When you think about a serial killer, what kind of profile comes to mind? By definition anyone who commits more than three murders in a short period of time is classified as a serial killer. More prominently featured is the profile of the average serial killer, which is (according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation) a single white male, between the ages of 35 to 45 years.

Serial killers have been around since the dawn of civilization. The first book that researched the behavior of serial killers was the “Psychopathia Sexualis” by Dr. Kraft Ebing in 1886. The book documented different types of homicidal behaviors, serial murder patterns and psycho-sexual deviant behavior relative to murder and to violent acts. It was also in the 1880s that the world’s first truly celebrity serial killer “Jack the Ripper” debuted his terror on the area of Whitechapel in London, England and rose to international infamy.

The idea of a female engaging in violent crime took hundreds of years for society to fully understand. The bias that defines women as gentle, nurturing and mothering is in direct juxtaposition to the kind of mental state and lack of emotion required to become a prolific serial killer. Nonetheless for as long as there have been homicides, there have been female serial killers to match (and often exceed) the violence and infamy demonstrated by their male counterparts.

Leonarda Cianciulli (Italy)

A historical case of horrific killing that started with good intentions and a mother’s love for her son, Leonarda Cianciulli flipped her switch in 1939 when she discovered her oldest son was joining the Italian armed forces to serve in World War II. As a woman who read fortunes and engaged in “white magic” the distraught Leonarda decided that the best way to protect her son from injury or death was to make human sacrifices.

The first victim was an older woman who had never been married. Faustina Setti had befriended Leonarda and used her services as a fortune teller, to help her find a husband. Leonarda indicated that she had found an appropriate match in the city of Pola, but instructed Faustina to keep it a secret, and had the unsuspecting woman write letters that she would later mail, telling them of her trip to Pola to meet her potential suitor.

On the day of her departure, Faustina was drugged with wine and Leonarda Cianciulli killed her with a wood axe. Hidden in the closet, Cianciulli proceeded to divide Faustina’s body parts into nine pieces and collected the blood from the body in a large basin. The flesh of her first victim was chemically dissolved and emptied into the sewer. The blood was dried and used to bake tea cakes, which she served to visiting clients and friends (and to herself and her husband who apparently enjoyed them).

The second victim was Francesca Soavi who paid Leonarda 3,000 lire to connect her to a job at a local girl’s school in Piacenza, Italy. There was no job, but Soavi was relieved of her life and her money. The final victim was Virginia Cacioppo, a soprano singer. Again under the guise of connecting the young girl to a career opportunity (this time in Florence Italy). Her remains were used to manufacturer homemade cologne and soap, as well as Leonarda’s now popular tea cakes. Virginia Cacioppo paid 50,000 lire to her killer for Leonarda’s employment services.

Leonarda was found guilty of murder and sentenced to thirty years in prison after serving three years in an asylum in Italy.  She died in 1970 in prison, at the age of 1976. Her infamous cooking pot is on display at the Criminological Museum in Rome, Italy.

Juana Barraza (Mexico)

This serial killer became known as “La Mataviejitas” or “the old lady killer” for her murderous rampage that killed eleven (11) elderly women. She was suspected of many other unproven murders and disappearances. Authorities suspect she was involved in more than 49 deaths.

Juana had a devastating childhood and had become a professional wrestler called “La Dama del Silencio” (the silent woman). She suffered repeated rapes by strangers as her mother was an alcoholic and allowed men to “visit” her daughter in exchange for beer. She had four children as a result of her repeated sexual assaults.

Juana Barraza targeted elderly women who lived alone. Frequently she offered assistive services, such as housecleaning or laundry to gain the trust of more affluent widows. Strangling her victims to death, she derived her income from burglarizing and selling items from their home. She was convicted on 16 charges of murder and aggravated burglary and an additional 11 separate counts of murder in 2008 and is presently serving 759 years in prison.

Júlia Fazekas and the Angel Makers of Nagyrév (Hungary)

Husbands be kind to your wives (particularly if you are away for extended military service). That is the moral of the story of Julia Fazekas and her followers. From 1914 to 1929, the woman collaborated to poison family members including husbands who were returning home to Hungary after World War I.

During the war, many of the wives left behind in Hungary were uncertain whether their husbands would survive or return. As a matter of emotional and sometimes economic necessity, the war wives took new husbands and boyfriends (often those too old or too young to be drafted to the war). Some of the wives met infantry from other Allied countries, which made things more than a little awkward at the end of World War I, when husbands began to return post-war to wives who no longer wanted them.

Rather than lose their property or money, Júlia Fazekas and some of her friends devised a method of poisoning unwanted spouses and children from their first marriages. In Hungary where arranged marriages were law, and divorce was not permitted, this offered an ideal opportunity to start over with new husbands of their own selection.

While there are significantly fewer female serial killers than male (roughly 15% of killers are female) and while they tend to be less sensational and public about their murders, they are nonetheless prolific and lethal. Some research suggests that female serial murderers are more strategic in their planning and more difficult to catch, which may also suggest that there are more of them than estimated.

Many a time, women are wrongly accused of criminal conduct. If you or your loved one has been a victim of this, and if you haven’t already contacted a criminal defense attorney to protect your rights, do so right away. Engage an attorney from your state as he/she would be most knowledgeable about the laws that apply therein. If you stay in Joliet, you can ask friends or family for recommendations or look online for criminal attorney Joliet for a list of lawyers. Thereafter, you can skim through their website, read client testimonials and pick one.

For interesting reading on the methodology of female serial killers, check out “Female Serial Killers: Silent But Deadly” by Psychology Today.

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