Since time immemorial, women have been considered the weaker sex, the ones who aren’t capable of doing evil. However, throughout history, we have had women that were no less evil than the most devilish of their male counterparts. Here are the stories of five such devils that were born in the guise of a woman.
. Countess Elizabeth Bathory
When did she live: 1560-1614
Nationality: Hungary/Slovakia
Number of victims: approximately 100
Years active: 25
In Hungarian/Slovak history, Countess Elizabeth Bathory is remembered as the most gruesome serial killer ever. Legend has it that the countess had been employing local peasant girls a Castle Csejthe though anyone who took up the offer of a well paying job was not to be seen again. When the rumors made their way to the court, King Mathias II sent out an investigating party who found at least one dead girl while other lay dying. Several others were found locked up and wounded. Witnesses and victims testified that the countess starved and beat up these girls, bit off the flesh on their body, arms and faces, used needles on them, burnt them and even mutilated their genetelia and faces. She was never tried but put under house arrest for the remainder of her life.
. Beverly Allitt
When did she live: 1968-now
Nationality: British
Number of victims: 13 children
Years active: 58 days
Profession: Pediatric Nurse
one of the most well known serial killers in Britain, Beverley Gail Allit AKA the Angel of Death was a pediatric nurse who injected as many as 13 children her care with potassium or insulin injections to induce cardiac arrest. Over the 58 day period, she also smothered a number of them and forced them to not speak about these incidents and even got them to wear bandage over their wounds. She was caught red handed and charged with the murder of 4 children and causing serious injury to at least 5 others.
. Myra Hindley
When did she live: 1942-2002
Nationality: British
Number of victims: 3 children and 2 teenagers
Years active: July 1963-October 1965
Profession: Clerk/office professional
Myra Hindley has been dubbed the most evil woman in British history for her role in the now infamous Moor Murders along with Ian Brady. During the mid-1960s, Hindley and Brady kidnapped, tortured and sexually abused 5 kids, three of whom were under the age of 12 while the other two were teens, before killing them barbarically and burying their bodies. The sexually sadistic psychopath was nabbed in 1965 and declared criminally insane in 1985. She died during her incarceration in 2002 of heart complications aged 60.
. Gertrude Baniszewski
When did she live: 1929-1990
Nationality: American
Profession: Boarding house owner
Number of victims: 1
Years active: 1
Gertrude Baniszewski was a four-time divorcee who took in the teenaged Likens sisters Sylvia Marie and Jenny Faye as boarders while their parents were out of town. Over the course of the boarding, Gertrude forced her seven children and a handful of children from the neighborhood to torture and abuse the sisters, Sylvia in particular. Beatings, starvation, scalding with hot water and sexual abuse were rampant and at one point Sylvia was forced to rape herself with a Coke bottle. Gertrude even tattooed the words “I am a prostitute and proud of it” on her stomach with a sewing needle. The sisters were discovered when Sylvia died of the abuse and one of Gertrude’s children called the police for help. Gertrude pleased that the neighborhood children had abused Sylvia and her sister though she was charged with her murder and spent 20 years in prison.
. Katherine Knight
When did she live: 1955-now
Nationality: Australian
Profession: Abattoir worker
Number of victims: 1 husband and 1 puppy
Years active: 1
Katherine Knight was known to have a history of violent behavior in which she physically assaulted and abused her ex husbands and many others. At one point she even slit the throat of her ex-husband’s puppy to demonstrate what she would do to him if she found out he had been cheating on her. However, Knight hit the spotlight of notoriety in October 2001 when she killed her partner John Price barbarously. According to the police report, Knight stabbed Price 37 times before skinning him and hanging the skin from the living room door. She also decapitated him, made soup out of it, cut off and baked his buttocks and prepared vegetables and gravy as a part of the ‘roast’ she had planned to feed his kids later.
