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Alexis Porter

Instructor: Malcolm Campbell

English 1104

March 26, 2019

Housewives made Serial Killers: Why do they kill?

I got a confession to make; a sad one, honestly. I watch Forensic Files and murder

mysteries. Date nights consisted of popcorn, sodas and Forensic Files. I like the way they explain

how they came to solve each murder with the information provided. It makes a great story. I also

wonder why you never see many females within these shows. Watching Forensic Files, nearly

75% of the killers are male and the ones who are female don’t get the interest that they use when

talking about the males. Or better yet, you only hear about the male serial killers. On the news,

you may hear about someone getting killed or shot at, but nothing much about the killer. Or

when a teacher in a class asks you about the newest known serial killer and you throw out the big

names, such as Jeffery Dahmer or Gary Heidnik, who were caught between the 80’s and 90’s.

No one knows much on the idea of the female serial killer. They are seen as non-existent and not

capable of doing such a thing. With the world showing people as able to have dark and

disturbing thoughts and actions, it is no surprise that they exist.

How does the world even come into the knowledge of female serial killers? The world

has hardly any information about these select females and how they roam the world. My

curiosity killed the cat and my mind has wondered into understanding the female serial killers.

Why do they kill? Who in their right mind will tell a female to not just kill once, but multiple

times over and with different methods? I am diving into the world of criminology to gain a better
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understanding on just how these women are capable of a task that most of the world foresee

women, like Amelia Dyer or Aileen Wournos, to not be able to do.

What defines a serial killer?

Serial killers are notorious for not having a clear definition. In the 2015 book written by

Elizabeth Yardley, an assistant professor of criminology at Birmingham City University, and

David Wilson, an Emeritus Professor of Criminology at Birmingham City University, they

describe serial homicide as a word without an agreed upon definition. Instead of trying to find a

term to describe it, criminologists from Birmingham City University agree that it is, by far, the

rarest type of crime that is seen anywhere on the world. The Serial Murder Symposium held by

the FBI in 2005 explains that serial homicides are less than 1 percent of all murders committed

within any given year. With these types of homicides being rare, it is astonishing they take up so

much of the public’s time. This comes from Hollywood. Films produced create a different and

more distorted look upon the killers and their victims. In the FBI’s Symposium, it explains

“Much of the general public’s knowledge concerning serial murder is a product of Hollywood

Productions. Story lines are created to heighten the interest of audiences, rather than to

accurately portray serial murder.” It would continue to explain about how the true dynamics of

the killer would be confused or not even portrayed to the audience. Because of these extreme

looks into serial killer’s lives and committed homicides, there are known killers, but only based

on the movie view instead of the factual evidence.

When it comes to serial killers, there is no clear set assignments to their

demographics despite what the FBI Symposium attendees thought. The attendees all had

different ideas on how to define a serial killer, from age range to types of victims. There was not

one clear definition. In the Harrison et al study, performed to find a way to understand the who,
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where and how to female serial killings, female serial killers are often around the age of 30 when

the killing begins and have childhoods showing signs of neglect or abuse (Yardley and Wilson).

In this paper, the serial killer definition is a killer who has killed three or more times with a year

span. Despite the criminological department not having a clear definition as used in this paper,

there is a wide range of serial killer categories. The different categories explain how the victims

were killed and even how the killer related with their victims. Serial killers have more tendencies

to pick people off the street to murder since it leaves no connection between the victim and

themselves. In female serial killers, many chose people close to them, as it is easier access to

murder. In this paper, I plan to use examples of 6 out of the 7 types of serial killer, with using

childhood history, before and after arrest of murders, and finally taking the information to

conclude to why each serial killer began to kill. This paper is to explore and give factual

evidence to come to an opinionated conclusion.

