Top 10 Most Infamously Evil Women In History
There might be plenty of contenders for the evilest men of all time. Surprisingly though, many women have also been at the heart of some of the most sinister and wicked things that have happened in history. With this in mind, it became apparent that a list should be made to introduce you to history’s most infamous and heinous females. This list spans out for centuries, pulling political or religious fanaticism together with earnest psychopaths bent on destruction. Without further ado, it is time to see who made the cut for the Top Ten Most Infamously Evil Women In History.
#10. Willamina Dean
Also known as Minnie, Willamina would be one of New Zealand’s most infamous citizens. While this all would occur late into the 19th century, her actions still linger on the tongues of those hoping to tell a shocking tale. At this time, young girls who would become pregnant were pariahs. To avoid this socially damaging fate, it was commonplace to give these children away to a person running a “baby farm”. This meant that they would care for and raise the child for a price. Willamina Dean ran her own farm, yet instead of raising any of the children that were given to her, she pocketed the money and killed the infants instead. At this time, record keeping wasn’t enforced, and the life expectancy of infants wasn’t especially high, so there is no saying how many victims there actually were before she was caught (and hanged) in 1895.
https://nzhistory.govt.nz/baby-farmer-minnie-dean-hanged
#9. Belle Gunness
Collecting life insurance policies has been a motive for murder for many, many years now. Even before the turn of the 1900s, people were underhandedly killing their spouses (or children) to collect the lump sums. Belle Gunness was perhaps one of the most direct cases of this throughout American history. Her impressive frame (6ft tall and over 200 lbs) would presumably make it easier for her to overpower her numerous victims. Though there were many speculated deaths she was most likely also responsible for, she is known to have killed 25 people and potentially 15 others. Being motivated purely by monetary gains from life insurance policies, Belle Gunness would ultimately kill both of her husbands, all of the children that she would have, most of the boyfriends she would have and her two daughters: Lucy and Myrtle. Her frame and ruthlessness would give her the nickname of “Lady Bluebeard” in the press.
https://www.biography.com/people/belle-gunness-235416
#8. Mary Ann Cotton
Though her tally of victims might pale in comparison to Belle Gunness, Mary Ann Cotton is perceived as the first female serial killer that England would ever see. Shortly after she became married in 1852 to William Mowbry, Mary Ann would begin her sinister ways. The couple would 7 children (6 which mysteriously died). Shortly after this, William would also die, giving Mary Ann a large life insurance payout in the process. She would then marry George Ward, dead just over a year later (complete with a life insurance policy). She would marry James Robinson next, and in this time period, she would kill her mother, her last daughter (from Mowbry), the infant from James’s last marriage and one of the two children they had together before she would be kicked out of James’s home. She would then marry her last husband, Frederick Cotton. In this marriage she killed Frederick, his sister, the child they had together and his son from a previous marriage: Charles Edward Cotton. After Charles died, authorities suspected Mary Ann was to blame and she was brought to trial and convicted. She was hanged in 1873.
https://the-line-up.com/mary-ann-cotton-englands-first-serial-killer
#7. Lizzie Borden
This was a strange case in history of the court of public opinion vs. the actual court findings. In 1892, Abby and Andrew Borden were killed in their home with an axe in Fall River, Massachusetts. Though Lizzie was one of the only real suspects in the case, even believed to have motives for the crime itself, she was eventually acquitted of the charges after the trial. The brutality of the crimes would be what made the case such a talked about event, even now over a century later. Her conflicting accounts and the lack of police work in the case had left very little evidence to actually convict Lizzie of the crime, though now the pieces seem to plainly fit together. There was never any other suspect brought up on charges, and Lizzie Borden continued to live out the remainder of her days as a pariah in Fall River, Massachusetts.
