14 Documented Cases of Women Who Committed Multiple Murders
In the annals of true crime, female perpetrators of multiple murders stand out for their rarity and the profound shock they inspire. While men dominate serial killing statistics, women who cross into such territory often employ insidious methods like poison, deception, or intimate betrayal, targeting family, lovers, or vulnerable boarders. These 14 cases, spanning centuries and continents, reveal patterns of greed, revenge, mental illness, and unfathomable cruelty. Each story honors the victims—innocent lives cut short—while dissecting the facts that led to these women’s downfalls.
From Victorian England’s arsenic-laced households to modern America’s predatory motels, these women evaded justice for years, sometimes decades. Their motives ranged from insurance payouts to silencing witnesses, but the human cost was devastating: children orphaned, communities shattered. This catalog examines their backgrounds, crimes, investigations, and legacies, drawing from court records, confessions, and survivor accounts to provide an analytical lens on female multiple homicide.
What unites them? A facade of domesticity masking lethal intent. As we explore these cases, we remember the victims first: their stories demand respect and remembrance amid the perpetrators’ infamy.
1. Mary Ann Cotton: Britain’s First Serial Killer
Mary Ann Cotton (1832–1873), a working-class seamstress from England, poisoned at least 21 people, mostly family members, between 1852 and 1872. Motivated by life insurance policies, she targeted husbands, children, and stepchildren with arsenic-laced tea, claiming victims like her son Charles and third husband James. Her background was marked by poverty and frequent remarriages after suspicious deaths.
Investigation ignited when her stepson Charles stayed immune after she tried to poison him; a coroner’s exhumation revealed arsenic in prior graves. Tried in 1873, Cotton was convicted of one murder but suspected in many. She hanged that year, protesting innocence. Victims like young Thomas Cotton endured agonizing deaths, their suffering a grim testament to her avarice.
2. Belle Gunness: The Black Widow of La Porte
Belle Gunness (1859–1908?), a Norwegian immigrant in Indiana, lured suitors to her farm, murdering up to 40 people for their money from 1884 to 1908. She bludgeoned victims, including her own children and husbands, burying them in hog pens. Her 1902 farmhouse fire exposed the horror when dismembered bodies surfaced.
Survivor Ray Lamphier testified to her brutality; dental records identified remains. Gunness vanished, possibly faking her death—her head was never found. No trial occurred, but her legacy endures as one of America’s deadliest women. Victims like Andrew Helgelien lost savings and lives to her trap.
3. Jane Toppan: The Angel of Death Nurse
Jane Toppan (1854–1938), a Massachusetts nurse, confessed to 31 murders between 1885 and 1901, overdosing patients with morphine and atropine for thrills. Orphaned and abused, she found ecstasy in watching death, targeting the elderly and family like her employer Alden Davis.
Arrested after Davis family exhumations showed poisoning, Toppan’s 1902 trial deemed her insane; she spent her life in an asylum. Victims’ families grieved quietly, their trust betrayed by her caregiver role. Her case pioneered discussions on healthcare killers.
4. Darya Saltykova: Russia’s Sadistic Noblewoman
Darya Saltykova (1730–1801), a Russian landowner, tortured and killed up to 138 serfs, mostly women, from 1759 to 1768. Whipping them to death or burning them, she reveled in cruelty post-husband’s death. Complaints from peasants reached Catherine the Great.
Investigated in 1768, she was convicted of 38 murders and exiled to a monastery. Victims, powerless peasants, suffered unimaginable torments. Saltykova’s privilege delayed justice, highlighting class abuses in imperial Russia.
5. Elizabeth Báthory: The Blood Countess
Elizabeth Báthory (1560–1614), Hungarian nobility, allegedly murdered 80–600 virgin girls between 1585 and 1610, bathing in their blood for youth—a legend debated but supported by trials. She selected victims from peasants, torturing them in her castle.
Arrested in 1610 after noble daughters vanished, accomplices confessed under torture. Báthory avoided execution due to status, walled up until death. Modern analysis questions the blood myth but affirms killings. Victims’ stolen futures underscore noble impunity.
