This is a list of female murderers who have crossed the threshold and
entered the realm of the serial killer. This is something that is much rarer in
a woman. Definition of a serial Killer - The Serial Killer is sometimes thought
to be a modern phenomenon but can acually be traced
back in history. The term refers to
someone who murders three or more people.
It was a phrase that was first used in the 1970's. Thankfully this type of murderer is still
quite rare. In the
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Allitt
Beverley
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Becker, Marie
Alexandrine
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Buenoano Judias
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Cross Theresa
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Copeland Faye
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Dean Minnie
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Falling Christine
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Gibbs Janie Lou
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Gilligan Amy-archer
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Jones Genene
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Lyles Anjette
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Puente Dorothea Montalvo
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Rachals Terri
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Tinning Marybeth
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Wuornos Aileen
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Allitt, Beverley
Allitt was convicted in a Nottingham court in 1993 on
thirteen charges of murder and causing grievous bodily harm.
Becker, Marie Alexandrine
Was charged with eleven counts of murder, all of her victims had been given fatal doses of Digitalis. On being found guilty she was sentenced to death but this was later commuted to life imprisonment She died in prison some years later.
Dean Minnie
Christine Falling
Christine was very interested in looking after very young children, unfortunately not because she loved children but because she took pleasure in killing them. The very first murder took place in February 1980 when Cassidy Johnson who was just two years old became ill while in the care of Christine. He was rushed to Tallahassee Hospital but died three days later.
It was almost a year later before she struck again. This time it was while she was baby sitting another infant by the name of Jeffrey Davis. As is normal in a strange death an autopsy was performed and this seemed to show death had been caused by myocarditis. This time it was only three days later when she murdered again. Jeffrey's aunt and uncle wanted to attend his funeral and so they left there own son in the care of Christine. The death of Joseph Spring was also attributed to myocarditis but this time it was thought to have been complicated with a viral infection. It seems incredible that suspicion was still not aroused in fact she was even pitied to have been the centre of such misery.
She then left the babycare world and took a job as a housekeeper for a man living on his own. She left the job when her employer mysteriously died and went back to caring for infants. She was looking after the eight month old daughter of her stepsister when she died in June 1981. His death was thought to be caused by infant death syndrome better known as 'Cot Death'. Just over a year later in July 1982 she was caring for ten week old Travis Coleman when he also seemed to die of infant death syndrome. Suspicions had been raised and again an autopsy was performed which seemed to tell a different story. They discovered that Travis had suffered severe internal ruptures and this added to other signs present suggested that the cause of death was more likely to have been caused by the baby being smothered.
Christine was taken into custody and entered a psychiatric hospital for assessment. While she was there she confessed to the killing of three of the children but denied all knowledge of the others. It was decided that it was not going to be easy to prove that the other deaths were her fault and so she was only charged with the three deaths, these were Cassidy Johnson who was the first child, the daughter of her stepsister and Travis Coleman.
She was found guilty of the three murders and sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole for at least twenty five years.
Janie Lou Gibbs
Often when someone wants to abuse or harm children they will take up a position that gives them easy access to children and Janie Lou Gibbs was no different. Janie lived in the small town of Cordele in Georgia where she was well liked and respected. She ran a child day care centre looking after children while their mothers worked.
The first death was that of 13 year old Marvin who was Janie's own son. He had been rushed to hospital very ill but although he was given emergency treatment they were unable to save him and he died from what was later diagnosed as kidney disease on the 29 August 1966. Just five months later Janie's other son Melvin who was 16 also became very ill. He died in hospital but this time the death was put down to hepatitis.
