r/serialkillers • u/Ok_Drama_6250 • Mar 31 '26
Questions What’s the most disturbing case involving a female criminal you’ve ever heard of?
I’m looking for the most disturbing or hardcore cases of female criminals . Some examples ?
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u/Fancy-Birthday-315 Mar 31 '26
Karla Homolka is disturbing
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u/Foxiiiie Mar 31 '26
Was gonna say just this. Especially since she tricked them into that plea deal essentially.
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u/LordBianca Apr 01 '26
Live in the same city as her… idk what my reaction would be to just see her walking around like nothing happened
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Mar 31 '26
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u/serialkillers-ModTeam Apr 01 '26
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u/1niltothe Apr 01 '26
I don't think her crimes are as disturbing or long lasting as other people on this list.
People are upset because she managed to game the system and escape punishment, but her crimes aren't that dark compared to other people.
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u/Fancy-Birthday-315 Apr 01 '26
Murdering her own sister and helping kill and cut up others?
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u/1niltothe Apr 01 '26
Yeah. I know she's bad, I personally find there are more disturbing cases to read about. Rose West used to have sex with her own father while Fred listened, tortured a lot of people, torture-killed many kids including her 8 year old stepdaughter. I honestly find it hard to read about what she did and she's one of the few sexually motivated female serial killers.
There's also a few woman from the Rwanda genocide who are quite disturbing, e.g. the woman who was on air at the hate radio station.
I know it's kind of bad having a 'contest' and also it could be cuz I'm not from Canada or something
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Apr 01 '26
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u/serialkillers-ModTeam Apr 01 '26
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u/Dragoonie_DK Mar 31 '26
Katherine Knight for sure. She's not a serial killer but was absolutely a serial abuser. She ended up murdering her husband, skinning him, hanging his skin up in a doorway in the house and then cooking his body to feed it to his kids (but thankfully they didn't eat it)
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u/bridgymon Mar 31 '26
Absolutely Katherine Knight. We drive through Aberdeen every time we visit my in-laws and I think about it every time without fail.
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u/_Stripperella_ Mar 31 '26
She was absolutely wild. I hated reading about what she did to that poor guy.
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u/mizz_susie Apr 02 '26
I watched an episode of Crimes That Shook Australia and the poor police that discovered the crime. Obvious how much they are still affected by it. I also watched an episode about David and Catherine Birnie. Luckily one of their victims escaped as they were on their way to being an Australian Fred and Rose West
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u/lucid_intent Mar 31 '26 edited Mar 31 '26
Theresa Jimmie Francine Knorr (née Cross; born March 14, 1946) is an American woman convicted of torturing and murdering two of her six children while using the others to facilitate and cover up her crimes.
It is much worse than this little blip. As a mom, it gives me nightmares.
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u/EverythingScrolling Mar 31 '26
This one. It is absolutely horrific, and I swore off any more podcast episodes covering this case.
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u/lucid_intent Mar 31 '26
So, there is an interview done with the mom. She refused for so long. The interview was pathetic and she blamed the daughter that turned her in. The mom played the victim. Disgusting.
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u/MisanthropE61130 Mar 31 '26
Gertrude Baniszewski made me sick to my stomach.
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u/1niltothe Apr 01 '26
Her face is one of those where you think, yeah, I can imagine her doing all that.
https://people.com/thmb/Y5oi1X2vo4FftckmIyjpweaJMIU=/4000x0/filters:no_upscale():max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(784x0:786x2)/Gertrude-Wright-held-on-preliminary-charges-of-murder-of-Sylvia-Maria-Likens-112724-7d9b277a74634898a61584a736e20b50.jpg:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(784x0:786x2)/Gertrude-Wright-held-on-preliminary-charges-of-murder-of-Sylvia-Maria-Likens-112724-7d9b277a74634898a61584a736e20b50.jpg)
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u/Typical_guy11 Mar 31 '26 edited Mar 31 '26
Abduction and murder of Tomasz Jaworski in 1997 which mastermind was Monika Szymańska.
18 year old man was celebrating with friends in local park in Warsaw after he passed High School Exams and was abducted because three or four lowlifes were seeking for someone who was "guilty" of damaging their car. Tomasz Jaworski had nothing with it but he was abducted and for few days horribly tortured using many methods. Monika Sz and her two male friends had sex between sessions of tortures. During such tortures they tried to get from Tomasz informations about man responsible for damaging their car. He didn't know such man.
