Gesche Gottfried, The German Serial Killer

Tags: Gesche Gottfried, Bremen

Gesche Margarethe Gottfried, born Gesche Margarethe Timm (6 March 1785 – 21 April 1831), was a serial killer who murdered 15 people by arsenic poisoning in Bremen and Hanover, Germany, between 1813 and 1827. She was the last person to be publicly executed in the city of Bremen.
Gottfried’s victims included her parents, her two husbands, her fiancé and her children. Before being suspected and convicted of the murders, she garnered widespread sympathy among the inhabitants of Bremen because so many of her family and friends fell ill and died. Because of her devoted nursing of the victims during their time of suffering, she was known as the “Angel of Bremen”.

Myra Hindley

Tags: Myra Hindley, Chemical Company, Greater Manchester

Ian and Myra met while working for a chemical company in Hyde, Greater Manchester. She thought he was quite an intellectual as he sat in the canteen reading Mein Kampf in German.

As their love blossomed they became more obsessed with Nazi paraphernalia, pornography and sadism. At first they enjoyed shooting pictures of themselves naked and in S & M drag. They thought they could crack the local porn market with their pictures but failed.
Most of their victims were children whom they sexually molested before killing. They kept an extensive collection of photographs of their victims as well as a recording of the screams of one girl's torturous death.

Dana Sue Gray

Tags: Serial Killer, Dana Sue Gray, Elderly Women

 By the time Riverside County Police caught up with Dana Sue Gray, she had garroted and bludgeoned to death a number of elderly women, then gone on binges with their credit cards. "I had," she said later, "this overwhelming need to shop." But others saw only an overwhelming need to kill

CANYON LAKE IS built around a meandering golf course and a man-made lake carved from the desert of Riverside County. For retirees like June Roberts, it was just the place to contemplate life in the golfing leisure class from behind 12-foot walls with 24-hour security, * Early one afternoon in 1994, a Cadillac belonging to one of Roberts's former neighbors nosed through the development's gates and stopped in front other olive and white house on Big Tee Drive. Leaving her 5-year-old passenger in the front seat, the driver walked up to the front door. What immediately transpired when she opened her door isn't known, but Roberts, 66, was ultimately strapped to a chair, strangled with cord ripped from her telephone and hammered savagely on the face with a wine bottle. (Her autopsy included the phrases "moderately deep ligature furrow" and "6-x-3-inch purple contusion.")

Juana Barraza

Tags: Juana Barraza, Serial Killer, Woman Killer

 
Juana Barraza (b.1957) is a Mexican serial killer dubbed Mataviejitas (Sp. “Old Lady Killer”) sentenced to 759 years in jail for killing eleven elderly women . The first murder attributed to Mataviejitas has been dated variously to the late 1990s and to a specific killing on 17 November 2003.The authorities and the press have given various estimates as to the total number of the killer’s victims, with estimated totals ranging from 24 to 49 deaths. Prior to her arrest, Barraza was a professional wrestler under the ring name La Dama del Silencio (The Silent Lady).

Profile

All the murderer’s victims were adult women aged 60 or over, most of whom lived alone. Murder was by bludgeoning or strangulation, and the killer invariably robbed the victims. In a number of cases, police said, evidence of sexual abuse was also found.
Bernardo Bátiz, the chief prosecutor in Mexico City, described Mataviejitas as having “a brilliant mind, [being] quite clever and careful”,^[6] and probably struck after a period spent gaining the trust of an intended victim. Officers investigating the killer’s modus operandi suspected that Mataviejitas posed as a government official offering the chance to sign up to welfare programmes.
The search for Mataviejitas was complicated by conflicting evidence. At one point the police hypothesised that two killers might be involved, and attention was also drawn to the odd coincidence that at least three of the killer’s victims owned a print of an 18th century painting, Boy in Red Waistcoat, by the French artist Jean-Baptiste Greuze.^[7]

Jeanne Weber

Tags: French, Serial Killer, Jeanne Weber, Insane, Paris

Jeanne Weber (7 October 1874 – 1910) was a French serial killer. She strangled 10 children, including her own. She was convicted of murder in 1908, and declared insane. She hanged herself two years later.

