Evil is an integral part of human existence. Since ancient times, people have learned to deal with it, saving themselves from various misfortunes.

And if you think that evil is only something supernatural and mystical, then you simply have never encountered it. The worst thing is when evil lives in human hearts, turning them into merciless serial killers, maniacs, political dictators and lovers to mock living flesh. Now imagine that all of the above persons are women! Scary!? We will tell you about 25 beauties whose cruelty and sadism "glorified" them all over the world.

1. Gertrud Baniszewski

Gertrude Baniszewski, also known as Gertrude Rein, is one of the most violent criminals in the world. In 1965, with the help of neighboring children, she mocked Sylvia Likens, a girl taken under guardianship, for a long time. Moreover, Gertrude tortured the poor child to death. She didn’t just beat Sylvia: Gertrude dipped her in boiling water, burned inscriptions on her body, covered her burns with salt. When she was convicted of first-degree murder in 1966, her case was called the worst personal crime in Indiana history. Primarily, Gertrude was sentenced to death, but later it was commuted to life imprisonment. The eldest daughter Gertrude was also given a life sentence, and three sons - from 2-21 years in prison.

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2. Elizabeth Bathory

Countess Bathory, or the Bloody Countess, is world-famous as one of the toughest serial killers. According to legend, Elizabeth was so passionate about the “elixir of youth” that she was ready to do anything for the sake of beauty. Why is she called one of the most bloodthirsty women? Because she believed that taking blood baths would give her youth and beauty for years to come. For this, in the late 16th and early 17th centuries, she tortured and killed more than 650 young girls in her castle Kahtice in Slovakia. Thanks to her influential family, the countess did not appear before the court, but was immured in one of the rooms of the Hungarian castle of Cheyte, where she died 4 years after imprisonment.

3. Ilse Koch

Known as the Witch of Buchenwald or Frau Lampshade, Ilse Koch is considered one of the worst villains of the Holocaust. The wife of the commandant of the Nazi Buchenwald concentration camp, Karl-Otto Koch, Ilse Koch was a nymphomaniac who tortured prisoners in the concentration camp. She was known for her violent sadistic tendencies. Ilze beat prisoners, raped them, forced them to have sex and skinned those who had tattoos. She used the flayed skin for the covers of her own books and handmade souvenirs. After World War II, Frau Koch was convicted for all her atrocities, however, the death penalty was not assigned, but only sent to jail. She sat in a cell for about 20 years, and then hanged herself there.

4. Mother Barker

In the history of America, Mother Barker is known as the most incredible gangster. She was a rare woman who led gangs of thugs, in which, by the way, her sons were brought up. In the history of American gangs, Ma Barker's gangs were the most sophisticated and elusive. They managed to get rich by killing everyone who got in their way. In 1935, she was killed in her Florida hideout during a shootout with the FBI. At the time, the first director of the FBI, J. Edgar Hoover, called Barker "the most vicious, dangerous, and resourceful criminal brain of the last decade."

5. Myra Hindley

Myra Hindley has been named Britain's most evil woman. Together with their sadistic psychopath lover Ian Brady, they tortured, raped and killed five children aged 10-17. For a long time in the 60s. this pair of serial killers terrified Manchester and England in general. When they were finally caught, they were charged with their crimes. Maira was then given two life sentences. In 2002, she died in a cell due to respiratory failure at the age of 60.

6. Griselda Blanco

Griselda Blanco, nicknamed La Madrid or "The Black Widow", was a drug baroness and one of Florida's most powerful crime bosses in the late 70s. Blanco is also known as the mentor of the most famous criminal Pablo Escobar, who later became her enemy. Griselda married 3 times, but all her husbands suddenly died. For this reason, she was nicknamed the "Black Widow". It is known that she killed her second husband herself with a shot in the mouth. During the investigation, it was found that Griselda was involved in more than 200 murders of people while transporting drugs from Colombia to the United States. Blanco was caught and sentenced to 15 years in prison. Subsequently, the term was extended by another 60 years, but with the help of skilled lawyers, Blanco was released in 2004. She was deported to Colombia, where she was shot dead in 2012 by a passing motorcyclist.

