Women Who Murder: An International Collection of Deadly True Crime Tales (2024) ed. by Mitzi Szereto

True crime is not the usual type of non-fiction that I read, but from time to time on my blog I do review it. Some recent examples include Stephen Bates’ The Poisonous Solicitor (2022) and 18 Tiny Deaths: The Untold Story of Frances Glessner Lee & The Invention of Modern Forensics (2020) by Bruce Goldfarb.

Women Who Murder opens with a punchy introduction by Mitzi Szereto, who asks:

‘Why is it that we’re always so shocked when women commit violent crimes, in particular, the crime of murder?’

Her introduction grapples with social constructs around gender and violence (e.g. women being the “gentler sex”) and how these might influence the way we see female murderers and even if they contribute to the statistics that show fewer women do commit murder: ‘Is this due to cultural conditioning, a lack of opportunity, or even fear […]?’

Szereto makes various comparisons between female and male killers, although at times these felt like quite general statements. The inclusion of some more specific data would have been good. However, I was interested to read about the different way serial killers are nicknamed in the media, based on their gender:

‘Conversely, we often see female offenders stereotyped by the media, such as being given nicknames that “fluffy-ify” them into a parody of a killer, especially when it involves serial murders. Whereas many of our notorious male serial killer have serious-sounding nicknames like the “Night Stalker” (Richard Ramirez), the “Green River Killer” (Gary Ridgway), and the “Yorkshire Ripper” (Peter Sutcliffe), their female equivalents are frequently tagged with less threatening monikers such as “Jolly Jane” (Jane Toppan), the “Giggling Granny” (Nanny Doss), and “Arsenic Annie” (Anna Marie Hahn), which more so conjures up the image of the sweet (albeit homicidal) elderly ladies from Arsenic and Old Lace than it does cold-blooded female murderers. It’s as if we’re not ready to acknowledge the uncomfortable truth that women can be monsters too.’

Chapter 1: Down in the Ditch: Joanna Dennehy, Serial Stabber by Charlotte Platt

This first case took place in the UK and looks at the series of stabbings (5 victims; 3 fatalities) committed by Joanna Dennehy in 2013. A chronological approach is taken to unpacking the details of the case, in a brisk and concise fashion. Key events in the perpetrator’s life are mentioned, before outlining the crimes themselves and Dennehy’s subsequent capture and trial. One thing I learnt in this chapter is the concept of a ‘whole life order’, which means that a prisoner ‘will never be eligible for parole or conditional release.’ These ‘are rare in the UK’ with Dennehy only being ‘one of four women to be given one.’ On the whole I found the writing style for this piece quite dry.

Chapter 2: Ruth Snyder: The Original Femme Fatale by Ciaran Conliffe

The next case takes a leap back in time to the 1920s, looking at Ruth Snyder and how she murdered her husband with the aid of her lover, Henry Judd Gray. This chapter explores the marital problems Ruth faced which pushed her into making this decision and it also considers how Ruth and Henry shaped their stories after they were captured in order to push blame on to the other person. In addition, Conliffe comments on the different way Ruth and Henry were portrayed in newspaper publications. There seems to have been a tendency to damn “Ruthless Ruth” as she was dubbed and show sympathy towards Henry. This case might be familiar to some readers, as there is ‘the famous photograph of her execution’ which ‘was taken by Tom Howard […] with a miniature camera strapped to his leg.’ It was interesting to read that Sophie Treadwell’s play Machinal, was inspired by this case, as it is one which I read at university. Conliffe concludes that ‘the most enduring legacy of the Snyder-Gray case […] was that it was almost directly responsible for the entire film noir genre.’ This is a big claim to make, so I would love to hear other people’s thoughts on it. James M. Cain’s Double Indemnity (1936) is mentioned, as well as its subsequent film adaptation by Raymond Chandler and Billy Wilder in 1944. The author notes that even though the film was a massive success:

‘[…] it was not Ruth herself who would live on in the public’s imagination, but a succession of femmes fatales based on the version of her used in Judd Gray’s defense. Ruth Snyder became the model for the American idea of a female killer; though in reality, she was just a foolish person who thought she could get away with murder.’

Chapter 3: Innocence Taken: The Murder of Karissa Boudreau by Mike Browne

The murder of Karissa took place in Bridgewater in Novia Scotia, and it is a location which Browne is familiar with, due to having grown up there. I felt this gave his piece a more personal feel. Karissa was initially a missing teenager, who had a difficult and fractured home life, yet assumptions she had runaway gave way to the realisation she had been murdered. Unlike the previous two chapters, I would say this one begins with an extended focus on the victim and Browne does not reveal from the get-go who Karissa’s killer was (although I think their identity will chillingly dawn on the reader). I found this approach more engaging. This chapter also discusses the “Mr Big” technique which is a ‘controversial technique well known in Canadian criminal investigation’. It involves undercover operatives who befriend the suspect and use favours as a means of getting them to commit fictional criminal activities. ‘Once the suspect is deeply involved, operatives urge them to reveal their criminal history as a prerequisite for full membership in the organisation.’ Meetings are recorded.  This technique:

‘[…] is often used as a last resort in cold cases with strong suspicion, but insufficient evidence. It has proven highly effective in obtaining confessions. However, it also raises ethical concerns due to the risk of innocent suspects falsely confessing to maintain their new lifestyle and friendships.’

