Who would have thought that women could be so cruel: kill people, while getting pleasure, or assert themselves, taking the lives of their victims. Around the world, women are not far behind male criminals in their ruthless treatment of those they kill. Despite the fact that a woman is a weak creature, she can still kill with particular cruelty. The most cruel women the murderers went down in history and made them known to the whole world.

Among the large number of female maniacs, it is still possible to single out the 10 most brutal female killers. Studying information about them, investigators were perplexed: where did these ladies have so much hatred and heartlessness in order to commit such bloody crimes, what were their motives, that even their own children did not stop them?

So who are these 10 most brutal female killers?

Marquise de Brenvilliers

There have been legends about this lady for a long time; her cruelty is shocking. She was born in 1630, and over the 46 years of her life she managed to “glorify” her name as one of the bloodiest female killers in history. This noble lady began her bloody path by depriving the life of her father, then brothers, sisters, husband and even her own children.

In the biography of the marquise, there is information about her extramarital affair with a certain captain of Sainte-Croix, perhaps because of him she wanted to get rid of everything that could interfere with their relationship, but this still does not at all justify the fact that she took the lives of her children. Undoubtedly, this woman’s cruelty knew no bounds, and she had never even heard of morality.

Bloody Gonzalez Sisters

Most female killers act alone, constantly hiding in anticipation of a new victim, but there are still cases where maniacs acted in pairs, for example, serial killers who were closely related to each other - the bloody Gonzalez sisters from Mexico. The activity of these sisters was that they were involved in the affairs of the brothel, looking for suitable girls to work in a brothel, sending out advertisements. Prostitutes who, for one reason or another, did not satisfy the hostesses of the brothel, from whom clients left and no income came from them, were easily killed by Maria and Delphine.

But not only girls of easy virtue died at the hands of the sisters: if someone entered the brothel, Gonzalez was also among the victims.

Not only prostitutes were killed: the number of female killers included a woman of easy virtue, Rosa. A married prostitute, who was also the mother of eight children, committed murders not alone, but with her husband, and they killed for pleasure; the victims were also selected according to special criteria. Rose and Fred chose as victims only young girls, often students, those for whom not everything was going well. At first glance, a benevolent married couple kindly offered this or that girl, meeting them simply on the street, shelter and food, care from the bottom of their hearts, without any payment for it.

Rose, being a sexual sadist, tortured the girls to death. The victims of this woman included not only the unfortunate girls who believed her kindness, but also Rosa’s stepdaughter and even daughter.

The witch of the Third Reich, the warden of one of the concentration camps, Ilse Koch, went down in history as a merciless torturer of prisoners. She took great pleasure in the fact that the prisoners suffered from her abuse. The horror of the Third Reich, Koch, often starved them so that they would attack the concentration camp prisoners with even greater viciousness. The whip never slipped out of the killer woman’s hands; she beat many prisoners to death. Koch selected victims for the gas chambers and watched with pleasure as they died in agony.

Another murderer-warden in the concentration camps was Irma Grese. The bloody daughter of the Third Reich inflicted inhumane torture on Auschwitz prisoners, and for her cruelty she received the nickname “Devil with Blonde Hair.”

Some women who began to kill innocent people, regardless of whether they were relatives or not, had no reason for this - perhaps they did it because of some deviations in their psyche. But some female killers developed hatred for their offenders from childhood, especially if they were men. Growing up, such girls began to take revenge on everyone who belonged to stronger sex- One of these women was Aileen Wuornos. It all started with the fact that, while still a little girl, she was raped by her own grandfather - this is the reason for Eileen’s subsequent hatred of men.


Having had early sexual experience, the girl gave birth by the age of 13, after which her grandfather kicked the young girl out of the house. Wuornos not only killed, but also robbed, and made a living by selling her body. Ultimately, the woman who committed more than one crime was declared mentally ill, but she still managed to take more than one life.

Many women who took the path of violence and cruelty were either prostitutes, or thieves, or experienced psychological disorders, but some of them, being mentally unstable, occupied quite respected positions in society. No one could even imagine that such a good and responsible nurse as Beverly Allitt was capable of such terrible things that she did and did not repent of it at all, because she received money from it.

Beverly took the lives of several small children by injecting them with insulin. At first it was difficult to make out the true one, because a heart attack caused by insulin was similar to a natural death. Why or why this woman did this is still not known.

Belle Sorences Guinness

There is a place in the history of America for Bella Guinness, but her fame was brought to her by completely unkind deeds, and her cruelty and exorbitant desire to kill. The woman did not experience any childhood psychological trauma, she did not defend herself from anyone, she did not receive pleasure from killing, she simply pursued one single goal - .

She saw the path to wealth in killing and receiving money with which the victims insured their lives. Guinness, pursuing her own selfish goals, took the lives of her own daughters, husbands (she had two), and a dozen lovers. The woman wanted to get the money, despite the fact that it was in the blood of the people she killed.

Women killed different ways, but still they often used poison to kill quietly and for sure. Anne Cotton is the queen of arsenic, who poisoned more than twenty people with this poison. The woman got married several times, and each new husband died at her hands. Cotton took the lives of not only her husbands, but also her own mother and her own children. Why Anne committed these murders remains a mystery.

