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T Thhee MMuurrddeerr MMyyssttiiqquuee
Female Killers and Popular Culture
Laurie Nalepa and
Richard Pfefferman
Copyright 2013 by Laurie Nalepa and Richard Pfefferman
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a
retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording, or otherwise, except for the inclusion of brief quotations
in a review, without prior permission in writing from the publisher.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Nalepa, Laurie.
The murder mystique : female killers and popular culture / Laurie
Nalepa and Richard Pfefferman.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-313-38010-5 (hbk. : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-313-38011-2 (ebook)
1. Women murderers—United States—Case studies. 2. Murder
in mass media. I. Pfefferman, Richard. II. Title.
HV6517.N35 2013
364.152'30820973—dc23 2012037964
ISBN: 978-0-313-38010-5
EISBN: 978-0-313-38011-2
17 16 15 14 13 1 2 3 4 5
This book is also available on the World Wide Web as an eBook.
Visit www.abc-clio.com for details.
Praeger
An Imprint of ABC-CLIO, LLC
ABC-CLIO, LLC
130 Cremona Drive, P.O. Box 1911
Santa Barbara, California 93116-1911
This book is printed on acid-free paper
Manufactured in the United States of America
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Introduction: The Killer Inside Each of Us ix
1. Women Who Kill in Self-Defense 1
Francine Hughes 1
Liysa Northon 11
2. Women Who Kill for Revenge 23
Betty Broderick 24
Amy Bishop 39
3. Women Who Kill for Love 53
Kristin Rossum 53
Susan Smith 70
4. Women Who Kill for Money 85
Olga Rutterschmidt and Helen Golay 85
Ann Woodward 102
5. Women Who Kill Because They Are Crazy 115
Aileen Wuornos 115
Andrea Yates 127
vi Contents
Conclusion: Her Trait, Her Fate 143
Notes 153
Selected Bibliography 167
Index 173
Acknowledgments
This book would not have been possible without the constant love of Carl
Boggs and Terrence LeBleu. A special thank you to our families, friends, and
colleagues who provided encouragement along the way. We are truly grateful
to our editor Jane Messah for “putting a gun to our heads” to make sure we
met our deadlines. More importantly, without her guidance and encourage-
ment, this book would never have been completed.
Many sources need to be acknowledged for providing in-depth accounts
of the cases studied in this book. Faith McNulty’s 1980 work The Burning
Bed (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich) provided information on Francine
Hughes for Chapter 1. Ann Rule’s book Heart Full of Lies (New York: Pocket
Books, 2004) and Gary Fletcher’s articles for The Observer were instrumental
for the discussion of Liysa Northon also found in this chapter.
The crime of Betty Broderick, addressed in Chapter 2, relied on the ac-
counts provided by Bella Stumbo in her 1993 work Until the Twelfth of Never
(New York: Simon and Schuster) as well as Hell Hath No Fury (New York:
St. Martin’s Press, 1992) by Bryna Taubman.
We are indebted to numerous works for information related to Chapter 3.
Two books assisted in our understanding of Kristin Rossum. These include
Poisoned Love (New York: Kensington Publishing Corp., 2005) by Caitlin
Rother as well as the account by John Glatt, Deadly American Beauty (New
York: St. Martin’s Press, 2004). Significant contributions to the discus-
sion of Susan Smith were from Sins of the Mother (New York: St. Martin’s
Press, 1995) by Maria Eftimiades, Andrea Peyser’s 1995 book M other Love,
Deadly Love (New York: Harper Collins Publishers), David Smith’s B eyond
All Reason (New York: Kensington Publishing Corp., 1995), and Gary
Henderson’s chronicle of events Nine Days in Union (Spartanburg, SC:
Honoribus Press, 1995).
viii Acknowledgments
Jeanne King’s S igned in Blood (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2009) as well
as articles by Paul Pringle and Hemmy So for the Los Angeles Times provided
information on Olga Rutterschmidt and Helen Golay in Chapter 4. In ad-
dition, we are grateful to Susan Braudy’s account of Ann Woodword, T his
Crazy Thing Called Love (New York: Alfred A. Knopf Inc., 1992), which was
also discussed in Chapter 4.
A number of books contributed greatly to Chapter 5. Information on
Aileen Wuornos came from Sue Russell’s L ethal Intent (New York: Kensington
Publishing Corp, 2002), the account provided by Michael Reynold’s in Dead
Ends (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1992), and M onster (London: John Blake
Publishing Ltd, 2006) by Aileen Wuornos and Christopher Berry-Dee. We
are indebted to numerous authors of books related to Andrea Yates. In par-
ticular, we want to acknowledge Suzanne O’Malley’s account Are You There
Alone? (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2004) as well as B reaking Point (New
York: St. Martin’s Press, 2002) by Suzy Spencer.
Introduction: The Killer
Inside Each of Us
Admit it! There’s something about a woman who commits murder that makes
us look at the crime in a little more detail, makes us shudder a little deeper,
and makes us a little more judgmental as we ask ourselves, “Why did she
do it?” We are socialized to believe that most ordinary women would never
dream of killing someone. There has to be something “deviant” about them,
something so pathological that they’ve turned against the laws of nature and
become evil incarnate. However, I know from personal experience that this
viewpoint is overly simplistic.
I am a law-abiding person. The worst crime I’ve ever committed is prob-
ably running a red light when I was tired. But I have to confess that I too
was once filled with a murderous rage that was so overpowering I thought
about killing someone. I walked in on my boyfriend having sex with another
woman. They were in our house, in our bedroom, in our bed. I literally could
not believe my eyes. As my mind started to process the information, I was
filled with the most overpowering physical anger I have ever felt in my life. I
walked out of the bedroom, through the living room, and into the kitchen,
where I stood shaking over the kitchen sink. My glance fell on a large knife
that was lying on a cutting board. For one infinitesimal moment, one second
in time, I considered picking up the knife and thrusting it into both of them.
I didn’t. But I realize that I could have. And who knows? I could have been
one of those women you see on the reality show S napped, or watch on Court
TV, or read about in the N ational Enquirer, or even had a best seller written
about me by Ann Rule.
If someone asked you “Would you welcome more drama in your life?”
your answer would probably be no. Who among us consciously seeks con-
frontation, violence, or disruption? Right-thinking people don’t want to in-
vite situations that place them outside their comfort zones, demand that they
Description:Combining compelling storytelling with insightful observations, the book invites readers to take a close look at ten high-profile killings committed by American women. The work exposes the forces that underlie the public's fascination with female killers and determine why these women so often become
