It's a bloodlust, I guess you can say

May 27th
5:33 PM

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Gwendolyn Graham and Catherine May Wood are a rare case in which two women teamed up in a series of sexual murders. Wood was a recently divorced 450-pound supervisor in a nursing home when she entered into a lesbian relationship with Graham, a nurses aide. The dominant Graham told Wood that it would be a sexual thrill to murder six elderly patients in the home so that their last names would spell out the word murder. Their spelling game failed when some of the patients did not die as easily as the couple hoped. Nevertheless, using a wet washcloth to suffocate the patients, Graham killed five victims while Wood stood guard. After each murder, the couple immediately retired to a vacant room in the nursing home and had sex. In exchange for her testimony, Wood received a twenty-to-forty sentence, while Graham was given six life sentences.

May 26th
1:26 PM

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Female Killers

Nearly one out of five serial murderers are women. In fact, they are often more deadly and more prolific than typical male serial killers. Female serial killers are described as the “quiet killers” because they rarely leave bodies dumped by the roadside, which alarm a community. Their killing careers last twice as long as men’s: eight years for women to the male serial killer’s average of just over four years. Their killing is often committed at home of in a professional setting such as a hospital, retirement home, boardinghouse, or hotel, where sometimes it is not even notices or recognised as a murder. A study of incarcerated female non-serial murderers found out that on average 77 percent were unemployed when they committed their offends, 65 percent were black, and 76 percent had children, and their median age was twenty-seven. Female killers are young and poor, and often function in a socioeconomic class where interpersonal violence is more frequent and “acceptable.”

The statistics for specifically female serial killers are substantially different: 95 percent were white, their median age was thirty and only 10 percent were known to be unemployed, while 10 percent were skilled workers, 15 percent were semiskilled, and 11 percent were other, such as self-employed or business proprietors (and 42 percent unknown). Poor unemployed women living in a society where often responding with interpersonal violence is the only way to survive may commit a spontaneous homicide in the heat of a moment. But the more middle-class female serial killers contemplated and planned their murders carefully.

The motives of female serial killers are substantially different from those of the female single killer or even the male serial killer. On average, 74 percent of female serial killers were at least in part motivated by personal financial gain, a sad reflection on their middle-class aspirations.

May 19th
5:26 PM

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A resident of Daly City, California, Rosemarie Bjorkland awoke on the morning of February 1, 1959, and told herself, as she related in court: “This is the day I will kill someone. If I meet anyone, that will be it.” The 18-year-old girl was obviously in a deranged frame of mind when she took a .38-caliber pistol from her parents’ home that day and began wandering through the hills of San Francisco, looking for a person to murder. She found a gardener, August Norry, emptying refuse from his pickup truck on a lonely road. He apparently though she was stranded and asked if she wanted a lift into town. Rosemarie smiled and thanked him. Then she drew the pistol and emptied it into the hapless father of two, killing him. She reloaded the weapon and fired another clip of bullets into the dead body, twelve shots in all. Then the young killer climbed through the victim’s truck and took it for a thrill ride through the hills. Police, examining the bullets that killed Norry, noticed they were unusual “wadcutters” used mostly for target practice. They traced the bullets to a gun shot, and its proprietor, Lawrence Schultz, reported that the bullets had been purchased by Rosemarie Bjorkland. She was quickly arrested at her parents’ home and confessed almost immediately, explaining that all she did was follow a “sudden urge.” Bjorkland was tried and convicted. Before she was led away to begin serving a life sentence, Bjorkland shook her head at reporters and said: “This is not what I expected.”

May 18th
2:47 PM

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Near Christmas time, 1989, the body of Richard Mallory was found in woods in Ormond Beach, Florida. He had been shot 4 times with a .22 handgun. Twelve more months past, 6 more dead men were found. All the victims were middle aged and found near highways. They had been robbed of money and valuable possessions, and their cars had been stolen and found shortly afterwards. All the victims had been shot by a .22 handgun. The FBI knew that there was one or two female serial killers on the loose. If the killer/s was male, there had been no evidence of homosexual activity. It was clear that the motive wasn’t just gain. The announcement of a female serial killer set the media into a frenzy. Soon after witnesses came forward to give police descriptions of two women seen abandoning a car belonging to that of one of the dead men. The descriptions were released in December 1990, soon after people came forward who recognised the pictures as 28-year-old Tyria J. Moore and 34-year-old Aileen Wuornos. Moore was arrested by police and agreed to testify against Wuornos, who was her lesbian partner.