The Sexual Predator

The first case involves that of the Sexual Predator. This type of female serial kills with a

sexual nature as stated in the Kelleher and Kelleher’s typology of Female Serial killers (qtd in

Yardley). These types of killers include a 1989 hitchhiker prostitute by the name of Aileen

Wournos. She was born to a sex offender father and a mother who disappeared off the face of the

planet. She and her younger brother were sent to live with their grandparents. From there, her

grandparents were strict on the children who would lash out in return. In the Biography (2019)

website and on the All That’s Interesting (2019) website, they state that she would confess to

having a sexually abusive grandfather and a sexual relationship with her brother, Keith. Aileen

would end up pregnant at the age of 14 and was sent to a clinic for those who had a child out of

wedlock till she gave birth. This is where she would change her life forever. After being kicked
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out of the unwed mother’s home, she left home and began her hitchhiking and prostitution

career. Within a few years after she left, her brother would pass away from cancer and she would

gain his life insurance policy. As she traveled to Florida, she married a elderly fellow named

Lewis Fell. He would sustain her for only nine weeks before he called for annulment and a

restraining order from Aileen beating him with his own cane. She would find Tyria Moore in

Daytona and a relationship begins.

By this time, Aileen had begun her killing spree. Her first known victim, as described by

the Florida Department of Corrections (“Aileen”), was a Richard Mallory. He was a 51 year old

electronics shop owner and known sex offender in Volusia County. He was found on the 13th of

December in a wooded area, 12 days after his car was found. He was shot many times two

landed in his left lung. This was only the beginning of the year of terror. Within 1990, more than

six more men were discovered, shot multiple times. The differences start after this. Some of the

victims were nude while others were clothed completely. Her last victim before she was caught

was a 62 year old Walter Antonio. He was found off a logging road in Dixie County, nearly

nude. His car was found 5 days later. By January 1st of 1991, Aileen was arrested with the help

of her lesbian lover, Tyria Moore. In Orlando Sentinel article, Beth Kassab gave the details about

the betrayal of Aileen’s lover. Tyria, in exchange for her freedom, helped the FBI by giving up

all the information to convict Aileen and gained Aileen’s confession over a phone call

(“Aileen”). After she was arrested, she plead guilty to the Mallory case, saying he was trying to

rape her, and she killed in self-defense. Aileen pleaded guilty to another 6 men without the self-

defense claim to her case. Within the court, she insisted on being executed before she would kill

again. In a NewsChannel2000 story, the State Attorney who prosecuted her, John Tanner,

attended her execution and witnessed her final statement, “I’d just like to say I’m sailing with the
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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” (qtd in “Aileen”). In the end, she was executed with a lethal injection on

October 9th, 2002.

On top of all of her killings, she was deemed borderline personality disorder by her

defense attorney Billy Nolas in the St. Petersburg Times (“Aileen”). Borderline personality

Order, by definition from the National Institute of Mental Health, is “a mental illness marked by

an ongoing pattern of varying moods, self-image, and behavior. These symptoms often result in

impulsive actions and problems in relationships.” As stated earlier in this section of the paper,

her childhood was not all sunshine and rainbows. She was sexually abused on numerous

accounts by different family members. With Aileen’s childhood in mind, she was traumatized

from young age by exchanges she had between her brother and grandfather. John Tanner, her

prosecutor stated in the NewsChannel2000 that, “She liked to be in control. In fact, these

killings, as much as anything, were acts of ultimate control, and we’ve seen that in serial killer

patterns in the past. She killed these men to bring about the ultimate in control over their lives,

which was to terminate it” (qtd in “Aileen”). When looking into her first victim, Richard

Mallory, he is a known sex offender. Having a sex offender trying to control Aileen through the

sexual endeavors could have sent her into her killing spree, and knowing her grandfather was

part of her traumatized past could explain her desire for killing the middle age men. All of this is

just ideas, only she knows why she killed.

