Who are the most horrifiying women serial killers in history?

People have been obsessed with Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer, and other infamous criminals for decades. Whole documentaries clog the airwaves as true crime stans dissect their murderous ways. However, some of the most terrifying serial killers have been women.

While some have gained notoriety, they’ve mostly operated in the shadows of our collective psyche. From Elizabeth Báthory to Aileen Wuornos, they’ve haunted people with the reality that women can be just as violent & maladjusted as their male counterparts.

Yet, we don’t hear about women serial killers as much as do about men. Aside from the occasional movie or docuseries, their reputations continue to exist in silence. Therefore, it’s time to bring them into the light. Let’s break down the women in history who caused a bloody scene!

Poisoned justice

Many know the name Báthory as the mother of drinking blood to stay young & beautiful. Less people know about Giulia Tofana, though, operated in 17th century Italy. She made a name for herself using murder to help women escape their abusive husbands. Her weapon of choice? The aptly named poison Aqua Tofana.

What Tofana did was horrible, but she did it for a good cause. Except not everyone agreed with her actions and, eventually, a widow was the one who turned her in. Her name eventually faded into existence. It was not until much later that Tofana joined the lexicon of women serial killers.

Domestic violence is still, unfortunately, a prevalent practice. People every day are terrified in their own homes by people they love and who claim to love them back. Tofana’s story is a warning to those who put their hands on their partners: don’t trust everything you drink.

Las Poquianchis

To take so many lives, women serial killers must see their victims as deserving. Unlike Tofana who killed to help others, Delfina and Maria de Jesus Gonzalez, aka Las Poquianchis, took innocent lives for personal gain in the 1950s. Their victims were sex workers in San Francisco del Rincón, Mexico.

The sisters ran the Rancho El Ángel, or the bordello from hell. They lured young women into their “care” under the guise of looking for housekeepers. They would then subject the poor women to forced drug use & sex for money before killing them when they were no longer of use.

They were neither the first nor the last to trick young people into horrible situations. Fairy tales like Hansel & Gretel were born from such devious intentions – maybe even unknowingly about women serial killers. It just goes to show that you can’t trust every woman offering opportunities to the desperate.

Innocence stolen

Lizzy Borden is such a familiar figure that there’s an actual song about what she supposedly did to her parents. Dagmar Overbye hasn’t had people gleefully sing her of her crimes, but what she did to the infants in her care was far worse than alleged axe murder.

Of all the women serial killers whose names are unknown, Overbye’s is the scariest. She would lure women to her by promising them she’d find a proper home for their babies. She’d send them home alright, send them home to the glory of the afterlife by strangling them to death.

After brutally murdering sixteen infants, Overbye was sentenced to death in 1920. Due to being a woman, though, Danish King Christian X lowered her punishment to life in prison. Her presenting as a White woman – by today’s standards, at least – must’ve also played a factor in her commuted sentence.

Blood lust

Women serial killers have been around since the dawn of time. The so-called softer gender has produced many people who enjoy taking the lives of others. People have fabricated the illusion that women are too nurturing or unable to withstand violence to be dangerous.

This only makes it easier for these Y-chromosome-bearing creatures to roam the streets freely. Just because the knowledge of their presence isn’t there doesn’t mean the public fascination with them isn’t, though. Award-winning actress Charlize Theron brought a female serial killer to life in the critically-acclaimed Monster.

The scariest thing about women serial killers is that society is still too sexist to believe they even exist. This allows them to remain anonymous as they upend lives & go on bloody rampages. They may not be as known as Jack the Ripper, yet they haunt us from the shadows.