Many believe that female maniacs are a rarity, since supposedly the fair sex is less prone to violence than men. However, in history there are many women who are not inferior to them in cruelty. However, there are actually fewer serial killers among them than among the stronger sex. Probably because it requires planning, and women are emotional creatures and don't like it very much. However, there are not so few of them. After reading the article, you will be convinced that female maniacs are not so rare in history.
The first woman we'll talk about is Bella Sorenson Gunness. She allegedly has 42 victims. She is a native of Norway who moved to the United States and married a businessman from Chicago. Bella Sorenson Guinness killed for money and just for fun. Some researchers believe that this woman also killed her two daughters. She poisoned them in order to collect insurance. Officially, the death of Bella’s children is considered the result of illness, however, judging by a number of signs, it could also have been caused by poisoning. In addition, Bella Sorenson Guinness is suspected of burning down the family business in order to collect insurance payments. Her husband later died under very strange circumstances. Of course, his wife again received money for this. Perhaps the woman sent her husband to the next world by feeding him special “medicines.” Bella later became known as the “black widow.”
She wanted to buy a farm with the proceeds from the murder of her husband, but apparently she didn’t have enough money. Then the woman began to seduce older and middle-aged men. Bella started a love correspondence with them, got married, and then the husbands died, and the “black widow” received income. A very sophisticated business. According to rumors, 42 bodies are buried in the ground on plots owned by Gunness. And the woman earned about 250 thousand dollars from her “business”.
However, someone put an end to this woman's unusual "career". Her body was found burned and Gunness's head was severed. Although the question still remains open as to whether the corpse really belonged to Belle, or whether the woman got away with it again. A terrifying story, isn't it? However, other most cruel female maniacs evoke no less emotions. We will talk about one of them now.
Jane is a nurse who killed the weak and it is known that her father was crazy, and the girl spent her childhood in an asylum in Boston. As Jane Toppan grew up and became physically strong, the future criminal trained to be a nurse. During the training, teachers noticed the girl's unhealthy attraction to photographs with However, Jane managed to get an education and find a job. She began caring for patients who considered her a caring nurse. The woman was even called “Jolly Jane.” After some time, Toppan realized that bringing patients to the brink of death gave her sexual pleasure. She injected the drug into her victims, then trying to resuscitate them in order to repeat the operation again. Jane often went to bed with the dying. The woman was probably molesting them while the patients were clinging to life for dear life! Toppan began her career as an assassin in 1885 and continued her crimes until she was arrested. The woman was charged with 11 murders. Jane gave shocking testimony while in custody. She admitted that she killed 31 people. Toppan wanted to become a "record holder", a woman who had accomplished greatest number murders. Jane was declared insane. She spent the rest of her life in a mental hospital for criminals, like many others
Our next heroine is Rosemary West. This woman, together with her husband, deceived young naive girls. They picked up future victims on the street, offering them food and housing. Rosemary had 8 children of her own. She made her living as a prostitute and was also a sadist. Her husband Fred was just as much of a pervert. This married couple is responsible for 10 murders, including their own daughter Heather. In addition, Rose was found guilty of the death of Charmaine, her stepdaughter. Both Fred and Rose had difficult childhoods and were both sociopaths. Fred hinted that they were responsible for the death of more than 20 people!
Women maniacs and killers often acted in tandem with their husbands or lovers. You will get to know one of them if you read this article to the end.
Aileen Wuornos is one of the most famous serial killers today. This woman worked as a prostitute and was a lesbian. She learned sin as a child: Eileen became pregnant at the age of 13. After 2 years she was kicked out of the house. The woman is known to have committed armed robberies. In addition, she managed to marry a 70-year-old elderly man, who subsequently complained that his wife was beating him. Arrests, drunken fights, etc. helped the old man in court to ensure that Wuornos was prohibited from approaching him.
