17. Vera Renzi. 1903 - 1948
16. The Gonzalez sisters
15. Eileen Wuornos. 1956 - …
14. Rosemary West
12. Bella Sorenson Guinness
7. Beverly Allitt, 1968-…
6. Bell Gunnes, 1859-1931
5. Mary Ann Cotton, 1832-1873
4. Elsa Koch, 1906-1967
3. Irma Griz, 1923-1945
2. Katherine Knight, 1956-…
20. Antonina Makarovna Makarova. 1921 - 1979
Antonina Makarovna Makarova, nicknamed “Tonka the Machine Gunner” - executioner of the Lokot district during the Great Patriotic War, who shot more than 1,500 people in the service of the German occupation authorities and Russian collaborators.
In 1941, during the Great Patriotic War, as a nurse, she was surrounded and found herself in occupied territory. She voluntarily joined the auxiliary police of the Lokot region, where she carried out death sentences, executing about 1,500 people (according to official data). For executions she used a Maxim machine gun, given to her by the police at her request.
At the end of the war, Makarova got a fake nurse's ID and got a job in a hospital, married front-line soldier V.S. Ginzburg, and changed her last name.
For a long time, the KGB could not find her due to the fact that she was born Parfenova, but was mistakenly recorded as Makarova. She was arrested in the summer of 1978 in Lepel (Belarus), convicted as a war criminal and, by the verdict of the Bryansk Regional Court on November 20, 1978, sentenced to capital punishment - the death penalty (becoming the only woman sentenced to capital punishment in the USSR after the period Stalin's repressions). On August 11, 1979, the sentence was carried out.
19. Marquise de Brenvilliers. 1630 - 1676
She poisoned her father, husband, children, two brothers and sisters with the help of her lover, cavalry captain Gaudin de Sainte-Croix, who was fond of alchemy. There were rumors of other poisonings of her - in particular of her servants and many of the poor people she visited in Parisian hospitals. Gaudin de Sainte-Croix betrayed the poisoner, but he himself died unexpectedly in 1672 for unknown reasons. The Marquise fled and hid in London, Holland and Flanders, but was found in a Liege monastery and taken to France in 1676.
Her attempt to commit suicide failed, and after a long trial (April 29 - July 16, 1676), during which the criminal first completely denied her guilt, and then, out of fear of torture, confessed to all the atrocities, the Marquise de Brenvilliers was tortured by drinking , beheaded and burned.
18. Petrova Maria Alexandrovna. 1978 - …
Petrova, Maria Alexandrovna (“Zyuzinsky maniac”) - Russian serial killer who hunted in Moscow.
Maria Petrova has been swimming since childhood. She was uncommunicative and withdrawn. I was raped once. The rapist was a young man. After Petrova was harassed at work by an elderly colleague, she began to hate all men.
On March 1, 2002, Petrova killed a 20-year-old guy with two knife blows. Subsequently, she explained this by harassment on his part, but witnesses did not see this. The murder took place at the Shalom Theater stop near the Varshavskaya metro station.
Subsequently, Petrova committed 4 more attacks with the intent to kill, but all of her victims survived. All attacks were carried out with the same pattern - stab wounds to the abdomen and neck.
Petrova was absolutely not afraid of being caught. She committed crimes in front of dozens of people and in the same area. The arrest was made on the night of April 23, 2002.
Petrova soon confessed everything. She was charged with murder of 2 and attempted murder of 4 people. A forensic psychiatric examination found Petrova insane and sent her for compulsory treatment.
17. Vera Renzi. 1903 - 1948
Vera was born into a wealthy family descended from the Hungarian nobility. She was an uncontrollable child, already at the age of fifteen she often ran away from home with her friends, many of whom were much older than her. She had an obsessive desire to be friends with men. By nature, Vera was very jealous and suspicious. The first time she married a rich businessman from Bucharest, many years older than her. They had a son, Lorenzo. Vera began to suspect her husband of cheating and one day, in anger, she poured arsenic into his wine. She told family and friends that her husband had abandoned her son. A year later, she announced that she had heard rumors that her estranged husband had died in a car accident. Soon she remarried. This time her chosen one was a man close in age. However, they often quarreled, and Vera tormented herself with suspicions about her husband’s infidelity. A month later, her husband disappeared and she again told family and friends that he had left her. A year later, Vera stated that she received a letter from him, where he said that he would never return home.