Bertha Gifford

Tags: Andrew McDonnell, Webster Groves, Eureka, Bertha Gifford

IT WAS UNSEASONABLY COOL during the early morning hours of August 25, 1928, but Andrew McDonnell, the police chief of Webster Groves, was sweating as he drove. Not profusely, mind you, he was a pro; just enough to uncomfortably remind him of his own anxiety. He was heading north that morning toward a small farm outside the town of Eureka where he intended to make an arrest, an unusual arrest, perhaps the most important of his career. He didn’t know what to expect.

Carol M. Bundy

Tags: Carol Bundy, Serial Killer, Sunset Strip, Doug Clark

Carol M. Bundy (August 26, 1942 – December 9, 2003) was an American serial killer.
Bundy and Doug Clark became known as "The Sunset Strip Killers" after being convicted of a series of murders in Los Angelesmarker during the late spring and early summer of 1980. The victims were young prostitutes or runaways.

Nannie Doss

Tags: Serial Killer, Nannie Doss, Giggling Nanny

Nannie Doss was a serial killer who earned the monikers "The Giggling Nanny", "The Giggling Granny" and "The Jolly Black Widow" after going on a killing spree between the 1920s to 1954.

Nannie Doss - Her Childhood Years
Nannie Doss was born Nancy Hazle on Nov. 4, 1905, in Blue Mountain, Al., to James and Lou Hazle. Much of Doss' childhood was spent avoiding the wrath of her father who ruled the family with an abusive iron fist. James gave little thought to pulling the children out of school if they were needed on the farm. With education being of little priority in the Hazle family, it is no wonder Nannie left school after only completing the sixth grade.
Childhood Trauma
At the age of seven Nannie was on a train that suddenly stopped causing her to fall forward and hit her head. After that incident she suffered for years with migraine headaches, blackouts and depression.
Teenage Years
From early on James Hazle refused to allow his daughters to do anything to enhance their appearance. Pretty dresses and makeup were not allowed along with friendships with boys. It wasn't until Doss got her first job in 1921 that she had any real social interaction. At the age of 16, instead of attending school and worrying about prom night, Doss was working in a linen factory and spending her spare time with her head buried in her favorite pastime - reading romance magazines, especially the lonely hearts club section.
The One Who Got Away: Charley Braggs
While working at the factory Doss met Charley Braggs who worked and took care of his unmarried mother. The two began dating and within five months they were married and Doss moved in with Braggs and his mother. If what she hoped by marrying was to escape the oppressive environment she grew up in, than she must have been disappointed because Ms. Braggs turned out to be extremely controlling and manipulative.
Motherhood
The Braggs had their first child in 1923 and three more followed over the next three years. Doss' life had become a prison of raising children, taking care of her demanding mother-in-law and putting up with Charley who was an abusive, adulterous drunk. To cope she began drinking at night and managed to get out to local bars for her own adulterous fun. No doubt, the marriage by now was doomed.
The Death of Two Children and a Mother-In-Law
In 1927, soon after the birth of their fourth child, the Braggs' two middle children died by what doctors labeled as food poisoning. Suspecting that Doss had poisoned the children, Braggs took off with the oldest child, Melvina, but oddly enough left the newborn, Florine, and his mother behind. Not long after he left his mother died. Doss remained in the Bragg home until a year later when her husband returned with Melvina and his new girlfriend. The two divorced and Doss left with her two daughters and moved back to her parent's home.
Husband #2 - Frank Harrelson
Alone again, Doss returned to her childhood passion of reading romance magazines and the lonely heart's column only this time she began corresponding with some of the men. This is how she met her second husband, Robert Harrelson. Doss, 24, and Harrelson, 23, met and married and the couple, along with Melvina and Florine, lived together in Jacksonville. Once again Doss would find out that she had not married a man with the character of her romance novel men. Quite the opposite. Harrelson turned out to be a drunk who was in debt and who liked to get into bar fights. But somehow the marriage lasted until Harrelson's death, 16 years later.
Doss Becomes a Grandmother, But Not for Long
In 1943, Doss' oldest daughter, Melvina, had her first child, a son named Robert and then another in 1945. But the second child, a healthy girl, died soon after being born for unexplained reasons. Later Melvina recalled while in and out of consciousness after her difficult delivery, seeing her mother stick a hatpin into the head of the infant, but no proof of the incident was ever found. On July 7, 1945, Doss was taking care of Melvina's son Robert, after she and her daughter had a fight over Doss' disapproval of Melvina's new boyfriend. That night, while in Doss' care, Robert died of what doctors said was asphyxia from unknown causes. Within a few months Doss collected $500 on an insurance policy she had taken out on the boy.
Frank Harrelson Dies
On September 15, 1945, Frank Harrelson became ill and died. Later Doss would tell the story of Frank coming home drunk and raping her. The next day, acting on revenge, she poured rat poison into his corn whiskey jar, then watched as Harrelson died a painful, miserable death.
Husband #3 - Arlie Lanning
Figuring it had worked once to snag a husband, Doss returned to the classified ads to find her next true love. It worked and within two days of meeting each other, Doss and Arlie Lanning were married. Just like her late husband, Lanning was an alcoholic, but not a violent one. However this time it was Doss who took off for weeks and sometimes months at a time.
In 1950, after two and a half years of marriage, Lanning became ill and died. At the time it was believed that he died of a heart attack brought on by a flu that was going around. He showed all the symptoms - fever, vomiting, stomach pains. With his history of drinking, doctors believed his body simply succumbed to it and an autopsy was not performed.
Lanning's house was left to his sister and within two months the house burned down before the sister had taken ownership. Doss moved in temporarily with her mother-in law, but when she received an insurance check to cover the damages of the burned house she took off to be with her sister Dovie, who was dying of cancer. Before she left however, her mother-in-law died in her sleep. Not surprisingly, Dovie soon died while in Doss' care.
Husband #4 - Richard L. Morton
This time around Doss decided instead of searching for a husband through just the classified ads, she would try joining a singles club. She joined the Diamond Circle Club which is where she met her fourth husband, Richard L. Morton of Emporia, Kansas. The two married in October 1952 and made their home in Kansas. Unlike her previous two husbands, Morton was not an alcoholic, but he did turn out to be an adulterous. When Doss learned that her new husband was seeing his old girlfriend on the side, he didn't have long to live. Besides, she already had her sights on a new man from Kansas named Samuel Doss. But before she could take care of Richard, her father died and her mother Louisa came for a visit. Within days her mother was dead after complaining of severe stomach cramps. Morton succumbed to the same fate three months later.