7. Mary Tudor

Meet Mary Tudor - the eldest daughter of King Henry VIII, known to everyone as Bloody Mary. In the history of England, she was remembered as the most bloodthirsty, evil and cruel woman. During his short reign - from 1553-1558. - she executed 297 representatives of the elite classes. Also, according to her decree, there were mass executions of Protestants, and those who participated in popular uprisings. Mary also executed her younger sister Jane Gray. Bloody Mary died of illness and was buried in Westminster Abbey.

8. Dagmar Overby

Dagmar Overby worked as a manager in an orphanage and between 1913-1920 she killed 25 children, including one of her own. Since the parents of most babies did not return for their children, no one even kept a record of the babies that came. The babies that Dagmar killed were strangled, drowned, or burned in a stone oven. Unfortunately, Overby was found guilty of only 9 murders and sentenced to death. Subsequently, the death penalty was commuted to life imprisonment. Dagmar died in 1929 at the age of 42. It is noteworthy that this case has entered the history of Danish trials as the most famous in Danish history.

9. Christiana Edmunds

Christiana Edmunds was a murderer and a mentally ill woman with a strange hobby - she poisoned people with chocolates. It is noteworthy that it all began with sympathy for his neighbor, who was unfortunately married. Having come to visit, Christiana treated his wife to a poisoned candy, and after a while the woman felt unwell. The beloved blamed his wife Christiana for the illness, who, in order to remove suspicion from herself, began to buy sweets all over the city and poison them. People bought them and got sick. In 1871, a 4-year-old boy died from a chocolate candy, but the investigation did not reveal anything criminal in this case. And if not for Christiana's mistake, then half of the city, and even most of it, would have died from chocolate poison. The woman was arrested and found guilty, sentenced to death. But she was sent to an insane asylum, where she spent the rest of her days and died at the age of 78.

Known as the Mad Monarch of Madagascar, Ranavaluna is considered one of the most brutal female politicians in history. Ranavaluna ruled the island of Madagascar for 33 years. All the years of the reign were filled with continuous terror, fear and murders. European missionaries were expelled from the country, Christians were persecuted. Thousands of people died because of its cruel laws and regulations. Moreover, according to legend, Ranavaluna executed all her confidants if they appeared to her in a dream.

11. Irma Grese

A sweet girl with a beautiful appearance, behind which was hidden the terrible essence of a cruel woman. Irma is the most famous, the youngest and most cruel of all the Nazi concentration camp guards. Because of her angelic appearance, the prisoners called her "Angel of Death", "Beautiful Monster", "Blonde Devil", "Auschwitz Hyena". In the concentration camps, she tortured so many people that the male guards were amazed at her cruelty and inhumanity. In 1943, Irma had about 30,000 female prisoners under her control. The sadist wore heavy boots, a whip, with which she beat her “wards” in turn. She also liked to play “Russian roulette”: she lined up women, took out a gun and shot at each of them, watching the poor women faint. She also starved dogs, which she then released into a crowd of women. She personally participated in the formation of groups for the gas chambers. According to survivors, Irma experienced real sexual satisfaction from her torture. Once in British captivity, Irma was tried and sentenced to death. In 1945, she was hanged at the age of 22.

12. Amelia Dyer

Born in 1837 in the UK, Amelia Dyer is known as the serial killer of Victorian Britain. Dyer, like Overby, took care of the babies left by their mothers. For 30 years of work, she killed about 300 babies (although according to other sources, the number of those killed was 400 people). As a weapon for murder, she used a tape with which she strangled babies. At that time, the problem of infanticide was acute in Britain, but no one paid due attention to this issue. Amelia's "business" prospered even after she was sentenced to forced labor. And only after the body of a tiny baby was fished out of the Thames, and then a search was conducted in her house, she was sentenced to death.

13. Bella Guinness

The "Black Widow", as Bella Guinness was popularly called, for a long time kept the whole of America in fear. The serial killer - a woman of large build (height 1.83 m, weight 200 kg) in her entire life killed more than 40 people, including her husbands, suitors, daughters. One day, one of her secret admirers got so fed up with Bella that she decided to burn down her house with him. And so it happened. Burnt human bones and a decapitated corpse were found in the basement of the house - allegedly the corpse of Bella herself. But as the examination admitted, it was the body of the housekeeper. A surviving fan told the police the whole truth about Bella and her murders. He was given 20 years for setting fire to the house, and she was officially declared dead. Although it is not known exactly what happened to her.

