Tracy Vanity
6 days until Halloween!
Although there aren’t as many female serial killers as there are male, there’s still quite an extensive list of killer women. Typically, female killers murder lovers, kids, or work as nurses and off their patients in some twisted “angel of mercy” syndrome. Some just do it because they’re sadistic.
Here is a list of some murderous women of history. I had to throw in a couple “classics” as well as some deadly females you may have never heard of before.
Marie Bosse was a Parisian fortune teller and poisoner who was burned as a witch in 1679. She was a part of the Poison Affair scandal where
“…prominent members of the aristocracy were implicated and sentenced on charges of poisoningand witchcraft. The scandal reached into the inner circle of the king. It led to the execution of 36 people.”
A well-known fortune teller in Paris, Bosse also had a side service of selling poison. During a party with a bunch of her fellow aristocrats, she revealed that she made her fortune by dealing deadly poison to rich people and would be able to retire soon with all the loot she was making.
Someone reported her to the cops who were already investigating the sale of poison in Paris. A lot of rich people were offing each other. After the wife of a cop was sent to buy poison from Bosse, who happily sold her some, Bosse was arrested. When she was arrested, it was revealed that she was having sex with everyone in her family. It was also revealed that there were a network of fortune tellers who were selling poison.
Bosse’s family were also sentenced to death.
Magdalena Solis, the “High Priestess of Blood,” was the head of a Mexican blood-drinking sex cult. She murdered at least 8 people but probably killed many more. She is considered one of the few women whose murders were sexually driven.
Bored with simple orgies, she began to demand human sacrifice. She devised a “blood ritual”: The sacrificed (which was always a dissenting member) was brutally beaten, burned, cut and maimed by all the members of the cult. Thereafter, blood-letting was practiced: The blood was deposited in a cup mixed with chicken blood (the ritual also included animal sacrifices and the use of narcotics such as marijuana and peyote).The victim was made to bleed to death.
Solis was eventually caught and sentenced to 50 years in prison. Some of the members of her cult were killed in a shootout with police.
If you’re an “American Horror Story” fan, you’ll recognize Delphine LaLaurie from last season’s “Coven.”
The blood facials seem to just be creative liberties but Delphine did murder and torture black slaves in her mansion in New Orleans. A 70-year-old slave, who was kept chained to the stove in the kitchen, purposely started a fire in attempt to commit suicide, which lead police to discover the gruesome torture chamber.
As reported in the New Orleans Bee of April 11, 1834, bystanders responding to the fire attempted to enter the slave quarters to ensure that everyone had been evacuated. Upon being refused the keys by the Lalauries, the bystanders broke down the doors to the slave quarters and found “seven slaves, more or less horribly mutilated … suspended by the neck, with their limbs apparently stretched and torn from one extremity to the other”, who claimed to have been imprisoned there for some months.[14]
Even slave owners have some moral standards, Delphine’s neighbors were horrified by her actions and a mob tried to destroy as much of the estate as they could. No formal charges were made against her. Delphine fled by boat with her husband, to Paris. The details of her death are unknown.
Isabel Cristina Torreão Pires da Silveira is a Brazilian cannibal serial killer who sold human meat pies with her husband and his mistress.
Three persons are under arrest a Brazilian in the state of Pernambuco for murder, having killed three women and eaten parts of their bodies, while the remainders were made into meat pies for sale to the public. Based on police reports, the Folha daily in Brazil noted that Jorge Beltrao Negromonte da Silveira (51), his wife Isabel CristinaTorreao Pires da Silveira (51), and his girlfriend Bruna Cristina Oliveira da Silva (25), committed the stunning crimes in Geranhuns and Olinda, some 200 miles from the city ofRecife on Brazil’s coast. The three accused criminals lived under the same roof.
Living with the macabre adults was a 5-year-old girl, who is believed to be the daughter of Jessica, a 17-year-old girl from Olinda who disappeared in 2008.
Police Commissioner Demócrito de Oliveira of Garanhuns said in a press conference that “there may have been men among the victims,” but refused to provide further details so “not to cause panic.” The commissioner said that the trio is being held on charges of homicide, abduction, improper handling of human bodies, and fraud, as well as violations of the city health code. According to commissioner Oliveira, Isabel da Silveira had sold meat pies, known as empanadas, stuffed with human flesh.
According to local police, the three murderers belong to an esoteric Brazilian sect that considers that human beings overpopulate the world, and thus practice cannibalism and bizarre rituals to supposedly cleanse the world of human beings. They said that they had heard ‘voices’ that gave orders to murder certain women who they believed to be evil. They were arrested on April 12.