Husband #5 Samuel Doss
After the death of Morton, Nannie moved to Oklahoma and soon became Mrs. Samuel Doss. Sam Doss was unlike other men in Doss' life; he was not a drunk, womanizer or a wife abuser. He was instead a decent church-going man who fell head over heels for Nannie.
Unfortunately Samuel Doss had one major flaw that would be his demise. He was painfully frugal and boring.
He led a regimented life and expected the same of his new bride. No romance novels or love stories on television were permitted and bedtime was at 9:30 p.m. every night.
He also kept tight control over the money and gave very little to his new wife. This didn't sit right with Nannie, so she returned to Alabama, but soon came back after Samuel agreed to sign her onto the checking account.
With the couple reunited and Doss having access to the money, she acted the role of the caring doting wife. She convinced Samuel to take out two life insurance policies leaving her as the only benefactor.
Almost before the ink dried, Samuel was in the hospital complaining of stomach problems. He managed to survive almost two weeks and recovered enough to return home. On his first night home from the hospital Doss served him a nice home cooked meal and hours later Samuel was dead.
Samuel Doss' doctors were alarmed at his sudden passing and ordered an autopsy. It turned out his organs were full of arsenic and all fingers were pointing at Nannie Doss as the culprit.
Police brought Doss in for questioning and she confessed to killing four of her husbands, her mother, her sister Dovie, her grandson Robert and her mother-in-law, Arlie Lanning's mother.
Despite being a horrific murderer, Doss seemed to enjoy the limelight of her arrest and often joked about her dead husbands and the method she used to kill them.
She was sentenced to life for the murder of Samuel Doss. In 1963 she died of leukemia in the Oklahoma State Penitentiary.