Having two of her sons die did not mean Janie was going to be lonely because her eldest son, Roger, who was married still lived at home. In August 1967 they had a baby and Janie became a grandmother. The baby was called Ronnie Edward and was a very healthy baby. Not long after his birth he took a turn for the worst and became very ill. Doctors were unable to find a cause for the illness and before the child was six weeks old he had passed away. An autopsy was performed but no cause could be found. Just two weeks later the childs father became ill. He was complaining of stomach cramps and nausea. Within two days he too was dead. This time the doctors were very unhappy with the results of the autopsy which indicated that death had been caused by severe damage to the liver and kidneys. Further tests were ordered and tissue samples were sent to the Georgia State Crime Laboratory for further analysis.
It took two months and dozens of tests before the results were complete. This time it showed evidence of a large dose of arsenic in the body. Now that they had clear evidence that the death had not been caused by natural causes an exhumation order was obtained for the earlier victims of the Gibbs family to be exhumed and re-examined. The results of these examinations were never released but unofficially it was revealed that all the other deaths had been caused by Arsenic.
Janie Gibbs was arrested and as it was obvious that she was mentally ill she was put in the care of a psychiatrist. During his interviews with her she confessed to all the murders. He indicated that Janie was suffering from schizophrenia and although she was capable of telling right from wrong her view of the world was that it was an evil place where the one's she loved should not be forced to live. It was decided that she was not fit to plead and she was committed to a state mental institution.
Janie was reassessed in 1976 and was declared sane enough to stand trial. She was quickly found guilty of murder and sentenced to five consecutive life sentences effectively meaning that she would never be released.
Anjette Lyles
Certainly the number of different reasons for committing murder are few but one that crops up more than most is for financial gain. In the case of Anjette she saw murder as the means to improve her fortune and simply had to be done. As with all things in order to do something well you have to plan and practice.
Anjette lived in Macon Georgia with her husband Ben. She was known by her neighbours as a bit of a oddball believing in things such as voodoo and certain satanic rituals. Whether or not she thought she had black powers or not when it came to murder she resorted to simple poison to assist her. In January 1952 her husband Ben became ill and died. Anjette was hoping for a large payout on his life insurance and was disapointed to discover that he had only got cover of $3,000. Careful not to waste her small fortune she took out a loan and went into business for herself. She opened a restaurant called the Gay Widow.
Now that she was a free woman she became friendly with one of the regulars called Joe Neal Gabbert who was an airline pilot. He was very fond of her and they soon married in the June of 1955. All was well for three months and then Joe became ill. Anjette nursed him with the help of a hired nurse but were unable to make him any better. He was taken into hospital but his condition continued to deteriorate until he eventually died. She collected the insurance and looked for new victims.
This time it was the turn of her former mother in law from her first marriage. After first establishing the fact that she was insured Anjette set about disposing of her. On the 29 September 1957 Julia Young Lyles died. Still Anjette was not suspected and eight months later she struck again. It was the death of nine year old daughter Marcia Elaine Lyles that finally raised suspicions. Marcia had died in hospital and had been in agony and the medical staff had not known how to help her. An autopsy of the young girl was ordered and it revealed that she had died from arsenic. A search was carried out on Anjette's home which revealed six bottles of rat poison. The labels revealed that the rat poison was indeed arsenic based. They also found several empty poison bottles.
Anjette was arrested and charged with the four murders. She was found guilty and sentenced to death which if it had been carried out would have been in the electric chair. Anjette was later declared insane and committed to hospital. It was calculated that during her murder spree she had amassed $47,750 most of which she had spent.
Dorothea Montalvo Puente
Dorothea was an elderly lady in her sixties who seemed to have only two purposes in life. One was to give homes to elderly homeless people and the other was to tend her garden which always looked a picture. She lived in Sacremento and as far as the welfare department were concerned Dorothea was a godsend. She would provide accomodation for patients who either had mental problems or were suffering from alcohol abuse.
With Dorothea being such a caring person and with the rents in her victorian house being so low it is perhaps strange that so many of her tenants seemed to move on so quickly. This went on for two years without question until one day one of the social workers turned up looking for a client. She was told he was not there which puzzled her and prompted her to talk to the other residents as well as some of the neighbours. She discovered that there were quite a lot of rumours circulating about the house and Granny Puente and not all of them very nice. It turned out that one night a resident called Ben came home very drunk and Dorothea took him upstairs to help him sober up and he was never seen again. It also turned out that on several occasions people had noticed a rancid almost putrid smell about the house.
