Female Criminals

Rank the Most Wicked Female Criminals

Right IconThis ranking is based on an algorithm that combines various factors, including the votes of our users and search trends on the internet.

 1 
Bonnie Parker
(Bank Robber)
Bonnie Parker
102
Birthdate: October 1, 1910
Sun Sign: Libra
Birthplace: Rowena, Texas, United States
Died: May 23, 1934

Best known as part of the legendary criminal couple Bonnie and Clyde, Bonnie Parker was infamous for her bank robberies with her partner Clyde Chestnut Barrow. They apparently murdered several policemen, too. Their crimes were romanticized in many movies including a 1967 film starring Faye Dunaway as Bonnie.

 2 
Aileen Wuornos
(American Serial Killer)
Aileen Wuornos
199
Birthdate: February 29, 1956
Sun Sign: Pisces
Birthplace: Rochester, Michigan, United States
Died: October 9, 2002

Sexually and physically assaulted by her own grandfather during her childhood and teenage years, Aileen Wuornos took to prostitution to support herself. From becoming pregnant at age 14 to engaging in sexual activities in exchange for drugs, Aileen's early life played a major role in turning her into a serial killer. Her story eventually became quite famous in popular culture.

 3 
Griselda Blanco
(Colombian Drug Lady of the Medellín Cartel)
Griselda Blanco
68
Birthdate: February 15, 1943
Sun Sign: Aquarius
Birthplace: Cartagena, Colombia
Died: September 3, 2012
Griselda Blanco, also known as La Madrina and the Black Widow, was the first billionaire female drug lord. As part of the Medellin Cartel, she smuggled cocaine from Colombia into Miami, New York, and Southern California. She spent 15 years in jail and was shot dead by an unidentified motorcyclist.
 4 
Elizabeth Báthory
(Hungarian Noblewoman and Serial Killer)
Elizabeth Báthory
117
Birthdate: August 7, 1560
Sun Sign: Leo
Birthplace: Nyírbátor, Hungary
Died: August 21, 1614
Known as The Blood Countess and Countess Dracula, Elizabeth Báthory was a Hungarian noblewoman who was accused of killing at least 650 young women from 1590 to 1610. She was also accused of cannibalism and bathing in the blood of her victims. She evaded punishment and died in house arrest.
 5 
Karla Homolka
(Canadian Serial Killer)
Karla Homolka
148
Birthdate: May 4, 1970
Sun Sign: Taurus
Birthplace: Port Credit, Mississauga, Canada

Karla Homolka raped and killed three minors along with her ex-husband Paul Bernardo. After their arrest, Bernardo was sentenced to life imprisonment, while Homolka served 12 years in prison following a plea bargain. Although she had claimed that she was an unwilling accomplice to the killings, a videotape that surfaced after the plea bargain suggested otherwise, resulting in public outrage.

 6 
Mary Bell
(Murder Convict)
Mary Bell
31
Birthdate: May 26, 1957
Sun Sign: Gemini
Birthplace: Newcastle upon Tyne, Northumberland, England
Mary Bell was convicted of strangling 4-year-old Martin Brown and 3-year-old Brian Howe in 1968, when she was just 11. She committed the second crime with a 13-year-old friend named Norma Joyce Bell. After she was released in 1980, after 12 years, she took up various pseudonyms.
 7 
Anne Bonny
(Irish Pirate Operating in the Caribbean and One of the Few Female Pirates in Recorded History)
Anne Bonny
16
Birthdate: March 8, 1697
Sun Sign: Pisces
Birthplace: Cork, Ireland
Died: March 31, 1721

Irish pirate Anne Bonny is considered one of the most famous female pirates of all time. She operated in the Caribbean in the early 18th century. As a teenager, she became the partner and lover of the notorious English pirate captain Calico Jack Rackham. She was captured in 1720 when she was pregnant. Her fate remains unknown. 

 8 
Patricia Krenwinkel
(American Convicted Murderer and Member of the Manson Family)
Patricia Krenwinkel
20
Birthdate: December 3, 1947
Sun Sign: Sagittarius
Birthplace: Los Angeles, California, United States

A former member of the notorious Charles Manson's "Family," Patricia Krenwinkel is a criminal who has participated in multiple murders. She was part of the gang that murdered actress Sharon Tate, who was pregnant at the time of her death. Krenwinkel has been denied parole fourteen times and is currently incarcerated at the California Institution for Women.