A woman entered into a lesbian relationship. Her chosen one was a girl named Tiria. In order to support herself and her, Eileen began to engage in prostitution. She killed 8 clients. Eileen swore shortly before her death that she committed her first murder in self-defense. Unlike many other female killers, Wuornos was not afraid of the sight of blood. She killed her victims with pistol shots. By the way, in 2003 the film “Monster” was released with Charlize Theron in the role of Eileen. The actress received Golden Globe and Oscar awards for this role.
Maniacs of the world, women and men, often suffer from mental disorders. And Andrea Yates probably suffered from schizophrenia. Although she has not been officially diagnosed, it is clear that the woman has serious mental disorders. Andrea killed 5 of her children by drowning them all in the bathtub. Rusty, her domineering husband, wanted to have many children, and his wife had constant depression who even went so far as to attempt suicide. The additional psychological stress associated with raising children turned out to be fatal.
Her husband knew that Andrea had problems with her head (although he later blamed psychiatrists for everything that happened), so he usually asked someone to be with the children and with his wife during his absence. But one day the woman was left alone. She took advantage of this to drown her children. Rusty said that he wanted to leave his wife alone for a while so that she would not get too used to the help of others. It took Andrea an hour to kill all five children one by one. The woman then called the rescue service and told about what she had done.
Andrea considered that the best solution for both her and the children would be their death. The fact is that the woman was a religious fanatic. She called her children “unrighteous” and believed that her own sins would not allow them to grow up as worthy Christians.
The next woman, Beverly Ellitt, also has a child murder story. She was nicknamed "the angel of death." The woman was a registered nurse. She killed children by injecting insulin into their blood or to cause cardiac arrest. In total, this woman has 4 murders and 9 more attempted murders. Moreover, all 13 attempts to kill children occurred in a very short period of time, within two weeks! The oldest victim, Beverly, was 5 years old, and the youngest was less than two months old. Psychiatrists who studied the woman's case concluded that she suffered from a very unusual mental disorder - Munchausen syndrome. Her motive for killing and hurting others is to gain attention. Even as a child, Ellitt loved to pretend to be seriously ill. Beverly was sent to a hospital for the criminally insane. The woman was given 13 life sentences. Relatives of the children she killed are threatening to kill her if the woman is ever released.
Our next heroine is Karla Homolka from Canada, a beautiful blonde who loved Paul Bernardo, a serial killer known as the Scarborough Rapist. Feelings for her lover prompted her to help him in his crimes. Together they committed the kidnapping, rape and murder of 3 young women. Moreover, one of them was Carla’s sister! The niece begged Homolka to let her go, and she took pity and even gave her relative a teddy bear. After her arrest, Carla made a deal with the authorities in order to reduce her sentence - she spoke about the murders that her husband committed. Paul, however, insisted that she was the one who killed everyone. The discovered video recordings indicate that this woman, at a minimum, was not a victim who was forced by her husband to commit criminal acts.
Susan Smith, unlike many other female killers, was not mentally ill. In her right mind, she killed her two sons, Alex and Michael. The woman tried to present herself as mentally ill, claiming that she committed the murders for religious reasons. However, the facts indicate otherwise. Tom, this woman’s lover, abandoned her shortly before the tragedy. After that, Smith brought her children to the river, released the hand brake of the car and pushed it into the water. The woman stood and watched the car with her two children plunge into the water, and then called the police and reported that a black man had committed this crime.
Susan claimed that her stepfather abused her as a child. Having grown up, the girl began to dream about perfect love, while at the same time experiencing the need for regular sex. Behind bars, she managed to sleep with two guards. One of them gave Susan syphilis.
As you can see, many women maniacs killed their children. Our next heroine, Diana Downes, is no exception. When Liu, her lover, told her that children were not part of his plans, the woman decided... to kill her children! Diana had 3 children from her previous marriage - Danny, Cheryl and Christy. In order to get rid of them, she took the children to a desert area. Here a woman killed Cheryl, her 7-year-old daughter, in cold blood. She also shot at Danny and Christy, but they managed to survive, although 3-year-old Danny was paralyzed from the waist down, and Christy was also partially paralyzed. The latter was able to testify and told the court what her mother had done.
