Honestly, after reading this article, I was shocked. I never thought that women could be so cruel... Why were they like that? What caused their cruelty? Even psychiatrists cannot answer this question precisely. It can be assumed that mental illness is behind such aggressiveness. But it seems to me that often the cause of cruelty is the lack of sincere love in a person’s life - a man, a woman...

1. Daria Nikolaevna Saltykova (“Saltychikha”), 1730-1801.

Daria Nikolaevna Saltykova, nicknamed "Saltychikha" (Birth year: 1730; Year of death: 1801), a sophisticated sadist and murderer of at least 139 people, mostly women, girls and girls. She was sentenced to death penalty, which was later replaced by imprisonment in a monastery prison. One could talk about the influence of the place: Daria Saltykova’s city estate was located not far from the Ivanovsky Monastery, at the intersection of the Kuznetsky Bridge with the notorious 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 pillar nobleman, who was related to the Davydovs, Musins-Pushkins, Stroganovs and Tolstoys. Enough long time V love relationships The grandfather of the poet Fyodor Tyutchev was with her. True, he married, as is known, someone else - for which Saltychikha almost killed him along with his young wife.

Daria was only 26 years old when she was widowed, and about 600 peasant souls came into her undivided possession. The next seven years of life for those who depended on her were filled with pain and blood: people were flogged, doused with boiling water, starved, the hair on their heads was burned off, and they were kept naked in the cold. The nickname “Saltychikha” gave birth to the image of an overweight, unwashed, disgusting old woman in my head. But she committed all her crimes in fairly at a young age. Catherine the Second received the first complaint against her almost immediately after ascending the throne - it was 1762, Saltychikha was 31 years old at that time. 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 new era legality.

2. 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 was celebrated as a national holiday in the country, because her reign was accompanied by bloody massacres. Her father, Henry VIII, declared himself head of the church, for which he was excommunicated by the Pope. Mary was put in charge poor country, which needed to be raised out of poverty.

Maria was no different good health(her father suffered from syphilis), but she was active and unforgiving - she could bring closer to herself those who only yesterday opposed her, but not the Protestants. Almost 300 Protestants were burned at the stake of the Inquisition, 3,000 lost their places and most of them chose to flee the country. It was unlikely that this was God's punishment, but in family life Mary was unhappy.

Her husband Philip, son of Charles V, was eleven years younger than her, had no official say in 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. Maria, who was naturally sick, became sad, fell ill and died. "Bloody Mary" was buried in Westminster Abbey. There is not a single (!) monument to this queen in the country.

3. Myra Hindley, 1942-2002.

Mira, a pretty, etched blonde (although in the photo she is clearly a brunette :)) has made herself a friend, Ian Brady. Ian, a heavy drinker, idealizing Hitler, Bonnie and Clyde, reading Mein Kampf, Crime and Punishment, the stories of the Marquis de Sade, attracted Mira's attention with his unusualness. He was her first man, but he quickly taught her such sexual entertainment that people who have been married for forty years are not aware of.

They loved to beat each other, tie each other up - with ropes, chains - and take pictures. Soon these entertainments became scarce. Mira and Ian planned to rob banks, and in the meantime they caught children, abused them, raped them, tortured them, recording cries asking for mercy on film, photographed them and killed them. They killed disgustingly, with whatever they could get their hands on - knives, shovels, telephone wires. 11 child victims of a criminal couple. At the trial, Mira said that the reason for everything was disappointment in Catholicism. But crimes did not fall under the article of “spiritual quest”. During the trial, she showed extreme composure, bordering on arrogance.

While already in prison, Mira and Ian planned to get married and corresponded, but this request was denied. Not all the bodies of the children they killed were found, and therefore Mira, unlike Brady, who never wanted to leave prison, insisted that she should have been released over the years, and even made an unsuccessful escape attempt. She died at the age of 60, about two weeks before, despite all the legal conflicts, she could be released. Someone unknown pinned a note to her coffin: “Send to hell.” Some feature films was to be filmed based on the crimes of this couple.

4. Isabella of Castile, 1451-1504.

The year 1492, an epochal year for Isabella, was marked by the largest historical events: the capture of Granada, which marked the end of the Reconquista, the patronage of Columbus and his discovery of America. Another event happened this year, which is the reason why we mention Isabella today.

Tomás de Torquemada was a monk of the Dominican Order, born in 1420, founded in 1215 by the Spanish monk Domingo de Guzman and approved by a papal bull on December 22, 1216. This Order was 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-fe much more often than inquisitors in other countries: over 15 years, 10,200 people were burned on his orders. The 6,800 people sentenced to death in absentia can also be considered victims of Torquemada. More than 97,000 people were subjected to various punishments. Primarily baptized Jews were persecuted - Marranos, accused of adhering 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, in Catholic Church believes that Isabella has considerable services to the Church.

5. Beverly Allitt, b. 1968.

A serial killer nurse dubbed the "Angel of Death" 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 thought it was possible (perhaps, since this has not been proven) that this was due to mental disorder Beverly that the children who were in the hospital and complaining about their poor health were simply trying to attract her attention so as not to be bored.

Nurse Evil gave insulin injections to children who annoyed her to make it appear that the children's deaths were caused by natural reasons. Fortunately, not all of her crimes were successful, but they amazed people because 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.

At 1.83 m tall and 91 kg in weight, this American of Norwegian descent had quite an impressive build. The American “Bluebeard”, perhaps female, she killed her two husbands, her three daughters, all those who suspected her and those who came into the zone of her attention. It is believed that she is responsible for the lives of more than twenty people. She committed arson, poisoned her, and quietly dropped huge meat knives on her victims’ heads.

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 identity. 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, in 1908 she started a fire in her house, in which her children died, but those remains that were supposed to be her remains were not identified as the former Belle. In 1931, Esther Carlson was arrested in Los Angeles for the murder of her husband in order to obtain insurance ($ 2,000). She died in prison before her trial, but external signs could be identified as Bell Gunnes. Death saved her from this.

7. Mary Ann Cotton, 1832-1873.

Perhaps Bell got the idea for this diabolical form of enrichment from Mary Ann Cotton. This beautiful-looking woman was married three times, spending a total of forty years in a married state. This was a time when there were no cures for many diseases, and child death was not a rare occurrence. Mary had her own children from her husbands, but she married widowers with a considerable number of children from a previous marriage.

Everyone was doomed to death. Mary insured all the members of her family, then went to the pharmacy, bought arsenic and gradually, without attracting much attention, poisoned the children, and at the same time their husbands, clearing her way to a new marriage. Her impudence failed her when, after the death of her last husband, she sent two adopted sons to the next world and immediately went to demand the insurance reward. Before this, she carelessly bought arsenic at a pharmacy a few weeks before the murders. An investigation was conducted, an autopsy was conducted, and the test for arsenic was positive.

