9 Ruthless Black Widow Killers Whose Crimes Made History

Women were once considered the "fairer sex," and though almost nobody uses that term anymore, the lingering attitude still makes it a matter of great fanfare when women commit murder.  The most ruthless or prolific female murderers become famous black widows, ladies assumed to have used their feminine nature in some way to lure their victims.

Deadly black widows hold a particular fascination for crime buffs, horror fans, and internet man-babies alike, so it's only fitting that we examine some of them in a historical context. This list looks at high-profile cases of female murderers from times past, giving a run down of their alleged crimes, body counts, and ultimate fates.

Aileen was the first woman to fit the FBI's official definition of a serial killer.

Between 1989 and 1990, Aileen killed seven men along Florida highways whom she later claimed had been trying to rape her (she was a sex worker at the time, supporting herself and her girlfriend, Tyria Moore, with the money she earned). But the fact that she robbed her victims' bodies and went out of her way to hide them helped convince a jury that the killings were more sinister.

Aileen's killing career came to an end when investigators were able to track her and Moore down using fingerprints and palm prints left behind in one of Aileen's victim's cars.

Moore cut a deal with police, and eventually got Aileen to confess over the phone to all seven murders, taking sole responsibility for them.

She was convicted of first-degree murder in one of the victim's cases, and sentenced to death in 1992.  During the next 10 years on death row, she eventually confessed to all of the murders she'd been accused of, and was put to death in 2002.

Body Count: 7

Fate: Death by lethal injection. Her story was the subject of the 2003 film Monster, starring Charlize Theron (who won an Oscar for her performance) in the role of Aileen.

Amy ran a nursing home in Connecticut from 1907 to 1917, where a lot of people died. That, by itself, probably wouldn't have raised suspicions at the time, since medical science wasn't very advanced at the time.

It was the deaths of Amy's two husbands that first rose suspicions. Her first, James Archer, died in 1910, making Amy the beneficiary of his recently-purchased life insurance policy.  Her second husband, Michael Gilligan, died after only three months of marriage, also leaving Amy a substantial life insurance policy. Some people close to Amy began to have doubts about her.

Then, a complaint from a relative of one of the patients who'd died under Amy's care led to a police investigation, and several exhumations.  Both of her husband's bodies and those of all the patients who were exhumed tested positive for arsenic (are we seeing a pattern here?).

Nonetheless, she was tried on only one count of murder, and sentenced to death. But a new trial was granted to Amy, and her death sentence was commuted to life in prison.

Body Count: Possibly as high as 48.

Fate: Died in a mental hospital in 1962. Her story inspired Joseph Kesselring's classic play, Arsenic and Old Lace.

The one who (probably) got away with it.

Born Brynhild Paulsdatter Storseth in Norway, Belle Gunness emigrated to the U.S. with her sister and eventually married another Norwegian immigrant, Mads Sorenson, in 1884.  The marriage produced four children, two of whom died in infancy, and the couple ran a candy shop in Chicago. That business burned down a year later, paying out an insurance policy, and in 1900, Mads conveniently died on a day when his two life insurance policies overlapped.

Belle remarried Peter Gunness in 1902, and it wasn't long before mysterious deaths and disappearances surrounded her again. First to go was one of Peter's children from a previous marriage. Soon after came Peter himself, and then his adopted daughter, Jennie Olsen, vanished after raising questions about Belle's role in her father's death. Then, Belle started writing to men through a lonely hearts' club, and several of them disappeared after visiting with her, as well.

In 1908, her house burned to the ground. In its ruins were discovered: four bodies under the piano, including Gunness's three children and a decapitated woman whose measurements did not fit Belle's; the bodies of six of her suitors; and the bodies of two other children unrelated to Belle.  Her hired hand, Ray Lamphere, was arrested and convicted of arson. Before dying in prison, he told a minister that he had buried bodies for Belle after she murdered victims with strychnine or a meat cleaver and dismembered them.

Body Count: At least 15 people.

Fate: Unknown. None of the bodies in her burned-down house were identified as Belle, but she was never heard from again.

Reviled through the ages as a Renaissance femme fatale who carried poison in her ring and used it to kill husbands and political rivals, Lucrezia Borgia's image has recently undergone a revision.  Historians now largely consider her a scapegoat who was actually quite pleasant, especially compared to her kinfolk, Spanish nobles who emigrated to Italy in the 15th Century and swiftly gained control of the Vatican.

Married three times (scandalous!), Lucrezia was often a pawn in the schemes of her father and brothers, and she is likely the only woman on this list who never actually killed anyone (though she has been accused of doing so for centuries).

Body Count: Unknown; likely zero.

Fate: Died after delivering her eighth child on June 14, 1519.

England's first documented serial killer isn't Jack the Ripper.

Mary Ann Cotton likely killed 21 people, including three husbands, 12 of her 13 children, a lover, and her mother.  And her weapon of choice was - you guessed it - arsenic poisoning.