In January 1991 Wuornos was arrested and confessed to killing the men in self defense as they had tried to rape her. The question raised that brought her claims to be false was why would a woman shoot several men who had supposedly tried rape her in the space of just 12 months. She also told of how Moore was not involved in any of the crimes committed. She then went to go on about her past of how her grandfather had sexually abused her and that she was raped at 13. Moore was released and Wournos faced trial. In court the evidence summed up and Wuornos was sentenced to the electric chair. Wournos was unlike other female serial killers, who’s motive is usually profit. But in this case the motive seemed to be revenge, because Wuornos had been raped and abused by men.

May 16th
1:51 PM

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When Mary Bell (here at age 16) was described as a child murderer, it was meant both ways: In 1968, when she was only 10 years old, she killed two boys, 3 and 4 years old. Bell mutilated the body of the older child. She was convicted of manslaughter after having been deemed mentally ill because of her horrific upbringing, and spent 12 years in prison.

12:35 PM

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At the age of seventeen, Beverley Allitt took a pre-nursing training course and was employed by the Grantham and Kesteven General Hospital as a trainee nurse on the pediatric ward – looking after children. The problem was, the children on Ward Four just got more and more ill. Liam Taylor died of a heart attack two days after being admitted for a chest infection. Timothy Hardwick died after being treated for an epileptic fit. Becky Phillips died after being released from hospital, after suffering from convulsions at home. Claire Peck died after routine treatment for asthma. All of these children had been under the care of Beverley Allitt. Nine other children contracted life-threatening diseases after being under her care. Following Claire Peck’s death, hospital authorities realized that if this was a coincidence, it was a very large and unlikely one – and they contacted the police. Tests on Paul Crampton revealed that he had an extremely high level of insulin in his system, which could only have come about from being injected with the drug whilst in hospital. At Allitt’s trial, a jury heard how she believed she was doing no wrong. She was found guilty of murdering four children, attempting to murder another three and causing grievous bodily harm to six others.

May 14th
3:02 PM

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Black Widows kill family members or partners, most often for financial gain. They typically start killing after age 25, and claim 6 to 8 victims in a 10-year period.

Famous Black Widows:

Blanche Taylor Moore of North Carolina killed her pastor, father, mother-in-law, husbands and lovers. She died by lethal injection in 1989.
Margie Velma Barfield, also of North Carolina, killed 7 husbands, several fiancés, and her mother. Her final victim was a boyfriend, who was found with traces of arsenic in his system. Barfield also died by lethal injection, in 1978.
Waneta Hoyt of New York suffocated 5 of her 6 children. She was sentenced to life in prison.
Belle Gunness of Illinois was also known as Lady Bluebeard. She was the first known Black Widow in the 20th Century. She killed 49 people, but was never prosecuted.

Angels of Death typically start killing in their early 20s, and can kill as many as 8 people in one or two years. They are more likely to brag about their murders, which often leads to their arrest.

Famous Angels of Death:

Genene Jones of Texas was a nurse who murdered 11 children with heart medication. She was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1984.
Madame Popova of Russia killed over 300 victims, and ran a contract murder service which freed women from abusive husbands. Popova was executed in 1909.

8:52 AM

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Martha Beck was born into poverty in 1920. Raped at the age of 13 by her brother, she continued to gain weight, appeared emotionally unstable, and suffered from low self-esteem. By the time she’d been married and divorced several times, she was declared an unfit mother, and authorities removed her two young children. One of the children was illegitimate. When Martha pressed for marriage, the father elected suicide rather than marrying her. She was able to complete high school and worked as a nurse at a city maternity hospital until she was fired in 1947. At some point, she began sending letters to the “Lonely Hearts Club” from an advertisement in the local newspaper, and in this way met her future murder accomplice.