Then they began to conduct research on the bodies of relatives who died at the hands of Mary - each corpse contained arsenic. At the trial, she had only one argument: “So what, you don’t execute those who get rid of children in the womb. I did the same thing, but a little later and for money.” In prison, she had a daughter from her last husband, who was lucky to survive. Before her execution, this fragile-looking woman prayed, and a second before a black flag rose over the prison, confirming the execution of the sentence, she said: “Heaven is my home.” Not likely, Mary. Hardly. You have either 12 or 15 human lives on your account.

8. Elsa Koch, 1906-1967.

Elsa was born in 1906 in Dresden. Little is known about her early years, but when she married Karl Koch in 1937, she was already working at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. The husband is promoted - appointed head of the Buchenwald concentration camp, and the friendly family is sent there. At the camp, Elsa is not bored, playing the role of wife. She is the camp controller. Elsa became famous for her cruel treatment of prisoners. She loved to flog or beat people herself. If she saw a prisoner with interesting tattoo- These were last hours his life. Elsa was collecting a collection of tattooed human skin. Samples with interesting natural marks also ended up there. This leather could also be used to make household items, such as a chandelier. Even the bag that Elsa went out with was made from it.

Elsa’s husband was arrested in 1944 and later executed, and she was hiding from the authorities, knowing that they were still catching more “ big fish" Elsa’s turn came in 1947; during the investigation, she managed to become pregnant, in the hope of avoiding punishment. But the prosecutor said that Elsa has more than 50,000 victims on her conscience, and pregnancy does not exempt her from anything. She was tried by the Americans in Munich, and the investigation lasted for almost four years. Elsa claimed that she was merely a “servant of the regime.”

Incredibly, she was released from prison in 1951. Not for long, because she was immediately arrested by the German authorities, who noted her particular sadism during the investigation and sentenced her to life imprisonment. The son, born in prison, did not know for a long time who his mother was, but when he found out, he did not treat her as a “Buchenval bitch” and visited her in prison. In 1967, Elsa ate her last schnitzel and hanged herself, never repenting of anything.

9. Irma Grizz, 1923-1945.

If it had not been for the war, perhaps Irma would have become a pretty German peasant girl. But when she was 13, her mother committed suicide, and a couple of years later Irma dropped out of school. Her father had by this time joined the NSDAP. Irma lacked education, but she proved herself in the organization - the female analogue of the Hitler Youth. She worked as a nurse, and in 1942 she joined the SS, despite her father’s dissatisfaction, 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 guard - this was the second person in camp hierarchy.

She was 20 years old and very cruel. She beat women to death, shot prisoners according to the principle of “whoever she hits.” She starved the dogs and then set them on the prisoners. She herself selected those whom she sent to die in the gas chamber. In addition to the pistol, Grez always carried a wicker whip. Irma Griese is known as the most brutal woman of the Third Reich; prisoners called her a “beautiful beast.” She developed a reputation as a nymphomaniac who sexually abused prisoners. Among the German staff she also had her fair share of “fans”, one of them was the infamous “Doctor Death”, Josef Mengele.

In 1945, she was captured by the British at her next “workplace” - in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. Irma Griese was found guilty and sentenced to hang. On the last night before her execution, Griz laughed and sang songs with her fellow accomplices. When a noose was thrown around Irma Griz's neck, not even a shadow of remorse flashed on her face. Her last word was “Faster,” addressed to the executioner.

10. Katherine Knight, b. 1956.

On November 9, 2001, the harshest sentence possible in Australia was announced. Catherine Knight became the first woman in the country to be sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of review. Perhaps the fact that she worked in a slaughterhouse, with a special interest in beheading pigs, played a role in her decision on how to punish her husband's alleged infidelity. The first time she tried to kill her husband was on the first wedding night, when he “did not fulfill her expectations.”

As a warning to her husband and his alleged passion, Katherine caught the woman's dog and, in front of her eyes, cut out its throat with one movement of a knife. In a few days she will apply 37 stab wounds already to a person - her husband, after which he will dismember his body, put his head in a saucepan and, adding vegetables, cook broth from it. Katherine tried to cook the meat of her murdered husband for lunch for the children. Thank God, at least the police prevented her from doing this. At the trial, she admitted her guilt. But how can a simple confession wash away the guilt for a terrible crime, unthinkable for a civilized society?

11. Erzsebet Batory, 1560-1614.

Guinness World Records calls her the most prolific serial killer. Whether her cruelty was natural or acquired is now impossible to find out. But it is known that this Hungarian woman was the wife of Ferenc Nadasgy. Ferenc showed amazing cruelty towards the captured Turks, with whom the war was going on at that time, for which he received the nickname “Black Bek”. As a wedding gift, “Black Bek” gave the “Bloody Countess” Cachtice Castle in the Slovakian Lesser Carpathians, where she gave birth to five children and killed 650 people.

According to legend, Erzsebet Bathory once hit her maid in the face. The blood from the maid's nose dripped onto the countess's skin, and Erzsebet thought that her skin began to look beautiful in those places where drops of blood fell. Rumor has it that Elizabeth had the Maid of Nuremberg in the basement of the castle, in which the victim was bleeding, this blood filled the bath, which Erzsebet took. The cruelty of the Black Countess was fully revealed after the death of her husband. And first of all, girls and young women suffered from Erzsebet’s temper. Erzsébet's brother was the ruler of Transylvania (remember where Count Dracula is from?), so she never went to trial and did what she wanted until her death.

Honestly, after reading this article, I was shocked. I never thought that women could be so cruel... Why were they like that? What caused their cruelty? Even psychiatrists cannot answer this question precisely. It can be assumed that mental illness is behind such aggressiveness. But it seems to me that often the cause of cruelty is the lack of sincere love in a person’s life - a man, a woman...

1. Daria Nikolaevna Saltykova (“Saltychikha”), 1730-1801.

Daria Nikolaevna Saltykova, nicknamed "Saltychikha" (Birth year: 1730; Year of death: 1801), a sophisticated sadist and murderer of at least 139 people, mostly women, girls and girls. She was sentenced to death, which was later replaced by imprisonment in a monastery prison. One could talk about the influence of the place: Daria Saltykova’s city estate was located not far from the Ivanovsky Monastery, at the intersection of the Kuznetsky Bridge with the notorious 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 pillar nobleman, who was related to the Davydovs, Musins-Pushkins, Stroganovs and Tolstoys. For quite a long time, the grandfather of the poet Fyodor Tyutchev was in a love relationship with her. True, he married, as is known, someone else - for which Saltychikha almost killed him along with his young wife.