14. Clara Mauerova

Look at the photo and tell me, can you imagine this woman as a member of a sinister ritual cult who ate her sons for 8 months, torturing and torturing them? Moreover, her whole family took part in this. Children were kept in cages in the basement, abused, beaten, raped, extinguished cigarette butts on them and cut off pieces of meat from them, which were subsequently eaten. For a long time, the inhabitants of the Czech town did not know what was happening in the neighboring house, until one of them bought a video baby monitor for their own child. Then the nanny purely by chance caught an image from the cameras installed in the basement of Mauerova's house. And now the worst thing is that the entire gang of sadistic cannibals was found guilty and sentenced to a short term - from 5-9 years in prison in 2007.

15. Karla Homolka

In the early 1990s, Karla Homolka and her husband Paul Bernardo kidnapped and raped at least three girls. The first victim of a serial couple was Carla's younger sister, 15-year-old Tammy. The most vile of this is that Paul, who went crazy with sympathy for the girl, asked her to molest her younger sister. They drugged her with Valium spaghetti, and then Paul raped the girl. After some time, they put the girl to sleep again and, together with Carla, raped her in the basement. But the girl, due to poisoning, choked on vomit and died. Soon the criminals were caught and convicted, but Karla promised to testify against her husband, and she was released. She now lives on the island of Guadeloupe under a different name with a new husband and three children.

16. Mireya Moreno Carreon

Mireya is known as the most famous woman among drug dealers. She was one of the first to deal with Los Zetas drugs. She was responsible for all distribution points in Mexico. It is noteworthy that she started as a police officer, but then switched to the "dark side" and soon became the main boss of the drug cartel. A year later, she was arrested while driving a stolen car.

17. Tilly Klimek

Tilly Klimek was an American serial killer in the first half of the 20th century. For a long time, she pretended to be a psychic and seer, predicting the death of people with amazing accuracy. Four of her husbands had died in the strangest way, and of course Tilly chalked it up to bad luck. The method of reprisal was quite simple - she poisoned people with arsenic. According to some reports, she managed to kill 20 people. Her fifth husband miraculously managed to survive, so Tilly was detained. In 1923, Tilly was sentenced to life imprisonment, where she died at the age of 60.

18. Charlene Gallego

Between 1978 and 1980, the married couple Charlene and Gerald Gallego tortured, raped and killed 9 girls, one of whom was pregnant. All but one of the victims were teenagers or young girls. And, perhaps, the couple would have managed to hide if they had not attacked the young couple. The guy was shot and the girl was raped and killed. Friends managed to see the abduction, wrote down the number of the car and handed over the maniacs to the police. In 1984, Charlize testified against her husband and was given only 16 years in prison. Gerald was sentenced to death, but he died in prison from colon cancer. Charlize was released in 1997.

19. Catherine de Medici

One of the most powerful but also bloodthirsty and cruel female rulers of medieval Europe, Catherine de Medici was an Italian-born noblewoman and Queen of France from 1547-1559. In history, her name is directly connected with St. Bartholomew's night. The massacre of the Huguenots was organized precisely on the orders of Catherine de Medici in order to maintain her power in the political arena. By some estimates, more than 30,000 people died that night.

20. Delphine Lalorie

Known as Madame Blanc, Delphine LaLaurie was once a wealthy socialite in New Orleans. Although she became famous thanks to her sadistic inclinations. Madame LaLaurie loved to mock black slaves, so a real atmosphere of horror and pain reigned in her ode. One day, a fire broke out in her house, arranged by two blacks tied to a kitchen stove. Firefighters who arrived at the scene found a whole torture chamber in the attic: mangled and mutilated bodies of people on whom experiments were carried out sat in cages. The people of New Orleans wanted to execute Delphine, but she managed to escape to France, where, according to unconfirmed reports, she died while hunting a boar.