6. Nannie Doss: The Giggling Granny
Nannie Doss (1905–1965), from Alabama, poisoned five husbands, two children, her mother, and others from 1920 to 1954 for insurance and freedom. Nicknamed for laughing during confessions, her rat poison method mimicked illness.
Exhumations after her 1954 arrest confirmed arsenic; she pleaded guilty, receiving life. Victims like husband Samuel Doss trusted her homemaker image. Doss died in prison, her casual demeanor chilling.
7. Velma Barfield: The First Woman Executed in Modern U.S.
Velma Barfield (1932–1984), North Carolina, poisoned four with arsenic from 1969–1977, including lover Stuart Taylor and her mother. Addicted to pills, she claimed accidental overdoses initially.
Convicted in 1984 after autopsies, she became the first woman executed by lethal injection post-Furman. Victims’ families found partial forgiveness in her prison ministry. Her case reignited death penalty debates.
8. Judy Buenoano: The Black Widow
Judy Buenoano (1943–1998), Florida, killed three—fiancé Bobby Joe Morris, son Michael, husband James—for insurance from 1971–1983. She used arsenic and dynamite in a canoe “accident.”
DNA and witness testimony led to her 1985 conviction; executed in 1998. Michael’s drowning haunted investigators. Her methodical greed left a trail of orphans.
9. Dorothea Puente: The Boarding House Killer
Dorothea Puente (1929–2011), Sacramento landlady, poisoned seven boarders for Social Security checks from 1982–1988. Drugging elderly tenants with pills, she buried them in her yard.
Found during yard digging in 1988, her trial convicted her of three murders in 1993; she died in prison. Victims like Ruth Munroe sought shelter, finding death. Puente charmed parole boards repeatedly.
10. Aileen Wuornos: America’s Female Serial Killer
Aileen Wuornos (1956–2002), Florida hitchhiker, shot seven men from 1989–1990, claiming self-defense as a prostitute. Abused childhood fueled rage; victims picked her up along highways.
Confessed after arrest; convicted of six murders, executed in 2002. Victims like Richard Mallory were fathers and workers. Her story inspired media scrutiny of trauma versus monstrosity.
11. Myra Hindley: The Moors Murderess
Myra Hindley (1942–2002), with Ian Brady, killed five children in 1960s England, burying them on Saddleworth Moor. Luring victims like Lesley Ann Downey, she taped their screams.
Convicted in 1966 of three murders, died in prison. Victims’ innocence horrified Britain; tape evidence sealed fates. Hindley’s later remorse divided opinions.
12. Karla Homolka: Partner in Prey
Karla Homolka (1970–), Canadian, with Paul Bernardo, raped and killed three teens, including sister Tammy, 1990–1992. Her plea deal granted 12 years for testimony.
Released in 2005 amid outrage; victims like Kristen French endured taped horrors. Public betrayal marked her case on justice inequities.
13. Joanna Dennehy: Britain’s Female Serial Killer
Joanna Dennehy (1982–), stabbed three men in 2013 England for thrill, injuring two more. Drug-fueled rampage shocked Peterborough.
Caught quickly, sentenced to whole life in 2014—first woman since 1870s. Victims like Lukasz Klosowski were strangers. Her psychopathy diagnosis underscored gender anomalies.
14. Helen Golay and Olga Rutterschmidt: The Hollywood Black Widows
Helen Golay (1929–) and Olga Rutterschmidt (1930–), staged homeless men’s hit-and-run deaths for insurance, killing two in 1999–2005 Los Angeles.
Financial trails led to 2008 convictions; life sentences. Victims Paul Vados and Kenneth McDavid sought aid, met doom. Their scheme exposed elder fraud rings.
Conclusion
These 14 women, from poisoners to stabbers, shattered the myth of feminine gentleness, claiming hundreds of lives through calculated deception. Common threads—financial gain, abuse histories, psychopathy—offer analytical insights, yet no excuse for the devastation. Victims’ memories compel societal vigilance: better detection, victim support, and mental health scrutiny. Their stories warn that evil lurks beyond gender stereotypes, urging respect for the lost and justice for all.
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