Vera never married again, but entered into relationships with men, including married ones. Her lovers were people of different strata and different social status. And they all disappeared months, weeks, or even a few days after the start of the novel. Vera always made up stories that men were unfaithful and abandoned her. One day, the deceived wife of one of her lovers followed her unfaithful husband. When the man disappeared, she called the police, Vera’s house was searched and 32 zinc coffins were found in the wine cellar, each of which contained a male corpse in various stages of decomposition. Vera was arrested and confessed that she poisoned these 32 men with arsenic when they cheated on her or lost interest in her. She also said that she liked to sit in a chair among the coffins of her former fans. Vera also confessed to the murder of two husbands and a son. She said that one day her son came to visit her and accidentally saw coffins in the basement. He began to blackmail her, and she poisoned him and disposed of the body.
16. The Gonzalez sisters
The Gonzalez sisters are Mexican serial killers.
Sisters Delphine and Maria ran a brothel. The sisters hired prostitutes through advertisements. When they got sick or stopped being liked by their clients, they killed them. The sisters also killed clients if they saw that they were carrying large sums of money. In total, police found 80 female and 11 male bodies. In 1964, the Gonzalez sisters were sentenced to forty years in prison. In prison, Delphine died due to an accident. Maria disappeared from sight after her release.
There were several sisters in the Gonzalez family. Carmen and Maria Luisa helped Maria and Delphine commit crimes. Carmen died in prison from cancer; Marie Louise went crazy, afraid of revenge.
15. Eileen Wuornos. 1956 - …
Many experts call her “the first female maniac in the USA”
Eileen Wuornos's psyche was disfigured even in childhood: her parents were teenagers who very soon separated, her mother fled in an unknown direction, and her father went to prison for molesting minors, where he hanged himself. Baby Eileen was placed in the care of her father's parent.
She lived with her grandparents until she was 13 years old. According to her own statements, she was raped by her grandfather, although psychiatrists later questioned this fact. At the age of 14 she was kicked out of home, and at the age of 15 she was already a vagrant and engaged in prostitution.
Over the years, her anger and anger towards men grew.
She had all the signs antisocial disorder personality, Eileen broke the law, robbed gun stores, and even married a 70-year-old man whom she physically raped. As a result, her elderly husband left her.
Shortly after the divorce, Eileen met a woman named Tyra, with whom she began a whirlwind romance. To support herself and her friend, Eileen went to work at the panel. Working on the roads selling your body was a dangerous job. And one day she killed a man. Eileen stated that she was brutally raped and killed her rapist in self-defense. However, she soon killed seven more people in Florida.
14. Rosemary West
Rosemary (also known as Rose) was the very embodiment of evil and soullessness. Rosemary and her husband Fred met young girls (most often students) on the street and invited them to visit, promising food, housing and compassion. The fate that awaited these unfortunate girls and young women was truly terrible.
Rosemary, a mother of eight children, was a prostitute and sexual sadist who took pleasure in inflicting pain on others. Together with her husband, she committed ten brutal murders, including the murder of her own child, a daughter named Heather. Rosemary was also found guilty of murdering her stepdaughter Michelle. Many other victims may have also been harmed and tortured and killed by this couple, as Fred made it clear that more than 20 of the missing girls may have been killed by him.
"Kill as much as possible more people- helpless people than any other man or woman who has ever lived...” - this is how she explained the motives for her crimes.
Jane Toppan is a nurse, maniac and sociopath who has suffered from obesity all her life.
In 1885, Toppan began training to become a nurse. During the training, one of the professors noticed an unhealthy interest in the student in looking at photographs from autopsies of bodies, but no one took this into account. of great importance and Jane Toppan completed her training with honors and began caring for patients who found her pleasant and nicknamed her “Jolly Jane.”
And "Jolly Jane" in turn used her patients as guinea pigs in experiments with morphine and atropine, changing the prescribed dosages of drugs and observing how this affects them nervous system. She touched unconscious patients and received sexual satisfaction from this. In 1899, Jane killed her adopted sister Elizabeth with a dose of strychnine.
In 1901, Jane cared for the elderly Alden Davis after the death of his wife (whom she had killed). Within weeks, she killed Davis himself and two of his daughters. After that, with a sense of accomplishment, she returned to her hometown and began caring for the husband of her late adoptive sister. By this time, surviving members of the Davis family requested toxicology testing for the youngest deceased daughter Alden Davy. It was determined that she had been poisoned.