I think this element of the chapter, in the second half, pulls the reader back a bit from the case, in comparison to the first half.

Chapter 4: Mahin: Monster or Victim? by Mitzi Szereto

The focus now shifts continents to Qazvin in Iran. Szereto sets the scenes:

‘It’s a place rich in cultural and historical significance. It’s also a place where people are turning up dead. A man is murdered in 2006. Between February and May 2009, five women are murdered. The method used in the killings is similar, as is the method by which the bodies are disposed of. Each of the victims has been strangled and, apart from the first victim, all of them are women. Specifically, older women. Is there a serial killer on the loose in Qazvin?’

What surprised people the most was that the murderer was a young woman, who offered her elderly victims a lift home, drugging them on the way with a carton of doctored juice. Her case might be one you have heard of as ‘she said she’d learned the methodology for her killings from films and TV shows as well as reading books by Agatha Christie. Mahin would even earn the nickname “The Agatha Christie Serial Killer.”’

Szereto explores how Mahin Qadiri went down the road of becoming a serial killer, using Qadiri’s own words, which I found helped in making Mahin come alive on the page. Preventing her landlord from sexually assaulting her seems to have been a gateway event into her killings, yet her switch to older women, on glance, might seem unusual. But by digging deeper into Mahin Qadiri’s life Szereto considers how her mother’s refusal to give Mahin access to the inheritance her father left her, tipped her over the edge in light of her increasing problems: mounting debt, an unemployed and drug addict husband and her daughter with cerebral palsy who needed treatment. In interview Mahin said: “We may think we will never commit this crime, but I am like all people. When you get stuck and pressured, you do things that are hard to believe.” I appreciated how this chapter evaluated the context of the crimes, revealing a more nuanced picture of the motivations which drove Mahin to kill.

Chapter 5: Twisted Firestarter by C. L. Raven

Raven looks at a crime from 2012 in Prestatyn in North Wales where Melanie Jane Smith followed through on her threat to burn her neighbour’s flat down with her and her children in it. The victims lived in an upstairs flat in a semi-detached house, with the murderer living below. This chapter considers the litany of aggressive acts leading up to the fire and how anger was Melanie’s response to things in life she didn’t like. Of the chapters I had read so far, I found this one the most distressing to read, due to the victims being trapped in the fire (something I am anxious about) and the fact that 3 small children, 2 adults and 1 cat died in the incident.

Chapter 6: On the Courthouse Steps: The Trial of Susan Smith by Cathy Pickens

This is a trial that Cathy Pickens (who is a trained lawyer) attended herself in the mid-1990s in South Carolina and her piece is at times told in the first person. Susan Smith was on trial for pushing her car into a lake, drowning her two children, although when she initially raised the alarm, she claimed her car had been stolen and had been dumped in the lake by the thief. As the story unfolds, Cathy weaves in the media and society’s ‘blood lust’ reaction and the anger Susan’s crime caused. Pickens describes the scene inside and outside the courthouse, where people were waiting for the defendant to arrive and for the trial to start. She describes the types of people waiting to attend the trial like her and I found this an interesting new focus for this collection.

Chapter 7: Angelina Napolitano: “I Am Not a Bad Woman” by Edward Butts

Edward Butts opens his chapter with the historical and cultural background to the crime:

‘In the patriarchal society of Canada during the Victorian and Edwardian eras, wives were expected to be obedient and submissive to their husbands. A husband had the right to “correct” or “discipline” his wife if she were not complaint […] That attitude could be especially ingrained in immigrant households in which families held to old-country martial traditions that had been passed down over centuries. Their non-immigrant neighbours often took the patronising view that the newcomers should just be left to their own ways as long as they didn’t break the law. But what exactly was the law when it came to domestic abuse and violence in the home? In 1911, an act of murder made that question one of international front-page debate.’

Angelina Napolitano and her husband Pietro were struggling to make a life for themselves and their four kids in Canada. Pietro’s solution was for Angelina to become a prostitute. His wife refused and he left the family in 1910. To make ends meet Angelina took in a boarder, who she started a romantic relationship with. Yet Pietro returned and stabbed Angelina multiple times, yet Angelina was not afforded any protection. So, when Pietro threatened to kill their kids 6 months later, she murdered him and then gave herself up. One of the most interesting aspects of this case was the trial and how unjust it was. After all it considered the stabbings Angelina suffered, as inadmissible evidence for the defence. She was sentenced to death, but fortunately, a strong international response from men and women ensured she was pardoned. Reading about the different people who petitioned and campaigned for her release was also interesting to read about.