Daria was only 26 years old when she was widowed, and about 600 peasant souls came into her undivided possession. The next seven years of life for those who depended on her were filled with pain and blood: people were flogged, doused with boiling water, starved, the hair on their heads was burned off, and they were kept naked in the cold. The nickname “Saltychikha” gave birth to the image of an overweight, unwashed, disgusting old woman in my head. But she committed all her crimes at a fairly young age. Catherine the Second received the first complaint against her almost immediately after ascending the throne - it was 1762, Saltychikha was 31 years old at that time. 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.

2. 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 was celebrated as a national holiday in the country, because her reign was accompanied by bloody massacres. Her father, Henry VIII, declared himself head of the church, for which he was excommunicated by the Pope. Mary was put in charge of a poor country that needed to be raised out of poverty.

Maria was not in good health (her father suffered from syphilis), but she was active and unforgiving - she could bring closer to herself those who only yesterday opposed her, but not the Protestants. Almost 300 Protestants were burned at the stake of the Inquisition, 3,000 lost their places and most of them chose to flee the country. It was unlikely that this was God’s punishment, but Mary was unhappy in her family life.

Her husband Philip, son of Charles V, was eleven years younger than her, had no official say in 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. Maria, who was naturally sick, became sad, fell ill and died. "Bloody Mary" was buried in Westminster Abbey. There is not a single (!) monument to this queen in the country.

3. Myra Hindley, 1942-2002.

Mira, a pretty, etched blonde (although in the photo she is clearly a brunette :)) has made herself a friend, Ian Brady. Ian, a heavy drinker, idealizing Hitler, Bonnie and Clyde, reading Mein Kampf, Crime and Punishment, the stories of the Marquis de Sade, attracted Mira's attention with his unusualness. He was her first man, but he quickly taught her such sexual entertainment that people who have been married for forty years are not aware of.

They loved to beat each other, tie each other up - with ropes, chains - and take pictures. Soon these entertainments became scarce. Mira and Ian planned to rob banks, and in the meantime they caught children, abused them, raped them, tortured them, recording cries asking for mercy on film, photographed them and killed them. They killed disgustingly, with whatever they could get their hands on - knives, shovels, telephone wires. 11 child victims of a criminal couple. At the trial, Mira said that the reason for everything was disappointment in Catholicism. But crimes did not fall under the article of “spiritual quest”. During the trial, she showed extreme composure, bordering on arrogance.

While already in prison, Mira and Ian planned to get married and corresponded, but this request was denied. Not all the bodies of the children they killed were found, and therefore Mira, unlike Brady, who never wanted to leave prison, insisted that she should have been released over the years, and even made an unsuccessful escape attempt. She died at the age of 60, about two weeks before, despite all the legal 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.

4. Isabella of Castile, 1451-1504.

The year 1492, an epochal 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 his discovery of America. Another event happened this year, which is the reason why we mention Isabella today.

Thomas de Torquemada was a monk of the Dominican Order, born in 1420, 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-fe much more often than inquisitors in other countries: over 15 years, 10,200 people were burned on his orders. The 6,800 people sentenced to death in absentia can also be considered victims of Torquemada. More than 97,000 people were subjected to various punishments. Primarily baptized Jews were persecuted - Marranos, accused of adhering 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 services to the Church.

5. Beverly Allitt, b. 1968.

A serial killer nurse dubbed the "Angel of Death" 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 thought it was possible (perhaps, since it was not proven) that it was related to Beverly's mental illness, that the children who were in the hospital complaining about their poor health were simply trying to get her attention so as not to be bored.

Nurse Evil gave insulin injections to children who annoyed her to make it appear that the children's deaths were due to natural causes. Fortunately, not all of her crimes were successful, but they amazed people because 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.

At 1.83 m tall and 91 kg in weight, this American of Norwegian descent had quite an impressive build. The American “Bluebeard”, perhaps female, she killed her two husbands, her three daughters, all those who suspected her and those who came into the zone of her attention. It is believed that she is responsible for the lives of more than twenty people. She committed arson, poisoned her, and quietly dropped huge meat knives on her victims’ heads.

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 identity. 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, in 1908 she started a fire in her house, in which her children died, but those remains that were supposed to be her remains were not identified as the former Belle. In 1931, Esther Carlson was arrested in Los Angeles for the murder of her husband in order to obtain insurance ($ 2,000). She died in prison before her trial, but could be identified from her appearance as Belle Gunnes. Death saved her from this.

7. Mary Ann Cotton, 1832-1873.

Perhaps Bell got the idea for this diabolical form of enrichment from Mary Ann Cotton. This beautiful-looking woman was married three times, spending a total of forty years in a married state. This was a time when there were no cures for many diseases, and child death was not a rare occurrence. Mary had her own children from her husbands, but she married widowers with a considerable number of children from a previous marriage.

Everyone was doomed to death. Mary insured all the members of her family, then went to the pharmacy, bought arsenic and gradually, without attracting much attention, poisoned the children, and at the same time their husbands, clearing her way to a new marriage. Her impudence failed her when, after the death of her last husband, she sent two adopted sons to the next world and immediately went to demand the insurance reward. Before this, she carelessly bought arsenic at a pharmacy a few weeks before the murders. An investigation was conducted, an autopsy was conducted, and the test for arsenic was positive.

Then they began to conduct research on the bodies of relatives who died at the hands of Mary - each corpse contained arsenic. At the trial, she had only one argument: “So what, you don’t execute those who get rid of children in the womb. I did the same thing, but a little later and for money.” In prison, she had a daughter from her last husband, who was lucky to survive. Before her execution, this fragile-looking woman prayed, and a second before a black flag rose over the prison, confirming the execution of the sentence, she said: “Heaven is my home.” Not likely, Mary. Hardly. You have either 12 or 15 human lives on your account.

8. Elsa Koch, 1906-1967.

Elsa was born in 1906 in Dresden. Little is known about her early years, but when she married Karl Koch in 1937, she was already working at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. The husband is promoted - appointed head of the Buchenwald concentration camp, and the friendly family is sent there. At the camp, Elsa is not bored, playing the role of wife. She is the camp controller. Elsa became famous for her cruel treatment of prisoners. She loved to flog or beat people herself. If she saw a prisoner with an interesting tattoo, these were the last hours of his life. Elsa was collecting a collection of tattooed human skin. Samples with interesting natural marks also ended up there. This leather could also be used to make household items, such as a chandelier. Even the bag that Elsa went out with was made from it.