The Profit Killer

The Profit Killer, by the 1998 Kelleher & Kelleher study, is a female serial killer who

kills for financial gain (Yardley and Wilson). The motive behind these crimes are greed. The

desire of these killers is gaining the money needed that they can not gain from their immediate
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means. These types of killers are typically resourceful and poison their victims. One of these

types of killers is Mary Ann Cotton, a British serial killer during the 1800’s. Mary Ann Cotton

was born as Mary Ann Robson in Durham to a coal miner father and stay at home mom. She was

the oldest daughter of three. By the age of 8, according to Blanco (2017) and Yardley (2015), her

father died in a coal mining accident, leaving her mom impoverished and children broken. Her

mother remarried, and Mary began to loath her step father. As a teenager, she became a teacher

at the local Sunday School. In Britannica Encyclopedia, it stated that Mary left home at 16 and

became a nursemaid for a family for three years.

By 20, Mary had married a laborer named William Mowbray and they had a total of four

children. Their first born died not long after her baptism. Her last child with Mowbray, John

Robert, died a year before his father from cases that included symptoms of arsenic poisoning.

She moved away with her 35 pound life insurance and two remaining daughters. She met a

Joseph Nattrass, who left Mary for his future wife. Her youngest daughter died from typhus fever

and her remaining daughter was sent to her mother while she went on to her next victim, George

Ward. With her new infirmary job, she met and later married Ward. Due to his sickness, he was

not able to return to work and he died from typhus fever and cholera. Off she went to her next

job. Her new job included being a housekeep to a James Robinson who was widowed. Not long

after her move-in, his youngest died from typhus fever. Returning home, Mary cared for her sick

mother. Within a few weeks, Mary’s mother died, and Mary returned to Robinson pregnant with

his child. They got married and later split due to Mary stealing from him and demanding from

him to get life insurance. Mary moved on. From there, others would fall into her spell and her

bed. She became pregnant from multiple of her lovers and ended up killing off her children if

they became a hassle to handle. When she had offered up one of her husband’s child, Charles
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Edward, to a grocer, Thomas Riley, suspension grew on her motives. In the book written by

Yardley and Wilson (2015) about Mary Ann Cotton, Riley declined the child unless she worked

too. After his encounter with May, He found out that the child was dead along with many of her

lodgers. Riley alerted the police and the body of Charles was exhumed. The contains of his

stomach included arsenic poisoning. The police ordered for other exhumations of her past to find

all of them including arsenic poisoning. She was arrested July 18th, 1872, Cotton was pregnant

with her lover’s, Mr. Mann, child. She gave birth to a daughter before she was executed in

Durham County.

Mary Ann was a woman of greed during her time. Many women of her time only were

able to work if unmarried or widowed. Once married, they became the property of their husbands

and weren’t able to legally leave their husbands unless death came to them first. During this

time, arsenic poisoning was a common household item, but also a common measure for murder.

It was undetectable unless an autopsy was performed. When looking into Mary Ann herself, her

childhood was not one of a typically serial killer. She was not abused in any way that is stated in

any of her history. Her father passed away at a young age and her mother’s remarriage may have

caused an issue for Mary. When it comes to her life, she was not able to support herself on her

own. She witnessed her mom have to remarry in order to provide for her siblings, which may

have caused the greed motive for money. In total, she could only explain why she decided to kill

her own family to stay with cash in the pocket.

The Angel of Death

My next case is the one at the baby farmer. The Angel of Death is one who kills those

dependent on the killer, explained in the Yardley and Wilson’s book. These victims can include

those in nursing homes or young children. Amelia Dyer was the notorious baby farmer of the
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19th century. She didn’t start poor in anyway, being the daughter of a master shoemaker. Her

privileged life allowed her to read and write, but her mother was dying of typhus. Her mother

dead not long after. According to Blanco’s background information (2017), she moved in with an

aunt before becoming a apprentice for a corset maker. She married a George Thomas, who was

greatly older than she was. They lied on the marriage certificate in order to avoid suspicion. She

became a nurse during her marriage. Within her time, she gained useful skills for becoming a

baby farmer. As for her husband, no documentation was found to if he ever lived with her during

this regime of terror.

