Female pirates? Murderers? Gangsters? Family annihilators?Conspirators? Yes. Throughout history women have had their share in all of it. Here is a list of ten notorious female criminals of the 17th through early 20th century even earliest 21st century who wreaked havoc on land and sea.
Front rowers
Dominique
Datboredberry
candilady
Fattprince
Peaceful
UndauntedYoca
Monkeygirl
PhenomenalAustin
etrange
MJBOLT
Sinkhole
Starbuck




Starr Belle


A Texas outlaw in the 19th century, Belle Starr (born Myra Belle Shirley) lived a bandit’s life, associating with unsavory folk such as Jesse James. She and her husband, a Cherokee Indian named Sam Starr, were known for housing outlaws on their ranch in the Oklahoma Indian Territory and for preying on travelers and cowboys passing through. She and her husband were convicted of horse stealing in 1883 and served time in a federal penitentiary. She was charged with a handful of other crimes before being shot and killed on her ranch in 1889. The killer was never identified.

Rachael Adetsav

A woman in Benue state, Rachael Adetsav killed her husband, three children and then also took her own life. The couple who had been having issues over time and the wife decided to go overboard. The woman was seen with a pestle trying to smash her husband’s car and the neighbors also confirmed that the fights were very frequent.

The Police personnel sent to the house found the man foaming in the mouth, the three kids already dead, and the woman, also dead, was found holding a knife in her hands.

A neighbour of the couple, Sandra Kaso said the mother of three must have first hit the husband on the head with a pestle and, when he was unconscious, cut open his throat before butchering their three children

Women at war

Moll Cutpurse

Moll Cutpurse, born Mary Frith, was notorious in 17th-century London. She began her life of crime as a common pickpocket. Then she expanded her territory and became a highway robber dressed in men’s clothing. Finally, after a stint in jail, she opened a shop in London that she used as a cover for selling stolen items.

As she grew up, Mary got into more and more trouble. At 16 she was charged with stealing two shillings. Her uncle tried to send her to America for a fresh start but she jumped overboard and swam ashore before the ship sailed.

Mary got her name, Moll Cutpurse, by stealing purses in the area around St Paul's cathedral. An accomplice would distract the target while Mary cut the strings of their purse, detaching it from their belt.

She was in and out of prison and was burnt on the hand four times, a common punishment for thieves. She also acted as a fence for stolen goods. One of her other roles was as a love-vendor and go-between, finding young women to be mistresses for men and men to be lovers for married women.



She became a recognisable figure around town, drinking in taverns with men, smoking a long clay pipe, and wearing men's clothing: breeches and a doublet.

According to The Newgate Calendar: "This she took to from her first entrance into a competency of age, and to her dying day she would not leave it off... She was a great libertine, she lived too much in common to be enclosed in the limits of a private domestic life."

She even appeared on stage at the Fortune Theatre in 1611, singing songs and playing the lute



As punishment she was sentenced to stand at St Paul's Cross wearing a white sheet during the Sunday morning sermon. However Mary gleefully points out that as she was not ashamed or repentant the punishment was pointless:

They might as soon have shamed a Black Dog as Me, with any kind of such punishment; for saving the reverence due to those who enjoined it, for a half-penny I would have Traveled to all the Market Towns in England with it, and been as proud of it as that Citizen who rode down to his Friends in his Livery-Gown and Hood.

"Thou shame of women"
Mary's friend the showman William Banks once bet her £20 that she would not ride from Charing Cross to Shoreditch dressed as a man. She accepted the bet, and even bought a trumpet and a banner to go along with.

Riding on Banks' famous horse Marocco, Mary proceeded "undiscovered", and amused herself in imagining she was "Squiresse to Dulcinea of Tobosso", until she reached Bishopsgate and faced an unpleasant reminder of the danger she faced:

where passing under the Gate a plaguey Orange Wench knew me, and no sooner let me pass her, but she cried out! Mal Cutpurse on Horseback, which set the people that were passing by, and the Folks in their Shops a hooting and hollowing as if they had been mad; winding their cries to this deep note, 'Come down thou shame of Women or we will pull thee down'.

I knew not well what to doe, but remembering a Friend I had, that kept a Victualling House a little further, I spurred my Horse on and recovered the place, but was hastily followed by the rabble, who never ceased cursing of me, the more soberer of them laughing and merrily chatting of the Adventure...