Elsa’s husband was arrested in 1944 and later executed, and she hid from the authorities, knowing that for now they were catching “bigger fish.” Elsa’s turn came in 1947; during the investigation, she managed to become pregnant, in the hope of avoiding punishment. But the prosecutor said that Elsa has more than 50,000 victims on her conscience, and pregnancy does not exempt her from anything. She was tried by the Americans in Munich, and the investigation lasted for almost four years. Elsa claimed that she was merely a “servant of the regime.”

Incredibly, she was released from prison in 1951. Not for long, because she was immediately arrested by the German authorities, who noted her particular sadism during the investigation and sentenced her to life imprisonment. The son, born in prison, did not know for a long time who his mother was, but when he found out, he did not treat her as a “Buchenval bitch” and visited her in prison. In 1967, Elsa ate her last schnitzel and hanged herself, never repenting of anything.

9. Irma Grizz, 1923-1945.

If it had not been for the war, perhaps Irma would have become a pretty German peasant girl. But when she was 13, her mother committed suicide, and a couple of years later Irma dropped out of school. Her father had by this time joined the NSDAP. Irma lacked education, but she proved herself in the organization - the female analogue of the Hitler Youth. She worked as a nurse, and in 1942 she joined the SS, despite her father’s dissatisfaction, 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 guard - this was the second person in camp hierarchy.

She was 20 years old and very cruel. She beat women to death, shot prisoners according to the principle of “whoever she hits.” She starved the dogs and then set them on the prisoners. She herself selected those whom she sent to die in the gas chamber. In addition to the pistol, Grez always carried a wicker whip. Irma Griese is known as the most brutal woman of the Third Reich; prisoners called her a “beautiful beast.” She developed a reputation as a nymphomaniac who sexually abused prisoners. Among the German staff she also had her fair share of “fans”, one of them was the infamous “Doctor Death”, Josef Mengele.

In 1945, she was captured by the British at her next “workplace” - in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. Irma Griese was found guilty and sentenced to hang. On the last night before her execution, Griz laughed and sang songs with her fellow accomplices. When a noose was thrown around Irma Griz's neck, not even a shadow of remorse flashed on her face. Her last word was “Faster,” addressed to the executioner.

10. Katherine Knight, b. 1956.

On November 9, 2001, the harshest sentence possible in Australia was announced. Catherine Knight became the first woman in the country to be sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of review. Perhaps the fact that she worked in a slaughterhouse, with a special interest in beheading pigs, played a role in her decision on how to punish her husband's alleged infidelity. The first time she tried to kill her husband was on the first wedding night, when he “did not fulfill her expectations.”

As a warning to her husband and his alleged passion, Katherine caught the woman's dog and, in front of her eyes, cut out its throat with one movement of a knife. A few days later, 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, cook broth from it. Katherine tried to cook the meat of her murdered husband for lunch for the children. Thank God, at least the police prevented her from doing this. At the trial, she admitted her guilt. But how can a simple confession wash away the guilt for a terrible crime, unthinkable for a civilized society?

11. Erzsebet Batory, 1560-1614.

Guinness World Records calls her the most prolific serial killer. Whether her cruelty was natural or acquired is now impossible to find out. But it is known that this Hungarian woman was the wife of Ferenc Nadasgy. Ferenc showed amazing cruelty towards the captured Turks, with whom the war was going on at that time, for which he received the nickname “Black Bek”. As a wedding gift, “Black Bek” gave the “Bloody Countess” Cachtice Castle in the Slovakian Lesser Carpathians, where she gave birth to five children and killed 650 people.

According to legend, Erzsebet Bathory once hit her maid in the face. The blood from the maid's nose dripped onto the countess's skin, and Erzsebet thought that her skin began to look beautiful in those places where drops of blood fell. Rumor has it that Elizabeth had the Maid of Nuremberg in the basement of the castle, in which the victim was bleeding, this blood filled the bath, which Erzsebet took. The cruelty of the Black Countess was fully revealed after the death of her husband. And first of all, girls and young women suffered from Erzsebet’s temper. Erzsébet's brother was the ruler of Transylvania (remember where Count Dracula is from?), so she never went to trial and did what she wanted until her death.

Honestly, after reading this article, I was shocked. I never thought that women could be so cruel... Why were they like that? What caused their cruelty? Even psychiatrists cannot answer this question precisely. It can be assumed that mental illness is behind such aggressiveness. But it seems to me that often the cause of cruelty is the lack of sincere love in a person’s life - a man, a woman...

1. Daria Nikolaevna Saltykova (“Saltychikha”), 1730-1801.

Daria Nikolaevna Saltykova, nicknamed "Saltychikha" (Birth year: 1730; Year of death: 1801), a sophisticated sadist and murderer of at least 139 people, mostly women, girls and girls. She was sentenced to death, which was later replaced by imprisonment in a monastery prison. One could talk about the influence of the place: Daria Saltykova’s city estate was located not far from the Ivanovsky Monastery, at the intersection of the Kuznetsky Bridge with the notorious 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 pillar nobleman, who was related to the Davydovs, Musins-Pushkins, Stroganovs and Tolstoys. For quite a long time, the grandfather of the poet Fyodor Tyutchev was in a love relationship with her. True, he married, as is known, someone else - for which Saltychikha almost killed him along with his young wife.

Daria was only 26 years old when she was widowed, and about 600 peasant souls came into her undivided possession. The next seven years of life for those who depended on her were filled with pain and blood: people were flogged, doused with boiling water, starved, the hair on their heads was burned off, and they were kept naked in the cold. The nickname “Saltychikha” gave birth to the image of an overweight, unwashed, disgusting old woman in my head. But she committed all her crimes at a fairly young age. Catherine the Second received the first complaint against her almost immediately after ascending the throne - it was 1762, Saltychikha was 31 years old at that time. 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.

2. 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 was celebrated as a national holiday in the country, because her reign was accompanied by bloody massacres. Her father, Henry VIII, declared himself head of the church, for which he was excommunicated by the Pope. Mary was put in charge of a poor country that needed to be raised out of poverty.

Maria was not in good health (her father suffered from syphilis), but she was active and unforgiving - she could bring closer to herself those who only yesterday opposed her, but not the Protestants. Almost 300 Protestants were burned at the stake of the Inquisition, 3,000 lost their places and most of them chose to flee the country. It was unlikely that this was God’s punishment, but Mary was unhappy in her family life.

Her husband Philip, son of Charles V, was eleven years younger than her, had no official say in 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. Maria, who was naturally sick, became sad, fell ill and died. "Bloody Mary" was buried in Westminster Abbey. There is not a single (!) monument to this queen in the country.