Our list so far consists only of foreign names. But there are also Russian women killers. One of them is Lyudmila Yakovlevna Spesivtseva. Although she did not kill herself, she actively helped the cannibal Alexander Spesivtsev, her crazy son, to do so. For some time, an elderly maniac woman worked as an assistant to a blind lawyer in court. She often brought home photographs of the dead people and showed them to Alexander. Is it any wonder that he grew up mentally ill and turned into a sociopath? Alexander ended up in a mental hospital, but after some time he was released. He returned to his mother and soon began to kill, and the woman not only did not interfere with him, but also began to help! Lyudmila lured girls to the cannibal and carried the remains of the victims out of the house. One of the victims managed to live long enough to give evidence (the exhausted child did die after some time). The camera forever recorded the terrifying words of the girl who said that Lyudmila fed her and the other captives the meat of their murdered friend! It is also assumed, although not officially confirmed, that she cooked the meat of the victims and sold it at the market. A family of maniacs killed at least 20 people. However, there are probably even more victims - photographs of minors were found in the Spesivtsevs’ apartment, as well as clothes that could belong to 82 people! There is an assumption that not only Lyudmila, but also his sister helped Alexander.
Female maniacs in Russia, it turns out, are not a new phenomenon. born in 1730 and died in 1801. The Russian landowner Saltychikha (Daria received this nickname) went down in history as a sadist and murderer of several dozen serfs under her control. By the decision of Empress Catherine II and the Senate, she was deprived of the title of noblewoman. The woman was sentenced to life imprisonment and placed in a monastery prison, where she died at the age of 71. At the age of 26, Daria was widowed, having received about 600 peasants at her disposal. The investigator in her case, based on Saltykova’s house books, compiled a list of 138 serfs whose fate needed to be clarified. 50 people, according to the records, “died of illness,” 72 were “unaccounted for,” and another 16 were considered “to go on the run” or “to join their husbands.” According to the testimony of peasants, 75 people, mainly girls and women, were killed in the villages and the landowner's estate. Saltykova spent 33 years in prison and died in 1801. She was buried along with all her relatives in the cemetery of the Donskoy Monastery, the tombstone has been preserved.
Another example from history is Amelia Elizabeth Dyer. This woman was born in 1837 and executed in 1896. A criminal from England is considered the most prolific child killer in history. At the age of 24, in 1861, the girl married George Thomas, who was 59 years old at the time of the wedding. It is known that the groom lost 10 years during the wedding, and the bride added it so that the age difference between them would not be so frightening. She committed her crimes in and was a baby farmer by occupation. This woman was executed by hanging for one murder, but she is believed to be responsible for the deaths of other children, possibly numbering more than four hundred.
Dyer's trial began in 1896, on May 22. The death sentence was carried out at Newgate Prison on June 10, 1896. Amelia's last words were: "I have nothing to say."
Female killers, as you can see, are not such a rare occurrence. Who is to blame for this? Is it just them? Probably, our society itself is unhealthy if so many socially dangerous elements continue to appear in it. Without in any way justifying the criminals themselves, it should be noted that famous female maniacs are phenomena that make you think about a lot.
Psychologists say that women, although less likely than men to become serial killers, act with particular cruelty and sophistication.
We present to you the 11 most dangerous women in human history.
A Russian landowner who went down in history as a sophisticated sadist and murderer of 139 serfs under her control, mostly women and girls. She was sentenced to death, but the execution was replaced by imprisonment in a monastery prison.
Queen Mary I, 1516-1558.
The daughter of the English king Henry VIII and his first wife went down in history as a monarch who tried to return the country to the fold of the Roman Catholic Church after her father, having quarreled with the Pope, declared himself the head of the new Anglican Church. The restoration took place against the background brutal executions Protestants, persecution and murder of the innocent population, for which the people called the queen Mary the Bloody.
Myra Hindley, 1942-2002.