On October 26, 1901, Jane Toppan was arrested for the murder of Alden Davy's daughter. But during the first interrogation, “Jolly Jane” pouted and stated that she had killed 31 people.
The court found her not guilty due to insanity and sentenced her to a mental hospital, where she remained until her death.
12. Bella Sorenson Guinness
Bella Sorenson Guinness is a female serial killer who kills for pleasure and greed. She killed 42 people for profit.
Guinness was born in Norway, at the age of 21 she moved to the United States, where she married a businessman from Chicago and gave birth to two daughters, whom, a few years later, she herself poisoned in order to receive insurance. Later, her husband died under strange circumstances from the drugs he was treating and again, for the death of her husband, Guinness received money from the insurance company. Bella bought a farm with the proceeds.
Her husband's relatives suspected something was wrong and blamed her for her husband's premature death. Soon, “Black Widow” put the matter on stream. Her scheme was extremely simple: seduce a man, marry him, persuade the chosen one to insure his life, and then poison him and receive the insurance money. She easily managed to lure men into her bed and they did not even imagine that a cold-blooded killer was hiding behind the mask of a pretty woman. It became known that she buried 42 husbands and accumulated more than a quarter of a million dollars. The “Black Widow” also ended her life tragically; her body was found in the forest, beheaded and burned. However, evil tongues claim that the body found does not belong to the Black Widow.
11. Daria Nikolaevna Saltykova (“Saltychikha”), 1730-1801
A Russian landowner who went down in history as the most sophisticated sadist and murderer of 139 serfs under her control, mostly women and girls.
10. Queen Mary I, 1516-1558
The daughter of the English king Henry VIII and his first wife went down in history as the 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” of the country took place against the backdrop of brutal executions of Protestants, persecution and murder of the innocent population, for which the people called the queen Mary the Bloody.
A serial killer who carried out her atrocities with her accomplice Ian Bryan. They 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.
8. Isabella of Castile, 1451-1504
Isabella of Castile became famous for her cruelty towards non-Catholics: a passionate and devout Catholic, she appointed Thomas Torquemada as the first Grand Inquisitor and ushered in an era of religious purges. Under Isabella of Castile, most of the Jews and Arabs left Spain - more than 200 thousand people, and those who remained were forced to convert to Christianity, which, however, rarely saved converts from death at the stake.
7. Beverly Allitt, 1968-…
An English nurse, nicknamed the “angel of death,” killed four young hospital patients in 1991 and caused serious harm to the health of five others. She injected children with insulin or potassium to induce severe heart attacks and simulate natural death. The motive for the crime is still unknown.
6. Bell Gunnes, 1859-1931
This American woman became the most famous female killer in US history after she killed both of her husbands, her own daughters, and several admirers and lovers. The main goal is to receive payments for life insurance. In total she killed 30 people.
5. Mary Ann Cotton, 1832-1873
She poisoned about 20 people with arsenic. Throughout her life, the criminal killed several husbands, her children and even her own mother. For this she was sentenced to death by hanging. The executioner who supervised her execution deliberately prolonged her torment by “forgetting” to knock out the stool from under the condemned woman’s feet.
4. Elsa Koch, 1906-1967
Elsa Koch, 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. She committed suicide in prison in 1967.
3. Irma Griz, 1923-1945
One of the most brutal guards of the women's death camps Ravensbrück, Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen in Hitler's Germany. The prisoners gave her the nickname - Blonde Devil. 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 that she could later set them on victims.
2. Katherine Knight, 1956-…
The first woman in Australian history to be sentenced to life imprisonment without parole. In October 2001, during a family quarrel, she killed her 44-year-old partner. She stabbed him about 30 times with a butcher knife, abused the body of her former friend, and then skinned the corpse.
To top it all off, Katherine Knight dismembered the corpse and stewed the severed head along with vegetables. The motive for the crime is a banal insult. As investigators found out, Knight’s partner decided to break up with her, kick her out of the house and deprive her of her inheritance.
