10 Creepy Female Killers You’ll Have Nightmares About Tonight

I am a huge creep. My dream job is writing for Crime Library so I can get paid to spend the day covering ghosts, murder and other creepy categories. If you, like me, enjoy getting lost in terrifying true stories, here are 10 female killers you should definitely check out. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Elizabeth Bathory

This Hungarian countess murdered TONS (seriously, no one knows for sure) of young girls for fun and for sport – she may have bathed in their blood to stay young. She may have murdered as many as 650 girls, starting with her slave girls and poor girls from the village and moving on to more privileged girls under the guise of starting a “finishing school” in her castle of horror.

Aileen Wuornos

I only knew Wuornos existed because Charlize Theron got so much attention for her portrayal of the serial killer ex-prostitute in “Monster,” but after watching a documentary on Aileen I have to admit I felt for her. She had a godawful childhood (she had a baby at thirteen) and a generally miserable existence, which probably contributed in part to her murders of several of her “johns” in cold blood. She was executed after ten years in prison in 2002, always vowing that she would kill again.

Mary Ann Cotton

Cotton was a prolific killer, murdering three husbands, eight of her children, a lover, her mother and several of her many step-children. They all died of “stomach ailments,” which of course turned out to be the arsenic Cotton was poisoning them with in order to get insurance money. She was hanged (in a failed execution!) in 1873, and survives to this day in a creepy nursery rhyme that begins, “Mary Ann Cotton/ she’s dead and she’s rotten.”

Sharon Carr

Carr was the youngest woman ever convicted of a murder in the UK – she was only twelve when she stabbed an older girl over 20 times. Even her mother has spoken out against her violent daughter’s release from prison; rest assured, she’s still there.

Nannie Doss

Nannie Doss (aka the Giggling Grandma) murdered eleven members of her family with – you guessed it- arsenic. Seems pretty popular with the ladies, doesn’t it? She may have done in to cash in on insurance policies of the deceased, though several reports have her committing the crimes simply because she was bored and wanted some excitement like she read about in her favorite trashy “True Romance” magazines. Either way, she left a trail of dead family members – that’s cold-blooded for sure.

Leonarda Cianciulli

This Italian killer turned her (female) victims’ bodies into SOAP. Oh, and tea cakes.

Delphine LaLaurie

Forget what you learned about her on “American Horror Story: Coven,” though Kathy Bates’ portrayal was undeniably great. It’s not known for sure how many slaves LaLaurie tortured in a special chamber of her Louisiana home in the 19th century, but stories of her crimes are gruesome indeed. She was NOT buried alive enchanted by Marie Laveau, but instead fled to France after her crimes were discovered.

Georgia Tann

Tann was celebrated for her child-rearing theories in the ’30s and ‘40s and is credited for popularizing adoption. However, she was also a pedophile, kidnapper and child-seller. That’s right – she sold young children, often without full consent from their birth families. Tann abused and murdered up to 50 children, but the number could be even higher.

Genene Jones

Another baby-killer. She murdered over 60 babies and young children while working as a nurse. Stephen King based the character of Annie in “Misery” on Jones.

Rosemary West

With her husband, West tortured and killed many young girls, including her own daughter. They abducted young girls and abused them sexually before torturing and killing them. Rosemary had also worked for a time as a prostitute, and her own father was a repeat customer. Disturbing, indeed.