3. Myra Hindley, 1942-2002.

Mira, a pretty, etched blonde (although in the photo she is clearly a brunette :)) has made herself a friend, Ian Brady. Ian, a heavy drinker, idealizing Hitler, Bonnie and Clyde, reading Mein Kampf, Crime and Punishment, the stories of the Marquis de Sade, attracted Mira's attention with his unusualness. He was her first man, but he quickly taught her such sexual entertainment that people who have been married for forty years are not aware of.

They loved to beat each other, tie each other up - with ropes, chains - and take pictures. Soon these entertainments became scarce. Mira and Ian planned to rob banks, and in the meantime they caught children, abused them, raped them, tortured them, recording cries asking for mercy on film, photographed them and killed them. They killed disgustingly, with whatever they could get their hands on - knives, shovels, telephone wires. 11 child victims of a criminal couple. At the trial, Mira said that the reason for everything was disappointment in Catholicism. But crimes did not fall under the article of “spiritual quest”. During the trial, she showed extreme composure, bordering on arrogance.

While already in prison, Mira and Ian planned to get married and corresponded, but this request was denied. Not all the bodies of the children they killed were found, and therefore Mira, unlike Brady, who never wanted to leave prison, insisted that she should have been released over the years, and even made an unsuccessful escape attempt. She died at the age of 60, about two weeks before, despite all the legal 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.

4. Isabella of Castile, 1451-1504.

The year 1492, an epochal 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 his discovery of America. Another event happened this year, which is the reason why we mention Isabella today.

Thomas de Torquemada was a monk of the Dominican Order, born in 1420, 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-fe much more often than inquisitors in other countries: over 15 years, 10,200 people were burned on his orders. The 6,800 people sentenced to death in absentia can also be considered victims of Torquemada. More than 97,000 people were subjected to various punishments. Primarily baptized Jews were persecuted - Marranos, accused of adhering 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 services to the Church.

5. Beverly Allitt, b. 1968.

A serial killer nurse dubbed the "Angel of Death" 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 that it was possible (perhaps, since it was not proven) that it was related to Beverly's mental illness, that the children who were in the hospital and complaining about their poor health were simply trying to attract her attention to themselves so as not to be bored.

Nurse Evil gave insulin injections to children who annoyed her to make it appear that the children's deaths were due to natural causes. Fortunately, not all of her crimes were successful, but they amazed people because 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.

At 1.83 m tall and 91 kg in weight, this American of Norwegian descent was quite an impressive build. The American “Bluebeard”, perhaps female, she killed her two husbands, her three daughters, all those who suspected her and those who came into the zone of her attention. It is believed that she is responsible for the lives of more than twenty people. She committed arson, poisoned her, and quietly dropped huge meat knives on her victims’ heads.

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 identity. 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, in 1908 she started a fire in her house, in which her children died, but those remains that were supposed to be her remains were not identified as the former Belle. In 1931, Esther Carlson was arrested in Los Angeles for the murder of her husband in order to obtain insurance ($ 2,000). She died in prison before her trial, but could be identified from her appearance as Belle Gunnes. Death saved her from this.

7. Mary Ann Cotton, 1832-1873.

Perhaps Bell got the idea for this diabolical form of enrichment from Mary Ann Cotton. This beautiful-looking woman was married three times, spending a total of forty years in a married state. This was a time when there were no cures for many diseases, and child death was not a rare occurrence. Mary had her own children from her husbands, but she married widowers with a considerable number of children from a previous marriage.

Everyone was doomed to death. Mary insured all the members of her family, then went to the pharmacy, bought arsenic and gradually, without attracting much attention, poisoned the children, and at the same time their husbands, clearing her way to a new marriage. Her impudence failed her when, after the death of her last husband, she sent two adopted sons to the next world and immediately went to demand the insurance reward. Before this, she carelessly bought arsenic at a pharmacy a few weeks before the murders. An investigation was conducted, an autopsy was conducted, and the test for arsenic was positive.

Then they began to conduct research on the bodies of relatives who died at the hands of Mary - each corpse contained arsenic. At the trial, she had only one argument: “So what, you don’t execute those who get rid of children in the womb. I did the same thing, but a little later and for money.” In prison, she had a daughter from her last husband, who was lucky to survive. Before her execution, this fragile-looking woman prayed, and a second before a black flag rose over the prison, confirming the execution of the sentence, she said: “Heaven is my home.” Not likely, Mary. Hardly. You have either 12 or 15 human lives on your account.

8. Elsa Koch, 1906-1967.

Elsa was born in 1906 in Dresden. Little is known about her early years, but when she married Karl Koch in 1937, she was already working at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. The husband is promoted - appointed head of the Buchenwald concentration camp, and the friendly family is sent there. At the camp, Elsa is not bored, playing the role of wife. She is the camp controller. Elsa became famous for her cruel treatment of prisoners. She loved to flog or beat people herself. If she saw a prisoner with an interesting tattoo, these were the last hours of his life. Elsa was collecting a collection of tattooed human skin. Samples with interesting natural marks also ended up there. This leather could also be used to make household items - for example, a chandelier. Even the bag that Elsa went out with was made from it.

Elsa’s husband was arrested in 1944 and later executed, and she hid from the authorities, knowing that for now they were catching “bigger fish.” Elsa’s turn came in 1947; during the investigation, she managed to become pregnant, in the hope of avoiding punishment. But the prosecutor said that Elsa has more than 50,000 victims on her conscience, and pregnancy does not exempt her from anything. She was tried by the Americans in Munich, and the investigation lasted for almost four years. Elsa claimed that she was merely a “servant of the regime.”

Incredibly, she was released from prison in 1951. Not for long, because she was immediately arrested by the German authorities, who noted her particular sadism during the investigation and sentenced her to life imprisonment. The son, born in prison, did not know for a long time who his mother was, but when he found out, he did not treat her as a “Buchenval bitch” and visited her in prison. In 1967, Elsa ate her last schnitzel and hanged herself, never repenting of anything.

9. Irma Grizz, 1923-1945.

If it had not been for the war, perhaps Irma would have become a pretty German peasant girl. But when she was 13, her mother committed suicide, and a couple of years later Irma dropped out of school. Her father had by this time joined the NSDAP. Irma lacked education, but she distinguished herself in the organization - the female analogue of the Hitler Youth. She worked as a nurse, and in 1942 she joined the SS, despite her father’s dissatisfaction, 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 guard - this was the second person in camp hierarchy.