#6. Ilse Koch
There is no mistaking that the Nazi regime was one of the worst mars in history. With the hate that fueled that machine, it was not uncommon for women to join into the ranks to work the concentration camps as overseers or wardens. One of the worst of these was Ilse Koch, who was affectionately known as the “Witch of Buchenwald” (among other nicknames). As if torturing and murder was not enough to sate the sinister appetite of this enthusiastic Nazi, she is remembered for the keepsakes that she took from many of the victims of the concentration camps. Koch is known for removing the skin of many of the victims, particularly any tattoos, and fashioning them into macabre souvenirs such as lampshades or soaps. She would be stand trial for her war crimes and would later hang herself in her cell after her paranoia of former concentration camp survivors enacting revenge would fog her brain.
http://all-that-is-interesting.com/ilse-koch
#5. Myra Hindley
One of the two people responsible for the Moors Murders in England, Myra Hindley was one of England’s most infamous evil women. Even though Mary Ann Cotton might have had more victims overall as a serial killer in England, Myra’s actions would be much worse. With the aid of her boyfriend Ian Brady, the two would abduct 5 children between the ages of 10 and 17. They would then sexually assault, torture and eventually murder each of these children. She was dubbed the “most evil woman in Britain” throughout the time of the trial and for many years thereafter, and still remains a dark spot on England’s history (even though she died in prison back in 2002). She has long since been remembered as having a swagger and unmistakable nonchalance about her deeds when she was arrested, which would become somewhat of a trademark to those who think back on the time.
http://www.examiner.co.uk/news/west-yorkshire-news/myra-hindleys-confessions-moors-murders-12764799
#4. Irma Grese
Even though Ilse Koch would reportedly collect tattooed skin for keepsakes, she doesn’t hold a candle to this second Nazi concentration camp warden. All in all, Grese would have a victim tally accredited to her in the thousands. Her brutality would move her up the ranks, making her a warden at the most recognized of all concentration camps: Auschwitz. It was reported from testimonies that her common violent outbursts were against the women in the camps that Irma would deem to be prettier than she was. Her trademark at the camp was to walk around with heavy boots, a whip and a pistol. She would use all three on a regular basis to enact her torturous ways, even killing many women in cold blood. Perhaps the most damning of testimonies for the trial she would have after the war were reports of hand picking prisoners to be sent to the gas chamber. The “Hyena of Auschwitz” as she was called, would be executed in 1945, shortly after the end of the World War II.
http://warfarehistorynetwork.com/daily/wwii/irma-grese-the-blonde-beast-of-birkenau-and-belsen/
#3. Beverly Allitt
The media would dub her “The Angel of Death”, and she would be another English lady to take her aggressions out on the most defenseless of us all: children. Believed to be acting out of an extreme case of Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy, Beverly would strike when a child was at their most vulnerable. She was a nurse in the children’s ward, believed to be working towards helping children get better. Over the course of a little less than 2 months however, Allitt would murder 4 children, attempt to murder 3 more and cause serious harm to 6 others. She would most often inject large doses of insulin or air bubbles through IVs. She was eventually found out when an alarming amount of cardiac arrests (due to her preferred method of overdosing children on insulin) happening in the children’s ward at this hospital. She is still alive, serving out 13 consecutive life sentences in prison.
http://www.crimeandinvestigation.co.uk/crime-files/beverly-allitt
#2. Elizabeth Bathory
As we can see from looking at this list, Europe has seen its fair share of evil women throughout the years. Elizabeth Bathory is among the worst of these however. Having seemingly no motive at all (or none that anyone was able to reasonably identify), Bathory would lure in and kill hundreds of girls. As a prominent noble in the region, it was customary for local peasants to seek work in the houses of nobility, and that was the lure that would get Elizabeth’s victims into her home. It is estimated that in total, she had killed as many as 650 people by the time that she was caught by authorities. She would never be officially sentenced for her crimes, only being confined to a house arrest type punishment for the few remaining years of her life. Folklore would indulge the story further, claiming that Bathory would bathe in the blood of her victims in order to stay younger looking, but there was never any evidence to support that claim.
http://www.historytoday.com/richard-cavendish/death-countess-elizabeth-bathory
#1. Queen Mary I
You don’t get a nickname like “Bloody Mary” unless you have done something to earn it. So how did this Queen of England end up at the top of history’s most infamous and evil women? Mary was most known for her short fuse and her hatred of Protestants. Throughout her reign, she would be responsible for the deaths of hundreds of Protestants, and most of the surviving members of this religious sect would flee the country to avoid execution. The hundreds that were killed, were burned at the stake.