An investigation into the activities of the trio began in March, when Jorge Negromonte daSilveira went before a notary to register his authorship of a book entitled ‘Revelations of schizophrenic,’ which he wrote in 2009 to describe the practices of his sect.
Negromonte Da Silveira describes in his book the death of Jessica, the mother of the surviving child. “While gazing at the lifeless body of the evil teenager, I feel relief. I grasped a razor blade and began to remove all of her skin and then divide it. I, Bel, and Jessica (name of the victim, whose identity was assumed by fellow cannibal BrunaOliveira da Silva) at the evil flesh as if it was part of a ritual purification. The rest we buried beneath the patio,” he recounted.
The remains of two women were discovered in the garden belonging to the alleged murderers. It is believed that these correspond to a woman who disappeared this year from Garanhus, while the other is believed to be young Jessica. In addition, the three suspects are being investigated for being also responsible for another five murders in Pernambuco. The two women disappeared when they accepted work as childcare workers, at rates far above the norm for this impoverished area of Brazil.
Regarding the health risks of consuming human meat, Brazilian authorities said that these are similar to those for eating any kind of meat. The public was advised to go to local clinics and hospitals should they show signs of vomiting, diarrhea or stomach cramps. Via Spero News
Leonarda Cianciulli murdered 3 women and turned them into soap and cake. Her motive was to make human sacrifices in order to protect her favorite son who was about to become a soldier and fight in WWII. She was also said to be a fortune teller.
After she was caught, Cianciulli confessed to her crimes, stating:
I threw the pieces into a pot, added seven kilos of caustic soda, which I had bought to make soap, and stirred the whole mixture until the pieces dissolved in a thick, dark mush that I poured into several buckets and emptied in a nearby septic tank. As for the blood in the basin, I waited until it had coagulated, dried it in the oven, ground it and mixed it with flour, sugar, chocolate, milk and eggs, as well as a bit of margarine, kneading all the ingredients together. I made lots of crunchy tea cakes and served them to the ladies who came to visit, though Giuseppe and I also ate them.
Cianciulli died in an Italian criminal asylum in 1970.
Elizabeth Bathory is by far the most notorious female serial killer of all time. A personal favorite of mine, I had to add her on here even though everyone knows who she is. There are so many depictions her in movies, music, and art. I’ve yet to see a good film about her though. Do you have any recommendations?
“The Bloody Countess” is known for murdering young women to maintain her youth and beauty in her home of Hungary. She was said to have bathed in the blood of virgins but none of this has ever been verified. She was accused of murdering at least 650 people during her trial. Here is one of the servant’s testimonies:
… a 12-year-old girl named Pola somehow managed to escape from the castle. But Dorka, aided by Helena Jo, caught the frightened girl by surprise and brought her forcibly back to Cachtice Castle. Clad only in a long white robe, Countess Elizabeth greeted the girl upon her return. The countess was in another of her rages. She advanced on the 12-year-old child and forced her into a kind of cage. This particular cage was built like a huge ball, too narrow to sit in, too low to stand in. Once the girl was inside, the cage was suddenly hauled up by a pulley and dozens of short spikes jutted into the cage. Pola tried to avoid being caught on the spikes, but Ficzko manoeuvered the ropes so that the cage shifted from side to side. Pola’s flesh was torn to pieces.
One accomplice testified that on some days Elizabeth had stark-naked girls laid flat on the floor of her bedroom and tortured them so much that one could scoop up the blood by the pailful afterwards, and so Elizabeth had her servants bring up cinders in order to cover the pools of blood. A young maid-servant who did not endure the tortures well and died very quickly was written out by the countess in her diary with the laconic comment ‘She was too small…’
At one point in her life Elizabeth Bathory was so sick that she could not move from her bed and could not find the strength to torture her miscreant servant girls… She demanded that one of her female servants be brought before her. Dorothea Szentes, a burly, strong peasant woman, dragged one of Elizabeth’s girls to her bedside and held her there. Elizabeth rose up on her bed, and, like a bulldog, the Countess opened her mouth and bit the girl first on the cheek. Then she went for the girl’s shoulders where she ripped out a piece of flesh with her teeth. After that, Elizabeth proceeded to bite the girl’s breasts.
Bathory was imprisoned in Čachtice Castle where she died at the age of 54.
Bonus: Great movie montage music video about killer women in horror films!
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