 9 
Diane Downs
(American Criminal Who Murdererd Her Daughter and Attempted to Murder Her Other Two Children)
Diane Downs
24
Birthdate: August 7, 1955
Sun Sign: Leo
Birthplace: Phoenix, Arizona, United States
Diane Downs killed her own daughter in 1983. She also tried killing her other children and then made up a story about how a man had tried carjacking her and had shot her children. She was sentenced to life plus 50 years but is eligible for parole at age 65. 
 10 
Irma Grese
(Nazi Concentration Camp Guard at Ravensbrück & Auschwitz Who Served as Warden of Bergen-Belsen)
Irma Grese
33
Birthdate: October 7, 1923
Sun Sign: Libra
Birthplace: Feldberger Seenlandschaft, Germany
Died: December 13, 1945

Irma Grese, or the Hyena of Auschwitz, served as an SS guard at the Nazi concentration camps of Auschwitz and Ravensbrück. She was also the warden of the ladies’ section of the Bergen-Belsen camp and ended up being convicted of torture and murder of prisoners. She was executed at 22.

 11 
Darlie Routier
(Murderer)
Darlie Routier
33
Birthdate: January 4, 1970
Sun Sign: Capricorn
Birthplace: Altoona, Pennsylvania, United States
Darlie Routier was convicted of stabbing her 5-year-old son Damon to death in 1996 and sentenced to death by lethal injection. She was also charged with killing her other son, 6-year-old Devon, but not tried for it. Following multiple appeals by her, fresh DNA tests were ordered and are pending.
 12 
Susan Smith
(Murderer)
Susan Smith
44
Birthdate: September 26, 1971
Sun Sign: Libra
Birthplace: Union, South Carolina

Susan Smith is an American murderer who was convicted for murdering her children, Michael and Alexander, who were three-year-old and 14-month-old respectively. She falsely claimed that her kids were kidnapped by a black man before being adjudged guilty of the crime. Sentenced to life in prison, Smith is currently incarcerated at the Leath Correctional Institution in South Carolina.

 13 
Mary Ann Cotton
(Serial Killer)
Mary Ann Cotton
56
Birthdate: October 31, 1832
Sun Sign: Scorpio
Birthplace: Low Moorsley, Hetton-le-Hole, County Durham, England
Died: March 24, 1873

Mary Ann Cotton was an English serial killer who was convicted for the murder of her stepson. Cotton is believed to have killed 11 of her children and three of her husbands for their insurance policies. Mary Ann Cotton was sentenced to death and was executed by hanging. 

 14 
Amelia Dyer
(English Serial Killer Who Killed Infants)
Amelia Dyer
38
Birthdate: 1837 AD
Birthplace: Bristol
Died: June 11, 1897

Amelia Dyer was an English serial killer who killed infants over a 30-year period. She exercised the practice of baby farming and murdered children after taking them under her care. Amelia Dyer's killings inspired a murder ballad. Her case also led to stricter laws for child protection and adoption in the UK.

 15 
Belle Gunness
(Serial Killer)
Belle Gunness
29
Birthdate: November 11, 1859
Sun Sign: Scorpio
Birthplace: Selbu
Died: April 28, 1908
Also known as the Mistress of Murder Farms, Norwegian-born American immigrant Brynhild Paulsdatter Storset later changed her name to Belle. The brutal murderer is believed to have seduced and then butchered her countless suitors. A headless body found recovered from her burnt house was thought to be hers.
 16 
Susannah Martin
(Witchcraft)
Susannah Martin
1
Birthdate: September 30, 1621
Sun Sign: Libra
Birthplace: England
Died: July 19, 1692
 17 
Ma Barker
(Matriarch of the Barker Family)
Ma Barker
13
Birthdate: October 8, 1873
Sun Sign: Libra
Birthplace: Ash Grove, Missouri, United States
Died: January 16, 1935
 18 
Ilse Koch
(German War Criminal Who Became One of the First Prominent Nazis Tried by the U.S. Military)
Ilse Koch
21
Birthdate: September 22, 1906
Sun Sign: Virgo
Birthplace: Dresden, Germany
Died: September 1, 1967
Ilse Koch was the wife of Karl-Otto Koch, the Nazi commandant of the Buchenwald and Majdanek concentration camps. Also known as Beast of Buchenwald, The Bitch of Buchenwald, and Butcher Widow, she was tried by the U.S. military for her sadistic abuse of war prisoners. She died of suicide.
 19 
Beverley Allitt
(Serial Killer)
Beverley Allitt
43
Birthdate: October 4, 1968
Sun Sign: Libra
Birthplace: Grantham, Lincolnshire, England

Beverley Allitt is an English serial child killer, convicted ,of murdering four children and grievously injuring several others. Previously employed as a State Enrolled Nurse, she attacked 13 children over a 59-day period, out of which four died. She received 13 life sentences for the crimes and is detained at Rampton Secure Hospital in Nottinghamshire.

 20 
Virginia Hill
(American Organized Crime Figure)
Virginia Hill
17
Birthdate: August 26, 1916
Sun Sign: Virgo
Birthplace: Lipscomb, Alabama, United States
Died: March 24, 1966

Virginia Hill was an American woman best remembered for her association with the Chicago Outfit crime organization. She served as the outfit's courier, passing important messages between mobsters, during the mid-1930s. She became the subject of a 1974 TV film. Her relationship with mobster Bugsy Siegel was dramatized in the 1991 movie Bugsy, where she was portrayed by Annette Bening.

