Unbelievable Facts
For the vast majority of people, a woman is a symbol of compassion, kindness and, of course, motherhood.
However, history knows women who have committed such terrible crimes that even seasoned men are horrified by.
Some of the women committed their atrocities in concentration camps. They too are serial killers who took advantage of the opportunities provided by the Nazi regime.
The motives that led these women to commit all these horrible crimes are different. However, they all have one thing in common — incredible cruelty and sadistic tendencies.
Maniacs and serial killers among women
Ilsa Koch
Ilsa Koch, a member of the National Socialist German Workers Party of Germany since 1932, was married to notorious Nazi criminal Karl Koch, the first commandant of Buchenwald, one of major concentration camps.
Ilsa not only shared her husband's views, but also took an active part in abusing prisoners; and for her own pleasure.
For example, it is known that prisoners who were found to have tattoos were killed on her personal orders. The skin of the unfortunate was ripped off and then made from it to Ilsa's request for lampshades or something similar.
Ilsa Koch was one of the first Nazi criminals to be captured by United States Army soldiers in 1945. She was convicted, but was released a few years later, which caused public outrage.
Koch was sent back to prison in 1951. This time, the merciless murderer was imprisoned for more than 16 years before committing suicide in a Bavarian prison.
Belle Sorensen Gunness
Not all women, who represented pure evil, acted with the wrong hands, using their power. Belle Gunness, the most productive female serial killer in US history, so to speak, did not shy away from dirty work.
It is known that Gunness was born in Norway in 1859, but moved to America in 1881, where she married three years later. There, Belle put murders on stream, always profiting financially (insurance, inheritance) from her crimes.
She was a big and physically strong woman. According to some historians, she killed not only her husbands (Gunness married twice) and boyfriends, but also her children.
According to some reports, Belle Gunness has killed 25 to 40 people over a period of almost thirty years in the United States. At the same time, she often simply poisoned her victims. The female murderer was called a “black widow”, but she was never arrested.
It is known that Gunness just left home one day and never came back. However, a few days later, a body was found, which was identified as Belle Gunness's body. It is interesting that attempts to identify the body were already made in 2007, but the genetic material was insufficient.
Read also: The most terrible serial killers of the 20th century
Irma Grese
Irma Grese, a supervisor of several concentration camps, can be called Ilsa Koch's colleague, although the latter has never been a warden. On the other hand, Irma also supported the National Socialist movement in Germany with her party membership.
At the age of 20, Irma took one of the highest positions in Auschwitz, becoming the second person after the commandant at this death camp. Judging by the nicknames she was given, Grese was in her place.
Irma has been called the Angel of Death, the Blonde Devil, and even the Beautiful Beast. She used numerous methods of emotional and physical pressure on prisoners, including shootings, dog bullying, gas chambers, and other bullying.
After the war, Irma dreamed of becoming an actress, but she managed to become the youngest female henchman executed by the Nazi regime. However, she played the last role perfectly: when they put a rope around her neck, Irma commanded the executioner in a calm voice to “Faster”.
Leonard Cianciulli
Leonarda Cianciulli was born in the Italian province of Montelle in 1894. Most likely, no one would ever know about this lady's fate if Leonard's mother showed her more parental love as a child.
According to Cianciulli herself, she was cursed by her own mother. Whether this was true is unknown, but out of 17 pregnancies Leonard managed to give birth to only four of her children: she had three miscarriages and ten died in infancy.
In 1939, Leonard decided to sacrifice three of her neighbors — for some reason she decided that she would save her eldest son from participating in the war. She took turns killing the unfortunate, so that later she could use the remains of each of them to make soap, and the blood to use for specially formulated cakes.
On cumulative charges, Leonard Cianciulli went to an Italian prison for 30 years, which she served safely. The murderer died in 1970 in a psychiatric hospital. Her killing tools, as well as her soap maker, are on display at the Museum of Criminology in Rome.
What do you know about female maniacs and serial killers?
Eileen Wuornos
Born in 1956, American Eileen Wuornos committed all her murders when I was 33-34 years old, but this woman's whole life literally encouraged her to become a criminal.
