Female Serial Killers: History, Myths, and Social Perception

Introduction: Challenging the Male Serial Killer Myth

The notion of female serial killers often appears as the minority of cases in the history of serial murder. It is as if there is a part of society that refuses to believe that women are just as capable of mass murder as some of the most horrific killers of our time. Still, while we may not, off the top of our heads, be able to list as many female serial killers as male ones, it is a myth that female serial killers are few and far between.

Nevertheless, society personifies the serial killer as being male, save perhaps for one or two notorious female serial killers who are still relatively recent compared to historical figures like Bathory. Take, for example, Aileen Wuornos, who preyed on truck drivers at truck stops in Florida, or Karla Homolka, one half of the deadly "Ken and Barbie" murderers. As one scholar notes, "Women have been murdering serially for as long as men, though their victims are usually family members or acquaintances, and they most often choose poison over other means of disposal" (MacLeod, Chapter 1).

For society to equate murder — let alone serial killing — with a woman is probably the hardest thing to accept. These days, media coverage almost desensitizes us to violent acts, and words like "homicide" and "multiple victims" have become everyday occurrences in our vocabulary. Nevertheless, women are still perceived as the gentler, more nurturing of the sexes, which may account for the difficulty we have not only in comprehending female serial killers but also in recognizing them.

Historical Cases of Female Serial Murder

History is riddled with stories of female murderers, like the legendary Hungarian Countess Elizabeth Báthory, who murdered women for pleasure and allegedly bathed in their blood to retain her beauty. It is estimated that "as many as 650 women and girls, some as young as twelve years of age, lost their lives to her bloodlust" (Noe, Chapter 2). Hardly the actions of a compassionate woman, Báthory's murderous history was considered, at the time, essentially nobody's business. During the sixteenth century, peasants were regarded as beneath the nobility, and despite many women and girls showing physical signs of Báthory's abuse prior to their deaths, nobody intervened. It was only when she was forced to approach the King for repayment of loans that her murderous habit was brought to an end.

There is also the story of the Black Widows of Liverpool — a group of women in 1884 who were deemed by the Home Office as "certain [to have] committed several other similar murders and there is reason to believe that crime of this kind is far from rare" (Brabin, p. 1). In the case of the Liverpool Black Widows, these women chose a passive method of murder, "soaking arsenic out of flypapers" (Healey, p. 14). While the case did not initially attract much attention — partly because the perpetrators were working-class women — it was a mere five years later that another flypaper poisoning drama hit the headlines (Healey).

Media Coverage and the Serial Killer Profile

For example, many of us are familiar with at least four serial killers by name, and usually they are Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy, Jeffrey Dahmer, and Jack the Ripper. We may recognize others if only because we were warned of their modus operandi — the Night Stalker and his preference for brunettes, or David Berkowitz's summer stalking campaign in the 1970s. If we were not made aware of these killers through media coverage at the time, we encounter them now through the many films and documentaries that showcase these criminal sociopaths. Even the popular film Copycat highlighted a cavalcade of notorious serial killers, and all of them were male.

Female serial killers have received very little media coverage or public attention, predominantly because they do not fit the established mold. Women are seen as nurturers, or the more compassionate of the sexes. As a result, their crimes are harder for the public and the media to process, and they are consequently given less coverage — a cycle that further entrenches the assumption that serial killing is a male domain.

Conclusion: Women as Perpetrators and Victims

"For all the recent scholarly and popular interest in murderous women, historical and contemporary evidence confirms that when women are involved in killings, they are far more likely to be victims than perpetrators" (Strange). Women are quite capable of being victims, just as men are, though society tends to show little sympathy toward male victims. We extend more empathy to female victims, and this instinct may skew our perception of female serial killers — making it harder to see them as perpetrators at all.

Ultimately, the evidence presented here — drawn from the long history of serial killing — demonstrates that female serial killers are not a modern anomaly or a rare aberration. They have existed throughout history, across social classes, and in professions associated with care and trust. Society's reluctance to acknowledge them says less about the reality of female violence and more about the enduring power of gender stereotypes that cast women as incapable of the darkest forms of human behavior.

Bibliography

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Brabin, A. "The Black Widows of Liverpool: Angela Brabin uncovers the gruesome tale of serial murder committed by a group of women in the poorest districts of 19th-century Liverpool." History Today, Oct. 2002.

Braidhill, K. "To Die For (Serial Killer Dana Sue Gray)." Los Angeles Magazine, Nov. 1998.

Healey, T. The World's Greatest Trials. Hamlyn Publishing, Octopus Books Ltd.: London, 1990.

MacLeod, M. "Aileen Wuornos: Killer who Preyed on Truck Drivers: The Myth and Reality." Court TV's Crime Library, 2000.

Muncie, J. Criminological Perspectives: A Reader. Sage Publications: London, 1997.

Noe, D. "Elizabeth Bathory: The Blood Countess." Court TV's Crime Library, 2000.

Pyrek, P. M. "Healthcare Serial Killers: Recognizing the Red Flags." Forensic Nurse, 2003.

Strange, C. "Murder and Meanings in U.S. Historiography." Feminist Studies, Fall 1999.