Top 5 Female Serial Killers

Serial killers tend to surface time and again with some grotesque and horrifying tales of them mutilating their victims, and if you thought women could never be a part of this breed, then you’re in for a shock.

Here's a list of the top five female serial killers who stabbed their name into history books!

1. Elizabeth Bathory

Elizabeth Bathory, also known as The Blood Countess, was a countess from the renowned Bathory family of Hungarian nobility. Born in 1560, she was known to have tortured and killed hundreds of young peasant girls during her regime as a Countess. Her gore-induced fetish reached colossal levels after she used to sexually torture her victims by burning or mutilating their body parts, starving them, biting the flesh off them, forcing young women to lick the blood of other victims and off her nude body. Her stories of debauchery eventually reached King Mathias II, who sent a party of men to investigate and found her guilty for all the crimes she had committed. Being of a royal descent found her beyond the general law and she was locked up in a room of her castle until her death. A total registry of 650 victims were found dead under the terror of Bathory. A famous Swedish metal band "Bathory" named themselves after her.

2. Jane Toppan

Jane Toppan, born in 1857, was convicted for the killing of 31 people while working as a nurse. Coming from a mentally unstable family, her unhealthy fascination with autopsy photographs while studying nursing was disturbing. Yet, her pleasant and alluring nature as a nurse won her the nickname "Jolly Jane". She found sadistic pleasure in drugging patients and bringing them to the brink of death, and doing so time and again. She later went on to sexually harass them while being under the influence of drugs. She was quoted saying her ambition was "to have killed more people — helpless people — than any other man or woman who ever lived...” Jolly Jane was eventually found guilty due to insanity and was deployed to an asylum for the rest of her life.

3. Queen Mary I

Queen Mary I, or as she's famously known Bloody Mary, born in 1516, was responsible for her religious outburst to turn England back to Roman Catholicism. And she did this by force. She initially executed the Protestant leaders and went on a rampage killing hundreds of Protestants in the wake of her bloody reign of terror.

4. Amelia Dyer

Amelia Dyer is known as the most prolific baby farm killers from the Victorian Era. She is suspected to have murdered more than 400 babies in a span of twenty years for financial gains. Her alcohol and opium addiction drove her insanity to a whole new level. She was known to adopt babies as a care-taker and then strangle them, or as she would fondly quote "I used to like to watch them with the tape around their neck, but it was soon all over with them".

The jury took only four and a half minutes to find her guilty. And during her time behind bars, she filled five books with her confessions. She was subsequently hanged on June 10, 1896.

5. Aileen Wuornos

Aileen, born in 1956, was a cold-blooded killer whose urge to kill emerged from a disturbed childhood. Having been sexually and physically abused by her grandfather and forced into prostitution, she sought revenge for all her suffering. She eagerly requested the court to execute her, as she intended to kill more people if she were let loose. Eventually Aileen was executed on October 9, 2002. The movie ‘Monster’ starring Charlize Theron is based on Aileen Wuornos.