21. Daria Saltykova

Daria Saltykova is an 18th Russian noblewoman and serial killer, known by the nickname Saltychikha. With the help of torture, she tortured and killed more than 140 serfs. She beat the serfs with whips, buried them alive in the ground - and absolutely everyone suffered: children, teenagers, pregnant girls, old people, men. For boundless cruelty, Saltychikha is compared with Countess Bathory, who had similar sadistic features. Saltychikha was sentenced to deprivation of the title of nobility and her husband's surname was taken away. And she was also tied to a pole with the inscription "Tormentor and murderer" above her head. After that, she was exiled to a monastery for life, where she died after 30 years of imprisonment at the age of 71.

22. Leonarda Cianciulli

Leonarda Cianciulli is a famous Italian female killer who, in the period from 1939-1940. killed three women. It began with the fact that her eldest son was drafted into the army, and she decided that sacrifices were needed to save him. She lured the girls to her place, treated them to wine with drugs, and finished them off with an axe. Then she dissolved the dismembered corpse with caustic soda and made soap from it. For which she subsequently received the nickname "Soapmaker from Correggio." She added the blood of the victims to cakes and syrups, which she then treated to friends and neighbors. Leonarda believed that in this way she could remove the curse from her family. For her atrocities, she received 30 years in prison and 3 years in a mental hospital.

23. Juana Barras

Juana Barrasa was born in 1957 to a dysfunctional family and became one of the most bloodthirsty serial killers in Mexican history. Between 1998 and 2006, she killed approximately 46-48 elderly women, which is why she was nicknamed the "Old Lady Killer". She beat older women with a club, strangled and robbed. For a long time, the police suspected a man in the murders. And only in 2006, Barassa managed to catch when she tried to escape from the crime scene. She was found guilty on 16 charges and sentenced to 759 years in prison.

24. Eileen Wuornos

Eileen Wuornos is considered one of the most beautiful female maniacs in the world. Leaving her parents' home early, she began to prostitute on the highways of Florida. And in 1989, she killed her first victim - a man whom she stabbed with a knife. Wuornos then killed about 5 men before she could be caught. She was convicted and put on death row. And although her sanity was in question, Eileen was sentenced to death by injection in 2002. The Hollywood blockbuster Monster, starring Charlize Theron, was based on this story.

25. Miyuki Ishikawa

In Japan, Miyuki Ishikawa ranks first in the history of serial criminals. Known as the "Demon Midwife". Miyuki worked as a midwife and in her lifetime, according to some estimates, killed between 85 and 169 babies. She believed that she was helping poor and needy families, thus solving their problems. During the trial, she denied her guilt, arguing that it was the parents who were to blame for the death of these abandoned children. And her defense was indeed successful. Miyuki was sentenced to only 8 years in prison. After an appeal, the time limit was cut in half.

When it comes to serial killers, male characters usually come to mind and few can name even a few famous female killers. Some of them killed for love, some for money, but most of them were distinguished by unprecedented cruelty, and even madness. Curiously, some of them were subsequently released from punishment.

Elizabeth Bathory

Have you ever heard the phrase "bath in the blood of virgins"? We owe the appearance of this phrase to Countess Elizabeth Bathory. It is assumed that she managed to kill about 650 servants and other young women living nearby. She had at her disposal a special torture chamber built for her by her husband.

Belle Gunness

Belle immigrated from Norway to the United States, where she killed her husband to pay insurance. After that, she began to invite lonely wealthy men to visit her farm. After a fire in 1908, more than forty carelessly hidden graves were discovered on the farm.

Dagmar Overby

Amelia Dyer

In Victorian England, so-called baby farming was practiced, when an orphanage took unwanted children for a small fee and found foster families for them. Amelia Dyer was also engaged in such activities. However, she did not care about finding a new family for the babies, but simply killed them. During interrogation, she told the police: "You can tell mine by the ribbon around their necks." Hanged in 1869.

Ilsa Koch

Ilse joined the Nazi Party in 1932 and earned the nickname "Buchenwald Bitch" in the concentration camp where her husband, Karl Otto Koch, worked as commandant. Ilse liked household items made from the skin of prisoners, she especially preferred lampshades made from tattooed skin. She committed suicide in prison in 1967.