The true reason why a woman becomes a killer is still unknown. Among the prostitutes, thieves, nurses, marquises, there are those who have done terrible things. One of the most dangerous women, known for her cruelty, was Daria Saltykova. What did the wealthy lady lack in life that she never stopped taking the lives of her serfs in the most cruel ways? Saltychikha, as the bloody landowner was called, chose as her victims the most defenseless of her subjects, namely women and little girls, killing them in the most terrible ways.

As sad as it is to say this, not all women are gentle and kind, not everyone is afraid of the sight of blood and is ready to take pity on a small child. Among the fairer sex there are still maniacs, women without pity - those who do not care human life who like to bully the weaker. Women can be cruel, the names of the most ruthless have gone down in history.

She enjoyed torture using various painful techniques. Her main habit was wearing heavy boots, which also helped her subdue prisoners. To achieve her criminal goals, Irma also always carried a pistol with her and often used it. Executed at 22 years and 67 days old, Grese became the youngest woman to be sentenced to death at trial under English law in the 20th century. She had many nicknames. The most popular: “The Beast of Belsen”, “The Beautiful Beast” and “The Hyena of Auschwitz”.

Born in 1942, Myra Hindley was an English serial killer. In partnership with Ian Brady, she committed the rapes and murders of five young children. Together these two monsters were responsible for the kidnapping, sexual violence, torture and murder of three children under the age of twelve and two teenagers aged 16 and 17 years. Hindley was turned in to the police by her 17-year-old half-brother, but she did not plead guilty to any of the murders. Myra was found guilty of three murders and sentenced to life imprisonment. She never left the prison walls and died in captivity in 2002.

She was born in 1451 and died in 1504. This woman was the queen of Castile and Leon. She and her husband Ferdinand II of Aragon brought stability to the kingdom, which became the basis for the unification of Spain. Isabella and Ferdinand famously completed the Reconquista, expelled Muslims and Jews, and financed Christopher Columbus's voyage in 1492, which led to the discovery of the "New World." Isabella received the title Servant of God catholic church in 1974.

But its cruelty and evil lies in the fact that behind all these achievements there are thousands of non-Catholics burned alive. During the infamous Spanish Inquisition, it ushered in an era of religious purges, and even the adoption of faith did not save the unfortunate from death at the stake!

Beverly Gail Allitt is an English serial killer who was found guilty of murdering four children, attempting to murder three children and causing grievous bodily harm to six more children. The offenses were committed over a 59-day period between February and April 1991 at the children's ward in Grantham and Kesteven Hospital, Lincolnshire, where Allitt worked as a nurse. She injected large doses of insulin into at least two victims and a large air bubble was found in the body of another, but police were unable to determine how the attacks were carried out. In May 1993, Nottingham Crown Court sentenced Beverley Allitt to 13 life sentences for all crimes committed. Mr Justice Latham told Allitt at sentencing that she posed a "serious danger" to others and was unlikely to ever be considered sufficiently dangerous to society to be released.

Mary I was born on February 18, 1516 and died on November 17, 1558. She was Queen of England and Ireland from July 1553 until her death. Her brutal persecution of Protestants caused her opponents to give her the nickname "Bloody Mary." She was the only surviving child of the ill-fated marriage of Henry VIII and his first wife, Catherine of Aragon. Mary is mostly remembered for England's temporary and brutal conversion to Catholicism. Many prominent Protestants in those days were executed for their beliefs. Fearing the gallows, about 800 more Protestants left the country and were unable to return until Bloody Mary's death.

With a height of 173 cm and a weight of 91 kg, Gunness was a physically strong woman. Belle became one of the most brutal and merciless female serial killers in America. This imposing and powerful woman was of Norwegian descent. It is likely that she killed both of her husbands and all of her children, but it can definitely be argued that she killed most of her suitors, boyfriends, and two daughters: Myrtle and Lucy. The motive was simple greed: life insurance policies, valuables and property stolen or defrauded from her suitors became Gunness's constant source of income.

Most reports of her death toll count more than twenty victims killed over several decades, but some claim the actual death toll is well over a hundred. Some inconsistencies discovered during her post-mortem examination (the corpse was reportedly shorter than Belle) caused Belle to enter criminal American folklore under the nickname "Bluebeard" and was allegedly seen after her death.

Britain's first serial killer, Mary Ann Cotton, was born in October 1832 in a village in County Durham. Married at the age of twenty to William Mowbray, Mary and her husband settled in Plymouth, Devon, to begin building their own family. The couple had five children, four of whom died of stomach fever and terrible abdominal pain. The series of tragedies did not stop there - three more children born died after illnesses with the same symptoms. And soon the head of the family, William, also followed his offspring, dying of an “intestinal disorder” in January 1865. The British Prudential promptly paid dividends to the widow in the amount of about 35 pounds. Her second husband, George Ward, died of intestinal problems, followed by the same fate for one of her two remaining children.

But the press became the force that exposed Mary Ann. Local newspapers connected all the facts: Mary Ann had moved from northern England, lost three husbands, a lover, a friend, her mother and a dozen children, all of whom died from stomach fever. Mary Ann was hanged on March 24, 1873 for murder by arsenic poisoning. The executioner deliberately prolonged her torment, “forgetting” to knock out the stool from under the condemned woman’s feet, so Mary died for a long and painful three minutes.

