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.)