Female serial killers: Have you actually ever heard of any of them? No, because the most nefarious serial killers have been known to be men. Only 8-16 percent of serial killer cases find the murderer to be a female. Unless you’re really into crime and listen to podcasts every day, this article is for you to learn the interesting history of the most brutal woman serial killers to live.
“The Damsel of Death”
Her name was Aileen Wuornos. She was an American female serial killer through late 1989 through 1990, killing a total of 7 white men in her ‘little’ killing spree.
She was a prostitute, working on the side of highways, luring the victims in and then proceeding to rob them, shoot them, and steal their cars. She would leave them there, for people (investigators) to find later when the men were reported missing.
Having a dark childhood, there are things that she experienced I can’t even begin to imagine, let alone write here. She was born on February 29, 1956 in Rochester, Michigan. When she was young, just after her birth, her father (Leo Dale Pittman) was convicted of child molestation (sexual assault), and a few years later it was announced that he killed himself in prison. After her father was put behind bars, Wuornos’ mother (Diane Wuornos) abandoned her and her brother (Keith) with their grandparents and their children, which wasn’t any better. Their grandfather beat them, and their grandmother was an alcoholic. She would start to hitchhike and live around the area after being kicked out of the house for unexplained reasons. She wasn’t only being kicked out. Even before that she would run away from home quite frequently. She would even stay in areas with assumed names, moving around a lot. Then she moved to Florida to work as a prostitute.
On May 4, 1976, she married Lewis Gratz Fell after meeting the wealthy yachtsman in Florida. However that marriage quickly ended with a divorce a little more than a month later, on July 19, 1976. Fell said he called the divorce because of Wuornos’ temper and violent personality. Apparently she beat him with his own cane. That exact same month, her brother died from cancer. In the early 1980s, she served and was arrested multiple times for disturbing the peace, and disorderly conduct, later being charged with armed robbery, and trying to rob a convenience store while being drunk in a bikini. In addition to these charges there were forged checks, theft, and drunk driving.
While under the presumed name “Lee” she met 24-year old Tyria Moore at a gay bar in Dayton, Florida. They started an “intense” 2 year long relationship, even living together. While Moore had jobs like housekeeping, Wuornos continued her work as a prostitute on the side of highways. They moved around frequently too, from trailers to motels to beat up apartments. These is where she started her “murder spree” and Moore betrayed her by helping the authorities.
In just around a year, she had shot seven middle-aged men on highways throughout Florida. She brought the cars of the men she shot from the highways home to pawn claiming she was “borrowing” the cars and items found in the cars. She also did this under aliases which made tracking her even harder for the police.
“Aileen Wuornos was arrested at The Last Resort bar in Port Orange, Florida, on January 9, 1991.” Before she was arrested, Moore fled Florida to Pennsylvania, later being found and making a deal with the police to help gather evidence against her girlfriend to avoid prosecution.
In love, she admitted to her murders all to Moore on a phone call because she didn’t want them to break up. This phone call was recorded though, perfect to put Wuornos behind bars. Finally the media gave Wuornos a name, “The Damsel of Death”. Going to court many times throughout the year, the judge finalized Wuornos’ sentence, giving her the death penalty on January 31.
On October 9th, 2002 she was executed by lethal injection after being on death row for a decade. Her last and final words were “I’d just like to say I’m sailing with the Rock, and I’ll be back. Like Independence Day with Jesus, June 6, like the movie, big mothership and all. I’ll be back.”
Creepy…
Jane Toppan
Jane Toppan was an American serial killer from Massachusetts. Toppan was a nurse who murdered between 31-100(she confessed to 31 but is attributed to around 100) people from 1895-1901. Her case was considered significant as there are no other cases that are similar to hers. On the surface, she seemed to be quite a sweet lady. In her work she was described as loyal, reliable, and kind. But all of this was just a facade for the monstrous things she was truly doing.
Jane Toppan, born Honora Kelley, had a very difficult childhood. Her mother died of tuberculosis when she was young and her father was an alcoholic. Who supposedly sewed his own eyes shut while he was working as a tailor. Toppan and her sister were later sent to an orphanage and the oldest sister was sent to an insane asylum. Two years later, Honora was placed as a servant for a woman named Ann C. Toppan. Honora took on her surname and her first name, becoming Jane Toppan. She did this to distance herself from her family’s past.
Before the killings, Toppan was working as a nurse at Cambridge Hospital in 1885. Additionally, contradicting her depressing past, she was actually described as bright and friendly. But all of this was just a facade for what she was really doing. Toppan would use elderly and/or really sick patients to experiment with different dosages of morphine- a narcotic used for pain relief, and atropine- which is used to help against poisoning. She did this to see how it would affect their nervous systems. Toppan would also make up fake charts, spend extra time with patients, as well as putting her patients in and out of consciousness to make sure her experiments went smoothly. Surprisingly, nobody found out what Toppan was doing. She was even recommended to the Massachusetts General Hospital in 1889, where she accepted and continued her experiments in earnest. In this case however, Toppan was caught and fired from the hospital in 1890. You would think this would be the end of Toppans crazy workings, but you would be wrong. It was only the beginning.
Her killing spree started when she killed her landlord, Israel Dunham, and his wife in 1895. Then in 1899, Toppan paid a visit back to her foster family and murder her step-sister Elizabeth via poison. Afterwards in 1901, Toppan moved in with the Davis family to help “take care of” the father Alden Davis after the death of Mattie Davis, Alden’s wife. But her death was not due to any accidents of natural causes of any sort. No, Toppan had already murdered Mattie Davis beforehand. Shortly after she joined the Davis family, she killed the father; his sister Edna; as well as two of Alden’s daughters, Mary and Gennivieve. She killed all of them through poisoning.
In 1901, Toppan was officially caught and arrested. And it turns out that the murders of her landlord, the landlord’s wife, her step sister Elizabeth, and the Davis family were only a small portion of the murders she committed. By 1902, Toppan had confessed to thirty-one murders. In court, Toppan had tried to plead she was not insane so that she would have a chance of being released. She did so by saying that she could not be insane if she had known what she was doing and that what she was doing was wrong. Nonetheless, she was pleaded as insane and later was committed to the Taunton Insane Asylum for the rest of her life. She died there in 1938 on August 17th at the age of 81.
Other Famous Female Serial Killers:
- Livinia Fisher – Widely considered the first serial killer in America
- Velma Barfeild – The first woman to be put to death by lethal injection
- Belle Gunness – Killed more than 40 people before disappearing without a trace, and was also known as “Hell’s Belle”.
- Polly Bartlett – The first serial killer in Wyoming, she also went by a very unpleasant name: “The Murderess of Slaughterhouse Gulch”.
- Rosemary West – murdered at least 10 young women
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