Real Crime: World's Deadliest Women

Murderers are far less likely to be female than male. In fact, according to a relatively recent study of homicide by the United Nations, only around 1 in 50 perpetrators of murder worldwide were women. That statistic is unlikely to have changed much over the last few centuries. It’s an undeniable factor in the assumption of gender made in new murder cases. Considering the archaic female stereotypes that persisted into the 20th century - women coming from Venus, being the “fairer sex”, and all that nonsense - it’s also why it’s so much more shocking when killers turn out to be women. Case in point: moors murderer Myra Hindley, who lured youngsters away to their death and was an equal, some might say more heinous, part of the torture and killing of at least three children with her partner, Ian Brady. In this book, we scrutinise some of the most infamous, the strangest and most shocking female murderers from around the world. Their crimes are no worse than equivalent murders committed by men, but they somehow make for an even more chilling read.