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142 pages

English

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A powerful collection of stories about women who murdered-for revenge, for love, and even for pleasure-rife with historical details that will have any true crime junkie on the edge of their seat In every tragic story, men are expected to be the killers. There are countless studies and works of art made about male violence. However, when women are featured in stories about murder, they are rarely portrayed as predators. They're the prey. This common dynamic is one of the reasons that women are so enthralled by female murderers. They do the things that women aren't supposed to do and live the lives that women aren't supposed to want: lives that are impulsive and angry and messy and inconvenient. Maybe we feel bad about loving them, but we eat it up just the same. Residing squarely in the middle of a Venn diagram of feminism and true crime, She Kills Me tells the story of 40 women who murdered out of necessity, fear, revenge, and even for pleasure.

Sujets

Sociologie, société et politique

True crime

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Publié par	ABRAMS BOOKS
Date de parution	26 octobre 2021
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781647000004
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	2 Mo

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0700€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

Editor: Samantha Weiner
Managing Editor: Glenn Ramirez
Designer: Jenice Kim
Production Manager: Rachael Marks
Library of Congress Control Number: 2021932572
ISBN: 978-1-4197-4846-2
eISBN: 978-1-64700-000-4
Text copyright 2021 Jennifer Wright
Illustrations/photographs copyright 2021 Eva Bee
Cover 2021 Abrams
Published in 2021 by Abrams Image, an imprint of ABRAMS.
All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, mechanical, electronic, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the publisher.
Abrams Image books are available at special discounts when purchased in quantity for premiums and promotions as well as fundraising or educational use. Special editions can also be created to specification.
For details, contact specialsales@abramsbooks.com or the address below.
Abrams Image is a registered trademark of Harry N. Abrams, Inc.
ABRAMS The Art of Books 195 Broadway, New York, NY 10007 abramsbooks.com