Serial killer, together with her accomplice Ian Bryan, received the nickname “English Bonnie and Clyde.” Over the course of several years, criminals kidnapped, abused and tortured to death five minor children aged 10 to 17 years. The bodies of the victims were later discovered by police in moors near Manchester. To the horror and disgust of the entire country, it turned out that the latter-day Bonnie and Clyde made audio recordings and photographs “for history,” perpetuating their crimes. Having received a life sentence (the death penalty in England was abolished literally within a month of the arrest of the criminal couple), neither Hindley nor Brian ever repented of their deeds. On the day the verdict was announced, Myra calmly ate ice cream while waiting for the hearing to begin. A British court ruled that criminals do not have the right to commit suicide, so Brian, who had begun a hunger strike, was force-fed by injecting saline. Myra Hindley died in a prison hospital from a heart attack, saving herself from further imprisonment and the world from a terrible criminal.
Isabella of Castile, 1451-1504.
Isabella of Castile and her husband Ferdinand of Aragon stood at the origins of the unification of Spain and the formation of a strong state: a dynastic marriage led to the union and unification of Castile and Aragon into one kingdom - Spain. The Queen is also known for her patronage to the famous traveler Christopher Columbus. Notorious for her cruelty towards non-Catholics: a passionate and devout Catholic, she appointed Tomas Torquemada as the first Grand Inquisitor of the infamous Spanish Inquisition and ushered in an era of religious purges. The Inquisition persecuted heretics, Moors, Maranos, and Moriscos. Under Isabella Castilian Spain Most of the Jews and Arabs left - about 200 thousand people, and those who remained were forced to convert to Christianity, which, however, rarely saved converts from death at the stake.
Beverly Allitt, b. 1968.
An English pediatric nurse, nicknamed the “angel of death,” killed four young hospital patients in 1991 and caused serious harm to the health of five others. The serial killer injected children with insulin or potassium to cause severe heart attack and simulate natural death. The motive for the crime is still unknown.
Bell Gunnes, 1859-1931.
An American of Norwegian descent became the most famous female killer in US history. She killed both her husbands, her own daughters, several admirers and lovers. The main goal is to receive payments for life insurance. Over several decades, Gannes killed about 30 people.
Mary Ann Cotton,1832-1873
She poisoned about 20 people with arsenic. The police became interested in her when it turned out that all of her closest relatives were not only constantly dying, but also dying from the same disease - stomach colic. Throughout her life, the criminal killed several husbands, her children and even her own mother. The executioner who supervised her hanging deliberately prolonged her torment by “forgetting” to knock out the stool from under the condemned woman’s feet.
Elsa Koch, 1906-1967
Elsa Koch, better known as the "Witch of Buchenwald", was the wife of the concentration camp commandant. She tortured prisoners, beat them with a whip, mocked them and killed them. What was left behind was a terrible collection: pieces of human skin with tattoos. She committed suicide in prison in 1967.
Irma Grizz, 1923-1945.
One of the most cruel female wardens concentration camps Hitler's Germany. While torturing prisoners, she resorted to both physical and psychological violence, beating women to death and amusing herself by shooting prisoners. She starved her dogs so she could set them on victims, and personally selected hundreds of people to be sent to the gas chambers. Grese wore heavy boots and, in addition to a pistol, she always carried a wicker whip. She was sentenced to death by hanging.
Catherine Knight, b. 1956.
The first woman in Australian history to be sentenced to life imprisonment. In October 2001, during a family quarrel, she beat her partner with a meat knife, after which she abused the dead body in such a way that Chikatilo must have vomited.
Erzsebet Bathory, 1560-1614.
Hungarian Countess, better known as the Bloody Lady. She tortured and killed maids and peasant women: she brutally beat them, burned their hands, faces and other parts of the body with a hot iron, skinned victims who were still alive, starved them, mocked them and raped them. In 1610 she was placed under house arrest on charges of murder, heresy and witchcraft. During the trial, the castle servants could not name the exact number of victims of the sadist: the countess's confidants, who found themselves in the dock, spoke of four to five dozen killed, the rest of the servants assured that they carried out the corpses in the hundreds. Bathory died of natural causes in 1614, and her name soon became overgrown with legends no less sinister than those about Count Dracula.