So came late into Shoreditch, where I paced the same way back again to the winning of my Wager, and my great Content, to see my self thus out of danger, which I would never tempt again in that nature.

"She'll stand alone, and none come nigh her"
At some point towards the end of her life Mary was incarcerated in Bethlem Hospital, but was released in 1644, apparently cured of insanity. Later still The Newgate Calendar records that at 74 years old:

Moll being grown crazy in her body, and discontented in mind, she yielded to the next distemper that approached her, which was the dropsy; a disease which had such strange and terrible symptoms that she thought she was possessed, and that the devil had got within her doublet.

She died in 1659 and was buried in St Bride’s churchyard, Fleet Street. John Milton wrote an epitaph which was engraved on a marble headstone, later destroyed in the Great Fire of London, in which he celebrates her unique and rebellious spirit:

For no communion she had, Nor sorted with the good or bad; That when the world shall be calcin'd, And the mixd' mass of human kind Shall sep'rate by that melting fire, She'll stand alone, and none come nigh her.

Sources
The Life and Death of Mrs. Mary Frith

Anne Bonny


Anne Bonny was an Irish pirate who trolled the Caribbean Sea with pirate John (“Calico Jack”) Rackham in the 18th century. Rackham was wise to go against common thinking that women were bad luck on board a ship. Bonny and the crew had a successful run hijacking and pillaging merchant vessels. When they were captured in 1720, Bonny escaped execution because she was pregnant. When she was released, she went to live in South Carolina, where she proceeded to lead the rest of her life in an uneventful domestic fashion.

Charlotte Corday


Charlotte became an assassin at age 25. The daughter of French nobles, Corday’s allegiance during the French Revolution lay with Girondins—French republican politicians—and the French constitution. She took the conflict into her own hands and set her sights on Jean-Paul Marat, a leader of the French Revolution and enemy of all she stood for. Corday lied her way in to meet with Marat face-to-face and stabbed him to death in his bathtub on July 13, 1793. She was arrested and sent to the guillotine four days later.

Mary Surratt


Mary ran a tavern with her husband in Maryland, where they welcomed Confederate soldiers during the American Civil War. When her husband died, Surratt moved to Washington, D.C., and opened a boardinghouse. The boardinghouse became a meeting place for John Wilkes Booth and his fellow conspirators. Surratt herself became entangled in the plot to kill U.S. Pres. Abraham Lincoln. She is thought to have been in regular conversation with Booth about his plans and assisted in concealing the weapons used for the murder at her tavern in Maryland. She was tried and found guilty of conspiracy and became the first woman to be sentenced to death by the United States. She was hanged with the other conspirators on July 7, 1865

BONNIE PARKER


Half of the legendary duo Bonnie and Clyde, Bonnie Parker met Clyde Barrow in 1930, and, when he was sent to jail soon after on burglary charges, she smuggled in a gun that he was able to use to escape. She partnered with Barrow in 1932 during the Great Depression in what became a 21-month–long crime spree. The two stole cars and robbed gas stations, small-town banks, and restaurants throughout Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Missouri. They evaded the FBI and the police until 1934 and in the process set free five prisoners from Eastham State Prison in Texas, killed three police officers, and kidnapped a police chief. They were eventually caught and killed by the police in Louisiana when a friend revealed their whereabouts.

Ma Barker

Kate (“Ma”) Barker led the Barker gang of her sons and rose to infamy as the FBI’s Public Enemy Number One. She and her gang orchestrated a slew of robberies, murders, and kidnappings throughout the American Midwest during the early 1930s. On January 16, 1935, she and her son Fred met their deaths in what was the longest shootout in FBI history, in the home that they had made their hideout in Florida. Ma was the subject of the 1970 movie Bloody Mama starring Shelley Winters.

Shi Jianqiao
When Chinese military officer Shi Congbin was murdered by Zhili warlord Sun Chuanfang in 1925, his daughter Shi Jianqiao took it upon herself to avenge him.


Her father had not just been murdered by Sun but decapitated, with his severed head displayed on a pike at a local train station.

In retaliation, Shi tracked down Sun and assassinated him with three shots from her pistol. Instead of fleeing the scene, she stayed to justify her actions to passers-by, offering them leaflets to explain what she had done.