Born on September 22, 1906, Ilse Koch, known as the "Witch of Buchenwald" or "The Bitch of Buchenwald", was the wife of Karl-Otto Koch. She became one of the first prominent Nazis to be tried by the American military. Intoxicated by her husband's absolute power, she reveled in torture and obscenity. In 1940, Ilse was appointed chief warden among the few female guards at Buchenwald. Her souvenirs made from human skin became notorious; Ilsa ordered the killing of all prisoners with tattoos in order to make crafts out of them later. She beat the prisoners with a whip and set dogs on them. Ilse Koch committed suicide by hanging herself in women's prison September 1, 1967.

She was born on October 24, 1955 and continues to serve a life sentence in prison to this day. Catherine Mary Knight became the first Australian woman to be sentenced to life imprisonment without parole. Katherine more than once became the initiator of family scandals that led to tragic consequences. Once, during an argument, she cut the throat of an eight-month-old puppy in front of her ex-partner. And during the breakup, Knight knocked out false teeth for another boyfriend. But Katherine's main victim was her partner Price, who decided to leave the woman. He was brutally stabbed to death, receiving at least 37 stab wounds to vital organs. Katherine Knight then dismembered the corpse, skinned it, and hung the “suit” on the door frame in the living room. The woman cut off her partner's head and put it in a soup pot and stewed it with vegetables, baked his buttocks and seasoned it with sauce. Such "roast" and vindictive notes were served on the table for the Price children, but, fortunately, it was all discovered by the police before they arrived home.

The Bloody Countess was born in 1560 in the family mansion in the Hungarian town of Nyirbator and died in 1614. She is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the woman who has accomplished the most a large number of murders, and is Hungary's most notorious serial killer, although the number of her victims is a controversial issue. Elizabeth Bathory killed peasant girls who had to go through severe beatings, torture by fire, and mutilation various parts bodies, ripping off the skin from the face, torture with needles, etc. In the end, the countess was walled up in her own room, where she died.

It is not news that the world sometimes produces terrible and cruel killers, but who would have thought that such monstrous atrocities could be committed by women. Even the most balanced person can involuntarily tremble, because a murder committed by a woman - who gives life according to her destiny - is doubly terrible!

When we hear about serial killers, our minds immediately men's images. Few people think about women at this moment. And in vain. History knows women who surpassed many of the worst male killers in their cruelty. We present to you the most cruel women in the history of mankind.

At first glance, she was an ordinary woman, a decent wife and mother. She did a favor and took in two sisters. But neither they themselves nor their parents even imagined what kind of life awaited one of the sisters, Sylvia.

As soon as the girl appeared in the house of Gertrude Baniszewski, the whole family literally hated her. The woman herself cruelly mocked the girl, beat her, and came up with sophisticated punishments. One day, little Sylvia was forced to bathe in a bath of boiling water, while the whole family stood and cheerfully looked at this spectacle. Forced to mock the girl and her sister. Little Sylvia had bruises, abrasions, and scratches on her body. And one day the child’s body could not stand it. Sylvia died.

The Baniszewski family hastily covered up the traces of the crime, but they were never able to escape from Themis. More precisely, the mother is the head of the family. Despite the fact that the American public, amazed by her actions, demanded the death penalty for the torturer, the judge sentenced her to life imprisonment. But after 19 years, Gertrude was released. And her children, who took part in bullying Sylvia, did not suffer any punishment. They grew up and started families.

Mary I Tudor (Bloody Mary)

The future ruler of Medieval Britain was born at the height of the English sweat epidemic. She did not have a special mind, and all her knowledge consisted only in books about Christianity, although Mary herself was a Catholic. At court they called her that: Mary the Catholic. She got the reins of government by chance and coincidence. That's when her crimes began. First, she sent her 16-year-old relative Jane to the executioner. Her husband and father-in-law followed her.

Maria did not spare anyone. All who refused to accept Catholicism were executed. Very soon, bonfires were burning all over Britain, where unwanted people were burned. It was then that Mary was nicknamed Bloody. Today's historians are far from agreeing that the woman was so bloodthirsty. Many agree that she was a puppet of the people behind and above her.

Another bloody woman in human history. Countess Elizabeth Báthory lived in Hungary at Čeyde Castle. Its walls kept the grim activities of the countess: she, along with her three faithful servants (who, by the way, were also women), kidnapped young peasant girls and tortured them. There were even rumors among local residents that Elizabeth herself took baths from the blood of tortured and tormented girls.

When Elizabeth's actions with her servants were revealed, the countess was settled in her own castle, in a tightly walled tower. There was an opening just for serving food. The guards, on pain of death, did not dare talk to the bloody countess. She lived the rest of her days in the same tower.

Irma Grese worked as a senior guard at the Virkenau concentration camp. The prisoners called her the Angel of Death, the Beautiful Beast and the Blonde Devil. This woman combined angelic beauty and devilish insides. She took pleasure in tormenting prisoners. Even the most seasoned Nazis could not think of such atrocities that she committed. For example, she unleashed a hundred starving dogs on a crowd of prisoners. And her favorite thing to do was sit on a chair, hum a song and shoot women prisoners walking in the crowd.