Belle Gunness

Tags: Belle Gunness, La Porte, 280 pounds, Peter Gunness

On April 28, 1908 a mysterious fire raged through the small brick farmhouse of Belle Gunness, a widow who lived outside of the pleasant and unassuming town of La Porte, Indiana. The fire at first seemed to be no more than a horrible tragedy that claimed the lives of Belle and her three lovely children, aged 1, nine and five, but then questions began to emerge from the smoldering ruins. The answers, and the unsolved mysteries, that would emerge from these ruins would make headlines across the Midwest.
In life, 48 year-old Belle Gunness had stood just under five and a half feet tall but had weighed a massive 280 pounds, however the body that was found in the remains of her home was no more than 150. Had the blaze somehow burned away the flesh from Belle's portly body? No one could really say for sure since the head of the corpse was missing. How had this happened? Could a falling section of the house have severed her head -- or had it been cut off by a murderer who had set fire to the house to hide his crime?
Bell Gunness was no stranger to mystery or to controversy. Several years before, her husband, Peter Gunness, had been killed (according to Belle) when a meat grinder had toppled off the shelf in the kitchen and had struck him in the head. But when the coroner looked at the body, he allegedly muttered "this is a case of murder." To make matter worse, one of Belle's children even told a classmate that her mother had hit him over the head with a cleaver. The authorities investigated but Belle was so convincing, and so formidable, at the inquest that no charges were ever filed. And after her husband's death, Belle was never considered a proper widow. It was common knowledge in town that she had taken her handyman, Ray Lamphere, to her bed on lonely winter nights.
It would Lamphere that the sheriff would turn to when he started having his own doubts about an accidental fire at the Gunness home. He considered the case a definite example of murder and arson. He set two of his deputies digging in the debris of the house for Belle's head and sent two others to arrest Lamphere. When drinking, the slow-witted handyman often boasted of sleeping with his employer, which came as a surprise to those who only saw Belle as the burly woman who liked to dress in men's overalls and do her own hog butchering. There was another side to the woman though, which Ray Lamphere saw -- as well as numerous strangers who were often seen going for a carriage ride with Belle on Sunday afternoons.
On those occasions, Belle was seen wearing a corset and her finest clothing, with her hair done in the latest styles of the women's magazines that came from Chicago and New York. Unrecognizable from the rough farm woman, she was usually accompanied by a handsome young man who had arrived with his suitcase at the railroad station a few days before. Ray Lamphere had endured these attentive strangers but had never lost him temper over any of them, until the winter of 1908. At that time, he was introduced to a gentleman from South Dakota, Andrew Hegelian -- Belle's new husband-to-be. Lamphere protested and Belle promptly fired him. Lamphere soon began drinking heavily and began showing up at Belle's house. She had him arrested for trespassing and then mentioned to the sheriff that "I'm afraid that he'll set fire to the place

This immediately came back to mind for Sheriff Smutzer and he had Lamphere locked up and charged with the murder of Belle and her children. The handyman claimed to be innocent but his cries fell on deaf ears until Asle Hegelian showed up in town from South Dakota, searching for his missing brother, Andrew. He told Sheriff Smutzer that Andrew had answered a matrimonial ad that had been placed by Belle Gunness in a Norwegian language newspaper. In her reply, Belle offered true love and a life of wedded bliss, but also mentioned a quick $1,000 that she needed to pay off a mortgage. She ended her letter with "my heart beats in wild rapture for you --- come prepared to stay forever." And apparently, he did. He withdrew his life savings from the bank and was never heard from again.
By the time that Asle arrived in La Porte, he was sure that his brother had met with foul play. He became even more convinced when he went out to the ruins of Belle's home and watched as the men digging for her head turned up eight men's watches, assorted bones and human teeth instead. He searched through the property on his own and shouted to the men to start digging in the rubbish hole that was located in Belle's hog pen. As they began turning the earth, they found four bodies -- all of them skillfully sliced apart and wrapped in oilcloth. One of the bodies belonged to Andrew Hegelian.

The town was shocked and more men came out to the farm to join in the search. On the following day, three more bodies were discovered and in all, 14 of Belle's victims were pieced together, with a quantity of teeth, bones and watches left over. The gruesome finds made headlines in newspapers all over the Midwest and relatives began to appear from all over the region to claim bodies. All of them told of lonesome brothers, uncles and cousins answering Belle's matrimonial ads and traveling hopefully to La Porte with their life savings stuffed in their pockets. Sheriff Smutzer estimated that Belle had made about $30,000 from her victims. She had drugged them and then had cut up the bodies as she did her hogs.
But even with this mystery cleared up, the unanswered question of the body in the burned house remained. Was it Belle's or had someone else been placed there to die? Belle's head never appeared but the sheriff thought that her teeth might. A neighbor who had once been a prospector offered to sluice the debris for any of Belle's teeth.
He found many additional male teeth in the ruins but only one of which could be linked to Belle. This convinced some of the locals that the 150 pound body had been Belle's but others scoffed, saying that any woman who would leave her children to die in a fire so that she could escape would certainly not balk at knocking out one of her own teeth in the interests of eluding arrest.