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. Quite a long time in 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 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 the 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 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.” 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 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.
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, 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 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 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 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 death in 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.
Usually, when mentioning the cruelty of monarchs, only male names, But..
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But history knows facts about rulers whose names have become synonymous with fury and mercilessness.
This review features 5 women's historical figures, remembered for their cruel acts.
Duchess Olga
Duchess Olga. Ruled Rus' in the 10th century. She is remembered for her categorical revenge on the Drevlyans for the death of her husband, Prince Igor.
After the murder of the prince, the Drevlyans sent matchmakers to her with a proposal for a future marriage with their prince Mal. The chronicle indicates that Princess Olga ordered the matchmakers, along with the boat on which they arrived, to be thrown into a hole and buried alive.
The vengeful widow did not stop there. She immediately asked me to send her best husbands Drevlyans, they willingly agreed. Upon arrival, the guests were invited to swim in the bathhouse, where everyone was burned.
Then the princess went to the place of her husband’s death in order to, according to custom, perform a funeral rite - a funeral feast. About 5 thousand drunk Drevlyans were killed.
And to complete her revenge after winning the battle with the Drevlyans, Olga, instead of tribute, asked the residents of Iskorosten for three doves and a sparrow from each yard. Having left the city, Olga gave the order to tie a piece of sulfur to each bird and release it. Of course, the birds returned home and the city burst into flames.
Bloody Mary (Mary I Tudor)
Mary I Tudor History remembers it more as Bloody Mary. In England, not a single monument was erected to her, and the people of the country celebrated the day of her death as a national holiday.
The merciless queen was known as a fanatical Catholic fighting against Protestants. Maria mocked noble people she disliked with particular cruelty, cutting off their genitals and then forcing them to eat them. After this, the queen herself watched as the victims, tortured half to death, were burned at the stake.
During the reign of Bloody Mary, more than 3,000 clergy were deprived of their positions, and another 300 lost their lives at the stake. During the uprisings, people were tortured, beheaded, and burned. Many fled outside England. All the atrocities committed by Maria I stopped only with the onset of her death.
Chinese Empress Ci Xi
An intelligent, perspicacious and merciless woman was able to go from a low-ranking concubine to an empress. Tsy Xi. A 16-year-old girl weaved intrigues, bribed eunuchs and did not disdain anything in order to get into the chambers of the Chinese emperor.
After the birth of the heir (according to some versions, who was not even their son at all), Ci Xi immediately took the leading place in the harem, despite the fact that the ruler already had a wife. Over time, the woman strengthened her influence on the emperor and informally took part in the government of the country.
After his death, Ci Xi became regent. The woman brutally suppressed uprisings, pursued an aggressive policy towards neighboring and Western countries. Rumor has it that the empress had many young lovers, whom she ordered to kill after the nights spent. Over the course of 50 years of rule, this woman ruined the country and left only negative memories of herself.
Isabella of Castile - Queen Inquisitor
She zealously supported the medieval struggle against heresy in the 15th century Isabella of Castile(ruler of Castile and Leon, which later became part of Spain).
During the years of her reign, the Queen-Inquisitor “gave the go-ahead” to the burning of more than 10,000 people and the torture of almost 100,000 more. As the ruler herself noted, all her deeds were committed in the name of faith, for which she was nicknamed Isabella the Catholic.
Landowner Daria Saltykova
Although this woman was not one of the rulers, the extent of the crimes she committed was enormous. landowner Daria Saltykova(Saltychikha) personally tortured to death several dozen serfs.
Having become a widow at the age of 26, Daria Nikolaevna received 600 serfs into her possessions. Soon she began to have fits of uncontrollable anger. The landowner often beat her maids with a log, allegedly for misconduct. In addition, Saltychikha starved people, burned their hair, and left them naked in the cold.