 21 
Leonarda Cianciulli
(Italian Serial Killer)
Leonarda Cianciulli
26
Birthdate: April 18, 1894
Sun Sign: Aries
Birthplace: Montella, Italy
Died: October 15, 1970

Leonarda Cianciulli was an Italian serial killer who murdered three women and turned their bodies into soaps and tea cakes. She is also known as the "Soap-Maker of Correggio." Between 1939 and 1940, she killed three of her neighbors--all of them middle-aged women--as part of human sacrifices. She was eventually found guilty of her crimes and sentenced to prison.  

 22 
Ruth Ellis
(The Last Woman to be Hanged in the UK)
Ruth Ellis
18
Birthdate: October 9, 1926
Sun Sign: Libra
Birthplace: Rhyl, Denbighshire, Wales
Died: July 13, 1955

Ruth Ellis began her career as a nightclub hostess as a teen and was also a nude model for a while. She later also worked as an escort. She became the last woman in the UK tot be hanged after she shot and killed her lover, race-car driver and affluent socialite David Blakely.

 23 
Mary Read
(One of the Famous Female Pirates of 18th Century)
Mary Read
2
Birthdate: 1685 AD
Birthplace: England
Died: April 28, 1721

A legendary female pirate of the early eighteenth century, Mary Read took to piracy when her ship was seized by Jack Rackham in West Indies. By then, she had started dressing as a man and had served in the military, which might have helped her to become a successful buccaneer. Captured in 1720, she died in prison five months later.  

 24 
Susan Atkins
(American Murderer and Member of Charles Manson's Crime Family)
Susan Atkins
46
Birthdate: May 7, 1948
Sun Sign: Taurus
Birthplace: San Gabriel, California, United States
Died: September 24, 2009

Susan Atkins was an American murderer who was convicted for participating in eight killings, including the infamous Tate murders, carried out by members of the Manson Family. Sentenced to life imprisonment, Atkins was the longest-serving female inmate in California history at the time of her death. 

 25 
Belle Starr
(Outlaw)
Belle Starr
8
Birthdate: February 5, 1848
Sun Sign: Aquarius
Birthplace: Carthage, Missouri, United States
Died: February 3, 1889
 26 
Genene Jones
(Nurse Who Killed Several Infants)
Genene Jones
35
Birthdate: July 13, 1950
Sun Sign: Cancer
Birthplace: Texas
 27 
Zerelda Mimms
(Jesse James' Wife)
Zerelda Mimms
8
Birthdate: July 21, 1845
Sun Sign: Cancer
Birthplace: Logan, Kentucky
Died: November 13, 1900

Zerelda Mimms was the wife of bank and train robber Jesse James. She was the daughter of a pastor. Her mother, Mary Elizabeth, and Jesse James' father, Robert S. James, were siblings, making Zerelda and Jesse first cousins. Zerelda married Jesse in 1874. The couple had four children, two of whom died in infancy. 

 28 
Karla Faye Tucker
(American Convicted Murderer)
Karla Faye Tucker
12
Birthdate: November 18, 1959
Sun Sign: Scorpio
Birthplace: Houston, Texas, United States
Died: February 3, 1998

Karla Faye Tucker was a convicted criminal who killed two people with a pickaxe during a burglary. She committed the crime with a few accomplices in 1983. She was convicted of murder the following year and sentenced to death. She was executed by lethal injection in 1998. She was the first woman to be executed in US since1984. 

 29 
Ching Shih
(Chinese Pirate Leader and Gambling House Owner)
Ching Shih
9
Birthdate: 1775 AD
Birthplace: Guangdong, China
Died: 1844 AD

Ching Shih went from being a prostitute who worked in a Canton brothel to a notorious pirate who controlled the Red Flag Fleet. Legend has it that pirate Zhèng Yi, or Cheng I, had married Ching Shih when he raided her brothel, and she had then taken over his fleet.

 30 
Debra Lafave
(Teacher)
Debra Lafave
11
Birthdate: August 28, 1980
Sun Sign: Virgo
Birthplace: Riverview, Florida, United States
 31 
Martha Beck
(Serial Killer)
Martha Beck
17
Birthdate: May 6, 1920
Sun Sign: Taurus
Birthplace: Milton, Florida, United States
Died: March 8, 1951
 32 
Grace O'Malley
(Pirate)
Grace O'Malley
1
Birthdate: 1533 AD
Birthplace: Umhaill, Ireland
Died: June 18, 1603

One of the most well-known female pirates from Ireland, Grace O'Malley began seafaring at age 11. Also known as Gráinne Mhaol, or Bald Grace, for cutting off her hair in her early days to make her sea journeys easy, she is remembered for her legendary resistance to England and Queen Elizabeth I.