She was 20 years old and very cruel. She beat women to death and shot prisoners according to the principle of “whoever she hits.” She starved the dogs and then set them on the prisoners. She herself selected those whom she sent to die in the gas chamber. In addition to the pistol, Grez always carried a wicker whip. Irma Griese is known as the most brutal woman of the Third Reich; prisoners called her a “beautiful beast.” She developed a reputation as a nymphomaniac who sexually abused prisoners. Among the German staff she also had her fair share of “fans”, one of them was the infamous “Doctor Death”, Josef Mengele.

In 1945, she was captured by the British at her next “working” place - in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. Irma Griese was found guilty and sentenced to hang. On the last night before her execution, Griz laughed and sang songs with her fellow accomplices. When a noose was thrown around Irma Griz's neck, not even a shadow of remorse flashed on her face. Her last word was “Faster,” addressed to the executioner.

10. Katherine Knight, b. 1956.

On November 9, 2001, the harshest sentence possible in Australia was announced. Catherine Knight became the first woman in the country to be sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of review. Perhaps the fact that she worked in a slaughterhouse, with a special interest in beheading pigs, played a role in her decision on how to punish her husband's alleged infidelity. The first time she tried to kill her husband was on the first wedding night, when he “did not fulfill her expectations.”

As a warning to her husband and his alleged passion, Katherine caught the woman's dog and, in front of her eyes, cut out its throat with one movement of a knife. A few days later 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, cook broth from it. Katherine tried to cook the meat of her murdered husband for lunch for the children. Thank God, at least the police prevented her from doing this. At the trial, she admitted her guilt. But how can a simple confession wash away the guilt for a terrible crime, unthinkable for a civilized society?

11. Erzsebet Batory, 1560-1614.

Guinness World Records calls her the most prolific serial killer. Whether her cruelty was natural or acquired - it is now impossible to find out. But it is known that this Hungarian woman was the wife of Ferenc Nadasgy. Ferenc showed amazing cruelty towards the captured Turks, with whom the war was going on at that time, for which he received the nickname “Black Bek”. As a wedding gift, “Black Bek” gave the “Bloody Countess” Cachtice Castle in the Slovakian Lesser Carpathians, where she gave birth to five children and killed 650 people.

According to legend, Erzsebet Bathory once hit her maid in the face. The blood from the maid's nose dripped onto the countess's skin, and Erzsebet thought that her skin began to look beautiful in those places where drops of blood fell. Rumor has it that Elizabeth had the Maid of Nuremberg in the basement of the castle, in which the victim was bleeding, this blood filled the bath, which Erzsebet took. The cruelty of the Black Countess was fully revealed after the death of her husband. And first of all, girls and young women suffered from Erzsebet’s temper. Erzsébet's brother was the ruler of Transylvania (remember where Count Dracula is from?), so she never went to trial and did what she wanted until her death.

These women went down in human history thanks to their terrible atrocities. Queens and seemingly respectable ladies turned out to be cruel sadists and murderers.

Gertrude Baniszewski

This Indiana woman left a terrible mark on American history. Gertrude Baniszewski, a seemingly decent mother, and her noble family for a long time mocked Sylvia Likens, whom she and her younger sister took into custody.

The girls' real parents had no idea what hellish torments they had doomed their daughters to. Hostility towards Sylvia arose immediately, as soon as she crossed the threshold of the Baniszewski house. At first there were the usual nagging and insults, then it came to assault. The bruises did not go away from the girl’s body. Gertrude, who had gone into a rage, pursued Sylvia with some kind of bestial tenacity. The torture became more and more sophisticated every day. One day Sylvia was forced to bathe in a bath with boiling water: the noble family watched her torment with a smile. The children of Gertrude Baniszewski made it a habit to constantly beat the unfortunate girl. It got to the point that even Jenny, Sylvia's younger sister, was forced to take part in this. The inhumane, sadistic attitude could not but affect the girl’s body. And one day Sylvia died. It was necessary to see with what haste, with fear of punishment for their actions, the Baniszewski family covered their tracks.

When this scary tale became public, the entire American public demanded the death penalty of an executioner in the form of a woman. But Themis handed down an unexpectedly lenient sentence to Gertrude - life imprisonment. And nineteen years later exemplary behavior Baniszewski was released. Her children, who participated in their mother’s bloody deeds, were not harmed in any way. They live peacefully and have started families. And it seems that the ghost of the tortured Sylvia does not come to them at night...

Mary I Tudor (Bloody Mary)

She was born in the year of the height of the English sweating epidemic. And, unfortunately, it left a sad mark in the history of the British Middle Ages. Bloody Mary, aka Mary I Tudor, is considered a symbol of the evil that was caused to the country. Although she never laid claim to the English throne and, by chance and circumstances, received the crown of queen. Maria the Catholic (as they called her at court) had no skills at all government controlled. Her education boiled down to the fact that free time the princess read stories about Christian saints, sat well in the saddle and passionately loved falconry. By the way, she was afraid of men like fire: this fear was instilled in her by the holy fathers from childhood. And hardly anyone suspected in her the future threat of Protestant rebels, with whom she would wage a merciless and cruel war. But the first victim of the royal disgrace was Mary’s relative, 16-year-old Jane Gray. Because of high state considerations, sometimes feeling pity, she sent her to the chopping block. And then Jane’s husband and father-in-law fell onto the platform into the hands of the executioner. A little time passed, and bonfires began to play ominously throughout England, in the fire of which hundreds of church fathers who refused to convert to Catholicism died. For this, the people will call her Bloody Mary.

According to some historians, Mary I Tudor was not, in essence, a bloodthirsty ruler. It’s just that, as they say now, politicians at court used her as a puppet to achieve their specific goals.

Elizaveta Bathory

Bloody Countess Elizabeth Bathory experienced incredible pleasure when poor peasant girls were tortured before her eyes, subjecting them to the most sophisticated tortures. Czede Castle in the Kingdom of Hungary, with its dark and deep cellars, was a place that well kept the dark deeds of a noblewoman. There were even rumors among local residents that Elizabeth Bathory loved to take baths filled with the blood of murdered victims. When the countess’s crimes were revealed, a terrifying picture was revealed: she was responsible for about a hundred tortured and murdered girls. The surviving victims who escaped the massacre were a pitiful sight. The Bloody Countess committed her atrocities with the help of faithful servants, three of whom were women. Last days Elizabeth Bathory ended her life in her own castle, in one of the rooms, tightly walled up. There wasn't even a ray of sunshine here. The room only had openings for serving food. The guards, on pain of death, never spoke to the Bloody Countess.