Numerous complaints from people about her atrocities had no response from the authorities, since the landowner generously paid off. Only when Catherine II ascended the throne was Saltykova’s case set in motion.
It was established that 138 peasants were tortured in her village, most of whom the landowner killed herself. The empress changed her death sentence to eternal exile in Ivanovo convent. Did not enter the room where Daria Saltykova was placed sunlight, and she was not allowed to talk to anyone.
Often, many positive human qualities - compassion, love, care, sensitivity - are considered distinctive features of the female psyche, while negative ones - cruelty, aggression, insensitivity - are attributed to men.
But history knows examples when women showed cruelty, in comparison with which a forgotten gift for a wife’s birthday is an insignificant trifle.
FILM ON THE THEMES.
We never dreamed of it. Mistresses of the Dark (episodes 1, 2 and 3)
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Viy (1967).
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Viy (2013). |
Viy.
Daria Nikolaevna Saltykova, nicknamed "Saltychikha" (1730-1801), 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: the city estate of Daria Saltykova 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 the lives of 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” brought to mind the image of an overweight, unwashed, disgusting old woman. 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.
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.
Myra Hindley, (1942-2002)
Mira, the pretty blonde has made herself a boyfriend, Ian Brady. Ian, a heavy drinker who idealizes Hitler, Bonnie and Clyde, and reads Mein Kampf, Crime and Punishment, and 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 me to hell.” Several feature films were made based on the crimes of this couple.
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 was 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.
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 - perhaps (perhaps, since it was not proven) this was related to Beverly's mental disorder - that the children who were in the hospital 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.
Bell Gunnes (1859-1931)
At 1.83 m tall and 91 kg in weight, this American of Norwegian origin 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 Gunness. Death saved her from this.
Mary Ann Cotton (1832-1873)
Perhaps Belle 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.
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 and 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 controller of the camp, Elsa “became famous” for her cruel treatment of prisoners. She loved to flog or beat people herself. If she came across 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 with which Elsa went out was made of human skin.
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 just 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.
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 of 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, she always had with her a wicker whip. Irma Grese is known as the most cruel 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 Grese was found guilty and sentenced to hang. On the last night before her execution, she laughed and sang songs with her fellow accomplices. When they threw a noose around her neck, not even a shadow of remorse flashed on her face. Her last word was “Faster,” addressed to the executioner.
Kztrin Knight (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. 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 in the day of a civilized society?
The Guinness Book of 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 Nadaszgy. 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's victims bled to death in the basements of the castle; 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 people suffered from Erzsebet’s temper
IRMA GRIS (1923 - 1945)
The daughter of a simple German peasant, Irma Griese, who lived from 1923 to 1945, is rightfully considered the most cruel woman of the Third Reich. In her youth, she lost her mother - she committed suicide when Griz was 13. Later, the girl’s father joined the Nazi party, and by that time she herself headed the Nazi organization, which is a kind of analogue of the Hitler Youth, only it consisted exclusively of females.
In 1942, Irma Griese enlisted in the SS and almost immediately went to “work” in the Auschwitz concentration camp, where she received the post of senior guard, that is, she became the second person in this concentration camp. When Griz turned 20 years old, her cruelty reached its peak. Many called her the “irresistible beast” because she stood out for her attractive appearance. The famous Josef Mengele, better known by his nickname "Doctor Death", was one of the Griz's most ardent fans.
20-year-old Irma Griese personally selected Auschwitz prisoners who were to go to the gas chamber, shot people, shooting at random, and set dogs on the prisoners, who had not been fed for a long time. Griz always carried two types of weapons with her - a pistol and a wicker whip. In 1945, Irma Greese was captured and sentenced to death by hanging. All night before her execution, she sang songs and laughed with her friends who also served in Auschwitz. When the executioner threw a noose around her neck, she was given the opportunity to say the last word. Irma Grizz, on whose face there was not a single sign of fear or remorse, turned to the executioner and said: “Come on quickly.”
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