Of course, all these acts did not go unpunished for Irma. She was sentenced to death by hanging. By the way, the woman herself dreamed of getting on television and becoming a cinema star. But the dream of this cruel person was not destined to come true. Her life ended on the gallows. By the way, the whole evening before her execution, she had fun, sang songs and had fun with her friend, a fellow torturer.

It's hard to imagine, but this woman is the first serial killer in England. He spared no one - neither husbands nor children. Everyone around her, becoming unfit, immediately died from a mysterious “stomach fever.”

Mary Ann was born into a miner's family. When she was 16 years old, her father died and the girl had to spin and survive. Without thinking twice, she married a miner older than her. In marriage she gave birth to five children. But she didn’t want to eke out a miserable existence, raising constantly screaming, sick children. And therefore, her children began to die one after another. Their father followed them.

But the woman didn’t even think about grieving; on the contrary, she was very happy about the insurance that she was paid after her husband’s death. She bought herself a new dress and had fun and danced right in the cemetery.

Then she had several more husbands who also died mysteriously. Their children, whom Mary Ann hated, also left with them. And it is unlikely that her secret would have been revealed if not for meticulous journalists. They connected everything mysterious deaths around the woman and soon an autopsy of the bodies showed that there was a huge amount of arsenic in the tissues.

The woman was sentenced to hang. There is an opinion that the elderly executioner deliberately tied the rope incorrectly so that the black widow would suffer before death.

Evil is an integral part of human existence. Since ancient times, people have learned to fight it, saving themselves from various misfortunes.

And if you think that evil is only something supernatural and mystical, then you have simply never encountered it. The worst thing is when evil lives in human hearts, turning them into merciless serial killers, maniacs, political dictators and lovers of making fun of living flesh. Now imagine that all of the above persons are women! Scary!? We will tell you about 25 beauties, whose cruelty and sadism “glorified” them throughout the world.

1. Gertrude Baniszewski

Gertrude Baniszewski, also known as Gertrude Rhine, is one of the most violent criminals in the entire world. In 1965, with the help of neighboring children, she bullied Sylvia Likens, a girl taken into custody, for a long time. Moreover, Gertrude tortured the poor child to death. She didn’t just beat Sylvia: Gertrude dipped her in boiling water, burned inscriptions on her body, and covered the burns with salt. When she was found guilty of first-degree murder in 1966, her case was called the worst crime against an individual in Indiana history. Gertrude was initially given the death penalty, but it was later replaced by life imprisonment. Gertrude's eldest daughter was also given life imprisonment, and her three sons were given 2-21 years in prison.

2. Elizaveta Bathory

Countess Bathory, or the Bloody Countess, is famous throughout the world as one of the most brutal serial killers. According to legend, Elizabeth was so passionate about the “elixir of youth” that she was ready to do anything for the sake of beauty. Why is she called one of the most bloodthirsty women? Because she believed that taking blood baths would give her youth and beauty for many years. For this purpose, in the late 16th and early 17th centuries, she tortured and killed more than 650 young girls in her castle Kahtice in Slovakia. Thanks to her influential family, the countess was not brought to trial, but was immured in one of the rooms of the Hungarian castle of Cheyte, where she died 4 years after imprisonment.

3. Ilse Koch

Known as the Witch of Buchenwald or Frau Lampshaded, Ilse Koch is considered one of the worst villains of the Holocaust. Nazi commandant's wife concentration camp Buchenwald, Karl-Otto Koch, Ilse Koch was a nymphomaniac who tortured prisoners in a concentration camp. She was known for her cruel and sadistic tendencies. Ilse beat prisoners, raped them, forced them to have sex, and skinned those who had tattoos. She used the flayed skin for the covers of her own books and souvenirs. self made. After World War II, Frau Koch was convicted of all her atrocities, although death penalty were not appointed, but only sent to jail. She sat in the cell for about 20 years, and then hanged herself there.

4. Mother Barker

In American history, Mother Barker is known as the most incredible gangster. She was a rare woman who led gangs of thugs, in which, by the way, her sons were raised. In the entire history of American gangs, Ma Barker's gangs were the most sophisticated and elusive. They managed to get rich by killing everyone who got in their way. In 1935, she was killed at her Florida hideout during a shootout with the FBI. At the time, first FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover called Barker "the most vicious, dangerous and resourceful criminal brain of the last decade."

5. Myra Hindley

Myra Hindley received the title of "Britain's most evil woman." Together with their sadistic psychopathic lover Ian Brady, they tortured, raped and murdered five children aged 10-17. For a long time in the 60s. this pair of serial killers terrified Manchester and England as a whole. When they were finally caught, they were charged with their crimes. Myra was then given two life sentences. In 2002, she died in her cell due to respiratory failure at the age of 60.

6. Griselda Blanco

Griselda Blanco, nicknamed La Madrid or the Black Widow, was a drug lord and one of the most influential crime bosses Florida in the late 70s. Blanco is also known as the mentor of the most famous criminal Pablo Escobar, who later became her enemy. Griselda married 3 times, but all her husbands died suddenly. For this reason, she was nicknamed "Black Widow". It is known that she killed her second husband herself with a shot in the mouth. During the investigation, it was found that Griselda was involved in more than 200 murders of people while transporting drugs from Colombia to the United States. Blanco was caught and sentenced to 15 years in prison. Subsequently, the term was increased by another 60 years, but with the help of skillful lawyers, Blanco was released in 2004. She was deported to Colombia, where she was shot and killed in 2012 by a passing motorcyclist.

