The Most Evil Female Criminals in History

According to the National Institute of Corrections, there are more than 10.35 million people incarcerated throughout the world; the United States houses the majority of them, with more than 2.2 million in the prison system. Although men make up a vast majority of criminals, 10% of those locked up are women, and the numbers have only risen in recent decades.

Women are often the rarest of criminals. In 2022, there were 2,107 females convicted of murder, compared to 15,094 males convicted of the same crime. It is thought that women are often less likely to commit crimes due to gender socialization, where females are often encouraged to be gentle and nurturing, while men are expected to be more aggressive and strong.

Yet, some women eschew gender statistics and expectations and rise to the top, becoming violent criminals charged with unspeakable crimes. (For criminals of the commerce variety, meet the most infamous white-collar criminals of all time.)

To compile a list of the most notorious female criminals in history, 24/7 Tempo consulted a range of publications and websites including The Famous People, and The Crime Wire. We then selected a variety of female criminals with different Modus Operandi and from different eras and then consulted sites like Britannica and Biography for biographical information.

Amelia Dyer, born Amelia Elizabeth Hobley, was a mentally unstable trained nurse who spent periods of her life in mental asylums. To support herself after her husband died, she fell into the lucrative Victorian-era practice of baby farming – adopting unwanted babies and fostering them in exchange for money. Though Dyer appeared to take to the job quickly, a number of the babies died under her care, and she was sentenced to six months of hard labor.

Dubbed the Ogress of Reading, she began killing the infants she had "adopted", often strangling them before disposing of the bodies. She was eventually caught for her murder after a baby's body was fished out of the Thames River, with evidence leading back to her.

It resulted in one of the most sensational trials of the Victorian Era and although she was found guilty of murdering one baby girl and hanged, six more baby bodies were found, and evidence pointed to 12 more. It is believed she may have killed almost 400.

Born to a pedophile father and a mother who quickly abandoned her and her siblings, Aileen Wuornos began exchanging her body for food or drugs at an early age, followed by a tragic tale of sexual abuse, suicide attempts, and eventually, serial murder.

Over the 12 months between 1989 and 1990, career prostitute Wuornos murdered seven men, many of whom were her customers. Once caught, she claimed all the murders were in self-defense after the victims raped or attempted to rape her. The jury didn't buy it and she was sentenced to death.

On October 9, 2002, Wuornos was executed by lethal injection in Florida. (For other female killers, discover the most evil female serial killers in history.)

Bathory was a Hungarian Noblewoman from the land-owning family of Bathory. She was also a serial killer, arrested in 1610 along with four of her servants, and accused of torturing and killing hundreds of women and girls. She was even accused of bathing in the victims' blood to preserve her youth.

Many modern historians see the story of Bathory as a politically motivated witchhunt, an attempt to destroy her family's influence in what is now Slovakia. Either way, she was imprisoned in Čachtice Castle, dying shortly after. Whether the tales are true or not, she is still considered an almost mythical evil character and has come down through the history books as an inspiration for vampire stories.

Born in the mean streets of Cartegena, Colombia, Blanco was raised in a violent, lawless atmosphere that no doubt contributed to her life's work. She emigrated to the United States in the mid-60s where she quickly set up a thriving drug dealing business. Known as the Lady of the Mafia, the Black Widow, and the Godmother, she fled the country back home but returned to Miami in the late 70s.

Her stateside return coincided with the murder epidemic that plagued the already drug-soaked Miami in the early 1980s. She was arrested on drug trafficking charges and three counts of first-degree murder for alleged drug-business-related hits and sentenced to 35 years in prison.

Due to health reasons, she was eventually released and returned to Colombia. Not long after, Blanco was murdered in a drive-by shooting in Medellín, Colombia by unknown assailants.

Juana Barraza was a former professional wrestler and Mexican serial killer who was later dubbed La Mataviejitas, or The Little Old Lady Killer. Barraza was fascinated by Lucha libre style wrestling from an early age and would become one as an adult under the auspicious ring name of La Dama del Silencio.

