Lady killers : deadly women throughout history /

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Inspired by author Tori Telfer's Jezebel column "Lady Killers," this thrilling and entertaining compendium investigates female serial killers and their crimes through the ages.

When you think of serial killers throughout history, the names that come to mind are ones like Jack the Ripper, John Wayne Gacy, and Ted Bundy. But what about Tillie Klimek, Moulay Hassan, Kate Bender? The narrative we're comfortable with is the one where women are the victims of violent crime, not the perpetrators. In fact, serial killers are thought to be so universally, overwhelmingly male that in 1998, FBI profiler Roy Hazelwood infamously declared in a homicide conference, "There are no female serial killers."

Lady Killers, based on the popular online series that appeared on Jezebel and The Hairpin, disputes that claim and offers fourteen gruesome examples as evidence. Though largely forgotten by history, female serial killers such as Erzsébet Báthory, Nannie Doss, Mary Ann Cotton, and Darya Nikolayevna Saltykova rival their male counterparts in cunning, cruelty, and appetite for destruction.

Each chapter explores the crimes and history of a different subject, and then proceeds to unpack her legacy and her portrayal in the media, as well as the stereotypes and sexist clichés that inevitably surround her. The first book to examine female serial killers through a feminist lens with a witty and dryly humorous tone, Lady Killers dismisses easy explanations (she was hormonal, she did it for love, a man made her do it) and tired tropes (she was a femme fatale, a black widow, a witch), delving into the complex reality of female aggression and predation. Featuring 14 illustrations from Dame Darcy, Lady Killers is a bloodcurdling, insightful, and irresistible journey into the heart of darkness.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

Although this is Telfer's first full-length book, readers can find her work across the Internet on sites such as Jezebel, Bustle, and Salon. In 2015, the author wrote several pieces for Jezebel about female serial killers and has now turned that idea into a book. Each chapter is dedicated to a different -murderer, with Telfer's profiles of deadly ladies spanning centuries. Her goal, according to her original Jezebel articles, is to disprove the widely held belief that serial killers are a boys-only club, which, to her credit, she does. The chapters are well researched, and even when they start out reciting myth and legend (e.g., "The Blood Countess: Erzsébet Báthory"), Telfer goes on to deconstruct the legend and look for realism and fact behind the rumors, which is refreshing. Her writing style is breezy and a bit precious. However, she seriously interrogates the treatment these women received at the time of their crimes as well as afterward, shining light on how each case was handled. VERDICT For true crime fans and those interested in feminist history.-Amelia Osterud, Milwaukee P.L. © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Publishers Weekly Review

In her debut work of nonfiction, Telfer, who writes for the Awl and Vice, exhumes the horrific criminal histories of 14 female serial killers. Each woman receives an individual portrait that outlines her crimes in gruesome detail. Among the women portrayed are Kate Bender, the "beautiful throat cutter" from Kansas who lured unsuspecting travelers to their deaths in the second half of the 19th century, and Nannie Doss, the "giggling grandma" from Alabama in the mid-20th century who was so dissatisfied with her string of husbands that she killed them off one by one. Telfer calls out the misogynistic tropes at play--the witches, femme fatales, and black widows, to name a few-in fictional depictions of female murderers. She also calls attention to how sexuality and beauty are often written into the popular narratives of these crimes. During the trial of Tillie Klimek for the murder of her husband in the 1920s, a reporter for the Chicago Tribune bluntly wrote that "Tillie Klimek went to the penitentiary because she had never gone to a beauty parlor." The oldest story in the book is that of Hungarian noblewoman Erzsébet Báthory, "the OG female sadomasochist," who tortured and killed hundreds of young women in the 16th century. With a breezy tone and sharp commentary, Telfer draws out the tired stereotypes with just enough wit and humor to make the topic of female murderers enjoyable. (Oct.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

School Library Journal Review

With her debut, Telfer mines Lady Killers, her column for feminist website Jezebel, exploring female serial murderers. Erzsébet Báthory was a wealthy Hungarian noblewoman who between 1590 and 1609 tortured her serfs (did she bathe in their blood?). In the 1970s, Kate Bender helped run a welcoming Kansas inn where wealthy visitors never checked out. Egyptian sisters Raya and Sakina were accused of murdering more than 15 women in the 1920s, and the midwife of a rural Hungarian village was accused of teaching other women to poison the men in their lives who had just returned from the World War II battlefields. No contemporary serial killers are covered-the most recent case is the Giggling Grandma, from the 1950s. The breezy, occasionally humorous prose lightens the serious subject as Telfer offers a feminist analysis that counteracts the sexist and sensational coverage of these women. VERDICT A solid choice for high school research papers and true crime collections.-Sarah Hill, Lake Land College, Mattoon, IL © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Booklist Review

Here's an interesting survey of female serial killers. The author introduces us to such ruthless people as Erzsébet Báthory, the grand dame of serial killers, a sixteenth-century Hungarian who enjoyed torturing and killing young girls; Nannie Doss, otherwise known as the Giggling Grandma, who murdered her mother, her sister, her grandson, and four members of her husband's family in the 1900s; Lizzie Halliday, the nineteenth-century Irish lass who killed her neighbors and her own husband (and who might have been crazy, or maybe she was faking it); Mary Ann Cotton, who predated Jack the Ripper by about 40 years and who may have killed three husbands and as many as 11 of her own children; and Alice Kyteler, who in the thirteenth century was the star attraction in one of the earliest witch trials in Europe, and who may have been Europe's first female serial killer (she liked to murder her husbands). This is the first book by Telfer, who's contributed articles to such publications as Salon and Vice, and, given its dark subject matter, it's surprisingly lively. A welcome addition to serial-killer literature.--Pitt, David Copyright 2017 Booklist

Kirkus Book Review

A compendium of women serial killers through the ages."When we think about serial killers," writes freelancer Telfer, "we think about men. Well, man,' actuallysome vicious, twisted sociopath, working alone. He probably has a dreadful nickname[which] is his brand, a nightmare name for a nightmare man whose victims are, more often than not, innocent women." In her first book, however, the author compiles comprehensive biographies of more than a dozen women who were as vicious, coldblooded, and brutal as their male counterparts. These women took great pleasure, physically, emotionally, and sexually, in killingtheir husbands and other men, their own children, and other women. Most often, they used poison to kill their victims, but some enjoyed, among other methods, brutal and bloody torture and throat cutting as a means to a deadly end. Telfer delves deeply into the role of the media in making these women notorious, and she analyzes how quickly they lost their stardom, fading into relative oblivion. She examines how physical attractiveness and sexuality played into each woman's personal scenario and how each was branded or given a nickname depending on the violent nature of her crimes. As the author writes, "there's something so seductive about the word murderess.'" Telfer also explains how humor has been used to describe and counterbalance the atrocious acts these women performed. The book is well-researched and informative, but squeamish readers beware: Telfer doesn't hide the grisly and gruesome details about what these women did to the people they murdered. For those interested in historical facts about a special group of sociopaths, the author offers an illuminating read on a subject that has not received much publicity, except during the time when each woman was finally apprehended. Heavily researched and filled with gory details, a rare look at women who killed for pleasure. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.