It is known that Wuornos has been constantly raped and had sexual intercourse since the age of 11. At the age of 15, the girl was kicked out of her home by her own grandfather, after which she started working as a prostitute.
Then, from Wuornos's biography, you can compile a code of any offense: she drove under the influence of alcohol, engaged in fraud, armed robberies, car theft, forgery documents and other neglect.
Eileen committed her first murder in November 1989 and her last murder in November 1990. During the year, she allowed seven men, for which she was sentenced to death. Wuornos initially claimed that she killed all seven in self-defense to protect herself from harassment.
However, shortly before her execution, she wrote an appeal to the Florida Supreme Court, in which she made it clear that she hates people and human life. Wuornos stressed that she does not regret what she did and would continue to kill if she were free.
Tamara Ivanyutina
Tamara Ivanyutina, a Soviet citizen who worked as a dishwasher at an ordinary Kiev school in the late 1980s, became an example of real evil. This woman was responsible for nine innocent lives, including children.
Ivanyutina used thallium-based poison as a murder tool. She began to commit her cynical crimes long before the 1987 food poisoning of children throughout the Soviet Union.
Ivanyutina's first victim was her first husband, whom she poisoned for an apartment. Tamara soon remarried, but she could not stop: the woman sent her second husband's parents to the next world.
Their second husband soon followed them — all this for the sake of a house with a plot of land. Tamara killed all her victims methodically and cynically, setting very specific material goals.
Despite the fact that her actions resemble those of an insane sadist, Ivanyutina was found to be sane. She has 20 proven poisoning attempts. She was the last woman to be sentenced to death in the Soviet Union. The sentence was carried out.
Antonina Makarova
Antonina Makarovna Makarova was an example of how traitors with sadistic tendencies are more terrible than an obvious enemy. Makarova went down in history as Tonka a machine gunner.
During the Great Patriotic War, Antonina found herself in the service of the German occupiers. Along with other traitors, Makarova participated in mass shootings of her own fellow citizens.
However, Tonka the machine gunner surpassed everyone in her sadistic zeal: according to some reports, the number of people she shot exceeded 1,500. She shot dozens of people every day, then took her favorite clothes, sometimes complaining that they were damaged by bullets.
Tonka the machine gunner is an example of a pathological killer who is not burdened with any pain of conscience. However, much later, after 1976, some psychiatrists expressed the opinion that Antonina, despite her sanity, may have suffered from a split personality.
This story is also remarkable for the fact that Antonina Makarova (her last husband, Ginzburg) managed to join the peaceful post-war life of her country, became an exemplary wife, mother, and editorial production. She was arrested in 1978, sentenced to death, and carried out a year later.
Serial murders: brutal crimes committed by women
Myra Hindley
Myra Hildy is an example of how successful the “collaboration” of a violent and violent young girl and a sexually anxious psycho with sadistic tendencies can be.
The sexually anxious psycho with whom Myra committed her sadistic crimes was a certain Ian Brady. The couple operated in the UK in the 1960s. Their goal was to abuse and kill children.
In two years, Ian and Myra killed five children between the ages of 10 and 17. Virtually every crime was accompanied by sexual violence. The atrocities this couple committed defy description.
For their crimes, the Swamp Killers (this is the nickname they received) were sentenced to life imprisonment. Britain abolished the death penalty shortly before sadists were arrested.
Myra, who was called “Britain's most evil woman”, died in prison in 2002. Authorities are said to have struggled to agree to cremate her body — crematoriums initially refused to do so. Ian Brady passed away just recently in a psychiatric hospital.
Irina Gaydamachuk
Irina Gaidamachuk began her career as a murderer when she was 31 years old. Posing as a social worker, Irina broke into the homes of pensioners, where she cynically killed them using an ordinary hammer as a murder weapon.
Haidamachuk committed her first murder in 2003. She acted very carefully, changing cities, killing in villages, covering her tracks. Irina was detained only in 2010. In eight years, the killer sent seventeen elderly people to the next world. There were one more attacks, but one old lady managed to escape.