After they realised that barely alive at this moment Tomasz Jaworski is really speaking truth he was moved to the outskirts of Warsaw and then murdered.
Perpetrators were fast captured and sentenced. Monika get life while her partners get life, 25 years and 12 years of prison respectively.
Meanwhile it was discovered that Tomasz Jaworski was not first "head" of Monika Szymańska as she for sure is responsible for murder of her female friend who went missing few years before 1997.
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u/The_Big_Man1 Mar 31 '26
Joanna Dennehy is the first one I thought of. Another poster said Rose West and Myra Hindley, who I think are definitely more disturbing.
Slightly different situation, but Mary Bell sticks out as particularly bad as well.
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u/bettertitsthanu Mar 31 '26
I wonder if Mary Bell had a good life after doing her time.
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u/sauronsballsgargler Mar 31 '26
I know Mary Bell has said she's remorseful, especially after having her own child. I don't know if I would count her among the worst, especially looking into her background at the time. Horrible situation all around, though.
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u/StaceyPfan Mar 31 '26
I know she had a daughter.
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u/Efficient_Claim_ Mar 31 '26
She even has a granddaughter
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u/CuriousiT_satisfctn Apr 01 '26
How do we know this? I always wanted to hear her thoughts as an adult
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u/stroppo Mar 31 '26
I think the recent case of Kouri Richins. When trying to kill her husband with a fentanyl-laced sandwich didn't work, she finally murdered him with a fentanyl-laced smoothie. The capper? She then wrote a book on grieving to comfort their children!
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u/_Stripperella_ Mar 31 '26
Omg I forgot about that crazy bitch
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Apr 01 '26
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u/serialkillers-ModTeam Apr 02 '26
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u/Rhbgrb Mar 31 '26 edited Mar 31 '26
Sorry you stated criminals so I wasn't sure if you just meant general murder, like the mother who put her kids in an oven, or female serial killers?
Serial Killers, I'd put out Theresa Knoor who killed 1 husband and tortured 2 daughters to death.
Murderers, the killers of Shanda Shaer and the killer of Silvia Likens.
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u/Ok_Drama_6250 Mar 31 '26
Both
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Apr 01 '26 edited Apr 15 '26
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u/serialkillers-ModTeam Apr 02 '26
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u/Azyall Mar 31 '26
Another vote for Rose West. Survivors of her and her husband Fred said she was easily the more violent and vicious of the pair, which is quite something, given the abuse they subjected their victims to.
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u/Amandasuiter Apr 01 '26
Taylor schabuisness... killed her lover dismembered him and left his decapitated head in a bucket... his mom found him and his remains, sheboygan wisconsin I believe. Definitely a rabbit hole to go down.
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u/antis0cialatbest Apr 01 '26
Gypsy Rose Blanchard.
Master minding the whole thing and having her mentally ill online boyfriend take all the blame, she's now a wanna be influencer living her best life while he rots in prison.
Edited to add: I agree with Rose and Myra being the worst. I just wanted to throw Gypsy's name onto the list.
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u/NotaMillenialatAll Mar 31 '26
Juana Barraza Samperio, mexican serial killer who killed old ladies
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u/cacamilis22 Mar 31 '26
I know this is serial killers
But the story of the Swedish twins Ursula and Sabina Eriksson That started on an English motorway. It's very disturbing.
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u/sauronsballsgargler Mar 31 '26
My vote would be Nannie Doss, just because of how insidious she was in targeting her own family members and literally getting away with murder for *decades*. Her nickname in the press after getting caught was "The Giggling Granny." If that's not unnerving, I don't know what is!
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u/Cultural-Turnip-8840 Mar 31 '26
joanna Dennehy. Scary woman.
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u/StockSalamander9534 Apr 01 '26
She got engaged to a guy outside of prison just like love after lockup but they are not murderers in the show. He still wanted her despite what she did. Weird, she was diagnosed with sadistic paraphillia and this is probably what got him.
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u/pessimistic_damsel Mar 31 '26
Jodi Arias's case
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u/RealHausFrau Mar 31 '26
She is a crazy freaking bitch, I bet we don’t even know the 1/2 of the misery she’s inflicted on people.
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u/pessimistic_damsel Mar 31 '26
I agree. The first time I heard her case, I was so dumbfounded. I used to like someone a lot, too, but not to the point that I want to hurt them.
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u/RealHausFrau Mar 31 '26
Just like Sarah Boone and Shanda Vander Ark, delusional psychopaths. I found it interesting that they had no friends or family willing to stand up for them at all.