7. Mary Tudor

Meet Mary Tudor - eldest daughter King Henry VIII, known to everyone as Bloody Mary. In the history of England, she is remembered as the most bloodthirsty, evil and cruel woman. During his short reign - from 1553-1558. - she executed 297 representatives of the elite classes. Also, by her decree, mass executions of Protestants and those who participated in popular uprisings took place. Maria also executed her younger sister Jane Gray. Bloody Mary died of illness and was buried in Westminster Abbey.

8. Dagmar Overby

Dagmar Overbu worked as a manager in an orphanage and between 1913 and 1920 she killed 25 children, including one of her own. Since the parents of most babies did not return for their children, no one even kept a record of the babies arriving. The babies Dagmar killed were strangled, drowned, or burned in a stone oven. Unfortunately, Overby was found guilty of only 9 murders and was sentenced to death. Subsequently, the death penalty was replaced by life imprisonment. In 1929, Dagmar died at the age of 42. It is noteworthy that this case went down in the history of Danish trials as the most famous in Danish history.

9. Christiane Edmunds

Christiane Edmunds was a murderer and mentally ill woman with a strange hobby - she poisoned people using chocolates. It is noteworthy that it all started with sympathy for his neighbor, who unfortunately was married. Arriving to visit, Christiane treated his wife to poisoned candy, and after a while the woman felt unwell. The lover blamed his wife Christiana for the illness, who, in order to remove suspicion from herself, began buying candy throughout the city and poisoning it. People bought them and got sick. In 1871, a 4-year-old boy died from chocolate candy, but the investigation did not reveal anything criminal in this case. And if it weren’t for Christiana’s mistake, then half of the city, or even most of it, would have died from chocolate poison. The woman was arrested and found guilty and sentenced to death. But she was sent to an insane asylum, where she spent the rest of her days and died at the age of 78.

Known as the Mad Monarch of Madagascar, Ranavaluna is considered one of the most brutal female politicians in history. Ranavaluna ruled the island of Madagascar for 33 years. All the years of his reign were filled with sheer terror, fear and murder. European missionaries were expelled from the country and Christians were persecuted. Thousands of people died because of its cruel laws and regulations. Moreover, according to legend, Ranavaluna executed all her close associates if they appeared to her in a dream.

11. Irma Grese

A sweet girl with a beautiful appearance, behind which was hidden the terrible essence of a cruel woman. Irma is the most famous, youngest and most cruel of all Nazi concentration camp guards. Because of her angelic appearance, prisoners called her “Angel of Death”, “Beautiful Monster”, “Blonde Devil”, “Hyena of Auschwitz”. She tortured so many people in the concentration camps that the male guards were amazed at her cruelty and inhumanity. In 1943, Irma had approximately 30,000 female prisoners under its control. The sadist wore heavy boots and a whip, with which she beat her “wards” in turn. She also loved to play Russian roulette: she would line up women in a row, take out a gun and shoot each of them, watching as the poor women fainted. She also starved dogs, which she then released into a crowd of women. She personally participated in the formation of groups for the gas chambers. According to survivors, Irma experienced real sexual satisfaction from her torture. Once captured by the British, Irma was tried and sentenced to death. She was hanged in 1945 at the age of 22.

12. Amelia Dyer

Born in 1837 in Great Britain, Amelia Dyer is known as a serial killer in Victorian Britain. Dyer, like Overbue, cared for babies abandoned by their mothers. Over the course of 30 years of operation, it killed about 300 babies (although according to other sources the number of those killed was 400). She used tape as a murder weapon, which she used to strangle babies. At that time, the problem of infanticide was acute in Britain, but no one paid enough attention to this issue. Amelia's "business" flourished even after she was sentenced to forced labor. It was only after the tiny baby's body was fished out of the Thames and her home was searched that she was sentenced to death.

13. Bella Guinness

“The Black Widow,” as Bella Guinness was popularly called, kept all of America in fear for a long time. The serial killer is a large woman (height 1.83 m, weight 200 kg) who killed more than 40 people in her entire life, including her husbands, fiances, and daughters. One day, Bella was so fed up with one of her secret admirers that she decided to burn down her house along with him. And so it happened. In the basement of the house, charred human bones and a headless corpse were found - allegedly the corpse of Bella herself. But as the examination recognized, it was the body of the housekeeper. The surviving fan told the police the whole truth about Bella and her murders. He was given 20 years for setting fire to a house, and she was officially declared dead. Although it is not known exactly what happened to her.

14. Klara Mauerova

Look at the photo and tell me, can you imagine this woman as a member of a sinister ritual cult who ate her sons for 8 months, torturing and tormenting them? Moreover, her whole family took part in this. The children were kept in cages in the basement, abused, beaten, raped, cigarette butts were put out on them, and pieces of meat were cut off from them, which were subsequently eaten. For a long time, residents of a Czech town had no idea what was happening in the neighboring house until one of them bought a video baby monitor for their own child. Then the nanny, purely by chance, caught the image from the cameras installed in the basement of Mauerova’s house. And now the worst thing is that the entire gang of sadistic cannibals was found guilty and sentenced to a short term - from 5-9 years in prison in 2007.

