosages of drugs and observing how this affects their nervous system. She touched unconscious patients and received sexual satisfaction from this. In 1899, Jane killed her adopted sister Elizabeth with a dose of strychnine.

In 1901, Jane cared for the elderly Alden Davis after the death of his wife (whom she herself killed). Within weeks, she killed Davis himself and two of his daughters. After that, she, with a sense of accomplishment, returned to her hometown and began to look after the husband of her late adopted sister. By this time, surviving members of the Davis family had requested a toxicological examination for Alden Davie's youngest deceased daughter. It was determined that she had been poisoned.

On October 26, 1901, Jane Toppan was arrested for the murder of Alden Davy's daughter. But at the very first interrogation, “Very Jane” pouted and declared that she had killed 31 people.

The court found her innocent due to insanity and sentenced her to be placed in an insane asylum, where she was until her death.

12. Bella Sorenson Guinness

Bella Sorenson Guinness is a female serial killer who kills for pleasure and greed. For the sake of profit, she killed 42 people.

Guinness was born in Norway, at the age of 21 she moved to the USA, where she married a businessman from Chicago and bore him two daughters, whom, a few years later, she poisoned herself to get insurance. Later, her husband died under strange circumstances from the drugs he was treated with and again, for the death of her husband, Guinness received money from the insurance company. With the proceeds, Bella bought a farm.

Her husband's relatives suspected something was wrong and accused her of her husband's untimely death. Soon "Black Widow" put the case on stream. Her scheme was extremely simple: seduce a man, marry him, persuade the chosen one to insure his life, and then poison him and get insurance money. She easily managed to lure men into her bed and they did not even imagine that a cold-blooded killer was hiding behind the mask of a pretty woman. It became known that she buried 42 husbands and saved up more than a quarter of a million dollars. The Black Widow also ended her life tragically, her body was found decapitated and burned in the forest. However, evil tongues claim that the found body does not belong to the Black Widow.

11. Daria Nikolaevna Saltykova (“Saltychikha”), 1730-1801

A Russian landowner who went down in history as the most sophisticated sadist and murderer of 139 serfs subject to her, mostly women and girls.

10. Queen Mary I, 1516-1558

The daughter of the English king Henry VIII and his first wife went down in history as a monarch who tried to return the country to the bosom of the Roman Catholic Church after her father, having quarreled with the Pope, declared himself the head of the new Anglican Church. The "restoration" of the country took place against the backdrop of brutal executions of Protestants, persecution and murder of innocent people, for which the people nicknamed the Queen Bloody Mary.

A serial killer who committed her atrocities along with her accomplice Ian Brian. They got the nickname "English Bonnie and Clyde".
For several years, criminals kidnapped, abused and tortured to death five minor children aged 10 to 17 years.

8. Isabella of Castile, 1451-1504

Isabella of Castile became famous for her cruelty towards non-Catholics: a passionate and devout Catholic, she appointed Thomas Torquemada as the first Grand Inquisitor and marked the beginning of an era of religious purges. Under Isabella of Castile, most of the Jews and Arabs left Spain - more than 200 thousand people, and the rest were forced to accept Christianity, which, however, rarely saved the converts from death at the stake.

7. Beverly Ellit, 1968-…

An English nurse, nicknamed the "angel of death", killed four young hospital patients in 1991 and seriously harmed the health of five more. She injected children with insulin or potassium to induce severe heart attacks and simulate natural death. Motives for the crime are still unknown.

6. Bell Gunnes, 1859-1931

This American woman became the most famous female killer in US history after she killed both her husbands, her own daughters, several admirers and lovers. The main goal is to receive payments for life insurance. In total, she killed 30 people.

5. Mary Ann Cotton, 1832-1873

Poisoned about 20 people with arsenic. Throughout her life, the criminal killed several husbands, her children and even her own mother. For this she was sentenced to death by hanging. The executioner, who led her execution, deliberately prolonged her torment, “forgetting” to knock out a stool from under the condemned woman’s feet.

4. Elsa Koch, 1906-1967

Else Koch, the "Witch of Buchenwald", was the wife of a concentration camp commandant. She tortured prisoners, beat them with a whip, mocked and killed them. She committed suicide in prison in 1967.