Delphine and Maria de Jesus Gonzalez

These sisters kidnapped girls in the 1950s and 1960s, who were then forced to work in a brothel in central Mexico City. When girls fell ill or became unattractive due to the violent use of drugs, they were killed. The sisters also killed some wealthy clients and babies. Delfina died while serving her sentence, and Maria, after serving several years, was released and disappeared in an unknown direction.

Jane Toppan

Toppan worked as a nurse in New England. She gave patients injections of morphine until they died. During the investigation, she stated that her goal was "to kill more people - helpless people - than any other man or woman who ever lived", confessing to more than a hundred murders.

Ottilia "Tillie" Klimek

Ottilie Klimek, a Chicago resident, was a fortune teller and had a habit of telling her husbands or neighbors that they were destined to die soon, after which she killed them. Her first husband died of "heart problems" in 1914, and it was only after the death of her third husband and several neighbors that by 1921 the police began to suspect something was wrong.

Juana Barras

Before becoming a killer, Juana Barrasa was engaged in wrestling under the pseudonym "The Silent Lady". When her wrestling career was no longer profitable, Juana began to pretend to be a nurse, hiring and robbing old people. Once a robbery victim laughed at Juana, and since then a bloody revelry has begun. She was accused of 30 murders, but it is possible that in fact there were at least 48 victims.

Janine Ann Jones

Jones worked as a pediatric nurse in Texas and got into the habit of giving children injections of various drugs to show off how deftly she saves them. She was charged with the death of two babies, but her conscience may be up to 60. She was sentenced to a 99-year term in 1985, but in 2018 she may be released due to overcrowding in Texas prisons.

Leonarda Cianciulli

In the 1930s and 1940s, Leonarda Cianciulli killed three women and made soap from their remains and cupcakes for tea from their blood. She believed that human sacrifice could protect her children. Being arrested, she did not express much regret and even directed the investigation, clarifying the details.

Gertrud Baniszewski

In 1965, Baniszewski incited her own and neighborhood children to the continued abuse and subsequent murder of a 16-year-old girl, Sylvia Likens, who had been left in her care. She was sentenced to life imprisonment, but petitioned for release in 1985. Claimed that God had forgiven her, and that she managed to find peace in her soul. She died of cancer five years later.

Eileen Wuornos

Eileen worked as a prostitute in Florida in the late 1980s. She robbed her clients, shot at them and took their cars. In total, she committed seven murders, becoming the first woman to be listed by the FBI as a serial killer. She was executed by injection in 2002. Just a year after the execution, the film Monster, based on the story of Wuornos, was released.

the most brutal female killers in the history of mankind

It is believed that the most cruel people are men, but unfortunately women are no less cruel.
This article shows only the most famous representatives of the "weaker sex". But there remains too much cruelty, which is hushed up.

Violent female killers

The Marquise de Brainvilliers, with the help of poison, got rid of her entire family. She was helped in this by the captain of the cavalry, and part-time alchemist, Godin de Sainte-Croix. It was said that she poisoned her loved ones and poor people whom she helped under the guise of charity in Parisian hospitals. The alchemist betrayed his beloved, and he himself died, presumably all from the same poison.

Delfina and Maria Gonzalez ran a brothel where girls of "easy virtue" were hired with the help of advertisements. Prostitutes who could no longer work for various reasons, they killed. The sisters did not disdain to get rid of clients who exposed large sums. More than 90 bodies were found. Delphine and Maria were assisted by two more sisters, Carmen and Maria Luisa. All the sisters were sentenced to forty years in prison.

Countess Elizabeth Bathory.
The "Red Countess" or "Bloody Lady" is considered one of the most bloodthirsty women in history. She was capricious and did not hide her love for cruelty and sadism. She killed and bathed in the blood of the most beautiful girls she could find. But this was not the most cruel thing that Elizabeth did ... The Countess showed sadistic sexuality to the already barely living bodies of her victims. The servants said that she really enjoyed the smell of burning flesh. No one has been able to find out the number of victims of the "Red Countess"

Faith Renzi.
Born in 1903 to a wealthy Hungarian family. Vera was married twice and twice her husbands "abandoned" her, she assured all her relatives and friends of this. She had many lovers. She was not whimsical in her choice of men, rich and poor, single and married. This is what ruined her. One day, the wife of one of the missing lovers called the police and pointed to Vera's house. 32 coffins with decomposing bodies were found in the cellar. The worst thing is that, according to Vera, she liked the company of her unfaithful dead lovers. Also, according to Vera, her son Lorenzo, from his first marriage, died because of greed, because, having learned about the coffins in their house, he began to blackmail his mother.