The lingering controversy spilled over into the courtroom for despite the grisly discoveries on Belle's property, the sheriff doggedly persisted in bringing Ray Lamphere to trial for her murder. Both sides fought hard and the jury eventually brought in a rather curious verdict. Lamphere was acquitted of the murder but was convicted of setting fire to the house. He received a sentence of two to 21 years in the state penitentiary. He eventually died in prison , having contracted tuberculosis in jail while awaiting trial, but he confessed his role in Belle's crimes to his cellmate before he succumbed to the disease. He told him that he was aware of Belle's murderous activities and had even buried bodies for her when she was finished cutting them up. He said that the headless woman that was found in the fire was that a female derelict that Belle had found in Chicago. She had poisoned the woman with strychnine and then had placed her in bed with the children. She had removed one of her own teeth and then had set the house on fire. After that, she had vanished with the money that the men had unwittingly brought to her. Lamphere was supposed to hear from Belle after she got away to safety -- but he never had. Unbelievably, the moronic handyman died in his prison cell, still in love with a human monster.
And what happened to Belle Gunness herself? No one knows. She vanished without a trace in April 1908 and was never heard from again.

Luis Alfredo Gavarito

Tags: Colombian, Luis Alfredo Gavarito, Alfonso Gomez

On October 30, 1999, Colombian announced that Luis Alfredo Gavarito confessed to raping, torturing and killing 140 children in a five-year killing spree. “Luis Alfredo Garavito has admitted the murder of about 140 children of which we have so far found 114 skeleton,” chief prosecutor Alfonso Gomez told a news conference.

Drawing a battered notebook from his pocket, Garavito showed the interrogating judge and psychologist his tally of the killings he claimed during a four-hour confession. Across the pages were 140 lines, each symbolizing one murdered youngster.

The mutilated corpses of the mostly male victims aged between eight and 16 years old have been discovered near more than 60 towns in at least 11 of Colombia’s 32 provinces. “The bodies were beheaded and bore signs of having been tied up and mutilated,” Gomez said.

The nationwide murder investigation was triggered after 36 decomposing corpses were found near the city of Pereira in 1997. At the time investigators said the children may have been murdered in a black magic ritual. Authorities also considered social cleansing, organ trafficking and pedophilic mayhem as reasons behind the butchery. After an 18-month investigation, Garavito was arrested in the eastern plains city of Villavicencio in Aprilon charges of attempting to rape a child.

Born in Colombia’s western coffee-growing region, Gavarito was the oldest of seven children. He was repeatedly beaten by his father and raped by two male neighbors. Garavito was also a heavy alcoholic, and was treated for depression and suicidal tendencies. He said he committed most of the murders after heavy drinking.

Garavito had just five years of schooling and left home at 16, working first as a store clerk, then as a street vendor who sold religious icons and prayer cards. Prosecutors said Garavito found most of his victims on the streets, gaining their confidence by giving them soft drinks and money.
Garavito apparently committed his first murder in 1992. Authorities were unaware of the alleged serial killer until 25 bodies were found in the western city of Pereira. The victims — mostly boys between eight and 16 — were found with their throats slit. Some showed signs of torture and rape. The victims were mostly poor. Many of them were children of street vendors or homeless kids. Garavito — who was known as “Goofy”, “El Loco” and “The Priest” — passed himself off as “a street vendor, monk, indigent, disabled person or a representative of fictitious foundations for the elderly and children’s education, in that way gaining entrance to schools as a speaker,” Gomez said. Garavito moved around the country frequently after the killings began in 1994, and also spent time in Ecuador, where investigations are trying to determine whether he might be linked to child slayings there too.
The most killings took place in the western state of Risaralda, and its capital, Pereira. Forty-one bodies have been found in Pereira and another 27 have turned up in neighboring Valle de Cauca. Previously authorities charged one Pedro Pablo Ramirez with 29 of the slayings. It is unclear whether Ramirez and Garavito are the same person, or if Ramirez was released or is still in custody. On December 31, 1998, Colombian police arrested Ramirez in connection with the murder of 29 children. The childrens’ bodies – many missing body parts and showing signs of torture – were found in two separate mass graves. The first grave, found on 12 November, was discovered when a boy walking through an overgrown lot saw a skull in the bushes. Authorities who dug up the lot, found several incomplete skeletons and 13 skulls. The second discovery was made less than a week later in a river-bed below a city highway. Investigators have linked Ramirez — who had previously been in prison for sex crimes — to at least three killings in Pereira and possibly three others in the nearby town of Armenia.