Chapter 8: The Strange Case of Keli Lane by Anthony Ferguson

Keli Lane was a well-to-do 21-year-old teacher in Australia and a member of the Australian Youth Water Polo team. But as Ferguson goes on to write:

‘Yet Keli harboured some dark secrets, and even darker desires. Seemingly addicted to the ideal of motherhood, Keli contrived to get herself pregnant five times over a seven-year period in the 1990s. Unfortunately, it was the maternal ideal of pregnancy that attracted her rather than the joys of motherhood. In fact, Keli had no desire to look after a child. In her warped psyche, her bond to the child ended from the moment of birth. Thus, for various reasons, of her five pregnancies, Keli undertook two terminations, giving up her third and fifth babies for adoption. The fourth baby, named Tegan, she allegedly murdered or disposed of immediately after giving birth in September 1996 […]’

And that is the focus of this chapter, as it is for this alleged murder that she was tried and convicted for. Ferguson goes into the background of Keli and her home life contrasts a lot from some of the women featured in other chapters. I was surprised by the length of time the investigation took. The loss of Tegan was only noticed in 1999 when Keli was giving up another baby for adoption, as Tegan’s birth (but no subsequent paperwork) was flagged up in her records. Keli was only interviewed for the first time two years later and she went to trial in 2009. No body was ever found, and circumstantial evidence was a key part of her conviction. How Keli concealed her pregnancies is a topic which is discussed in this chapter, as is the question of why ‘she allowed herself to continually get pregnant in the first place’ and Ferguson considers the psychological reasons there might have been. In his conclusion Ferguson offers his opinion, based on his research, on whether Keli was innocent or guilty of the crime, opting for innocent – another “first” for the collection, as the guilt of the other women mentioned in previous cases is not called into question. In addition, he also provides an update on her in recent times, writing that:

‘Although her parole period has passed, unfortunately for Lane, the state government of New South Wales introduced a new “no body, no parole” law in late 2022. The intention of the law is to encourage incarcerated felons convicted of murder in the absence of a body to confess. Hence, Lane is still in prison.’

Chapter 9: Jolly Joseph: The Kerala Cyanide Serial Killer by Shashi Kadapa

This is the first poisoner of the collection, who was only arrested in 2019, although her crimes took place over many years. Like Mahin Qadiri discussed in chapter 4, Jollyama Joseph’s guilt as a serial killer, took many by surprise due to her outward appearance and demeanour. She fulfilled the genre trope of the unlikely killer. Jollyama’s crimes were centred on her in-laws and took place in Koodathayi, in India. Her case received international media coverage.

Shashi mentions that: ‘several angles and “motivations” were suggested: greed for property, power, and status; a desperate attempt to hide an extramarital sex life; and a compulsive, obsessive need to kill.’ Jollyama’s background from childhood is dug into, so these ‘“motivations”’ can be evaluated. From her school years Jollyama built up a social façade, faking qualifications and pretending she had various well-respected jobs when she did not. In some ways this case felt like it had components which you might expect to find in an Agatha Christie novel, albeit with a more hardboiled edge, as forging wills and removing competition for inheritance both occur. This is an ongoing case, as Jollyama’s case has not been brought to trial yet.

Chapter 10: Women Fight Back by Tom Larsen

Femicide is a key issue in this chapter and Larsen notes that this crime ‘was added to Mexico’s federal criminal code in 2010, but use of the statute has been sporadic at best. Of the 3754 killings of women in Mexico in 2022, less than 3 percent have been officially investigated as femicides.’ This chapter looks at two women ‘who fought back’. The first case took place in August 2013 and ‘on two occasions one day apart, a woman described by eyewitnesses as being about fifty years old […] boarded’ a ‘bus’ and when ‘the bus came to a stop, she rose from her seat, said something to the driver, and shot him once in the head.’ Two bus drivers were killed this way. The killer, naming herself Diana the Huntress, wrote to a local newspaper saying, ‘that she was dedicating herself to exacting revenge on men who sexually abused women.’ Neither bus driver had any history of committing that crime, but being harassed by bus drivers was an issue women had been complaining of for a long time in Mexico, especially at night-time. Larsen also links the killings with another key part of Mexican history:

‘It did not go unnoticed by the public, and by women in particular, that the killings happened almost twenty years to the day after the first reported murder of a young woman in the horrific Maquiladora Murders.’

