Criminologists report that female serial killers are more efficient than male serial killers. Murderesses are quiet killers with low visibility – which gives them the opportunity to kill more often.
Females are responsible for about 14% of all violent crime, and 28% of property crime. Since 1970, female crimes have risen by 40%, and that trend is consistently increasing.
Female Serial Killers Kill More Often
Kelleher and Kelleher studied 100 female serial killers, and found that it takes 8 years catch a Black Widow or Angel of Death. This is twice as long as it takes to catch a male serial killer.
Female serial killers are twice as likely as male killers to have killed someone close to them, such as a partner or child.
The Motives of Female Serial Killers
- Money (74%)
- Control (13%)
- Enjoyment (11%)
- Sex (10%)
- Drugs, cult involvement, cover up, or feelings of inadequacy (24%)
The Weapons Female Serial Killers Choose
- Poison (80%)
- Shooting (20%)
- Bludgeoning (16%)
- Suffocation (16%)
- Stabbing (11%)
- Drowning (5%)
Black Widows
Black Widows kill family members or partners, most often for financial gain. They typically start killing after age 25, and claim 6 to 8 victims in a 10-year period.
Famous Black Widows:
- Blanche Taylor Moore of North Carolina killed her pastor, father, mother-in-law, husbands and lovers. She died by lethal injection in 1989.
- Margie Velma Barfield, also of North Carolina, killed 7 husbands, several fiancés, and her mother. Her final victim was a boyfriend, who was found with traces of arsenic in his system. Barfield also died by lethal injection, in 1978.
- Waneta Hoyt of New York suffocated 5 of her 6 children. She was sentenced to life in prison.
- Belle Gunness of Illinois was also known as Lady Bluebeard. She was the first known Black Widow in the 20th Century. She killed 49 people, but was never prosecuted.
Angels of Death
Angels of Death typically start killing in their early 20s, and can kill as many as 8 people in one or two years. They are more likely to brag about their murders, which often leads to their arrest.
Famous Angels of Death
- Genene Jones of Texas was a nurse who murdered 11 children with heart medication. She was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1984.
- Madame Popova of Russia killed over 300 victims, and ran a contract murder service which freed women from abusive husbands. Popova was executed in 1909.
Famous Female Serial Killers
- Aileen Wuornos – as portrayed by Charlize Theron in the movie Monster – killed 7 men while working as a prostitute in Florida.
- Dorothea Puente was sentenced to life in prison at age 64 for killing at least 25 elderly clients. She worked with Social Services to take care of elderly people (Social Services did not contract her out for murder!).
- Anna Marie Hahn was a German immigrant who murdered elderly men after their money ran out. She was executed by the electric chair in 1938.
Jane Toppan Killed 95 More Victims Than Jack the Ripper
Jack the Ripper is a famous male serial killer who murdered five prostitutes in London. During these same Victorian times, Jane Toppan killed almost 100 people as a live-in nurse in Connecticut. Her murder weapon was poison; she confessed to 31 counts of murder. She said, “That is my ambition, to have killed more people – more helpless people – than any man or woman who has ever lived.”
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Source: The Killer Book of True Crime by Tom Philbin & Michael Philbin (Sourcebooks, 2007).
Laurie Pawlik-Kienlen - Laurie Pawlik-Kienlen is a full-time writer and blogger in Vancouver, BC, and the creator of the Quips and Tips blog series.
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