1. Elizabeth Batory, 1560-1614
Hungarian Countess, better known as the “Bloody Lady”. She tortured and killed maidservants and peasant women: she brutally beat them, burned their hands, breasts, genitals, faces and other parts of the body with a hot iron, skinned victims who were still alive, starved them, mocked and raped them. In 1610 she was placed under house arrest on charges of murder, heresy and witchcraft. During the trial, the castle servants were unable to name the exact number of the sadist’s victims: the countess’s associates, who found themselves in the dock, spoke of four to five dozen killed, the rest of the servants claimed that they carried out the corpses in the hundreds. Batory died of natural causes in 1614.
When we hear about serial killers, male images immediately appear in our minds. Few people think about women at this moment. And in vain. History knows women who surpassed many of the worst male killers in their cruelty. We present to you the most cruel women in the history of mankind.
At first glance, she was an ordinary woman, a decent wife and mother. She did a favor and took in two sisters. But neither they themselves nor their parents even imagined what kind of life awaited one of the sisters, Sylvia.
As soon as the girl appeared in the house of Gertrude Baniszewski, the whole family literally hated her. The woman herself cruelly mocked the girl, beat her, and came up with sophisticated punishments. One day, little Sylvia was forced to bathe in a bath of boiling water, while the whole family stood and cheerfully looked at this spectacle. Forced to mock the girl and her sister. Little Sylvia had bruises, abrasions, and scratches on her body. And one day the child’s body could not stand it. Sylvia died.
The Baniszewski family hastily covered up the traces of the crime, but they were never able to escape from Themis. More precisely, the mother is the head of the family. Despite the fact that the American public, amazed by her actions, demanded the death penalty for the torturer, the judge sentenced her to life imprisonment. But after 19 years, Gertrude was released. And her children, who took part in bullying Sylvia, did not suffer any punishment. They grew up and started families.
Mary I Tudor (Bloody Mary)
The future ruler of Medieval Britain was born at the height of the English sweat epidemic. She did not have a special mind, and all her knowledge consisted only in books about Christianity, although Mary herself was a Catholic. At court they called her that: Mary the Catholic. She got the reins of government by chance and coincidence. That's when her crimes began. First, she sent her 16-year-old relative Jane to the executioner. Her husband and father-in-law followed her.
Maria did not spare anyone. All who refused to accept Catholicism were executed. Very soon, bonfires were burning all over Britain, where unwanted people were burned. It was then that Mary was nicknamed Bloody. Today's historians are far from agreeing that the woman was so bloodthirsty. Many agree that she was a puppet of the people behind and above her.
Another bloody woman in human history. Countess Elizabeth Báthory lived in Hungary at Čeyde Castle. Its walls kept the grim activities of the countess: she, along with her three faithful servants (who, by the way, were also women), kidnapped young peasant girls and tortured them. There were even rumors among local residents that Elizabeth herself took baths from the blood of tortured and tormented girls.
When Elizabeth's actions with her servants were revealed, the countess was settled in her own castle, in a tightly walled tower. There was an opening just for serving food. The guards, on pain of death, did not dare talk to the bloody countess. She lived the rest of her days in the same tower.
Irma Grese worked as a senior guard at the Virkenau concentration camp. The prisoners called her the Angel of Death, the Beautiful Beast and the Blonde Devil. This woman combined angelic beauty and devilish insides. She took pleasure in tormenting prisoners. Even the most seasoned Nazis could not think of such atrocities that she committed. For example, she unleashed a hundred starving dogs on a crowd of prisoners. And her favorite thing to do was sit on a chair, hum a song and shoot women prisoners walking in the crowd.
Of course, all these acts did not go unpunished for Irma. She was sentenced to death by hanging. By the way, the woman herself dreamed of getting on television and becoming a cinema star. But the dream of this cruel person was not destined to come true. Her life ended on the gallows. By the way, the whole evening before her execution, she had fun, sang songs and had fun with her friend, a fellow torturer.
It's hard to imagine, but this woman is the first serial killer in England. He spared no one - neither husbands nor children. Everyone around her, becoming unfit, immediately died from a mysterious “stomach fever.”
Mary Ann was born into a miner's family. When she was 16 years old, her father died and the girl had to spin and survive. Without thinking twice, she married a miner older than her. In marriage she gave birth to five children. But she didn’t want to eke out a miserable existence, raising constantly screaming, sick children. And therefore, her children began to die one after another. Their father followed them.
But the woman didn’t even think about grieving; on the contrary, she was very happy about the insurance that she was paid after her husband’s death. She bought herself a new dress and had fun and danced right in the cemetery.