Ray Fernandez was born in spain in 1914. Considered a shy, introverted man, he was happily married until he received a head injury at age 31. His demeanor changed, as did his personality, and he began to believe that he possessed psychic powers that enabled him to make women fall in love with him. For the next few year, he was described as a “sleazy gigalo with a toupee and a gold tooth” and managed to swingle dozens of women out of their financial assets but was caught in 1949. When Fernandez was released from prison, Beck proposed that the two of them become partners and continue the confidence games together. She would pose as his sister. Altough Fernandez fought her unattractive, they became sexual partners as well, engaging in extremely “degenerate” practices. Martha eventually became jealous of the relationships Ray developed with their victims and began putting barbiturates into their food. Ray then murdered the unsuspecting victims. In one case, Martha “assisted” by drowning a dead woman’s 2-year-old child in the bathtub. She initiated the killing and appeared to enjoy watching the child die. In another instance, she struck the victim repeatedly on the head. The two were linked to approximately 20 murders by the time they were apprehended and convicted, and they were executed on March 8th, 1951.

May 12th
2:19 PM

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A prolific familicide, Nannie Doss of Tulsa, Oklahoma, notched up at least eleven murders including five husbands, her mother, two sisters and two of her children. Her first marriage was to George Frazer, in 1920, though Nannie’s numerous affairs, conducted in the pursuit of “Mr Right,” did little to cement the union. The final straw for George was when he came home from work to find his two children lying dead on the floor - “accidentally” poisoned. Not waiting around to see who might be next, Frazer wisely took a speedy leave of his wife. Husband number two, Frank Harrelson died of “stomach trouble” later in the same year. Arlie Lanning lasted a bit longer - from 1947 until his death from “stomach trouble” in 1952. A comfortable insurance of $1500 ensured to Richard Morton lasted no longer than necessary, and finally Nannie’s fifth husband, Samuel Doss, contracted “stomach trouble” after eating a bowl of his wife’s stewed prunes. In this last case, Nannie came up against a more painstaking doctor, who not only refused to sign a death certificate but insisted on an autopsy and called in the police.

When post-mortem examination proved without the least doubt that Sam Doss had died of a massive dose of arsenic, Nannie confessed all. Nevertheless, the defiant Nannie Doss, who had freely admitted her misdeeds, indignantly denied the prosecution attorney’s suggestion at her trial that she had murdered solely out of greed. It had been, she insisted, a search for true love: “I was looking for the perfect mate, the real romance of life.” Nannie Doss was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment in 1964. She died in prison of leukemia the following year.

May 11th
6:16 PM

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Known as “The Tiger Woman,” Winnie Ruth Judd (born 29 January 1905) was convicted of the Phoenix Trunk Murders in 1931. She worked with her husband, Dr William Judd, in his medical centre in Phoenix, Arizona, where she became friends with Agnes Le Roi, 27, and Hedvig Samuelson who shared a flat. On 16 October 1931 there was a shooting at the flat and the next day Miss Le Roi did not turn up for work and Judd was late for work. Later that day Judd telephoned a removals firm to arrange for a large trunk to be shipped. On 18 October she boarded a train bound for Los Angeles, accompanied by two trunks. As porters carried the trunks off the train at Union Central Station in Los Angeles, it was noticed that one of the trunks was leaking a dark liquid. Judd was asked to explain but instead she fled. When the trunks were opened they were found to contain the dismembered the bodies of Agnes Le Roi and Hedvig Samuelson. Police found a letter from Judd to her husband. The letter detailed all sorts of sex orgies that had taken place in the Le Roi-Samuelson home, orgies that featured every kind of sexual coupling. On 23 October, after an appeal by her husband, Judd gave herself up to police. She was taken to Arizona where she stood trial. She was convicted and sentenced to death but that was commuted to life imprisonment on 24 April 1933 after psychiatrists said that she was mad. She was finally released on 22 December 1972 and died on 23 October 1998, aged 95.