Residents of Krasnoufimsk, a small town in the Sverdlovsk region, for a long time could not believe that such brutal murders were committed by a woman. In fact, Irina Gaidamachuk's death toll makes her the most popular female murderer of modern times.
Gaidamachuk killed for the purpose of robbery. The health examination did not find serious mental disorders, so the murderer was sentenced to twenty years. Many complain about the leniency of the sentence, but in Russia, according to the law, the court cannot sentence a woman for a longer term.
Delphine and María de Jesus González
The Gonzalez sisters' case is probably one of the most sensational serial murders committed by women in history. And not only because two Mexican sisters, Delphine and Maria Gonzalez, participated in the crimes.
After 1950, police in the Mexican state of Guanajuato began to receive reports of missing girls. As it turned out later, the girls were kidnapped by two sisters who set up a brothel in their ranch. People called it “Hell's Brothel”.
The abducted girls were forcibly forced into prostitution. The conditions of detention were appalling. You could do whatever you wanted with the captives. Many of them were addicted to drugs and were rarely sober and remembered.
The police came to the sisters in 1964. As it turns out, they killed 110 people during this period of time. The main victims were girls (at least 91). But enterprising sisters sometimes put rich clients in damp ground for the purpose of robbery.
During the takeover of Hell Ranch, police found 80 dead young women and 11 male bodies. The number of dead premature babies was also staggering. The sisters were given the maximum sentence under Mexican law — 40 years in prison. Delphine died behind bars, and Maria came out a few years later and… disappeared.
Female serial killers
Rosemary West
Rosemary West is striking not only for her sadistic cruelty. This British woman was also a mother of many children — the maniac raised eight children. She committed her crimes with her husband, Fred.
Rosemary's husband, however, did not wait for a court decision, committing suicide in prison. Rosemary herself was sentenced to life imprisonment after being convicted of ten murders.
Young girls were victims of the family and were also sexually abused. Rosemary and Fred met them in public places, gained their trust, and then took them home. The girls were kept there for several days before they were killed.
This story is striking with the cynical attitude towards life of all its defendants, including Rosemary's father, who not only raped his daughter and then became her client (Rosemary earned money as a prostitute), but also had sex with his daughter's stepdaughter.
All crimes were committed by Rosemary between 1973 and 1978. Among the victims of the murderer was not only the woman's stepdaughter, but also her own daughter. Rosemary and Fred first raped her and then killed her.
Maria Swanenburg
One of the high-profile cases of a serial killer named Maria Swanenburg will forever remain in the annals of criminology, despite the fact that the crimes in question were committed at the end of the 19th century centuries.
Good Mi (as Svanenburg was known for her desire to care for sick people and children) was born in the Netherlands in 1839. She herself was a mother of many children — the woman had five sons and two daughters.
In between caring for her neighbors, Good Mi used to poison many of them. During the investigation, it was possible to find out that in just three years she sent 27 people to the next world using arsenic.
In total, Maria was charged with the death of ninety people. The total number of poisonings exceeded 100. Swanenburg committed her first murder in 1880, poisoning her own mother. She soon sent her father to the next world.
Maria killed people in order to obtain their inheritance or insurance — she managed to re-register many documents in her name. The court sentenced the murderer to life imprisonment, although she was found guilty only of the last three murders.
Read also: 10 weird books written by serial killers
Katherine Knight
Premeditated murder is always scary. Moreover, regardless of whether it is part of the series or not. Katherine Knight wasn't a serial killer. But how exactly this Australian woman committed her crime is clearly sadistic.
That is why Kathryn Knight's case completes this list of serial murders committed by women. So, in 2001, Katherine had a falling out with her roommate, after which she stabbed him almost 40 times with a cutting knife. Then she refreshed the corpse, separated the head from the body, and split it into pieces.
The killer cooked his head with vegetables. She was determined to feed her murdered partner's two children with this stew. This intention is evidenced by two plates found by the police on the table, near which were cynical notes intended for children.
This brutal crime shocked the public so much that Kathryn Knight became the first woman in the history of the Australian penal system to be sentenced to life in prison without the right be pardoned.