In keeping with other chapters in this collection, the author follows this up with a quick summary about these murders, which was useful:

‘Mexico gained worldwide notoriety when it was revealed that more than 370 women had been killed in Juarez between 1993 and 2005. These killings became known as the Maquiladora Murders because the women all worked in factories that had proliferated along the US-Mexico border in the wake of the North American Free Trade Agreement.’

No one has ever been convicted for the bus driver killings, which was another new feature in the collection.

The second case discussed in this chapter concerns Roxanna Ruiz who was living and working in Ciudad Neza, which is said to have the largest shanty town in the world. One night Ruiz allowed a man she had met, called Sinai Cruz, to stay in her house, as his own home was apparently a long distance to walk to. During the night he then attacked and raped her. In the ensuing fight Ruiz killed him in self-defence. Ruiz’s experience within the legal system highlighted a number of ways in which her case was inadequately investigated and also the biased attitudes held against her. For example, ‘the prosecution agreed that she had been raped and that she was entitled to defend herself, but said that the punch in the nose was sufficient to stop the attack.’ Moreover, Larsen further adds that: ‘Mexican authorities have long been accused of revictimizing female survivors of abuse and sexual assault and failing to judge cases from the perspective of gender.’ The surge in cases of femicide is returned to at the end of the chapter, with the author considering the cultural factors which may have contributed to this rise, such as the “Backlash Theory”.

Chapter 11: Beauty and Beast by Ily Goyanes

Goyanes’ chapter focuses on Irma Grese, who was a guard at several German concentration camps during WW2, including Auschwitz-Birken. She tortured and killed many women under her charge. Her behaviour was so violent that a superior forbade her to use her torture weapons, a request she ignored. The outlining of the case includes quotes from some of the people who survived being under her charge and explores her psychological makeup. I would say this is a hard case to encompass in eleven pages, although given the brutal sadism involved, it is not a case I would want to delve into deeper.

Chapter 12: Anno Bisesto, Anno Funesto by Alisha Holland

This chapter returns us to Australia and Holland examines the murder of John Charles Thomas Price in 2000 in New South Wales. This is not a crime for the faint hearted to read about, as the murder method is horrific. All I will say is, is that killer, Katherine Mary Knight worked at an abattoir for many years, and had a history of abusing her partners. ‘On November 8, 2001, Katherine Knight became the first woman in Australia to be given a natural life sentence without parole.’ In addition, Hollands notes that:

‘A study by Professor Amy Fitzgerald […], Professor Linda Kalof, and Professor Thomas Dietz […] found that counties in the United States that have a slaughterhouse, and are therefore home to slaughterhouse employees, have measurably higher crime rates, leading to more than twice as many arrests as a county without one. In fact, for every one thousand slaughterhouse employees in a factory, the surrounding area’s arrest rate can be expected to increase by 1 percent.’

This is the kind of true crime which really does not appeal to me, as I find it has a negative impact on my mental health. So, if goriness is something you really struggle with, like I do, then this might be a chapter worth skipping. I do wonder if this chapter needed some kind of warning at the beginning.

Chapter 13: Dead Woman Walking by Joan Renner

In the penultimate case of the collection, readers are taken back to 1950s California, where in 1958 Elizabeth Ann Duncan engineered the murder of her daughter-in-law, Olga, motivated by her obsession and possessiveness over her son, Frank. The chapter charts her increasingly disturbing reactions to Frank and Olga marrying, even using fraud to try and get their marriage annulled. Ultimately, though she hired contract killers who were so inept at their job that Olga ended up being buried alive. I felt there was some repetition of material in the telling of this story and that there could have been more analysis offered.

Chapter 14: Mona Fandey: The Malaysian Murderer by Chang Shih Yen

The final case looks at the murder of state assemblyman Datuk Mazlan Idris, in 1993 in Pahang, West Malaysia. His murder was committed by Mona Fandey, her husband Mohamad Nor Affandi and their personal assistant Juraimi Husin. Their ‘trial would play a part in the abolishment of jury trials in Malaysia.’ In comparison to other chapters in this collection, Mona did not feel very central to the murder she was involved in.

Rating

Normally for this section I would just put a numerical rating, but I felt due to the nature of the collection I needed to be more explicit in what I was rating and how.

Content

Rating: 3/5

There were several crimes which were very grizzly in nature, and I did not enjoy reading about those crimes. They include the kind of violence I would not choose to consume in my fictional reading, so I might not be the best fit for this book. But if you find gory events easier to read about then you might not have this difficulty with the collection. On the plus side I did enjoy how many of the chapters looked at relevant social and cultural issues attached to the cases, and I felt overall that the collection had a wide variety of stories to tell.

Writing Style

Rating: 4/5

I felt most chapter flowed well, although some were drier than others. The chapters are not too long, so there is no feeling of a piece dragging.

Source: Review Copy (Mango Publishing)