10:55 AM

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Carol Bundy was anxious to please the depraved sexual fantasies of her young lover, Douglas Clark. In 1980, Clark and Bundy committed a series of grisly sex murders in Los Angeles. Bundy would cruise the Sunset Strip in search of blonde prostitutes for Clark to allegedly shoot and then engage in sexual acts with the corpse. By his own estimate, Clark, a former factory worker, killed fifty women. According to Bundy, he hoped to double that figure before his arrest on August 11, 1980. No one could say with absolute certainty how many women tehy killed, but Clark was charged with siz murders when his trial opened in Los Angeles in January 1983. On February 15 the jury sentenced him to die in the gas chamber. He remains on Death Row. Bundy, a former Burbank nurse and the mother of two children, was sentenced to fifty-two years in prison for murdering her former lover John Robert Murray in 1980, and then decapitating him.

May 10th
8:38 PM

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Source

The youngest person ever to be convicted of multiple murders in Canada, Jasmine Richardson was twelve when she brutally murdered her parents and younger brother in Medicine Hat, Alberta. After the bodies were discovered on April 23rd, 2006, police feared Jasmine could also be a victim. However, she was later found alive with her 23-year-old boyfriend Jeremy Allen Steinke, whom her parents did not approve of. Steinke, who, like Jasmine, had an interest in goth culture, monsters and vampires, was also charged with the murders. On July 9, 2007, Jasmine was convicted on three counts of first-degree murder. She was sentenced to ten years in prison, the maximum penalty for a child under fourteen under the Canadian Youth Criminal Justice Act.

May 8th
1:38 PM

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The Execution of Aileen Wuornos

Highway prostitute Aileen Carol Wuornos, known as the “Damsel of Death” for the seven slayings she is believed to committed, was executed by lethal injection on October 9, 2002 at the Florida State Prison. The 46-year-old serial killer was pronounced dead at 9:47 a.m. 6 minutes after the injection process began. She was executed for the 1989 killing of Palm Harbour, Fla., electrician Harry Mallory, but has confessed to five others and was a suspect in a seventh. Mallory’s trial was held in Daytona Beach. “We did wake her up at 5:30. She requested a towel and washcloth to wash her face and freshen up,” said prison spokesman Sterling Ivy before the execution. “She was very calm this morning. Not as talkative as she has been in the past.” Wuornos declined the traditional last meal, which could have been anything she wanted for under $20, and instead was given a cup of coffee.

A half-dozen anti-death penalty demonstrators were outside the prison, but were outnumbered by corrections officers. Wuornos was strapped to a gurney and hooked to two intravenous lines. Thirty-two witnesses watched as she was wheeled into the death chamber where an executioner pumped deadly chemicals into her system. “We can testify that that lethal injection is certainly more of a humane way to terminate life than the electric chair,” said State Attorney John Tanner, who prosecuted the case in Daytona Beach. “She expressed in her last psychiatric examination relief that the electric chair had been abolished in the state of Florida.” Wuornos went to her death willingly. She fired her attorneys and opposed appeals made on her behalf. Two appeals were turned down by the Florida Supreme Court Tuesday. They both contended Wuornos was insane and not competent enough for her execution. In her final statement, Wuornos said: “Yes, I would just like to say I’m sailing with the rock, and I’ll be back, like Independence Day with Jesus. June 6, like the movie. Big mother ship and all, I’ll be back, I’ll be back.” She had written the Florida Supreme Court last year to say she “would prefer to cut to the chase and get on with the execution. Taxpayers’ money has been squandered and the families have suffered enough.”

May 7th
6:10 PM

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Convicted murderer Aileen Wuornos final words before being executed by lethal injection in October 2002 in Florida, were -

“I’d just like to say I’m sailing with the rock, and I’ll be back like Independence Day, with Jesus June 6. Like the movie, big mother ship and all, I’ll be back.”

5:07 PM

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“Within months he had convinced me that there was no God at all: He could have told me that the earth was flat, the moon was made of green cheese and the sun rose in the west, I would have believed him, such was his power of persuasion, his softly convincing means of speech which fascinated me, because I could never fully comprehend, only browse at the odd sentence here and there, believing it to be gospel truth.”

- Myra Hindley talking about Ian Brady.