CONTENTS
Introduction
Section 1 PSYCHOS-BUT NOT THE WAY MISOGYNISTS SAY IT
Elizabeth B thory (1560-1614)
Delphine LaLaurie (1787-1849)
Jolly Jane Toppan (1854-1938)
Clementine Barnabet (1894-?)
Irma Grese (1923-1945)
How to Spot a Psychopath
Section 2 PRETTY POISONERS
Locusta of Gaul (died 69 CE)
Giulia Tofana (ca. 1620-1659)
Catherine Monvoisin (1640-1680)
Christiana Edmunds (1828-1907)
Tillie Klimek (1876-1936)
Poisoning Husbands
Section 3 BAD FAM
Lizzie Borden (1860-1927)
Leonarda Cianciulli (1894-1970)
Christine Papin (1905-1937) and L a Papin (1911-2001)
Susan Atkins (1948-2009)
Female Cult Leaders
Section 4 BLACK WIDOWS
Marie Lafarge (1816-1852)
Mary Elizabeth Wilson (1889-1963)
Linda Calvey (1948-present)
Divorcing
Section 5 SCORNED WOMEN
Darya Saltykova (1730-1801)
Laura Fair (1837-1919)
Maria Barbella (1868-after 1902)
Breaking Up
Section 6 MURDEROUS MERCENARIES
Grace O Malley (1530-1603)
Katherine Ferrers (1634-1660)
Ching Shih (1775-1844)
Eleanor Dumont (1834-1879)
Griselda Blanco (1943-2012)
The Female Path Toward Independence
Section 7 KILLER QUEENS
Tomyris, Queen of the Massagetae (ca. 600 BCE)
Boudica (30-61 CE)
Zenobia (240-274 CE)
Caterina Sforza (1463-1509)
Mary I of England (1516-1558)
Ranavalona I of Madagascar (1778-1861)
Quotations
Section 8 BADASS WARRIORS (NOT PRINCESSES)
Tomoe Gozen (1157-1247)
Nadezhda Vasilyevna Popova (1921-2013)
Nansica (died 1890)
Rebellions Led by Women
Section 9 AVENGING ANGELS
Charlotte Corday (1768-1793)
Celia, a Slave (ca. 1836-1855)
Marie Sukloff (1885-?)
Shi Jianqiao (ca. 1905-1979)
Virginia Hall (1906-1982)
Freddie Oversteegen (1925-2018)
INTRODUCTION
For every woman in this book, there is an apologist. In the guise of playing the devil s advocate or insisting that you look at all aspects of a situation, someone will always enthusiastically offer an argument in defense of something-or someone-controversial or unpopular.
You can find a report saying that someone talked the Beautiful Beast of Auschwitz, Irma Grese, into torture and murder, and she was just a girl in love. The heroic Soviet aviators, the Night Witches, will be discounted as an urban legend. And there are multiple movies that try to prove the ax murderer Lizzie Borden was innocent. As late as 1998, Roy Hazelwood of the FBI claimed, there are no female serial killers.
People are very apt to believe that a woman can t kill someone. Not without a man forcing her into it, anyway. Sometimes women contend that these killers must have been framed by the patriarchy. Sometimes men, who conducted some obscure experiment with a Barbie doll and a fork, try to prove women are too weak to pick up swords. I am more inclined to understand the former reasoning since the patriarchy did, in fact, treat women terribly and cavalierly claim they were witches through much of history.
But none of these explanations change the fact that some women commit murder. Maybe for great causes, sometimes for terrible reasons.
If you are reading this, there is a good chance that you are a woman. You are also a person. And as a human, you have felt great anger at some point in your life.
I know you have.
It is something of a dirty secret for women, the fact that we can be very angry. Women shouting or visibly upset, no matter how justified, are dismissed as hysterical. Men scream and rage on podiums and seem manly; women preface reasonable suggestions with Sorry, I just think that maybe . . . and conclude by saying does that make sense?
For much of history, women have been very good at masking their anger, largely from fear. You can look to the scold s bridles -seventeenth-century torture instruments that were fitted over women s heads and their tongues to stop them from speaking when men considered them to be nags. Through the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries it was acceptable for men to decide to imprison problem wives in asylums. Do a quick Google search on Elizabeth Packard, who quarreled with her husband and then spent the next three years trying to prove to doctors that she was not insane. Then remember those burned witches, who were generally simply women who lived independently and didn t appear too fond of men and society.
If your life and liberty hinges upon acting sweet, you will comply. We became so good at hiding our feelings that men started to think we didn t feel anger at all. Any instance of female dissent can still seem surprising. That is why men think it is a scary time for them when women say, Hey, stop harassing us at work.
In fact, women are perfectly capable of creating a genuinely scary time for men. The women in this book did. And for the record, a genuinely scary time does not mean women telling men to stop offering them shoulder massages at the office. It means women will just start poisoning your food.
Some of the deeds in this book are so scary and atrocious that we ve noted them in the headers. If you do not want to read about women eating people, that s understandable. If you don t want to live in a world where women occasionally mention that they re not loving shoulder massages, then you re going to be in for a hard time.
There are flames of rage in the heart of every woman, as there are in the heart of every man. Because of the way women have been treated, there is every reason that these urges might burn hotter and brighter. And every so often, there is a woman who acts-and becomes a killer.
To deny women full-throated, murderous anger is to refute that they possess the full range of human emotions. Anger still has a way of seeping out. Let the following women show you moments when it did.
ELIZABETH B THORY
DELPHINE LALAURIE
JOLLY JANE TOPPAN
CLEMENTINE BARNABET
IRMA GRESE
HOW TO SPOT A PSYCHOPATH
Section 1
PSYCHOS-BUT NOT THE WAY MISOGYNISTS SAY IT
Yeah, that s right, women can be horrible people, too.
ELIZABETH B THORY (1560-1614)
TORTURE + ENSLAVEMENT + JUVENILE DEATH + CANNIBALISM
Countess Elizabeth B thory couldn t have been better born. She was the niece of the king of Poland and the Prince of Transylvania. Her father was a baron, and she grew up in a castle. She was trained in all manner of studies, and she was known for her attractive appearance. She had it all-wealth, education, beauty. She also had an unparalleled bloodlust that would make her history s most notorious female serial killer.
Elizabeth was no stranger to brutality on her family s Hungarian estates. When she was a child, she watched as a thief was sewn inside the belly of a dying horse. The punishment, which wasn t uncommon, ensured that the thief would struggle to free himself, causing the horse to fight back and guaranteeing maximum displeasure for both. (Even when lying perfectly still, being surrounded by horse guts couldn t have made for a pleasant death.) 1 Rumor has it that Elizabeth delighted at the sight, with some reports going so far as to say that she urinated with excitement.
There were other unnerving childhood experiences. The inbred Elizabeth was spoiled and humored as she dealt with seizures and fits of rage. She was said to be very close to her sadomasochistic aunt and Satanist uncle.
At age fourteen, Elizabeth married Count Ferencz N dasdy and found herself bored. She could read and write in Hungarian, Latin, and German, but there were few books-a source of irritation to Elizabeth-and little to do at the castle but wait for her husband to return from battle against the Ottomans. She became deeply preoccupied with her looks and took to dressing and redressing constantly, cycling through five or six gowns and sets of jewels each day. 2
Soon after her marriage, she began torturing her servants, presumably as a means of amusement. Her husband, who shared a similar temperament and who adored his young wife (which seems to put an end to the notion that you have to work to become a lovable person before you can find a partner), reportedly built a torture chamber to her specifications. 3 Free to pursue her passion for deviltry, she sewed one servant girl s mouth shut for talking too much. She forced another to cook and eat her own flesh. She covered some in honey and tied them up outside to be devoured by insects. When it was winter, she opted to pour water on others, leaving them outside to freeze to death.
Some of this may be elaborated for effect, but there s evidence to suggest that Bathory tortured and killed her servants. Sadly, that would not have been an uncommon practice. 4
But she is best remembered as a proto-vampire. That part of the lore is likely untrue; at least, there s no mention of it at her trial. However, the popular account claims that as a maid was combing her hair too roughly, Elizabeth struck her. Nothing new there. However, when she wiped the maid s blood off her hand, she believed her skin looked smoother a