Velma Barfield

Tags: Margie Barfield, Grandmother, arsenic poison, North Carolina

Velma Margie Barfield's Gateway to Heaven:
Velma Barfield was a 52-year-old grandmother and serial poisoner who used arsenic as her weapon. She was also the first woman executed after the death penalty was reinstituted in 1976 in North Carolina and the first woman to die by lethal injection.
Velma Margie Barfield - Her Childhood:
Velma Margie (Bullard) Barfield was born on October 23, 1932 in rural South Carolina. She was the second oldest child of nine and oldest daughter to Murphy and Lillie Bullard. Murphy was a small tobacco and cotton farmer. Soon after Velma's birth the family had to give up the farm and move in with Murphy's parents in Fayetteville. Murphy's father and mother died not long afterwards and the family remained in Murphy's parents' house.
Murphy and Lillie Bullard :
Murphy Bullard was a strict disciplinarian. Homemaker Lillie was submissive and did not interfere with how he treated their nine children. Velma did not inherit her mother's same submissive ways which resulted in several severe strap beatings by her father. In 1939 when she began attending school, she found some reprieve from being inside her cramped volatile home. Velma also proved to be a bright attentive student but socially rejected by her peers because of her impoverished style.
The Temptation to Steal:
Velma began stealing after feeling poor and inadequate around the other kids at school. She began by stealing coins from her father and was later caught stealing money from an elderly neighbor. Velma's punishment was severe and temporarily cured her from stealing. Her time was also more supervised and she was told she had to help with taking care of her sisters and brothers.
A Skilled Manipulator
By the age of 10, Velma learned how to control talking back to her stern father. She also became a decent baseball player and played on a team her father organized. Enjoying her "favorite daughter" status, Velma learned how to manipulate her father to get what she wanted. Later in life, she accused her father of molesting her as a child, although her family strongly denied her charges.
Velma and Thomas Burke:
Around the time Velma entered high school her father took a job in a textile factory and the family moved to Red Springs, SC. Her grades were poor but she proved to be a good basketball player. She also had a boyfriend, Thomas Burke, who was a year ahead of her in school. Velma and Thomas dated under the strict curfews set by Velma's father. At age 17, Velma and Burke decided to quit school and marry, over the strong objections of Murphy Bullard
Dedicated Parents:
In December 1951, Velma gave birth to a son, Ronald Thomas. By September 1953, she gave birth to their second child, a baby girl they named Kim. Velma, a stay-at-home mom, loved the time she spent with her children. Thomas Burke worked at different jobs and although they were poor, they had the basic comforts. Velma was also dedicated to teaching her children solid Christian values. The young, poor Burke family was admired by friends and family for their good parenting skills.
Velma Burke - A Model Mother:
Velma Burke's enthusiasm for being an involved mother continued when the children began school. She participated in school-sponsored events, volunteered to chaperone school trips, and enjoyed driving children to various school functions. However, even with her participation, she felt emptiness while her children were at school. To help fill the void she decided to return to work. With the extra income, the family was able to move into a better home in Parkton, SC.
The Burke's Problems Begin:
In 1963, Velma had a hysterectomy. The surgery was successful physically but mentally and emotionally Velma changed. She suffered severe mood swings and temper tantrums. She worried she was less desirable and womanly since she could no longer have children. When Thomas joined the Jaycees, Velma's resentment soared because of his outside activities. Their problems intensified when she discovered he was drinking with his friends after the meetings, something he knew she was against.
Booze and Drugs:
In 1965, Thomas was involved in a car accident and had a concussion. From that point on he suffered severe headaches and his drinking increased as way to deal with his pain. The Burke household became explosive with endless arguments. Velma, consumed with stress, was hospitalized and treated with sedatives and vitamins. Once home, she gradually increased her prescription drug use and went to different doctors to get multiple prescriptions of Valium to feed her growing addiction.
Thomas Stuart - Death Number One:
Thomas, displaying alcoholic behavior, pushed the family deeper into dysfunctional madness. One day while the kids were at school, Velma went to the laundermat and returned to find her house on fire and Thomas dead from smoke inhalation. Velma's suffering appeared short-lived although her misfortune continued. A few months after Thomas died another fire broke out, this time destroying the home. Velma and her children fled to Velma's parents and waited for the insurance check.
Jenning Barfield - Death Number Two:
Jenning Barfield was a widower suffering from diabetes, emphysema and heart disease. Velma and Jennings met soon after Thomas died. In August 1970, the two married but the marriage dissolved as quickly as it began because of Velma's drug use. Barfield died of heart failure before the two could divorce. Velma seemed inconsolable. Twice a widow, her son off in the military, her father diagnosed with lung cancer and beyond belief, her home, for a third time, caught on fire.
Home Again:
Velma returned to her parents' home. Her father died of lung cancer shortly afterwards. Velma and her mother constantly quarreled. Velma found Lillie too demanding and Lillie did not like Velma's drug use. During the summer of 1974, Lillie was hospitalized because of a severe stomach virus. The doctors were unable to diagnose her problem, but she recovered within a few days and returned home.