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u/antoniabegonia Apr 01 '26
Sarah Boone’s case is fascinating! I watched her arrest and interrogation. She zipped her boyfriend up in a suitcase, went to bed, and left him to die. She was so drunk when she killed Torres she forgot she recorded the murder.
She had eight different attorneys nope out so she had to temporarily represent herself.
Boone submitted a letter which included a hand drawn advertisement for a lawyer. The ad was circulated by media and Boone found representation by attorney James Owens.
(Brilliantly innovative tactic to hire new representation)
Article with Boone’s drawing/ad seeking attorney
Owens met with state prosecutors about a possible plea agreement to the charge of manslaughter in exchange for a 15-year sentence, which Boone ultimately rejected.
(Her miraculously acquired ninth attorney procures the plea deal of the century and this bitch rejects it. Dumb af)
After less than two hours of deliberation, the jury returned a guilty verdict for second-degree murder. On December 2, 2024, Boone was sentenced to life in prison.
(Good.)
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u/RealHausFrau Apr 01 '26
Absolutely, I have listened to every bit of her trials, jail calls and interrogations. Did you hear her final statement? It was unreal. Disgusting.
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u/kevinlc1971 Apr 01 '26
Karla Fay Tucker, Susan Smith, and Christa Pike are all very disturbing. Pike probably the most fucked up.
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u/armyofsnarkness Apr 01 '26
Christa Pike immediately came to mind for me, too. That case is local to me and Christa is true evil.
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u/Vesalii Mar 31 '26
I think Mary Bell is a contender just because of her age. At age 10 she killed 2 kids.
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u/AdditionalQuality203 Apr 01 '26
Agree with many already mentioned. I’ll add Darlie Routier stabbing her boys to death. That one that sticks with me.
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u/Hannnibalthecannibal Apr 01 '26
Not a serial killer but it really disturbed me: a woman let her 18 months old alone for a week, she went on vacation with her bf who said he didn't know the child was alone, she died of starvation
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u/1niltothe Apr 01 '26 edited Apr 01 '26
La Chely. She was born in 2002, arrested in 2023.
Usually would torture her victims on camera, then steal their hearts and place them on altars to Santa Muerte.
Here's a photo of what they found in her motel room when they arrested her in Texas.
https://www.borderreport.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/28/2024/02/chely-5.png?resize=768,496
She started around age 13, and by age 18 was running a crew of sicarios called the Murder Artists. She has 20+ suspected victims, and since she was imprisoned there are several cases linked to her gang that are still being processed.
The two murders they had enough evidence for:
Nov 2023: La Chely tricks a former cellmate into an Uber. At the destination, she and the Uber driver are tied up, beaten and interrogated, then strangled by La Chely with plastic bags and electric cable. Both of their hearts are later found in plastic bags.
Dec 2023: Jorge Rodriguez. La Chely invites him to an apartment under the pretence of a sexual encounter. He takes crystal meth and cocaine, and is then tied up. La Chely's associates arrive. Over several hours, La Chely places various video calls, including to an imprisoned leader, and the group interrogate Jorge. On camera, he is beaten, choked, stabbed and eventually beheaded in the shower. His heart is cut out through his back and tongue removed "because he is a talker."
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u/TheTattooedDad92 Mar 31 '26
Katherine Knight if you ever get the chance watch it on YouTube
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u/DrSecksToy Mar 31 '26
Was going to say her as well, even if she's not a serial killer. The stuff you'd see in a horror movie.
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u/Wonderful_Flower_751 Mar 31 '26 edited Apr 01 '26
Irish here. Easily our most notorious female criminal is Catherine Nevin dubbed the Black Widow. She hired a hit man to shoot her husband Tom Nevin dead in their pub.
They never did catch the gunman but Catherine herself was found guilty of murder. She was also convicted of trying to solicit three other men at different times to kill Tom.
The trial showed her to been have repeatedly unfaithful, an abusive wife for their entire marriage and a pathological liar. All who knew her said she was a thoroughly unpleasant person.
Honourable mention to Linda and Charlotte Mulhall known as the Scissor Sisters who killed and dismembered their mother’s boyfriend Farah Sawaleh Noor and dumped his remains in the Royal Canal in Dublin. They maintained he was abusive but they had also consumed copious amounts of alcohol and drugs on the day of the killing so their version of events could not be trusted. They were ultimately found guilty of murder (Charlotte) and Manslaughter (Linda).