Accused of murdering and robbing 16 elderly women, Barazza was finally arrested after the crimes went unsolved for years. Though she only admitted to one of the murders in court, Barazza was found guilty of all 16 murders and sentenced to 759 years in prison where she currently resides. Authorities believe there were between 42 and 48 deaths but after her conviction, 30 cases remained unsolved.

Homolka, who is also known as Karla Leanne Teale, Leanne Teale, and Leanne Bordelais, was an accomplice to her husband, Paul Bernardo, in the sexual assault and murder of at least three young girls, one of whom was her sister. Her story begins when she meets her future husband Paul Bernardo, who was a salesman by day and the Scarborough rapist by night.

Bernardo took an evil shine to Homolka's younger sister and convinced Karla to kill her with him. What followed was a series of murders, many of them recorded to videotape. When the pair were eventually caught, Homolka claimed she was an unwilling participant in the crimes, doing so only out of fear for her life. Although the videotapes suggested otherwise, Homolka was given a reduced sentence for manslaughter, served 12 years, and is currently free.

Myra Hindley was part of a serial killer pair, who, along with Ian Brady, killed five children in Manchester, England between 1963 to October 1965. These murders were considered some of the most brutal murders in English history known as the Moors Murders.

Hindley proclaimed her innocence in court but both were sentenced to life in prison. Twenty years later, Brady admitted to more murders which reopened the investigation, which was around the same time that Hindley finally admitted to her part in the murders.

Called "the most evil woman in Britain," Hindley died at the West Suffolk Hospital after 36 years in prison. (For other criminals who did their deeds in the post-war period, meet the most wanted criminals of the 1960s.)

Born Nancy Hazel, Nannie Doss was a serial killer responsible for the death of 11 people. Born and raised in Alabama, Doss got married at a young age and endured an unhappy marriage. Two of their four children died of suspected food poisoning.

She divorced her first husband and would go on to remarry several times, all of whom would meet untimely deaths.Suspicion only fell on her when her fifth husband died and his autopsy revealed fatal amounts of the poison arsenic in his system. After that, Doss confessed to 11 murders.

Doss was known by several names – the Giggling Granny, Lady Blue Beard, the Lonely Hearts Killer, and the Black Widow. She killed four husbands, her mother, sister, grandson, and mother-in-law, often taking out life insurance policies on the victims before their murders. Doss was sentenced to life in prison.

A Norwegian immigrant to the United States, Gunness married Mads Sørensen in 1884. What followed was a series of burned-down properties that were quickly reimbursed through insurance as well as mysterious deaths including of her husband.This gave Gunness the money to buy a farm in Indiana, which she used to lure lonely men via newspaper advertisements.

Known as Hell's Belle, she is thought to have killed at least fourteen people but is suspected of as many as 40 more. After her farmhouse burned down with her in it, the bodies and subsequent murders were discovered. The autopsy on her body, however, suggested it was not her.

She is known as one of the most prolific female serial killers of all time. Rumors still abound that she managed to fake her death and disappear into the great heart of the Midwest, but we may never know.

Danish serial killer Dagmar Overbye was a professional child caretaker by trade and was believed to have killed between nine and 25 children between 1913 and 1920, including one of her own. She did this by strangling them, burning them, or drowning them before disposing of the bodies in the ground or hidden in her loft.

Overbye was eventually caught and convicted for nine of the murders, but due to insufficient evidence, she wasn't convicted for the remaining deaths. Her lawyer claimed the murders were due to Overbye's abuse as an infant but the judge was unconvinced and sentenced her to death.

She was one of three Danish women sentenced to death in the 20th century, although her sentence was reprieved and she spent the rest of her life in prison. (For a co-ed list of brutal criminals, meet 25 of the most brutal criminals who ever lived.)