Anna Hahn

Tags: Killer Woman, Executed, Arsenic Anna, German

Anna Hahn was a German Native from Bavaria who immigrated to America at the age of 21 in 1927, sent to America by her parents, shunned by family out of shame. As a teenager she had given birth to an illigitimate son named Oscar. She settled in Cincinnati, Ohio. She would eventually be widely known as the "Blonde Borgia" and "Arsenic Anna." In Cincinnati she married a young telephone operator as she ran a Bakery in Cincinnati's German District. She tired of the hours and labor, setting her sights on easy money. She tried insuring her husband twice for $25,000.00, he resisted the efforts each time. After he rejected her demands, Phillip Hahn, her husband, fell suddenly ill. His mother rushed him to the hospital, as his wife Anna, strongly objected. Doctors saved his life, but ended his marriage soon after. In spite of her failed marriage, she moved on, though she had no experience or training, she began to offer her services as a live-in nurse to elderly men in the German Community. Her first client was Ernest Koch. He died under her care on May 6th, 1932. He left Anna his house, in his Will. The ground floor of the house was occupied by a doctors office. She visited her new tenant regularly, stealing blank prescription forms. She kept herself adequately supplied with medicines for future clients. Her next client was a retired railroad man named Albert Parker. He soon died under Anna's watchful eye. She borrowed alot of money from Mr. Parker just before he died. She signed an I.O.U. which had mysteriously disappeared. Jacob Wagner was next on her hit list. He willed her one lump sum to her, as his beloved niece Anna, in the amount of $17,000.00. Her next client was George Gsellman, collecting $15,000.00 upon his untimely death.

Her sights were next set on George Heiss, a rare survivor. He grew suspicious after Anna served him a mug of beer. A couple house flies sampled the brew, dropping dead on the spot. When Anna refused to sample the beer herself, to satisfy her client, he sent her off packing. He didn't inform the police though. So she searched for new unsuspecting patients. Her last victim was George Obendoerfer, lured to Denver, Colorado by Anna, to her nonexistant Ranch. They met in a hotel room where he promptly died. Anna looted his bank account, pocketing $5,000.00.

Police became suspicious after an unorthodox bank transfer of his funds and her balking at paying for his funeral expenses. They demanded an autopsy. Arsenic was found in lethal doses, and Police were waiting for her, when she returned to Cincinnati. They soon exhumed her other Patients, when the truth came out. She was convicted of multiple murders, though she swore she was an "Angel of Mercy." A search of Hahn's residence turned up enough Arsenic to kill half of Cincinnati. Hahn put on a brave front, even hosted a small party for local media from her cell. Though when she took that last walk to the death chamber, she became unnerved and hysterical. A prison chaplain managed to calm her down. He held her hand as she was buckled into the Electric Chair. She faced the Chaplain and said, "You might be killed too, Father." He smiled and nodded, removing his hands and backed away nervously. Her last words was to the Warden, Mr. Woodward. "No, no, no, Mr. Woodward. Mr. Woodward, don't do this to me. Won't someone help me?" She was electrocuted at the age of 32, the first woman to die in Ohio's Electric Chair.
Burial: Mount Calvary Cemetery Columbus Franklin County Ohio, USA