Irma Grese

She was born into a simple German peasant family, which had four other children. Irma Greza clearly did not want to study at school; she was not attracted to high sciences. A fifteen-year-old girl is obsessed with power in order to experience superiority over people. She joins the League of German Youth, believing that it will be useful to her in the future. At first, changing one profession after another, Irma Grese rushes through life, not finding a worthy use for herself.

She greets the war with joy and joins one of the auxiliary units of S.S. Irma, as if having broken free from a chain, plunges headlong into new job- concentration camp guards. This position will be just right for a girl in whose soul a real monster has awakened.

Time will pass, and the prisoners will call her the Angel of Death, the Blonde Devil, the Beautiful Monster. The senior guard of the Virkenau concentration camp will spread horror and fear everywhere. It’s strange, but this girl, not without external attractiveness, will dream of a post-war career as a screen star. Even seasoned Nazis were timid before her atrocities. They would never, for example, have thought of unleashing a hundred unfed vicious dogs on prisoners. Irma Grese’s favorite pastime is to sit on a chair and shoot women walking in a column. She also took pleasure in beating her victims to death with a heavy whip.

Irma Greza did not escape punishment for her bloody deeds. During the Belsen trial, she was sentenced to hang. On the last night before her execution, the would-be screen star laughed and had fun, singing songs with her friend Elisabeth Volkenrath, a monster like her.

Daria Saltykova

The “tormentor and murderer” landowner Daria Saltykova could neither read nor write. And now you can’t understand why this illiterate noblewoman was warmly and friendly received in the enlightened houses of the Musins ​​and Pushkins. Davydovs, Tolstoys. Maybe they had never been to the Saltykov family estate, where there was a quiet, devilish pestilence? The neighboring landowners considered this place to be plague-ridden and tried to avoid it. And at the rural cemetery of Daria Saltykov’s estate, more and more graves appeared. The local people remained completely silent, crushed by fear.

But in the spring of 1762, the secret of Daria Saltykova’s estate was revealed, and the case of Saltychikha, the executioner lady, began to quickly unfold. Serf peasants Saveliy Martynov and Ermolay Ilyin managed to reach St. Petersburg at the risk of their lives. It was they who conveyed to Empress Mother Catherine II a complaint about the lawlessness and atrocities Saltychikha committed against her peasants. The Empress, having received the paper and read it, immediately ordered the opening of a criminal case against Daria Saltykova. During the investigation, it turned out that the landowner killed more than a hundred people. Moreover, she liked to subject the guilty peasant woman to sophisticated torture throughout the day and night (and Saltychikha invented the guilt herself). It cost her nothing to throw boiling water in the victim’s face and set her hair on fire.

The empress herself was involved in drafting the text of Saltychikha’s verdict. And instead of a surname, the following words flashed: “freak of the human race,” “inhuman widow.” The court made its decision, according to which Daria Saltykova had to spend her life in the Donskoy Monastery prison. And before that there was a “disgraceful spectacle” on the Execution Ground on Red Square. No one saw tears of remorse on Saltychikha’s face...

Mary Ann Cotton

Oddly enough, the laurels of England's first serial killer went to the woman Mary Ann Cotton. This eternal black widow sent a bunch of people to the next world, not even sparing her own children. And all for the sake of one goal: to be a wealthy woman who does not need anything. Mary Ann was not a beauty, but she certainly had a certain charm that attracted men. She was born into a poor mining family, and after the death of her father, the sixteen-year-old girl went to South Hatton for a better life. Over time, Mary Ann realized that you won’t earn much money from righteous labors. Especially on a farm where work was paid mere pennies. Therefore, to begin with, she did not pretend to be a picky bride: she took and married miner William Mowbray. During their marriage, Mary Ann gave birth to five children. But she did not feel maternal feelings for them: the prospect of living in need and in constant worries did not at all appeal to her. And the children, one after another, died from a mysterious intestinal disorder. And then the turn came to William Mowbray himself. According to some rumors, the kind-hearted doctor, in order to console the widow, went, on the advice of neighbors, to the cemetery, where she was supposed to pour out her grief. Imagine his surprise when he saw Mary Ann in the new fashionable dress, and dancing to boot... The insurance received from Mowbray's late husband must have delighted her.

She continued to play her role as an eternal widow, sowing suspicious and mysterious deaths husbands, their own and other people's children. For the time being, everything was attributed to “stomach fever”, which literally followed on the heels of Mary Ann Cotton’s whereabouts. Until persistent journalists unearthed the truth. Autopsies on black widow victims revealed the presence of arsenic in their tissues in quantities that could kill even a horse.

The court unanimously sentenced her to death. They say that the elderly executioner, most likely a widower, deliberately pulled the rope around Mary Ann's neck incorrectly so that she would suffer a little...

Ilse Koch

As soon as she entered the parade ground, everyone’s heart sank with fear and horror. There was no more bloodthirsty and cruel creature in the concentration camp than Ilse Koch. As an executioner and torturer, she surpassed even her husband, Karl Koch. The commandant of the Buchenwald concentration camp was clearly inferior to her in sophisticated atrocities, preferring to personally tear out the gold crowns from dead and living prisoners. Even their colleagues were afraid of this sweet couple. Especially after the incident when Karl Koch shot his subordinate, an SS officer. And Ilse soon got another nickname: Frau Abuazhur. With devilish ingenuity, she took up an unusual task: she sewed (and quite skillfully!) handbags and even underwear from human skin. But she was especially successful with the lampshades in the house, which became the pride of Ilse Koch.

The exorbitant cruelty of the spouses aroused the indignation of the highest Nazi officials. But perhaps the whole point was that Karl Koch did not share the loot, preferring to steal quietly. For this, the commandant of Buchenwald paid with his head: by court decision he was shot. And Ilse managed to escape punishment. When she fell into the hands of the Americans, the pregnant sadist even managed to fool the High Commissioner of the occupation zone. He released her, guided by “high moral considerations.” However, she was immediately arrested by the German police. And during the investigation, the court sentenced Ilse Koch to life imprisonment. She committed suicide in prison on September 1, 1967, by hanging herself with a rope made from a sheet.