3. Irma Grise, 1923-1945

One of the most cruel guards of the women's death camps Ravensbrück, Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen in Nazi Germany. The prisoners gave her a nickname - the Blonde Devil. While torturing prisoners, she resorted to both physical and psychological violence, beat women to death, and amused herself by shooting prisoners. She starved her dogs, then to set them on the victims.

2. Katherine Knight, 1956-…

First woman in Australian history to be sentenced to life in prison without the right to pardon. In October 2001, during a family quarrel, she killed her 44-year-old partner. She inflicted about 30 blows on him with a meat knife, fought over the body of her former friend, and then removed the skin from the corpse.

To top it off, Katherine Knight dismembered the corpse and stewed the severed head along with the vegetables. The motive for the crime is a banal insult. As the investigators found out, Knight's roommate decided to break up with her, kick her out of the house and disinherit her.

1. Elizabeth Batory, 1560-1614

Hungarian Countess, better known as the "Bloody Lady". She tortured and killed servants and peasant women: she brutally beat them, burned their arms, breasts, genitals, faces and other parts of the body with a red-hot iron, skinned still living victims, starved, mocked and raped. In 1610, she was placed under house arrest on charges of murder, heresy, and witchcraft. During the process, the servants of the castle could not name the exact number of victims of the sadist: the approximate countesses, who found themselves in the dock, spoke of four to five dozen killed, the rest of the servants assured that they carried out hundreds of corpses. Bathory died a natural death in 1614.

Many believe that female maniacs are a rarity, since supposedly the fair sex is less prone to violence than men. However, in history there are many women who are not inferior to them in cruelty. Nevertheless, there are indeed fewer serial killers among them than among the stronger sex. Probably because it takes planning, and women are emotional creatures and don't really like it. However, there are not so few of them. After reading the article, you will see that female maniacs in history are not so rare.

Bella (Belle) Sorenson Gunnes

The first woman we will talk about is Bella Sorenson Gunness. On her account, presumably 42 victims. This is a native of Norway, who moved to the US and married a businessman from Chicago. Bella Sorenson Guinness killed for money and just for fun. Some researchers believe that this woman also killed two of her daughters. She poisoned them in order to get insurance. Officially, the death of Bella's children is considered the result of an illness, however, judging by a number of signs, it could also be caused by poisoning. In addition, Bella Sorenson Guinness is suspected of burning down the family business in order to collect insurance payments. Her husband later died under very strange circumstances. Of course, his wife again received money for this. Perhaps the woman sent her husband to the next world, feeding him special "medicines". Bella subsequently became known as the "black widow".

With the proceeds from the murder of her husband, she wanted to buy a farm, but apparently she did not have enough money. Then the woman began to seduce older and middle-aged men. Bella started a love correspondence with them, got married, and then the husbands died, and the "black widow" received income. A very sophisticated business. According to rumors, 42 bodies are buried in the ground, on sites belonging to Gunness. And the woman earned about 250 thousand dollars from her "business".

However, someone put an end to the unusual "career" of this woman. Her body was found burned, Gunness's head was cut off. Although the question still remains open as to whether the corpse really belonged to Belle, or whether the woman again came out dry from the water. Terrifying story, isn't it? However, other most cruel female maniacs cause no less emotions. We will talk about one of them now.

Jane Toppan

Jane is a nurse who killed the weak, and it is known that her father was crazy, and the girl spent her childhood in an orphanage located in Boston. When Jane Toppan grew up, she became physically strong, the future criminal trained as a nurse. During the training, the teachers noticed the girl's unhealthy attraction to photographs. However, Jane managed to get an education and find a job. She began to care for patients who considered her a caring nurse. The woman was even called "jolly Jane." After some time, Toppan realized that bringing patients to the brink of death gives her sexual pleasure. She administered the drug to her victims, then trying to resuscitate them in order to repeat this operation again. Jane often went to bed with the dying. The woman must have molested them while the patients clung to life with all their might! Toppan began her career as an assassin in 1885 and continued her atrocities until she was arrested. The woman was charged with 11 murders. Jane, while in custody, gave shocking testimony. She confessed to killing 31 people. Toppan wanted to be the "record holder", the woman with the most murders. Jane was declared insane. She spent the rest of her life in a mental hospital for criminals, like many others.