 33 
Elisabeth Becker
(Guard)
Elisabeth Becker
4
Birthdate: July 20, 1923
Sun Sign: Cancer
Birthplace: Nowy Staw, Poland
Died: July 4, 1946
 34 
Jane Toppan
(American Serial Killer)
Jane Toppan
9
Birthdate: March 31, 1854
Sun Sign: Aries
Birthplace: Boston, Massachusetts, United States
Died: August 17, 1938
 35 
Mary Brunner
(Criminal)
Mary Brunner
6
Birthdate: December 17, 1943
Sun Sign: Sagittarius
Birthplace: Eau Claire, Wisconsin, United States
Height: 5'6" (168 cm)
 36 
Gerda Steinhoff
(Guard)
Gerda Steinhoff
4
Birthdate: January 29, 1922
Sun Sign: Aquarius
Birthplace: Wrzeszcz, Gdańsk, Poland
Died: July 4, 1946
 37 
Doris Payne
(Jewel Thief)
Doris Payne
6
Birthdate: October 10, 1930
Sun Sign: Libra
Birthplace: Slab Fork, West Virginia
 38 
Barbara Graham
(Criminal)
Barbara Graham
7
Birthdate: June 26, 1923
Sun Sign: Cancer
Birthplace: Oakland, California, United States
Died: June 3, 1955

Barbara Graham was a convicted criminal who was executed in the gas chamber at San Quentin Prison in 1955. She became the third woman in California to be executed by gas. Born to an unwed teenage sex worker, she had a troubled childhood. As a young woman, she became involved with hardened criminals and took to a life of crime. 

 39 
Mary Surratt
(Criminal, Businessperson)
Mary Surratt
3
Birthdate: 1823 AD
Birthplace: Waterloo, Maryland, United States
Died: July 7, 1865
 40 
Phoolan Devi
(Politician, Brigand)
Phoolan Devi
50
Birthdate: August 10, 1963
Sun Sign: Leo
Birthplace: Uttar Pradesh
Died: July 25, 2001

Phoolan Devi was an Indian bandit who later on became a politician. She was a victim of child marriage and later on gang raped by a group of upper caste men. To  avenge her humiliation she went on to become the leader of gang of bandits  Later on she became a politician and served as Member of Parliament. She was assassinated by an upper caste man. 

 41 
Sada Abe
(Geisha, Criminal)
Sada Abe
7
Birthdate: May 28, 1905
Sun Sign: Gemini
Birthplace: Kanda
 42 
Jean Harris
(Author)
Jean Harris
12
Birthdate: April 27, 1923
Sun Sign: Taurus
Birthplace: Chicago, Illinois, United States
Died: December 23, 2012
 43 
Greta Bösel
(Nurse)
Greta Bösel
1
Birthdate: May 9, 1908
Sun Sign: Taurus
Birthplace: Wuppertal, Germany
Died: May 3, 1947
 44 
Sally McNeil
(American Former Professional Bodybuilder Who Was Convicted for the Murder of Her Husband Ray McNeil)
Sally McNeil
6
Birthdate: September 30, 1960
Sun Sign: Libra
Birthplace: Allentown, Pennsylvania, United States
 45 
Alse Young
(Witchcraft)
Alse Young
3
Birthdate: 1615 AD
Birthplace: New Windsor, Berkshire, England
Died: May 26, 1647
 46 
The Freeway Phantom
(American Serial Killer)
The Freeway Phantom
6
Birthplace: United States
 47 
Giulia Tofana
(Poisoner)
Giulia Tofana
6
Birthdate: 1620 AD
Birthplace: Palermo, Italy
Died: June 30, 1659
 48 
Fanny Kaplan
(Revolutionary)
Fanny Kaplan
6
Birthdate: February 10, 1890
Sun Sign: Aquarius
Birthplace: Volhynian Governorate
Died: September 3, 1918

Born into a poverty-stricken family of farmers, Fanny Kaplan was home-schooled. Later, while working as a milliner, she joined the Socialist Revolutionary Party and thus became part of radical politics. She developed anti-Bolshevik sentiments and attempted to assassinate Lenin. Though Lenin recovered, Kaplan was later executed.

 49 
Katherine Knight
(Australian Murderer)
Katherine Knight
11
Birthdate: October 24, 1955
Sun Sign: Scorpio
Birthplace: Tenterfield, Australia
 50 
Juana Barraza
(Mexican Serial Killer Sentenced to 759 Years in Prison for Killing of 16 Elderly Women)
Juana Barraza
12
Birthdate: December 27, 1957
Sun Sign: Capricorn
Birthplace: Hidalgo, Mexico