With her suspicions aroused she went to the police and reported what she had heard. They had no choice but to take her accusations seriously even if at that time they did not really believe them. In fact when they turned up to search the house Dorothea asked if she could be booked into a local hotel so to avoid too much distress. They agreed and while they started to dig up her beautiful garden she caught the next bus out of town.
There kindly thoughts towards Dorothea soon changed when they started to find the decomposing remains of seven people buried in her garden. She had covered the bodies with lime in an attempt to speed up the process of decomposition but made the classic mistake of putting the lime on dry. In order to make the quicklime work it actually has to be mixed with water and then it will burn through flesh and bone. Another distressing fact was that all the bodies were headless. Autopsies revealed that death had been caused by massive doses of Benzodiazepine.
A nation wide search was launched and it took seven days for them to track down Dorothea in Los Angeles. She was put on trial and eventually charged with nine murders. After a lengthy trial she was finally found guilty of three murders and the judge ordered mistrials on the remaining six. For this she could have faced the death penalty but the jury could not agree and came in seven to five against the death penalty. On 10 December 1993 Dorothea was sent to Monterey Prison to begin a life sentence.
Marybeth Tinning
Marybeth lived in Schenectady, New York state with her husband. It is a tragic story of a woman who over a 14 year period gave birth to eight children and adopted one more.
The first death occured in January 1972 when baby Jennifer died of meningitis only nine days old. Only 15 days later Marybeth rushed her two year old son Joseph to the hospital because he had suffered some sort of a seizure. He had stopped breathing but responded well to treatment and was kept in for 10 days while being treated for a viral infection. He was released but was rushed back in the same day and was declared dead on arrival. This time death was attributed to cardio respiratory arrest.
Marybeth's four year old daughter Barbara was admitted to hospital in March but she died shortly after arrival. This time the autopsy showed that Barbara had died from Reyes syndrome. Strange though it may sound even this death did not raise any suspicions. November the same year Marybeth gave birth to another baby, a little boy who they named Timothy. He survived 19 days before dying from what was thought to be cot death syndrome.
All was quiet until 30 March 1975 when once again Marybeth gave birth to another boy this time named Nathan. Three weeks later he too was in hospital suffering from pneumonia. He had been having difficulty breathing and was bleeding from the mouth and nose. He remained in hospital for a month before being returned home. By September he was dead this time from acute pulmonary edema. In October 1978 Mary Francis was born and by the time she was three months old was in hospital fighting for her life. The treatment was successful and she was given a reprieve only this did not last long and on 20 February she had a relapse and died. This was also put down as cot death syndrome.
In 1978 a rather strange event occured, the Tinnings applied to adopt a child. Now based on their past history you would assume that they would not stand a chance but far from it, in fact the adoption agency felt so sorry for the Tinnings that they granted the application and they were able to adopt Michael. Adoption did not stop Marybeth having her own children and baby Jonathan was born in November 1979. Three months later Jonathan died from breathing difficulties. A year late in February 1981 Michael was also rushed to hospital but found to be dead on arrival.
Tami Lynne was Marybeth's ninth and last child. She was born in August 1985 but lived only four months. She was found dead in her cot and blood was spotted on her pillow. This aroused suspicion and an investigation was carried out. An autopsy revealed that Tami Lynne had died from suffocation. Marybeth was arrested and soon confessed to killing Tami Lynne as well as Timothy and Nathan. She also admitted that she had been slowly poisoning her husband. Shocked though he must have been by this confession her husband Joseph stood by his wife throughout the trial. When the case came to trial she was only charged with the one murder, that of Tami Lynne and after a six week trial was found guilty on the 17 July 1987. She was brought back to court for sentencing on 1 October and was sentenced to twenty years to life.
