![]() They held a wide variety of jobs, ranging from religious teacher to prostitute. Most of these women had earned college degrees or had attained at least some higher education. ![]() In the end, we collected profiles of 64 female serial killers (the same number Hickey found) who committed their crimes in the US between 18.Īlthough our findings were limited to information that newspapers chose to include about these women and their crimes, our results lend validity to the mass media approach.Īlong the lines of previous studies, we found that most FSKs were middle- and upper-class.Īlmost all (92%) knew their victims, almost all were white, and their most common means to kill was poison, while the primary motive for murder was money. We found the internet site to be a valuable consolidation of media reports of murder, and we found it verifiable 100% of the time. Like Farrell and her colleagues, we used the mass media approach to study female serial killers. Moreover, being psychologists, we found a relative absence of research on the psychology of FSKs. So when we decided to study FSKs, we approached the topic with two main goals.įirst, we wanted to document the means, motives and histories of these criminals with a larger, more recent sample (the larger the sample size, the more likely the findings and patterns are to reflect true life). Farrell and her colleagues – along with Deborah Schurman-Kauflin, who interviewed eight FSKs in a 2000 study – pointed out that, ironically, nursing is an occupation that’s overrepresented among FSKs. They found that FSKs tended to operate for a substantially longer time than did MSKs, while 80% knew their victims. For example, in a 2011 study, Amanda Farrell, Robert Keppel and Victoria Titterington reviewed newspaper reports of 10 American FSKs. Other research used smaller samples, but had notable findings. And even though the most prevalent motive for murder was money, most of the murderers were middle- and upper-class. They were more likely to murder family members than strangers. Most were white and typically killed between seven and 10 victims. Fresno State criminologist Eric Hickey – author of Serial Murderers and their Victims – interviewed 64 FSKs in the US, yielding a disturbing portrait of women who poisoned, shot and stabbed countless men, women and children. The research that did exist on FSKs provided some good insight. Doss killed 11 people in the first half of the 20th century, including her own mother and grandson.Īfter parsing the data, we found that female serial killers do tend to possess a number of unique characteristics. On the other hand, few have heard of Belle Gunness and Nannie Doss, whose crimes were no less heinous: Gunness killed more than 25 people in the late 19th century, including her children and husbands. Many routinely hear about male serial killers (MSKs) – the Jeffrey Dahmers and Ted Bundys of true crime lore – and one can indeed find volumes of literature analyzing their killing sprees. With my colleague Tom Bowers at Penn State Harrisburg, I’ve studied the crimes and characteristics of mass murderers for years, and still, I’m alarmed by every reread of each case.īut it wasn’t until last year when an undergraduate student, Erin Murphy, approached me about studying female serial killers (FSKs) that I realized how little scientific literature existed on this topic. Indeed, there may be nothing more horrifying – and fascinating – than murder. Researchers such as psychologist Marvin Zuckerman have long noted the morbid curiosity of humans there’s just something about horror and terror that captures our attention. Marissa Harrison, Pennsylvania State University Serial killer responsible for the deaths of 11 people.) I would have had my husband, my children, and my home to take up my mind," she said.(Nannie Doss. ![]() ![]() "If I had been a married woman, I probably would not have killed all of those people. She claimed the reason behind her murderous ways was because the man she loved at 16 left her for another woman. Toppan confessed to Brigham’s killing in 1902 : "I held her in my arms and watched with delight as she gasped her life out." She later admitted to killing at least 31 people but a jury found her not guilty by reason of insanity, so Toppan was sent to Taunton State Hospital for life. However, she was secretly experimenting with drugs such as morphine and atropine on her patients and then started poisoning specific people in her life, one of them being her foster sister, Elizabeth Brigham. She later became a nurse and was called " Jolly Jane " because of her cheerful demeanor. Jane Toppan was born Honora Kelley and known as "Nora" but her name was changed to Jane Toppan after she was taken in by the Toppan family as an indentured servant. Account icon An icon in the shape of a person's head and shoulders. ![]()
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