During this time, baby farming was not hard to find. For unwed mothers or illegitimate

children, it could take the burden off the hands of the mother for a fee. The farmer helped the

family by giving them up for adoption, or in the case of Amelia, killing them for money. Many

of the time, the mothers stayed with the farmer until she has given birth, for when the mother

returned to their normal lives and the baby disappeared. Amelia insured the mother’s trust with

every helping hand. When she first started, she allowed the baby to starve to death. She calmed

the child down with an opium laced syrup so that they stopped screaming for food. Soon, she

advanced to making deaths faster for better profit. According to Crime Museum (2017), she

gained the suspension of a doctor who wrote her death certificates. She was only charged 6

months of hard labor for her crimes. She was released and with new lessons learned. She did not

go to doctors and got rid of the children herself. She knew of the attention she had gained before

and from unwanted parents seeking their babies back, so her family and her continuously moved

from area to area. In Blanco’s article, her downfall occurred after a package was found in the

Thames. It contained a baby girl and a faded name of Mrs. Thomas, Amelia’s married name. It

led the police to Amelia and would help lead to her arrest. When they cleaned the Thames, they
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found more bodies with the white tape around their necks. Amelia would call this “how you

could tell it was one of mine” (qtd in Blanco). She was placed on trial in early March of 1896,

using insanity as her defense. According to Crime Museum (2017), within five minutes she was

convicted of one murder, although the numbers were between 200-400 murders. On June 10,

1896, Amelia Dyer was hanged.

Amelia’s past may have contributed to her rise to baby farming. Her family was torn

apart by her mother’s illness. Being the caregiver to her mother, she saw the effects that sickness

had on just one person and those around her. When it comes to money, many women in the

Victorian Era were trying to support themselves if they were not married. Once they were

married, all the owned was the husband’s and they would obtain the role of caregiver. With

Amelia married, money would become her husband’s to play with. There is not factual evidence

that states her husband died or they divorced, but she does become independent. With her greed

for money and mental health state already gone, stated in Blanco’s article (2017), baby farming

became her item of money. Although the belief is she killed for money, she could tell us why she

killed, but exhuming a body is illegal if not with a warrant.

The Team Killer

The team killer are the groups of killers. In Kelleher and Kelleher’s 1998 study, these

groups can be “male/female, all female or family in composition” (qtd in Yardley). The motives

vary on the couple, with a common male/female couple being sexual motived. One team is the

Fred and Rosemary West case. For this study, the focus is on Rosemary primarily instead of

Fred. Rosemary West was born to a Schizophrenic father and depressive mother as stated in the

Crime Investigation (2018). Her parents eventually split when she was a teenager and she lived

with her mother for some time before staying with her father at 16. Blanco’s article (2017)
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explains that while Rose was living with her father, she was both sexually and physically abused.

About this time, a much older Fred West started seeing Rose and her father disapproved highly.

Before long, Rose moved in with Fred, and by 1970, pregnant with their first.

Rose and her husband began their trouble in 1971. Fred West’s oldest daughter from

another marriage, Charmaine, was thought to be killed by Rose during one of her outbursts. In

the article found on Biography (2016), Fred was arrested and serving time when this happened.

Charmaine was hidden by Rose until her husband came home, and he dismember her. When

Fred’s first wife would come to see his daughter, Rose would end up killing her and Fred

dismembered her as well. Eventually the killing went outside of the family. A nanny and

schoolgirls went missing by the hands of the West family and sexually abused, murdered and

dismembered. The children knew about the murders and abuses and said nothing to anyone,

excluding one. According to Biography (2018) and Blanco (2017), Heather, one of Fred’s

daughters, became the center of Fred’s sexual attention after Anna Marie left home. Heather

pushed away and rejected the actions and was the first one to reach out for help from her friends.