Aileen Wuornos
Aileen Wuornos was nicknamed the patron saint of dead prostitutes, Lee Wuornos is the first prostitute to turn the tables on the serial killing scene. Aileen was a hooker who started killing her clients. She was a daughter of a child molester who hanged himself in jail. In 1990 she tallied seven dead clients whom she left naked next to their clothes. The wily prostitute still claims to be innocent. Her killings, she says, were "just self-defense". She was sentenced to the electric chair and now, as she patiently awaits her fate, has found Christ.
Judias Buenoano
Gilligan Amy-archer
Was tried in 1917 on five counts of murder.
Although the sentence of death was passed on her this was later changed when
she was declared insane and spent the rest of her life in an asylum eventually
dying in 1928. She was 59 when she died.
Genene Jones
Genene worked as a nurse in the Paediatric department of the Bexar County Hospital in San Antonio, Texas. She was well respected and considered to be totally dedicated to the job of nursing sick babies. Even so in the short period of May to December 1981 20 babies died from either Cardiac Arrest or bleeding.
A number of investigations were conducted to look into the circumstances and to see if any improvements could be made which would reduce the infant mortality rate. To help them with their investigations the members of the investigating team interviewed a number of hospital staff. No real conclusions had been reached when one nurse openly accused a colleague of being responsible for the deaths. As they had no real evidence to back this up it was decided that the easiest way out of this would be to ask the nurse concerned to resign which they did. The nurse in question was Nurse Genene Jones. Just to tidy up any loose ends they also asked the nurse who had accused her to resign as well.
Nurse Jones soon got herself a job at the Kerriville Hospital. All started well but within a few months there was an increase in young children experiencing breathing difficulties. None were in a serious condition and all recovered and its relevance did not occur to anyone at that time.
Chelsea McClellan who was fourteen months old was brought into hospital for a routine immunisation against Mumps and Measles. Genene Jones was responsible for giving the child the injection and immediately after the child suffered a seizure. The baby was rushed to San Antonio for emergency treatment but on the way suffered a cardiac arrest and died. It seemed that many of the children that were treated by Genene had various attacks and seizures but none were fatal. Even so the authorities were beginnng to take notice and had looked into Nurse Jones's past and knew about the earlier deaths. Even though they had little evidence they decided to dismiss her pending a grand jury hearing. Further investigation indicated that the number of deaths in question could be as many as forty two. She was finally charged with murder after an autopsy revealed traces of Succinylcholine in the body of Chealsea McClellan. Succinylcholine is a derivative of the drug Curare.
Her trial lasted through January and February of 1984 and she was found guilty and sentenced to ninety nine years for the murder of Chealsea McClellan. She was then charged with a second murder. This time she was accused of giving a child the drug Heparin which has the effect of thinning down the blood and therefore making it difficult for it to clot. Again she was found guilty and sentenced to sixty years to run concurrently.
Although it will never really be known why she murdered these children the belief is that by creating a life and death situation she was putting herself in a position of power.
Terri Rachals
Theresa Cross
Faye Copeland
Charged with five murders jointly with her seventy five year
old husband. They both lived on a farm in Missouri. A farm
worker told the authorities that while he was working on the farm he had
unearthed what he thought was a human skull and some bones.
She was sentenced to death in April 1991, along with her husband Ray
Copeland. Together they were found guilty of murdering four men, in four
separate incidents, during the late 1980s. Ray Copeland escaped the executioner
- he died of natural causes in October 1993.
Faye Copeland remains on death row despite evidence that she was a battered
wife, cowed into submission by her violent and abusive husband. The prosecution
at her trial said Faye Copeland aided and abetted her husband. Her defense lawyer argued there was no evidence that she had
fired any shots. Faye Copeland is the oldest person awaiting execution in the
USA: her case is currently pending appeal. If all her appeals fail, she will be
killed by lethal injection.
For more information contact:
Gregg Manning