Three of her total four husbands and 12 of her children died of strangely similar gastric illnesses between 1852 and 1872. She avoided suspicion for years by moving constantly between towns throughout England.

Her killing spree ended when she predicted to a government official that her stepson, Charles Edward, would soon die.  Since Charles didn't look sick, the official reported his conversation to the police... and since he also happened to be the coroner, they listened.

Sure enough, Charles turned up dead a few days later, and the family doctor turned her in because he'd been warned by the coroner.  An examination of Charles's body found traces of arsenic poisoning, and this led to the exhumation of two other bodies of Mary's dead family members. They, too, showed signs of arsenic poisoning.

Mary was arrested, tried, and convicted of  murdering Charles, and was hanged for her trouble.

Body Count: 21

Fate: Death by hanging, 1873.

Tillie had probably the most inventive alibi of all: she claimed to be a psychic, so when people whose deaths she predicted actually began dying off, she had built-in deniability.

Among her predictions were: her first, second, third, and fourth husbands; three children from a family that had given her some trouble; several dogs in the neighborhood; and her fifth husband, Anton, who was saved only because family members found him sick and had his stomach pumped.

Sure enough, his food had been poisoned with arsenic, and Tillie was arrested. She confessed to trying to kill him, and was given a life sentence.

She was not allowed to cook for any fellow inmates in prison, either, and suddenly, her psychic powers went away.

Body Count: 7

Fate: Died in prison in 1936.

A Swiss immigrant to England, Manning is on our list not so much for the span of her crimes (she had only one victim) as for the sensation her crime spawned.

Marie had two suitors - a young man close to her age named Frederick Manning, and an older gentleman named Patrick O'Connor - who both proposed marriage. She chose Manning, who had promised he had an inheritance coming, but she maintained a "friendship" with O'Connor than many believe to have been sexual.

When it became clear that Frederick's inheritance was not forthcoming (he may have lied about that part), Marie hatched a plan with him to murder O'Connor and rob his house of everything they could find.  She invited O'Connor to dinner one night, where Marie shot him in the back of the head, and Frederick finished him off with a crowbar.  They then stashed his body in a hole they'd dug under the floorboards ahead of time, and packed it with quicklime to speed up the body's decomposition.

Over the next two days, Marie gathered whatever valuables and stock certificates she could find at O'Connor's residence.  But Frederick had squealed to friends, so they both had to flee London.  Marie went to Edinburgh, where she was arrested after trying to sell some of O'Connor's stock certificates.

The couple blamed one another at trial, and both were found guilty and publicly executed in 1849. Their case was such a sensation that 40,000 people showed up to witness their deaths. One of those people was Charles Dickens, whose letter of disgust to the Times of London helped pave the way for the abolition of public executions in Britain.

Body Count: 1

Fate: Publicly hanged alongside her husband and accomplice. They were the first married couple to be executed together in England since 1700. Marie became the inspiration for one of Dickens's characters, Madamoiselle Hortense, the maid in his novel Bleak House.

Dubbed "the Queen of Poisoners" by the French press, Marie Besnard was ultimately charged with 12 counts of murder, including both her husbands, her father, her mother, a father-in-law, a mother-in-law, two friends, and a handful of relatives who left her their estate. Her second husband, Leon, confided to his mistress (both he and Marie had lovers on the side) that he was certain Marie was planning to kill him.  When he finally died, Marie became a suspect. Leon's body tested positive for arsenic poisoning, and several other bodies associated with Marie were exhumed and also tested positive for arsenic.

Marie was tried three times over 10 years in French courts. Her first two trials were declared mistrials, and her third got her an acquittal, even though few people doubted her guilt.

Body Count: Possibly 12.

Fate: Died a free woman in 1980.

Because sometimes, the only way to protect your drafted son from the terrors of war is a little human sacrifice and cannibalism.

When Leonarda learned that her favorite son, Giuseppe, was being drafted into the Italian Army to fight in World War II, something in her mind snapped.  She became convinced that protecting him required an offering of human blood, and hatched a plan to lure three neighbor women to their deaths.

She only had three victims, so it's not her body count that shocked people. It's the fact that she turned her victims' bodies into soap and teacakes, the latter of which she actually served to neighbors and her beloved Giuseppe.

Leonarda was caught because the sister of her last victim became suspicious of the woman's disappearance, and when police arrived at Leonarda's as part of their investigation, she calmly confessed to the killings and offered no protest when she was arrested. At her trial, she tried to put a patriotic spin on the grisly affair by pointing out that she had donated the copper ladles she'd used to skim victims' fat from her soap concoctions to Italy's war effort, because the country needed the metal.

Leonarda was sentenced to 30 years in prison and 3 years in a mental asylum.

Body Count: 3

Fate: Died of cerebral hemorrhage in 1970.