In the end, the moral edge to her crime meant that she was granted a full pardon in 1936 for “filial piety.”

Our next on the List is a Serial killer Belle Sorenson Gunness is one of the most murderous women to ever live. Between 1884 and 1908, she killed more than 40 people. As one of America's most prolific killers, it is believed that her first murders were two young children who she poisoned in return for insurance money.

If this wasn't enough to chill your bones, the next several deaths included her husband's infant daughter, her own husband, and her adopted daughter. Most of the extent of her murders were of babies, as 21 children went missing from her care in Chicago.

Her second husband was also killed in a meat grinder accident, as they say. And the way that she lured men into her kill spells were by personal ads, where she stated that she was a wealthy widow looking for a soulmate.

Police found body parts buried on her property, as well as corpses in her basement. And the worst discovered lied in her hog pen, where 11 dead bodies were recovered.

However, one of the most insane facts about Belle Sorenson Gunness is that it's believed that she faked her own death, and placed an entirely different body in her grave.

Charlene Gallego

Charlene was the sidekick to her serial killing husband, Gerald Gallego. The duo is responsible for terrorizing Sacramento, California for years, between 1978 and 1980.

They killed a total of 10 victims together, and it didn't just stop at that. Each of their victims were kept as sex slaves, as well as tortured before being brutally murdered. This included shooting their victims execution-style at a point-blank range.

It has been said that Charlene came from a supportive home, and she was a bright and shy child. However, her horrific change is attested to drugs and alcohol

Mata Hari, a very interesting woman of her time, even aside from the killings. Hari was a very beautiful exotic Dutch dancer, but also a spy. She traveled across Europe to deliver allied military secrets to the Germans.

This caused deaths of up to 50,000 people, without her lifting a finger. She first joined German's forces in 1914. She used seduction to aid in her job, and it was successful.

Her stage name was Mata Hari but her given name was Margaretha Geetruida MacLeod. However, she was convicted of being a World War I spy and was executed by firing squad.

Maria Swanenburg was a famous female serial killer from the 1800s. Her murder count is suspected to be over 90 people, some including her family members.

The Dutch serial killer was found to have poisoned over 100 people with arsenic. Twenty-seven of those people were confirmed killed by her hand, while the investigation suspected up to 90 victims, but was unfortunately unable to be confirmed.

One of the most shocking was her first murder, which was her own mother, and this occurred in 1880. Besides her killings, the woman is unknown for most.

She was finally caught in 1883 after attempting to poison the family she was working with. She was, of course, sentenced to prison for the rest of her life.

Living from 1730 to 1801, Darya Saltykova was a Russian serial killer who killed over 100 serfs. A serf is a laborer who is bound under the feudal system to work.

Most of her victims were women, similar to Elizabeth Bathory. She also tortured and beat her victims to death. A sadistic killer, it has been said that she was suspicious of 138 deaths, but was found guilty of 38.

After being discovered, she was chained on a platform with her crime chained around her neck in 1768 and spent the rest of her life in prison.

Leonarda Cianciulli is definitely one of the most disturbing women on the list, and arguably one of the most disgusting serial killers in world history. Let's just get straight to the point, Cianciulli was a serial killer who made soap and cake out of her victim's bodies.

Between 1939 and 1940 in Correggio, she murdered three women. Each of these victim's bodies were turned into soap and a sort of teacake.

She then went on to gift the bars of soap to her friends. Her motives behind killing these women were pure superstition.

She thought that if she sacrificed their bodies and souls then this would somehow protect her surviving children from death, as she was reportedly pregnant 17 times, 13 of the children dying.

Chidinma, Ataga's killer should be included here too

Noshitboi:
Chidinma, Ataga's killer should be included here too

I know , only she has not been convicted yet .

TheSourcerer:
Female pirates? Murderers? Gangsters? Family annihilators?Conspirators? Yes. Throughout history women have had their share in all of it. Here is a list of ten notorious female criminals of the 17th through early 20th century even earliest 21st century who wreaked havoc on land and sea.
Front rowers
Dominique
Datboredberry
Fattprince
Peaceful
UndauntedYoca
Candidgirl
PhenomenalAustin
etrange
MJBOLT
Sinkhole
Starbuck




Starr Belle


A Texas outlaw in the 19th century, Belle Starr (born Myra Belle Shirley) lived a bandit’s life, associating with unsavory folk such as Jesse James. She and her husband, a Cherokee Indian named Sam Starr, were known for housing outlaws on their ranch in the Oklahoma Indian Territory and for preying on travelers and cowboys passing through. She and her husband were convicted of horse stealing in 1883 and served time in a federal penitentiary. She was charged with a handful of other crimes before being shot and killed on her ranch in 1889. The killer was never identified.