15. Karla Homolka

In the early 90s, Karla Homolka and her husband Paul Bernardo kidnapped and raped at least three girls. The first victim of the serial couple was Carla's younger sister, 15-year-old Tammy. The most disgusting thing about this is that Paul, who was going crazy with sympathy for the girl, asked her to molest her younger sister. They drugged her with spaghetti and Valium, and then Paul raped the girl. After some time, they put the girl to sleep again and together with Karla they raped her in the basement. But the girl choked on vomit due to poisoning and died. Soon the criminals were caught and convicted, but Carla promised to testify against her husband, and she was released. She now lives on the island of Guadeloupe under a different name with her new husband and three children.

16. Mireya Moreno Carreon

Mireya is known as the most famous woman among drug dealers. She was one of the first to become involved in Los Zetas drugs. She was responsible for all sales points in Mexico. It is noteworthy that she started out as a police officer, but then switched to the “dark side” and soon became the main boss of a drug cartel. A year later, she was arrested while driving a stolen car.

17. Tilly Klimek

Tilly Klimek was an American serial killer in the first half of the 20th century. For a long time she pretended to be a psychic and a seer who predicted the death of people with amazing accuracy. Four of her husbands died in the strangest way, and, of course, Tili chalked it all up to her bad luck. The method of execution was quite simple - she poisoned people with arsenic. According to some reports, she managed to kill 20 people. Her fifth husband miraculously managed to survive, so Tilly was detained. In 1923, Tilly was sentenced to life imprisonment, where she died at the age of 60.

18. Charlene Gallego

Married couple Charlene and Gerald Gallego tortured, raped and killed 9 girls, one of whom was pregnant, between 1978 and 1980. All but one of the victims were teenagers or young girls. And perhaps the couple would have managed to hide if they had not attacked the young couple. The guy was shot and the girl was raped and killed. Friends managed to see the kidnapping, wrote down the car's license plate number and turned the maniacs over to the police. In 1984, Charlize testified against her husband and was given only 16 years in prison. Gerald was sentenced to death, but died in prison from colon cancer. Charlize was released in 1997.

19. Catherine de Medici

One of the most powerful, but also bloodthirsty and cruel female rulers medieval Europe, Catherine de' Medici was an Italian-born noblewoman and Queen of France from 1547-1559. In history, her name is directly connected with St. Bartholomew's Night. The massacre of the Huguenots was organized precisely on the orders of Catherine de Medici in order to maintain her power in the political arena. Some estimates indicate that more than 30,000 people died that night.

20. Delphine LaLaurie

Known as Madame Blanc, Delphine LaLaurie was once a wealthy socialite in New Orleans. Although she became famous thanks to her sadistic tendencies. Madame Lalaurie loved to mock black slaves, so a real atmosphere of horror and pain reigned in her ode. One day, there was a fire in her house, started by two blacks tied to the kitchen stove. Firefighters who arrived at the scene found a whole torture chamber in the attic: the twisted and mutilated bodies of people who were being experimented on were sitting in cages. Residents of New Orleans wanted to execute Delphine, but she managed to escape to France, where, according to unconfirmed reports, she died while hunting a boar.

21. Daria Saltykova

Daria Saltykova is an 18th Russian noblewoman and serial killer, known by her nickname Saltychikha. Using torture, she tortured and killed more than 140 serfs. She beat the serfs with whips, buried them alive in the ground - and absolutely everyone suffered: children, teenagers, pregnant girls, old people, men. For her boundless cruelty, Saltychikha is compared to Countess Bathory, who had similar sadistic traits. Saltychikha was sentenced to deprivation of her noble title and her husband's surname was taken away. She was also tied to a pole with the inscription above her head “Tormentor and Murderer.” After this, she was sent to a convent for life, where she died after 30 years of imprisonment at the age of 71.

22. Leonarda Cianciulli

Leonarda Cianciulli is a famous Italian female killer who, in the period from 1939-1940. killed three women. It started with the fact that her eldest son was drafted into the army, and she decided that sacrifices were needed to save him. She lured girls to her place, treated them to drugged wine, and finished them off with an axe. Then she dissolved the dismembered corpse with caustic soda and made soap from it. For which she later received the nickname “The Soap Maker of Correggio.” She added the blood of the victims to cakes and syrups, which she then treated to friends and neighbors. Leonarda believed that in this way she could lift the curse from her family. For her atrocities, she received 30 years in prison and 3 years in a mental hospital.

23. Juana Barraza

Juana Barraza was born in 1957 into a dysfunctional family and became one of the most bloodthirsty serial killers in Mexican history. Between 1998 and 2006, she killed approximately 46-48 elderly women, earning her the nickname "The Old Lady Killer." She bludgeoned, strangled and robbed elderly women. For a long time, the police suspected a man of the murders. It was only in 2006 that Barassa was caught trying to escape from the crime scene. She was found guilty of 16 charges and sentenced to 759 years in prison.

