Female Serial Killers: How and Why Women Become Monsters

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION  Serial Spartacism:  The Politics of Female Aggression

  • Female Serial Killers:  How Many?
  • Monster:  The Unquiet Killer
  • The Nature of Female Violence
  • The Study of Female Aggression
  • The Depths of Serial Depravity
  • Feminism and the Female Serial Killer
  • Defining the Female Serial Killer
  • Classifying the Female Serial Killer
  • Characteristics of Female Serial Killers

PART I:  THE PSYCHOPATHOLOGY AND BRIEF HISTORY OF THE FEMALE SERIAL KILLER

CHAPTER 1  The Nature of the Feminine Beast:  The Psychopathology of Female Monsters

  • How Female Serial Killers Are More Deadly Than Males
  • Murder as the Female Signature
  • Surveying Serial Killers Male and Female
  • Average Age
  • Victim Selection
  • Murder Site
  • Weapon of Choice
  • Female Serial Killers Compared to Singular Female Murderers
  • Comparing Male and Female Serial Killers as Children
  • Childhood Trauma
  • The Macdonald Triad in Females
  • The Nature of Aggression in Girls
  • Obesity, Loneliness, and Fantasy in Female Serial Killers
  • The Making of Serial Killers
  • Diagnosing Serial Killers:  Psychopathy and ASPD (Antisocial Personality Disorder)
  • The Psychopath
  • The Nature of the Psychopath
  • Problems in Defining Psychopathy and ASPD
  • What Causes Psychopathy?
  • The Female Psychopath and ASPD

CHAPTER 2  The Quest For Power, Profit and Desire:  A Brief History of Female Serial Killers

  • Female Serial Killers in Early History
  • The Empire of Death:  Female Serial Killers in Ancient History
  • Agrippina the Younger–The Empress of Poison
  • Valeria Messalina–The Teenage Serial Killer
  • Elizabeth Bathory–The True Story of the Blood Countess
  • Female Serial Killers in the Pre-Industrial Age
  • The Rise of the Modern Female Serial Killer
  • The Birth of Mass Media and True Crime Literature
  • Burial Insurance and the Rise of Female Serial Murder
  • The Great Female Serial Killer Epidemic of the “Hungry ’40s”
  • Arsenic and Its Effects
  • Sarah Dazely; Eliza Joyce; Sarah Freeman; Mary Ann Milner; Sarah Chesham; Mary May
  • The Sale of Arsenic Act (1851)
  • Mary Emily Cage; Catherine Wilson; Mary Ann Cotton; Catherine Flannagan & Margaret Higgens
  • Female Serial Killers in 19th Century USA
  • Lydia Sherman–American Borgia
  • Sarah Jane Robinson
  • Jane Toppan–American Serial Killer Superstar

PART II  SELECTED CASE STUDIES OF FEMALE SERIAL KILLERS AND ACCOMPLICES IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

CHAPTER 3   The Cult and Passion of Aileen Wuornos:  The Post-Modern Female Serial Killer

  • Aileen Wuornos
  • As a Child
  • Cigarette Pig
  • Missing Years Adrift
  • Tyria “Ty” Moore:  Aileen Finds True Love
  • The First Murder
  • “The Psychic Abolition of Redemption”–Aileen’s Second Murder
  • Serial Murder
  • Downfall and Arrest
  • Lover’s Betrayal
  • “I Killed ‘Em All Because They Got Violent With Me and I Decided to Defend Myself”
  • Explaining Aileen Wuornos
  • Aileen’s Defense–“I Though I Gotta Fight or I’m Going to Die”
  • “Everywoman’s Most Forbidden Fantasy”: Feminist Martians to Aileen’s Defense
  • “On a Killing Day”–What Triggered Aileen?
  • The Prostituted Serial Killer

CHAPTER 4  Murdering Friends and Intimates:  Black Widows and Profit Killers 

  • Velma Barfield–The Death Row Granny
  • Dorothea Puente Montalvo–Making Crime Pay

CHAPTER 5  Loving Us to Death:  Serial Killer Moms, Angels of Death and other Murdering Caregivers

  • Genene Jones–Baby Killing Nurse
  • Munchausen Syndrome By Proxy (MSP or MSBP)
  • Marybeth Tinning–the Killer Mom
  • Christine Falling–the Killer Babysitter

CHAPTER 6  Sex, Death and Videotape:  The Female as Serial Killer Accomplice

  • Females as Accomplices in Sexually Sadistic Serial Murders
  • Wives and Girlfriends of Sexual Sadists
  • High Dominance Women
  • Martha Beck & Raymond Fernandez–The Honeymoon Killers
  • Myra Hindley & Ian Brady–The Moors Murderers
  • Carol Bundy & Douglas Clark–The Sunset Boulevard Killers
  • Charlene & Gerald Gallego–The Sex Slave Killers
  • Karla Homolka & Paul Bernardo–The Ken & Barbie Killers

CHAPTER 7  Nazi Bitches and the Manson Killer Girls:  Making Female Missionary Cult Serial Killers

  • State Serial Murder in the Third Reich
  • Ilsa, She-Wolf of the SS
  • Ilse Koch–The Bitch of Buchenwald
  • The Feminist Defense of Koch
  • “…Kill Them in a More Decent Way…”
  • The Tattooed Skin Collection
  • Irma Grese–The Beast of Belsen
  • “Sport”
  • The Making of State Serial Killers
  • The Manson Cult Women–Charlie’s Hippie Killer Girls:  Susan Atkins, Linda Kasabian, Patricia Krenwinkle, Leslie Van Houten, Mary Brunner, Lynette Fromme
  • The Tate Murders:  “Have You Ever Tasted Blood?  It’s Warm and Sticky and Nice.”
  • The LaBianca Murders
  • The Murder of Gary Hinman
  • Who Was Charlie Manson?
  • Flowers and Acid:  Manson in the Valley of Thousands of Plump White Rabbits
  • Mary Brunner–The Family Matriarch
  • Lynette Alice Fromme–Squeeky
  • Susan Atkins–Sexy Sadie Mae Glutz
  • Charlie’s Apocalypse
  • Patricia Krenwinkle-Big Patty
  • Linda Kasabian-Yana the Witch
  • Leslie Van Houten–Lulu With no Nickname
  • The Method to Charlie’s Madness

CHAPTER 8  Recognizing the Predatory Woman:  Profiling Female Serial Killers