Then she had several more husbands who also died mysteriously. Their children, whom Mary Ann hated, also left with them. And it is unlikely that her secret would have been revealed if not for meticulous journalists. They connected all the mysterious deaths around the woman and soon an autopsy of the bodies showed that there was a huge amount of arsenic in the tissues.
The woman was sentenced to hang. There is an opinion that the elderly executioner deliberately tied the rope incorrectly so that the black widow would suffer before death.
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. 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 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 in fairly at a 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 new era legality.
2. Queen Mary I, 1516-1558. 
Queen of England, fourth crowned monarch of the Tudor dynasty. Bloody Mary(the same one whose name is named after a popular cocktail). 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 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 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 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, the 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 this has not been proven) that this was due to mental disorder Beverly that the children who were in the hospital and complaining about their poor health were simply trying to attract her attention 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 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 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, it was last hours 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 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 distinguished 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 and 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 “working” place - 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 the 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 - it 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.
When we talk about cruelty and evil, we often think of murderers, maniacs and rapists. But have you ever thought that in 100% of cases what comes to mind is male names? How could it be otherwise? After all, a woman is a mother, she is tenderness and love. But history shows that indescribable, unimaginable cruelty sometimes settled in a fragile woman’s heart.The terrible actions of many of these women horrified the whole world. They resorted to torture, cruelty, committed murder and abused others. In this article, we decided to shed light on the ten most evil and cruel women in the world. Irma Ida Ilse Grese was born on October 7, 1923 in the Free State of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Germany, and died on December 13, 1945, Hameln, Germany. This woman worked for the Nazis concentration camps Ravensbrück and Auschwitz and was head girl of the women's section of Bergen-Belsen. She was found guilty of crimes against humanity at the Belsen Trial and sentenced to death.
She enjoyed torture using various painful techniques. Her main habit was wearing heavy boots, which also helped her subdue prisoners. To achieve her criminal goals, Irma also always carried a pistol with her and often used it. Executed at 22 years and 67 days old, Grese became the youngest woman to be sentenced to death at trial under English law in the 20th century. She had many nicknames. The most popular: “The Beast of Belsen”, “The Beautiful Beast” and “The Hyena of Auschwitz”.
Born in 1942, Myra Hindley was of English serial killer. In partnership with Ian Brady, she committed the rapes and murders of five young children. Together these two monsters were responsible for the kidnapping, sexual violence, torture and murder of three children under the age of twelve and two teenagers aged 16 and 17 years. Hindley was turned in to the police by her 17-year-old half-brother, but she did not plead guilty to any of the murders. Myra was found guilty of three murders and sentenced to life imprisonment. She never left the prison walls and died in captivity in 2002.
She was born in 1451 and died in 1504. This woman was the queen of Castile and Leon. She and her husband Ferdinand II of Aragon brought stability to the kingdom, which became the basis for the unification of Spain. Isabella and Ferdinand famously completed the Reconquista, expelled Muslims and Jews, and financed Christopher Columbus's voyage in 1492, which led to the discovery of the "New World." Isabella received the title of Servant of God of the Catholic Church in 1974.
But its cruelty and evil lies in the fact that behind all these achievements there are thousands of non-Catholics burned alive. During the infamous Spanish Inquisition, it ushered in an era of religious purges, and even the adoption of faith did not save the unfortunate from death at the stake!
Beverly Gail Allitt is an English serial killer who was found guilty of murdering four children, attempting to murder three children and causing grievous bodily harm to six more children. The offenses were committed over a 59-day period between February and April 1991 at the children's ward in Grantham and Kesteven Hospital, Lincolnshire, where Allitt worked as a nurse. She injected large doses of insulin into at least two victims and a large air bubble was found in the body of another, but police were unable to determine how the attacks were carried out. In May 1993, Beverley Allitt was sentenced to 13 life sentences for all her crimes at Nottingham Crown Court. Mr Justice Latham told Allitt at sentencing that she posed a "serious danger" to others and was unlikely to ever be considered sufficiently dangerous to society to be released.