Rosemary West

Our next heroine is Rosemary West. This woman, along with her husband, deceived young naive girls. They picked up future victims on the street, offered them food and housing. Rosemary had 8 children of her own. She made a living as a prostitute and was also a sadist. Her husband Fred was just as perverted. On account of this married couple - 10 murders, among the victims - their own daughter Heather. In addition, Rose was found guilty of the death of Charmaine, her stepdaughter. Both Fred and Rose had difficult childhoods and were both sociopaths. Fred hinted that on their account - the death of more than 20 people!

Female maniacs, killers often acted in tandem with their husbands or lovers. You will meet one of them if you read this article to the end.

Eileen Wuornos

Eileen Wuornos is one of the most famous serial killers today. This woman worked as a prostitute, was a lesbian. She knew sin as a child: Eileen became pregnant at the age of 13. After 2 years, she was kicked out of the house. It is known that the woman committed armed robberies. In addition, she managed to marry a 70-year-old elderly man, who later complained that his wife was beating him. Arrests, drunken brawls, and so on helped the old man sue Wuornos to be banned from approaching him.

The woman entered into a lesbian relationship. Her chosen one was a girl named Tyria. In order to feed herself and her, Eileen began to engage in prostitution. She killed 8 clients. Eileen, shortly before her death, swore that she had committed the first murder in self-defense. Unlike many other female killers, Wuornos was not afraid of the sight of blood. She killed her victims with pistol shots. By the way, in 2003 the movie "Monster" was released with Charlize Theron as Eileen. The actress received Golden Globe and Oscar awards for this role.

Andrea Yates

Maniacs of the world, women and men, often suffer from mental disorders. And Andrea Yates probably suffered from schizophrenia. Although she was not officially diagnosed with this diagnosis, the presence of a serious mental disorder in a woman is obvious. Andrea killed 5 of her children by drowning them all in a bathtub. Rusty, her domineering husband, wanted to have many children, and his wife was constantly depressed, which even reached suicide attempts. The additional psychological burden associated with raising children turned out to be fatal.

Her husband knew that Andrea had problems with his head (although he later blamed psychiatrists for everything that happened), so he usually asked someone to stay with the children and with his wife during his absence. But one day the woman was left alone. She took advantage of this to drown her children. Rusty said that he wanted to leave his wife alone for a while so that she would not get too used to helping others. It took Andrea an hour to kill all five children in turn. Then the woman called the rescue service and told about what she had done.

Andrea considered that for her and for the children, their death would be the best way out. The fact is that the woman was a religious fanatic. She called her children "unrighteous" and believed that her own sins would not allow them to grow up as worthy Christians.

Beverly Ellitt

The story of the next woman, Beverly Ellitt, also involves the murder of children. She was nicknamed "the angel of death". The woman was a registered nurse. She killed children by injecting them with insulin or to cause cardiac arrest. In total, this woman has 4 committed murders and 9 more attempts. Moreover, all 13 attempts to kill children occurred in a very short time, within two weeks! The oldest victim, Beverly, was 5 years old, and the youngest was less than two months old. Psychiatrists who studied the case of this woman came to the conclusion that she suffered from a very unusual mental disorder - Munchausen's syndrome. Her motive for killing and hurting others is to draw attention to herself. Ellitt liked to pretend to be seriously ill as a child. Beverly was sent to a hospital for the criminally insane. The woman was given 13 life sentences. Relatives of the children she killed threaten to kill her if the woman is ever released.

Karla Homolka

Our next heroine is Karla Homolka from Canada, a beautiful blonde who loved Paul Bernardo, a serial killer known as the "Scarborough Rapist". Feelings for a lover inspired to help him in his crimes. Together they committed the kidnapping, rape and murder of 3 young women. And one of them was Carla's sister! The niece begged Homolka to let her go, and she took pity, and even gave her relative a teddy bear. Carla, after her arrest, made a deal with the authorities in order to mitigate the punishment - she spoke about the murders that her husband committed. Paul, however, assured that it was she who killed everyone. The videos found show that at least this woman was not a victim who was forced by her husband to commit criminal acts.

