Even the names given to certain killers, like Nannie Doss, the 'Giggling Grandma', is meant to lessen the impact of what they did. For instance, infamous Erzsebet Bathory was a 'vampire' or a 'seductress', when in reality she probably just enjoyed murdering people. Uncomfortable with the idea that a woman could kill in cold blood, they rewrite the story. Telfer talks about how men in power have carefully constructed their own narrative around each of these female killers. In 1998, it was infamously stated by an FBI profiler that female serial killers simply do not exist. Telfer opens the book with a well-researched discussion of female serial killers. Each murderess is illustrated with an absolutely gorgeous pen-and-ink portrait done by Dame Darcy. Tori Telfer has compiled this compelling compendium that features female serial killers throughout history. If you enjoy books from the true crime genre, you might want to take a look at this one. The vast majority of the book contained cases I had never heard of before and that was certainly a factor in why this book held my interest. male serial killers is discussed but for me the real appeal of the book was learning about each woman.

The topic of how society views female serial killers vs. After awhile people started to catch on and that's how they would eventually get caught.

Instead it was like they had to kill anyone who had ever done them wrong.

It was interesting to see that so many women would have gotten away with murder if they just would have dialed it back a few notches. Arsenic by far was the preferred weapon of choice by these females. I don't have a copy of the book in front of me to double check but I believe one of the women featured was from the 1200s and quite a few cases took place in the 19th or 20th century. The women were from all over the globe and represented many different time periods.

There's just not that many books like that on the market so I am glad the author decided this was a subject worth writing about.įor the most part I thought the author chose an interesting group of women to feature in this book. I've read many true crime books over the years but this is actually only the second or third time I have had the opportunity to read one featuring female serial killers.

Lady Killers by Tori Telfer