Mary I was born on February 18, 1516 and died on November 17, 1558. She was Queen of England and Ireland from July 1553 until her death. Her brutal persecution of Protestants caused her opponents to give her the nickname "Bloody Mary." She was the only surviving child of the ill-fated marriage of Henry VIII and his first wife, Catherine of Aragon. Mary is mainly remembered for her temporary and cruel treatment England to Catholicism. Many prominent Protestants in those days were executed for their beliefs. Fearing the gallows, about 800 more Protestants left the country and were unable to return until Bloody Mary's death.
With a height of 173 cm and a weight of 91 kg, Gunness was a physically strong woman. Belle became one of the most brutal and merciless female serial killers in America. This imposing and powerful woman was of Norwegian descent. It is likely that she killed both of her husbands and all of her children, but it can definitely be argued that she killed most of her suitors, boyfriends, and two daughters: Myrtle and Lucy. The motive was simple greed: life insurance policies, valuables and property stolen or defrauded from her suitors became Gunness's constant source of income.
Most reports of her death toll count more than twenty victims killed over several decades, but some claim the actual death toll is well over a hundred. Some inconsistencies discovered during her post-mortem examination (the corpse was reportedly shorter than Belle) caused Belle to enter criminal American folklore under the nickname "Bluebeard" and was allegedly seen after her death.
Britain's first serial killer, Mary Ann Cotton, was born in October 1832 in a village in County Durham. Married at the age of twenty to William Mowbray, Mary and her husband settled in Plymouth, Devon, to begin building their own family. The couple had five children, four of whom died of stomach fever and terrible abdominal pain. The series of tragedies did not stop there - three more children born died after illnesses with the same symptoms. And soon the head of the family, William, also followed his offspring, dying of an “intestinal disorder” in January 1865. The British Prudential promptly paid dividends to the widow in the amount of about 35 pounds. Her second husband, George Ward, died of intestinal problems, followed by the same fate for one of her two remaining children.
But the press became the force that exposed Mary Ann. Local newspapers connected all the facts: Mary Ann had moved from northern England, lost three husbands, a lover, a friend, her mother and a dozen children, all of whom died from stomach fever. Mary Ann was hanged on March 24, 1873 for murder by arsenic poisoning. The executioner deliberately prolonged her torment, “forgetting” to knock out the stool from under the condemned woman’s feet, so Mary died for a long and painful three minutes.
Born on September 22, 1906, Ilse Koch, known as the "Witch of Buchenwald" or "The Bitch of Buchenwald", was the wife of Karl-Otto Koch. She became one of the first prominent Nazis to be tried by the American military. Intoxicated by her husband's absolute power, she reveled in torture and obscenity. In 1940, Ilse was appointed chief warden among the few female guards at Buchenwald. Her souvenirs made from human skin became notorious; Ilsa ordered the killing of all prisoners with tattoos in order to make crafts out of them later. She beat the prisoners with a whip and set dogs on them. Ilse Koch committed suicide by hanging herself in a women's prison on September 1, 1967.
She was born on October 24, 1955 and continues to serve a life sentence in prison to this day. Catherine Mary Knight became the first Australian woman to be sentenced to life imprisonment without parole. Katherine more than once initiated family scandals that led to tragic consequences. Once, during an argument, she cut the throat of an eight-month-old puppy in front of her ex-partner. And Knight knocked out another boyfriend during a breakup implanted teeth. But Katherine's main victim was her partner Price, who decided to leave the woman. He was brutally stabbed to death, suffering at least 37 stab wounds to vital organs. Katherine Knight then dismembered the corpse, skinned it, and hung the “suit” on the door frame in the living room. The woman cut off her partner's head and put it in a soup pot and stewed it with vegetables, baked his buttocks and seasoned it with sauce. Such "roast" and vindictive notes were served on the table for the Price children, but, fortunately, it was all discovered by the police before they arrived home.
The Bloody Countess was born in 1560 in the family mansion in the Hungarian town of Nyirbator and died in 1614. She is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the woman who has accomplished the most a large number of murders, and is Hungary's most notorious serial killer, although the number of her victims is a controversial issue. Elizabeth Bathory killed peasant girls who had to go through severe beatings, torture by fire, mutilation of various parts of the body, ripping off the skin from their faces, torture with needles, etc. In the end, the countess was walled up in her own room, where she died.
It is not news that the world sometimes produces terrible and cruel killers, but who would have thought that such monstrous atrocities could be committed by women. Even the most balanced person can involuntarily tremble, because a murder committed by a woman - who gives life according to her destiny - is doubly terrible!
