Women are commonly thought of as the ‘weaker’ sex in our society. In fact, even though women have served in dangerous positions during wartime as nurses and spies, they weren’t formally allowed into the military in our country until 1948 and weren’t allowed into combat for decades after that.
The same common myth has existed when it comes to women as killers—especially serial killers. In 1998, Ray Hazelwood of the FBI is famously quoted as saying, “There are no female serial killers.” Well, he was wrong.
As Tori Telfer says in her book Lady Killers: Deadly Women Throughout History, “Typically, women are seen as only capable of reactive homicide—murder done in self-defense, a burst of passion, an imbalance of hormones, a wave of hysteria…”
Really? An imbalance of hormones or wave of hysteria? Will men never stop hanging hormones around our necks like a flashing hazard sign? Having gone through menopause myself, there are certainly days when I might feel like killing someone, but I have yet to do it.
But I digress.
Melissa Harrison, author of “Just as Deadly: The Psychology of Female Serial Killers," says that women often get away with multiple murders longer than men because of their unassuming nature. Harrison is a psychologist and believes that she and her team were the first to study the demographics between male and female serial killers.
For instance, according to Harrison, the female serial killers she studied were typically white, educated, married, and served in a caregiving role. What this means is that of the people these women murdered, there was at least one child, elderly, or infirmed person on the list. Harrison believes one reason is because these individuals “had little chance of fighting back.”
Enzo Yaksic, who runs the Atypical Homicide Research Group, told Newsweek Magazine that female serial killers have been traditionally ignored or discounted because they have been considered too weak and fragile to do something so heinous. He went on to say that because of a woman’s perceived trustworthiness and kindness, female serial killers have been able stay hidden longer, which has allowed them to become more efficient and methodical as killers.
Research has also shown that two of the differences between male and female serial killers is how and why they kill. For men, the crime is often sexual in nature, and the man not only fantasizes about the act but selects and then stalks his victims. Women typically don’t do that, nor do they sexually assault or physically mutilate their victims. The motivation for women is usually linked to power or financial gain, which means they often have a personal relationship with the people they target. Yaksic told Newsweek that, "…71% of the 28 female serial murderers active between 2010 and 2024 were arrested after killing their own children, patients under their care, acquaintances, or romantic partners."
If you listen to enough true crime podcasts or watch true crime documentaries, you’ll realize that many women are truly diabolical as they carry out complicated plans to murder their husbands, get the life insurance, and run away with their lovers. And they often get the lover to commit the murder and then give Oscar-worthy performances when interviewed by the police, denying any involvement and leaning hard into the very myths that often dissuade people from suspecting them in the first place.
In my mind, women have been underestimated for centuries. And yet, they are every bit as capable of a horrific crime, such as murder, as they are of performing valiantly in combat. Let’s face it. Women have distinguished themselves on the battlefield, in law enforcement, and even in martial arts and extreme physical sports. Our bodies may be built for babies, but there’s a reason you’d be advised to back slowly and carefully away from a ‘mama bear’ if you met her on the trail. Piss her off, and she’ll eat you alive.
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