Commot here before I keep my dagger for your neck
Iyaebe,siofra,candilady and future is female suppose dey this list

Omg! How did I miss this mention?

Thanks alot! I absolutely love your threads!

It's dark, lemme settle down here...

TheSourcerer:
Our next on the List is a Serial killer Belle Sorenson Gunness is one of the most murderous women to ever live. Between 1884 and 1908, she killed more than 40 people. As one of America's most prolific killers, it is believed that her first murders were two young children who she poisoned in return for insurance money.

If this wasn't enough to chill your bones, the next several deaths included her husband's infant daughter, her own husband, and her adopted daughter. Most of the extent of her murders were of babies, as 21 children went missing from her care in Chicago.

Her second husband was also killed in a meat grinder accident, as they say. And the way that she lured men into her kill spells were by personal ads, where she stated that she was a wealthy widow looking for a soulmate.

Police found body parts buried on her property, as well as corpses in her basement. And the worst discovered lied in her hog pen, where 11 dead bodies were recovered.

However, one of the most insane facts about Belle Sorenson Gunness is that it's believed that she faked her own death, and placed an entirely different body in her grave.

Wrong photo, here's a photo of her I got from Google

And yo think that today was international day on violence against women

Holy mess


I made front row in TheSourcerer post?


I'm made!
Lol

TheSourcerer:
Leonarda Cianciulli is definitely one of the most disturbing women on the list, and arguably one of the most disgusting serial killers in world history. Let's just get straight to the point, Cianciulli was a serial killer who made soap and cake out of her victim's bodies.

Between 1939 and 1940 in Correggio, she murdered three women. Each of these victim's bodies were turned into soap and a sort of teacake.

She then went on to gift the bars of soap to her friends. Her motives behind killing these women were pure superstition.

She thought that if she sacrificed their bodies and souls then this would somehow protect her surviving children from death, as she was reportedly pregnant 17 times, 13 of the children dying.

Damn! Superstition!!!!


Same shiiitttt as religion!

DaInferno:
And yo think that today was international day on violence against women

haha the irony!

People dey Sha

Yungspitta:

Commot here before I keep my dagger for your neck
Iyaebe,siofra,candilady and future is female suppose dey this list

Kl

some women doing wonders since 18BC

How can one kill her own children cos u have a fallout with ur husband...... And they are still kids

Now we can see that women are just as dangerous as they say men are....dont ever loose guard when u see a woman...forget the narrative that they are harmless due to their physic ...

TheSourcerer:


Ma Barker

Kate (“Ma”) Barker led the Barker gang of her sons and rose to infamy as the FBI’s Public Enemy Number One. She and her gang orchestrated a slew of robberies, murders, and kidnappings throughout the American Midwest during the early 1930s. On January 16, 1935, she and her son Fred met their deaths in what was the longest shootout in FBI history, in the home that they had made their hideout in Florida. Ma was the subject of the 1970 movie Bloody Mama starring Shelley Winters.

I remember the Bonny M song about her

Ma Ma Ma Ma - Ma Baker - she taught her four sons
Ma Ma Ma Ma - Ma Baker - to handle their guns
Ma Ma Ma Ma - Ma Baker - she never could cry
Ma Ma Ma Ma - Ma Baker - but she knew how to die.

TheSourcerer:
Mata Hari, a very interesting woman of her time, even aside from the killings. Hari was a very beautiful exotic Dutch dancer, but also a spy. She traveled across Europe to deliver allied military secrets to the Germans.

This caused deaths of up to 50,000 people, without her lifting a finger. She first joined German's forces in 1914. She used seduction to aid in her job, and it was successful.

Her stage name was Mata Hari but her given name was Margaretha Geetruida MacLeod. However, she was convicted of being a World War I spy and was executed by firing squad.

Femme fatale