Gonzalez sisters

This four killer sisters put the most notorious Mexican thugs to shame. And it is known that Mexico, where Delfina, Maria del Jesus, Carmen and Maria Luisa Gonzalez Valenzuela were born, has always been distinguished by its steep criminal morals. The sisters’ shared passion for enriching themselves was quite understandable: they were born into the poorest family, surviving on bread and water. And they started their sad known path from ordinary prostitution. The money earned was put into a common pot. But this could not continue for long: it was impossible to achieve the cherished goal in this way. And one day one of the sisters came up with the idea of ​​opening her own brothel on a ranch in the state of Guanajuato. Having promised the peasant girls mountains of gold, they never stopped wanting them. If only the local beauties knew into what hands they fell! Time passed, and the girls, intoxicated by alcohol and illegal substances, began to call the Gonzalez sisters’ ranch a “hellish brothel.” For any offense, young prostitutes were beaten to death and tortured. It was useless to contact the local police, bribed by the sisters. And the officials themselves willingly used the services of the brothel. It seemed that there would be no end to the criminal lawlessness of the killer sisters. Beautiful girls abducted directly from villages and nearby towns. When the investigation began, a horrifying picture of what happened was revealed. It turned out that the Gonzalez crime family had killed about a hundred girls. The sisters were tried and each received a long sentence. prison term. Of these, only the younger sister Maria survived, who, after her release, disappeared in an unknown direction.

A maniac is banal. Or a serial killer who, upon closer examination, turns out to be a woman! And cute too!

1. Karla Homolka

At the age of 17, the golden-haired American of Czech origin met Paul Bernando. Despite the fact that the boy had sadistic tendencies, she did not run away from him with her head thrown back, but got married. The newlyweds quickly became bored with the classic sex life, and they decided to expand their horizons. The man came up with exciting scenarios for orgies, and Carla had the responsibility of finding new companions. The first casualty was Carla's 15-year-old sister.

The older sister got the younger one drunk mysterious solution, which she stole from veterinary clinic where she worked, after which the victim lost consciousness. Paul raped the girl, and her sister filmed the process. Suddenly the victim began vomiting, choked and died. The death was attributed to an accident. Soon another victim fell into the network of sadists. For a whole day, Carla and Paul raped the girl in sophisticated ways and filmed everything. When the unfortunate woman breathed her last, she was dismembered with a circular saw, filled with cement and drowned in the lake.

Another participant in the orgy was found near the church. Trusting Kristen French did not suspect that this nice couple was planning something illegal, or even inhumane, and, succumbing to persuasion, left with them. She was tied to a chest and raped for three days.

Homolka and Bernando were arrested in 1993. The trial shocked not only the whole of America, but also Carla's parents, who never expected to give birth to a she-devil. Finally, in 1995, Paul was sentenced to life imprisonment. But Karla was given only 12 years. She cooperated with the investigation and even convinced the jury that she was just as much a victim of her husband as the dead girls. And although after the trial records were discovered that clearly demonstrated that Karla Homolka was not a victim, but an enthusiast, the verdict was not changed.

Now the sadist lives under the name Lynn Bordelet and is happy with her new husband and three children.

Myra Hindley met Ian Brady at 18. It was love at first sight. “He is so delightfully cruel that I immediately felt attracted to him,” the girl confessed in her shabby diary. Very quickly they became lovers and Ian no longer needed to read Mein Kamf and the Marquis de Sade alone. At first they planned to rob a bank. But then they realized that stealing and killing children is much more fun.

Five children became unwitting participants in their entertainment for two years: the perverts tortured and raped them. The whole process was filmed, confident that they would produce amazing short films that were worthy of an Oscar - both were fans of films, especially those based on real events. (In addition, in the future, investigators will discover several audiotapes with recordings of children's screams).

In 1965, the couple was arrested. Journalists called the case “Murders on the Swamps”: Myra and Ian got rid of corpses there. A few weeks before the verdict, the death penalty was abolished in the UK, so the court sentenced the lovers to life imprisonment.

Behind bars, Brady dreamed about beautiful life. For one luxurious day in an expensive restaurant and with a bottle of his favorite liquor, he promised to show the burial places of the unfound victims. However, they did not believe him. After some time, the convicts began to demand that they be killed. They went on a hunger strike and stopped making contact. The prison guards did everything possible to ensure that they suffered to the last and did not die from exhaustion.

Myra died of bronchopneumonia. She was 60 years old. Her partner is still behind bars.

3. Ilse Koch

When Ilsa was appointed guard of one of the concentration camps, the former librarian felt potential in herself. She quickly learned the art of sadism and there was no greater pleasure for her than torturing prisoners. The German woman always carried a whip. She personally chose those whom she sent to the gas chamber and, with the smile of Mona Lisa, watched the torment of the doomed. The “Buchenwald bitch” (this nickname was awarded to Ilsa by the public and history) is credited with more than 50 thousand victims.

In 1941, Koch received a promotion. She was appointed senior guard among the female guards at the Buchenwald concentration camp. Ilsa got herself a shepherd dog, which she rarely fed, so that it would not disappoint the owner, while baiting the animal against prisoners. At the same stage of her career, Ilsa appreciated the beauty of leather objects. She began to order prisoners with tattoos to be killed and their skin to be “removed.” So she got a leather handbag.

After the war, the German woman managed to hide from justice for some time. However, in the summer of 1945 she was found and arrested. While the investigation was underway, Ilsa managed to get confused with an unknown artist. But the prosecutor decided that the defendant’s pregnancy was not a reason to justify her. His opinion was not shared by the court, which considered the woman a victim of the regime and... released her.

In 1951, justice finally reached Ilse Koch. The West Germans sentenced her to life imprisonment. In 1967, the unsinkable fascist managed to hang herself, which greatly surprised the guards, who did not take their eyes off her.

4. Aileen Wuornos

Eileen didn't remember her father. He died in prison, where he was for raping a boy. The mother, unable to cope with the burden, left Eileen and her brother to their parents. Allegedly for one day. The day stretched out for a lifetime - she was never seen again.

Eileen's grandparents took custody of their granddaughter. Gratitude followed a couple of years later, when Eileen told the police that she had been raped by her own grandfather (the psychiatrists working with the girl strongly doubted that this was true). By the age of 14, Eileen had lied so much that she was kicked out of the house. In order to somehow survive, she began to offer her services to truckers. At age 20, she briefly married a 70-year-old businessman, but he soon filed for divorce. “She rapes me,” the old man complained during the trial.

Eileen is back on the track. She began to hate men even more. But after Eileen accidentally killed her client, a driver who decided to beat up a roadside prostitute, she suddenly regained the meaning of life. In total, Eileen killed seven men. As a rule, she killed the victim with two bullets. Eileen shared her hobby with her sexy partner Tyra Moore, but she only asked her to keep her dirty secrets to herself.

In 1996, Eileen was sentenced to death, and in 2002 she was given a lethal injection. In the United States, death row inmates are entitled to a royal meal - before execution, they can order whatever their porridge-weary stomachs desire. Eileen only asked for a cup of strong coffee. Her last words began: “I’ll be back.”

And she really comes back: either in a film, or in a TV series, or in a book. And Charlize Theron received a real Oscar for her performance as Eileen.