Reddit reviews Female Serial Killers: How and Why Women Become Monsters

Deviant behavior is not an exclusively male phenomenon. Introductory article about deviance (Wikipedia).

Serial murder is not an exclusively male phenomenon, either. Gender bias cuts both ways.

===
===

The surprising but curiously logical differences between male and female serial killers
[Washington Post, 2015]


8 Prolific Female Serial Killers [Mental Floss, 2008]

Female Serial Killers: How and Why Women Become Monsters [book, 2007]

The surprising psychology of female serial killers [Business Insider, 2015]

My reading recommendations include, mainly, a lot of textbooks! Unlike a lot of the true crime novels, I've found that criminal psychology, criminology, victimology, forensics and other academic textbooks and research journals are generally far less sensationalistic than the true crime novels tend to be. Here are some of the ones that I highly recommend. As a side note: they may be textbooks, but they are all highly readable while being incredibly fascinating and enlightening.

Serial Murderers and Their Victims by Eric W Hinkley is a fantastic resource for the latest studies concerning serial murder, focusing on both the perpetrators and the fantasies and compulsions that contribute to their drive to murder, as well as on their victims. Now in its seventh iteration, this text has some of the most up to date statistics on serial killers in the US and worldwide. It's a must-read for anyone interested in serial killers.

Serial Killers: The Method and Madness of Monsters by Peter Vronsky is another similarly great book full of real life case studies of serial and spree killers and delves into the motives behind such aberrant behavior.

The Encyclopedia of Serial Killers by Michael Newton has entries on hundreds of convicted serial killers.

Female Serial Killers: How and Why Women Become Monsters by Peter Vronsky explores the rare phenomenon of female serial killers.

Sexual Homicide: Patterns and Motives by Ressler, Burgess and Douglas is an important and easily-read psychological textbook on the sexual impulses that lead to violence.

Sexual Murder: Catathymic and Compulsive Homicides by Louis B Schlesinger is a similar book by a prominent forensic psychologist.

Sex-Related Homicide and Death Investigation: Practical and Clinical Perspectives, Second Edition: Practical Aspects of Criminal and Forensic Investigations by Vernon J Geberth is a manual for law enforcement professionals investigating sexually-motivated homicides by a renowned former-detective. The images and case studies are directly from the author's archive of case files. I will warn readers that some of the content in this book is highly disturbing, even for I, a person with an interest in the psychology of serial killers. All in all, a fascinating book for those who can stomach it.

Female Serial Killers: How and why they become monsters by Peter Vronsky

link

There are many serial killers that are incredibly interesting, but my two favorite definetly have t be H.H. Holmes (credit to /u/Dr_Helicopter for posting the name first) and Elizabeth Báthory.

H.H. Holmes opened a hotel during the Chicago World Fair with the sole purpose of murdering it's inhabitants. It had a labyrinth of twisting halls and doors that went nowhere, its guests often ended up starving or being gassed to death. He would then sell their bodies to medical schools, which was a relatively common and unquestioned practice at the time.

Elizabeth Báthory of Transylvania was a female serial killer from the 1500's. Although not the very first, she was one of the first recorded serial murderers, and killed hundreds of young women before she died at the age of 54. Legend says that she bathed in the blood of her victims, as she thought it would bring a youthful appearance to her skin. However, this might have just been witness accounts saying that after she had finished torturing her victims she was so covered in gore that it appeared as though she had bathed in their blood. She has a pretty cool story, I can go into more detail if anyone is interested.

An extra just for fun: Ed Gein's story is more sad than brutal...he was considered a generally really nice guy, but had the unfortunate hobby of collecting body parts. Usually he would dig up dead bodies for this habit, but when the ground became too cold to dig, he turned to killing. He only has a death count of two people (Mary Hogan and Bernice Worden), but when he was apprehended he had:

• Whole human bones and fragments
  
• A wastebasket made of human skin
  
• Human skin covering several chair seats
  
• Skulls on his bedposts
  
• Female skulls, some with the tops sawn off
  
• Bowls made from human skulls
  
• A corset made from a female torso skinned from shoulders to waist
  
• Leggings made from human leg skin
  
• Masks made from the skin from female heads
  
• Mary Hogan's face mask in a paper bag
  
• Mary Hogan's skull in a box
  
• Bernice Worden's entire head in a burlap sack
  
• Bernice Worden's heart in a saucepan on the stove
  
• Nine vulvae in a shoe box
  
• A young girl's dress and "the vulvas of two females judged to have been about fifteen years old"
  
• A belt made from female human nipples
  
• Four noses
  
• A pair of lips on a window shade drawstring
  
• A lampshade made from the skin of a human face
  
• Fingernails from female fingers
  
  Pretty cool, huh?
  
  Edit: If you're interested in serial killers, I would suggest picking up a copy of Serial Killers: The Method and Madness of Monsters and Female Serial Killers: How and Why Women Become Monsters both by Peter Vronsky. He's a good writer, and they're both fabulously interesting. :)