24. Aileen Wuornos

Aileen Wuornos is considered one of the most beautiful female maniacs in the whole world. Left early parents' house, she began to engage in prostitution on the highways of Florida. And in 1989, she killed her first victim - a man whom she stabbed to death. After this, Wuornos killed about 5 men before she was caught. She was convicted and put on death row. And although her sanity was in question, Eileen was sentenced to death by injection in 2002. Hollywood blockbuster "Monster" with Charlize Theron in leading role based on this story.

25. Miyuki Ishikawa

In Japan, Miyuki Ishikawa ranks first in the history of serial criminals. Known as the "Demon Midwife". Miyuki worked as a midwife and is estimated to have killed between 85 and 169 babies throughout her life. She believed that she was helping poor and disadvantaged families, thus solving their problems. During the trial, she denied her guilt, arguing that it was the parents who were to blame for the death of these abandoned children. And her defense was indeed successful. Miyuki was sentenced to only 8 years in prison. After an appeal, the term was halved.

The image of a maniac-killer in the eyes of the public has practically taken shape. Usually people immediately think of Chikatillo or Jack the Ripper. Such a man is often driven by sexual motives, and he commits his crimes with maximum cruelty.

However, criminology knows many cases when the bloody criminal turns out to be... a woman. Experts say that such maniacs can be as cruel as strong men. Let's talk about ten of the most famous female killers in history; films were even made based on the actions of some of them.

Bella Sorenson Guinness. This killer was nicknamed the "Black Widow" and had 42 victims. The motives for her actions were greed and money; the woman received perverted pleasure from her actions. Bela was born in Norway, then moved to the USA. Here she became the wife of an entrepreneur from Chicago. Two of her daughters died in strange ways over time. The symptoms resembled colitis, but historians believe it may have been the work of their mother. After all, all the signs pointed to poisoning; the death of the children made it possible for Bella to receive insurance. Soon the husband also died, unexpectedly poisoned by his own medications. The widow received insurance in this case as well. The funds received made it possible for Bella to purchase a farm. But her husband’s relatives decided that the death was not accidental, suspecting Bella herself of the crime. She, without wasting any time, meanwhile put the murder of her lovers on stream. She advertised, organizing love correspondence. Middle-aged men came to her house, wanting to meet an interesting widow. Bella easily lured guests into her bed; they had no idea that the pretty woman was a cold-blooded killer. All men have accidents. As a result, the woman was able to bury 42 husbands, eventually accumulating more than a quarter of a million dollars. However, evil could not go unpunished. The Black Widow also ended her life tragically. She simply disappeared, and over time her body was found in the forest. Someone beheaded the woman and then burned her body. True, there were rumors that the body found did not belong to Bella at all, and she herself was able to hide and avoid punishment.

Jane Toppan. This is the first representative of medicine on this list. Jane, as a nurse, attacked her sick and infirm patients. I grew up restless, thanks to my difficult childhood. Her father was insane and refused to look after her. She herself eventually grew up in Boston, in an orphanage. Her adoptive parents also turned out to be extremely poor, which only increased her anger towards others. When Jane was studying to become a nurse, her teachers noted her strange interest in photographs of dissected bodies. But this behavior did not prevent her from finishing her education and starting working with patients. The patients immediately liked her and called the pleasant nurse “Jolly Jane.” But in the course of her work, the woman discovered that she literally received sexual pleasure from injecting drugs into patients and then putting them on the brink of life and death. Jane took care of many patients. When they were unconscious, she touched them, experiencing sexual arousal. In 1885, Toppan intensified her experiments, transforming them into murders, and she was eventually arrested and convicted of proven 11 deaths. While Jane was in custody, she confessed to committing 31 more murders. The examination proved that "Jolly Jane" could not be found guilty due to her insanity. After the verdict, the killer spent the rest of her life in a mental hospital.

Countess Elizabeth Bathory. The exact number of victims of this “bloody countess” remains unknown; historians talk about 30-650 victims. Legends say that the capricious woman loved to take baths with the blood of her victims, who were certainly young girls. The Countess believed that such bathing could prolong her youth and improve the condition of her skin. The woman abused her power in every possible way, leading to the death of many of her subjects. The crimes were characterized by extreme sadism, while the countess herself experienced sexual pleasure. The woman forced her subjects to lick the blood from the bodies of her naked victims. This passion for blood ranked Elizabeth Bathory among the historically reliable vampires. She lured the most beautiful girls, promising them a job. The accomplice of the bloody murderer was her husband, Ferenc Nadasdi. He gave his wife a castle so that she could use her wedding gift to carry out bloody torture. Rumors of numerous murders reached the Habsburg court. The emperor ordered to deal with the bloody murderer. However, no high-profile trial took place. Noble relatives chose to hide the countess in the dungeon of her own castle, where she died three years later at the age of 54.

Rosemary West.

Eileen Wuornos.