Susan Smith

Susan Smith, unlike many other female killers, was not mentally ill. In her right mind, she killed two sons, Alex and Michael. The woman tried to make herself mentally ill, assuring that she committed the murders for religious reasons. However, the facts show otherwise. Tom, the woman's lover, left her shortly before the tragedy. After that, Smith brought her children to the river, took off the handbrake of the car and pushed it into the water. The woman stood and watched as the car with her two children plunged into the water, and then called the police and reported that some black man had committed this crime.

Susan claimed that her stepfather raped her as a child. Having matured, the girl began to dream of ideal love, while at the same time experiencing the need for regular sex. Behind bars, she managed to sleep with two guards. One of them gave Susan syphilis.

Diana Downes

As you can see, many female maniacs killed their children. Our next heroine, Diana Downes, is no exception. When Lew, her lover, told her that children were not part of his plans, the woman decided ... to kill her children! Diana had 3 children from a previous marriage - Danny, Cheryl and Christie. In order to get rid of them, she took the children to a desert area. Here, a woman murdered Cheryl, her 7-year-old daughter, in cold blood. She also shot at Danny and Christy, but they managed to survive, although 3-year-old Danny was paralyzed from the waist down, Christy was also partially paralyzed. The latter was able to testify and told the court what her mother had done.

Ludmila Spesivtseva

Our list so far consists only of foreign names. But there are also Russian female killers. One of them is Lyudmila Yakovlevna Spesivtseva. Although she herself did not kill, she actively helped the cannibal Alexander Spesivtsev, her crazy son, do it. For some time, an elderly maniac woman worked as an assistant to a blind lawyer in court. She often brought home photographs of dead people and showed them to Alexander. Is it any wonder that he grew up mentally ill, turned into a sociopath? Alexander ended up in a mental hospital, but after a while he was released. He returned to his mother and soon began to kill, and the woman not only did not interfere with him, but even began to help! Lyudmila lured girls to the cannibal, carried the remains of the victims out of the house. One of the victims managed to live long enough to testify (the exhausted child died after a while). The camera forever recorded the horrific words of the girl, who said that Lyudmila fed her and the other captives with the meat of their murdered friend! It is also assumed, although not officially confirmed, that she cooked the meat of the victims and sold it in the market. A family of maniacs killed at least 20 people. However, there are probably even more victims - photographs of minors were found in the Spesivtsevs' apartment, as well as clothes that could belong to 82 people! There is an assumption that not only Lyudmila helped Alexander, but also his sister.

Saltykova Daria Nikolaevna

It turns out that female maniacs in Russia are not a new phenomenon. born in 1730 and died in 1801. The Russian landowner Saltychikha (Daria received such a nickname) went down in history as a sadist and murderer of several dozen serfs subject to her. By the decision of Empress Catherine II and the Senate, she was deprived of the title of pillar noblewoman. The woman was sentenced to life imprisonment and placed in a monastery prison, where she died at the age of 71. At the age of 26, Daria became a widow, having received about 600 peasants at her disposal. The investigator in her case, on the basis of Saltykova's house books, compiled a list of 138 serfs, whose fate had to be clarified. 50 people, according to the records, "died of illness", 72 were "missing", and another 16 were considered "gone on the run" or "left to her husband." According to the testimonies of the peasants, 75 people, mainly girls and women, were killed in the villages and the estate of the landowner. Saltykova spent 33 years in prison and died in 1801. She was buried with all her relatives in the cemetery of the Donskoy Monastery, the tombstone has been preserved.

Amelia Elizabeth Dyer

Another example from history is Amelia Elizabeth Dyer. This woman was born in 1837 and executed in 1896. A criminal from England is considered the most massive child murderer in history. At the age of 24, in 1861, the girl married George Thomas, who was 59 years old at the time of the wedding. It is known that the groom during the marriage slowed down 10 years, and the bride added, so that the age difference between them was not so frightening. She committed her crimes in and was by occupation a baby farmer. This woman was hanged for one murder, but she is believed to be responsible for the deaths of other children, numbering perhaps over four hundred.

Dyer's trial began on May 22, 1896. The death sentence was carried out in Newgate prison on June 10, 1896. Amelia's last words were: "I have nothing to say."

Killer women, as you can see, are not such a rare occurrence. Who is to blame for this? Are they just themselves? Probably, our society itself is unhealthy if so many socially dangerous elements continue to appear in it. In no way justifying the criminals themselves, it should be noted that famous female maniacs are phenomena that make you think about a lot.