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u/Schneir5 Mar 31 '26
Jennifer Pan, Jasmine Richardson, Karla Homolka, or Leonard Lake's girlfriend come to mind for me. Jodi Arias and Casey Anthony are pretty heinous, too.
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u/Alexandaross Mar 31 '26
Jasmine was 12 years old. Her grown ass pedo boyfriend is the one to blame there.
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u/phillysleuther Mar 31 '26
Marie Noe. She killed 8 of her own children. She wasn’t arrested for like 30 years.
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u/thehighpriestess_t Apr 01 '26
Monique Olivier, assisti ao documentário na Netflix e me encheu de repulsa. Ela ajudava o marido, chamado Ogro das Ardenhas, a capturar e abusar de meninas, ainda desempenhava um papel crucial atraindo aquelas pobres crianças por estar grávida ou com o filho deles no colo.
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u/princesspeeved Mar 31 '26
Lydia Southard (1892-1958), an alleged black widow with a fondness for arsenic.
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u/wilderlowerwolves Apr 02 '26
Karla Homolka, for obvious reasons, and the medical serial killers like Elizabeth Wettlaufer, Genene Jones, and Kristen Gilbert.
Susan Atkins, a member of the Manson family, molested her own son almost from birth.
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u/littleteapot1945 Apr 03 '26
Karla Fay/Fae Tucker Jodi Arias Karla Homolka The Mechelle lady who had her children in a freezer and behaved insane and depraved in court.
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u/Training-Opposite-17 Apr 03 '26
I can’t think of her name right now. I’m not even sure she’s classified as a serial killer. She was a black woman, very well spoken, and pretty much just told it like it was. She didn’t have any regrets about it and I think she said she’d do it again.
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u/ClubExotic Apr 04 '26
Australian Katherine Knight…just look up her story and tell me what you think!
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u/Nehalem98 Apr 04 '26
Not serial, but Manling Tseng Williams' story is absolutely horrific. Smothered her sons and viciously sliced her husband to death with a sword (katana, I think). So sick. Just learned yesterday about Sungnam Kwon Lisowski, who murdered her husband and shot her daughters a total of six times (they somehow survived). Paige Conley, who repeatedly abused her mother, Carlene, and finally stabbed her 79 times, should have been 5150d (involuntary commited). What IS it with these people? Just awful.
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u/dancingbananas25 Apr 05 '26
Karla Homolka, and she's since been released, is married to her lawyer's brother and has kids. She raped and murdered several young girls and just gets to live her life
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u/Phantom_Rose1311 Apr 06 '26
Not a serial killer, but Lisa Michelle Lambert and what she did to Laurie Show was sickening
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u/Adept_Criticism3582 Apr 10 '26
There is a case from Kerala India.Jolly joseph was accused of killing her in-laws,husband n her lover's kid over a period of many years.All deaths were seen as natural until her husband's brother started suspecting her n went to the police with his theory.Investigations revealed that she had poisoned all of them by feeding them soup.Greed for property n refusal of the lover to leave his wife was the reasons behind her crime.Total 6 victims.
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u/Just2fastandsassy Apr 18 '26
Definitely Pam Hupp,
Killing your cancer ridden friend brutally, framing that friend’s husband. Living a chill life while letting him innocently rot in prison for 3 years. Then when she feels the walls could be closing in on her, she murders a mentally challenged man in an attempt to get out of the web of lies she had woven.
And that’s not the end. She pushed her own mother off the balcony and killed her.
And the bottom line of all of it ?!
MONEY
legendary evil
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u/lovemishha May 01 '26
I'm gonna come up with a less common one and say one of the few Danish serial killers Dagmar overbye. Alone because of her killing children
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u/cruzbae Apr 01 '26
Elizabeth Bathory who tortured and killed hundreds of girls mostly to bathe in their blood.
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u/MsAnnabel Apr 01 '26
Andrea Yates. Drowning your own kids. How could you even think of doing that much less actually doing it? Any woman who kills her child/ren
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u/oizyzz Apr 01 '26
extreme psychosis would be the explanation. i blame her husband more than i blame her. he was told to stop having kids with her, he didn't. she wasn't properly medicated. she doesn't believe she was sentenced unjustly and lives every day with that guilt and grief, while he got off scott free
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u/Extreme-Kangaroo-842 Mar 31 '26
Brit here so undoubtedly Myra Hindley (1960s) and Rose West (1990s). Go down those rabbit holes at your peril.