When Fred found out, Rose and Fred killed and dismembered her. Not long after, police came

knocking on the door. On Express (2019), the British tabloid who covered the information of the

West Documentary, stated that she was arrested in 1994 for the raping of a 11 year old and

assault of an 8 year old. She was later tried for the murders tied to her husband, although there

was only circumstantial evidence to tie her to any of the 10 murders. She was put on trial only

nine months after her husband would commit suicide in prison. According to Blanco (2017),

originally, she spent 25 years of prison for the 10 separate murder trials, but she was sentenced to

life in prison in 1997 by Home Secretary Jack Straw. She still maintains her innocence and
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announced her attention to appeal. In Biography, she appealed in 1996 but was rejected. She

dropped her 2002 appeal.

Rosemary West, AKA Rose, was a truly disturbed woman. Her past explains that her

family history of depression and schizophrenia. Her father would sexually abuse her, and her

husband was not any better. Taken in the idea that she could be easily sucked into her husband’s

lifestyle, it opens up the idea that she wants to feel accepted into their lives. It is a wonder for her

to still think she is innocent, despite what her husband and her had done to those girls. Not all is

what it seems to be in these cases. In the end, she is still alive. Maybe we can ask why she did

those horrendous acts; was it love or lust? Or was it wanting to be part of a family?

The Revenge Killer

Revenge killers are, as the name states, those who have a sore spot for someone. By

Kelleher and Kelleher, these females have a traumatizing issue with someone in their life and

push it out on others. This case is of Juana Barraza, a Mexican professional wrestler. She was

born to an alcoholic mother, exchanged her for three beers to an older man. According to Blanco

(2017), this man sexually abused her and later, become the father to her baby boy. She had a

total of four children, where one of them died in a mugging. She became a female professional

wrestler by the name of La Dama del Silencio or the Silent Lady. She fought in the form of lucha

libre, which is a masked wrestling battle.

Juana took her first victim while doing her day job as a maid. Feggy Ostrosky, the

director of the National Institute of Neurobiology, would explain that Juana would kill Anna

Maria de los Reyes with a stethoscope, while arguing about her payrate (Cervantes). This was

her first victim. All of her victims were elderly women, about 60 and over, and most lived alone.
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She, explained in the Cervantes paper (2010), dressed like a nurse or government worker to help

the elderly women. They allowed her in, and she attacked. She took one trinket from each

murder, many turning out to be religious trinkets. This occurred for over three years before she

was caught. Because of her bulky figure, investigators looked for a man who wore women’s

clothes. In the New York Times special article on Juana (2006), she followed the same pattern for

each murder, with the offering of help and then killing. Her dying light was, “In 2006, Barraza

strangled an 89 year-old women with a stethoscope.” (qtd in Redd). A witness came to find the

elderly woman died, and Juana running away. The police detained Juana. When fingerprinted,

she left prints at over 10 murder scenes, helping convict her. She is currently serving a 759 year

sentence.

Juana Barraza is an interesting case of revenge. Her revenge stems from her mother

which is not uncommon for most people. Her revenge came out differently. She came off as a

caring woman, helping these elderly ladies who did nothing to her. The thing with revenge

killers are they take out their anger on people who remind them of their specific traumatizing

person. Considering her mother’s selling her off and the man sexually abusing her, her desire to

hurt those reminding her of her mother in anyway could have been her way to find peace of

mind.

Conclusion

With all research done, from newspapers to online resources from criminology reporters

and professors, all that led me to a conclusion of why they kill. Each killer’s category for what

and why they kill is established by the study performed by Kelleher and Kelleher. For Mary Ann

Cotton, her killings were more financial, and freedom based while Juana Barraza was revenge

based. Those categories only give half of the picture. The other half deals with the pasts of these
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women. Their pasts affect how, who and why they target certain people. With this view now, it

sheds to light on they can chose their victims. Although this is an opinionated conclusion based

on research, it does create a better understanding on how a past can affect a murderous mind like

a female serial killer.

Work Cited

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rosemary.htm. Accessed 30 Mar 2019

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