Eileen Wuornos.
Eileen was the child of two underage teenagers whom she never saw. According to some reports, it is alleged that at the age of 13 she gave birth to her own grandfather, for which she was driven away from home. But it has not been proven that it was the grandfather who raped the granddaughter, it was only Eileen's statement.
She broke the law, not caring about remorse, did not shun anything. Once she married an elderly man, but this marriage did not last long - because of Eileen's addiction to violence.
As a result, she switched to women, one of them was Tyra. To support her mistress, Eileen was engaged in prostitution and once "accidentally" killed a client. There were already eight such "accidents" at the time of detention.

Nurse Jane Toppan, nicknamed "Jolly Jane". Mentally unstable, she was still able to find patients who liked her.
Jane was sexually delighted with seeing patients who were between life and death. 31 murders were proven, but Jane spent the rest of her life in a madhouse.

Schizophrenic Andrea Yates claimed that the voice of an angel convinced her that she was a sinner and children could not grow up to be honest people.
She found the best way out of the situation in drowning her own five young children in the bathtub.

Violence - who is to blame?

Now on the Internet there are a lot of articles, various arguments about rape. Everyone was divided into two camps: some believe that the victim is always to blame, others blame the rapist for everything.

We will not really understand here, and there is no point. After all, if you look at least a little, then the victim may actually be not guilty, even despite the fact that she was dressed and how she behaved. After all, not every prostitute can be raped, and, as you know, they do not decorously decorate their bodies with rags.
Basically, it's all about educating a person. A person who is free in his thoughts and views will not go to rape and kill, he simply has nothing to do. It has moral qualities from the very beginning. And the victim, with good manners, will not walk alone at night, and will not dress too vulgarly to attract attention to himself.

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.

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.

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

Daria Nikolaevna Saltykova, nicknamed "Saltychikha" (Birth year: 1730; Year of death: 1801), is 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 Darya Saltykova was 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 life of those who depended on her were filled with pain and blood: people were flogged, poured with boiling water, starved, their hair was burned on their heads, they were kept 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 out if Catherine II had not used her case as a show trial, which marked a new era of legality.

10. 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 was not vindictive - she could bring those who had opposed her just 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, a pretty, poisoned blonde, has got 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 the attention of Mira 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, tortured, recorded screams for mercy on film, photographed and killed. 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 get out of prison, insisted that she should have been released for 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.

8. 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. Another event took place in this year, which is the reason why we mention Isabella today.

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.

7. Beverly Ellit, b. 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), this is due to Beverly's mental disorder, that the children who were in the hospital and complained about their poor health were simply trying to draw her attention to themselves 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.

6. 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 her two 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.

5. 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.

4. 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 - he is 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 camp supervisor. 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, these were 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 from it.

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.

3. 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 lacked education, but she showed herself in the organization - 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. Under Grez, in addition to the pistol, there was always 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, Grese laughed and sang songs with her accomplices. When a noose was thrown around Irma Grese's neck, not even a trace of remorse flickered across her face. Her last word was "Faster" to the executioner.

2. Katherine Knight, b. 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. Catherine tried to cook the meat of her murdered husband for the children 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 for a civilized society?

1. Erzhebet Batory, 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 Nadasz. 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 Elizabeth had a Nuremberg maiden in the cellars of the castle, in which the victim 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 women suffered from the temper of Elizabeth. 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.

What caused the cruelty of these women - not even psychiatrists figured out everything. It can be assumed that mental illness, or a combination of mental immaturity and the opportunities that power gives, is behind such aggressiveness. One way or another, both goddesses and real women showed this quality. But, in my opinion, often the reason for rigidity is the lack of sincere love in a person's life - a man, a woman. Do not hide your love - and there will be less cruelty and more kindness on Earth.