This woman had a very difficult childhood, which was also disfigured by incest on the part of her grandfather. Is it any wonder that in the soul of the growing girl there was nothing but hatred of society and men. Early sexual experience led to looseness. Already at the age of 13, Eileen became pregnant, and at the age of 15 she was kicked out of the house by her own grandfather. The woman had all the signs of antisocial personality disorder. She repeatedly broke the law, robbing stores with a gun in her hands. Eileen even got married; her 70-year-old husband began to be subjected to physical violence. The elderly husband left his strange wife a month later, accusing her of wasting his money. But she found herself another mate - the woman Tyria Moore. Eileen was forced to work as a prostitute, earning a living for both of them. But such an activity was quite dangerous. One day Eileen killed a man. According to her, he brutally raped her beforehand, so it was an act of self-defense. The feeling of blood took possession of the woman, and soon she killed 6 more people in Florida. All of them were drivers without passengers, middle-aged. They agreed to give the woman a ride and have sexual intercourse with her. The murder weapon was invariably a pistol. Based on Eileen's story, the film "Monster" was made, starring Charlize Theron. She received an Oscar for this, and the killer herself received the death penalty in 2002. Psychiatrists were convinced of the sanity of Eileen, who simply hated human life. Andrea Yates. Often a series of crimes are committed under the influence of severe mental disorders. Schizophrenia can "reward" criminals with a voice that gives them instructions for action. Andrea Yates had just such a situation; it was a serious mental illness that caused the woman to kill her five children by drowning them in the bathtub. Of all the killers on our list, she is the most deranged. The woman was never diagnosed with schizophrenia, but she had serious mental disorders. This is a long and difficult postpartum depression children with a minimum interval as a result, the woman was plunged into a psychological hole. Her husband, a computer engineer at NASA, who wanted to have many descendants, can also be blamed for this. True, he later shifted the blame for what happened to the family psychiatrist. The specialist was accused of failing to recognize the gravity of the situation and signal it. As a result, one day a woman decided to achieve a state of peace in a terrible way - within an hour, she methodically, one by one, drowned all her babies in the bathtub. The oldest was only 7 years old, and the youngest was 6 months old. After the crime, the woman called 911 and her husband. While giving an interview, the criminal then admitted that she wanted to kill the children because they were not righteous. Being a devout Catholic, Andrea suddenly realized that her own sins would not allow her children to grow up to be exemplary Christians. In the end, taking their lives seemed like the best solution to her.

Beverly Allitt.

And this serial killer was a nurse. The Englishwoman abused her position to satisfy her secret fantasies. Beverly did not attack elderly people, but defenseless children. She injected them with potassium chloride or insulin, causing cardiac arrest. As with other serial killers, the thirst for new crimes increased. In her ward, a nurse abused 13 children, killing four of them. All this happened over the course of just two months. The victims were children aged from two months to five years. In the case of two-month-old Becky Phillips, the parents were so grateful to Beverly for caring for the baby that they asked to become her godmother. But it was the nurse’s injections that caused subsequent paralysis and brain damage. Only after the last case with one and a half year old Claire, the hospital administration called the police, suspecting something was wrong with such frequent cardiac arrest in children. It turned out that Beverly was on duty in all cases. After the nurse's arrest, psychiatrists spoke with her, who discovered that Beverly had a disorder known as Munchausen syndrome. Allitt was sentenced to life imprisonment in a special clinic that houses the criminally mentally ill. Should she be released - after all, the families of the murdered children are threatening her with physical harm? Karla Homolka., killing animals. Soon, 17-year-old Carla met 23-year-old Paul. He was interested in the sophisticated fantasies and sadistic orgies of his girlfriend. Having tried out their ideas on themselves, the couple decided to move on to “live material”. Carla lured young girls into her house, creating a real prison for them there. The sexual atrocities carried out by the couple surpassed anything ever known. The victims eventually became three girls aged 13-15 years. Paul forced them to beg him for sex, raping him and filming it all. Active participation His girlfriend also took part in the action. After her arrest, Carla gave testimony that allowed her to be sentenced to only 12 years. But Paul will spend the rest of his life behind bars. Carla avoided responsibility, shifting it all to her partner. He acted as the executor of the plans of his director friend. Psychologists have proven that the girl is practically healthy, although some deviations could provoke such a wave of cruelty.

Susan Smith. This woman also suffered from a personality disorder, which caused the death of her two sons, Alex and Michael. The woman had an unhappy childhood, having experienced sexual abuse and incest. She claimed that her stepfather raped her, and when the relationship was discovered, her mother blamed her for everything. This became the impetus for Susan's narcissistic illusions. A young mother strapped her children into the back seat of her car, allowing the car to roll off a boat dock and into the lake. At the same time, Susan has long argued that the children were kidnapped by a black man. The woman appealed for help on television, and the case received great publicity. But Susan failed a lie detector test when asked if she knew the whereabouts of her children. As a result, her guilt was proven. The motive for the crime was love for a rich admirer who did not want to see other people's children around him. The woman received a life sentence, having already entered prison sexual relations

with at least two guards. Diana Downs. other people's children are not included. Then Diana began to cold-bloodedly destroy the “obstacles” to her happiness. It was late at night when the woman put the children in the car and took them to a deserted place. There she killed 7-year-old Cheryl with a pistol, wounding Christy and Danny. Until the last moment, the unfortunate people did not understand what their own mother was doing to him. Three-year-old Danny, as a result of being shot at point-blank range, was paralyzed from the waist down, and eight-year-old Christie suffered from speech failure and paralysis of half her body. In court, Christie had difficulty explaining to the jury what happened. Child killer Diana Downs is currently serving time prison term. Her vile nature manifested itself here too - she began to conduct frank correspondence with the serial killer and maniac Randy Woodfield.