Brenda Spencer

Brenda Spencer was a 16 year old girl born April 3, 1962. Spencer did a shooting spree from her home on January 29, 1979 in which she injured 9 people and killed two. She killed one person who was trying to protect the kids and when another person went to help him she killed him too. The school that she was shooting at was Cleveland Elementary School. Her reason for the shooting "I don't like Mondays" when the officials asked her. She was tried as an adult she was sentenced 25 years and she would not be eligible for parole until 2019. In 1993, she claimed she was under the influence of PCP and alcohol and claimed the prosecutor on the case and her lawyer conspired to hide the test results. Her lawyer and the prosecutor denied such allegations. Later in 2001 she claimed that she came from an abused home but the Parole Board Chairman doubt her allegations because she didn't mention or discussed that with any of the counselors.

Delphine LaLaurie

Tags: Madame LaLaurie, New Orleans
Delphine LaLaurie known as Madame LaLaurie was born on 1775 in New Orleans, Louisiana. She starved and tortured black slaves. When fire destroyed her home the public learned what she had done. But she fled before they brought charges against her. When a fire occurred at her Royal Street mansion and rescuers discovered burned slaves and signs of years of torture at the residence. Delphine married Don Roman in 1800, he was a high ranking Spanish officer. He died in 1804 during this time she gave birth to her first daughter Marie. She remarried in 1808 to Jean Blanque at the same time they purchased a home in 1409 Royal Street. She had four more children by Blanque. He died 1816 and married Leonard Louis Nicolas LaLaurie on 1825. Years later she bought property at 1140 Royal Street to build a mansion which was three story and wasn't finished until a year later. She had slaves and they were all mixed. There were rumors surfacing that LaLaurie was mistreating the slaves, she was later contacted by a lawyer who reminded her that there are laws relevant to the un keep of slaves. An incident occurred at the residence where a girl who was one of the slaves was going to be whipped by the Madame and she ran from her making her fall from the third floor till her death. LaLourie has to forfeit that 9 slaves she had. In 1834 when a fire broke out they found a women chained to a stove. She said she started the fire because she wanted to commit suicide. They also found 7 slaves mutilated. After that incident there were stories that slaves were tortured. When the citizens discovered this they demolished and destroyed the home or anything they can get their hands on. Madame LaLaurie died in Paris in 1842. There are different versions of the story but one thing is for sure she was a sadistic killer.

Frances Stewart Silver Story

Frances Stewart Silver known as Frankie was unjustly hang in 1833 for killing her husband who people suspect was her father. Her husband was hatchet to death and he is buried in three cemeteries due to the fact that his body parts weren't covered all at once. She explained later that her husband was abusive to her due to the fact that the accuse are incompetent witness she could stand in her own trial. Frankie was hanged, while she was led to the gallows her father shouted "Die with it in you, Frankie!."

Jodie Arias wanting the Death Penalty

I don't think that she will receive the death penalty because even though Arizona does have people who are waiting to be executed she didn't have a record before so we know she doesn't have a history of being a criminal. Yeah what she did was wrong but not enough to execute her. I believe Jodi was abused by this man and had years of abuse she held it in so long that she reacted when her ex abused her. People say she was manipulated ummm do you have a degree in psychology. I can't believe that the Arizona officials would do anything and they are racist to accuse an innocent person of killing she needs help not prison.

Killer Women

It is harsh to pinpoint why women kill but there are several reasons why they do. It can be from years of abuse starting from infantry or abuse from their spouse. Most of the killings that women do involves their husbands. Even though some are mental some may be greed. It has been said that women would kill for money if they believe that it would take care of them forever. Without thinking of the consequence they are willing to kill to get what they want. Women who were abused some might had professional help and others might have not shown signs until they are abused again. There are a lot of shows that show why women kill I mean it is ridiculous it's making women look bad making guys think twice before putting a ring on a woman's finger.