The couple was sentenced to death and Coleman [the man] was executed in 2002. However, Brown’s death sentence was overturned after the attorney general attributed her actions to a mental disability
Unfortunately serial killers are overwhelmingly men.
This is probably less the case than it seems. Everytime a female serial killer (whether solo, or more commonly with her partner) comes up she is granted huge amounts of immunity and lesser sentencing. Which stands to reason we probably don't even know about many simply because they don't get charged worth a damn and the media doesn't care to report on it.
Like I don't doubt its still the majority men, but the seemingly overwhelming number could be a classic "the law is lighter on them, so we don't have accurate reports" cycle.
Given their basic MO, it's likely more of them have not been caught. Dead people in the nursing home is not nearly as suspicious as dead hooker bodies being found. Which is normally how they find out about a uh regular serial killer.
Also true, they go for far less extravagant methods and victims. Things like poison and overdosing that women prefer are far harder to catch as malicious instead of accidental. Same with killing old folks or children, which are two groups well known to either just die on their own or do something dumb that ends up in tragedy, aka not getting a real investigation.
Methodology may play into that. It's an old trope how the actions men take vs the ones women take are significantly different in terms of both potential bodily harm and risk.
Suicides by men often result in so much damage to a body the only chances of an open casket funeral are whether the head is intact enough to stick on the top half of a mannequin. Jumping infront of a train doesn't leave much except lasting PTSD for the train operator.
Suicides by women however are more likely to leave the body whole, if damaged in limited locations such as the wrists, eyes, mouth, and superficially the skin.
With enough makeup a mortician can hide the visible signs of someone drowning or ODing. Can't say the same if someone ended up in so many small pieces the best you can do for transporting is a bucket.
So when considering how serial killers may operate both the intention behind their actions as well notable differences in behaviour between sexes can influence actions.
Poison is historically and conceptually considered "a woman's weapon" to quote Ned Stark from Game of Thrones. Not only can it be difficult to detect but it removes the need for the killer to be present when the victim is poisoned, lessening the chances of being found out as well as removing the risk to the killer should the victim have a physical advantage.
When compared to something more direct like a stabbing the act of poisoning might fail to be lethal if the dose involved isn't correct but not only does that let further attempts be made, but unlike with a stabbing there will be no defensive actions taken by the victim which can end up indicating the killer.
In addition to this the reasons why a serial killer takes action can be important to consider. The more overt an action the more likely it will eventually lead back to the perpetrator. So someone who kills to send a message will want their actions to be known, which will significantly increase the likelihood of being eventually stopped. Conversely someone who kills because they want to kill will likely want to keep killing. In this case methods which prevent alerting anyone are better suited.
This isn't to say "all shooters are men" or "all poisoners are women", Harold Shipman is a very high profile example of a man poisoning his victims and using his status as a doctor to facilitate his murders, but the typical distributions of each and similar methods will conform to sex of the killer.
On top of all this is the idea that "the best thief in the world is the one nobody knows about". This relates to the idea about what "the perfect crime" is. The simple answer to that is a crime nobody ever knows is committed.
As such the "most famous" serial killer isn't necessarily "the best" because the infamy involved is likely a fact from after being stopped. The "best" will be the one who is never caught, never found out, and keeps killing until they stop for reasons outwith their own.
So taking all of this, and considering various stories that crop up from time to time about nurses who poison patients, the number of serial killers out there who are women is very likely significantly greater than is reported simply because most of them don't get found out.
Yeah, that's what I was getting at. They exist in much larger numbers than we know as the public because they are less likely to get caught and even if they are, they aren't charged like male killers so they end up either not being "officially" one or simply never getting any media coverage that the public can pick up on.
Two women and like ten men. Very unbiased.
I'm sure it has nothing to do with the editor in chief of The Root being female.
And you'll love this part:
1/6 of serial killers being female is probably a vast overrepresentation in the list, compared to the actual occurrence of female serial killers.
Or institutionalized white knight syndrome is keeping them from being convicted for serial killing offenses.
You should listen to Sword & Scale, he’s always going on about how lenient the justice system is on female murderers.
Unfortunately serial killers are overwhelmingly men.
Men are better than women at everything, murder included.
This is probably less the case than it seems. Everytime a female serial killer (whether solo, or more commonly with her partner) comes up she is granted huge amounts of immunity and lesser sentencing. Which stands to reason we probably don't even know about many simply because they don't get charged worth a damn and the media doesn't care to report on it.
Like I don't doubt its still the majority men, but the seemingly overwhelming number could be a classic "the law is lighter on them, so we don't have accurate reports" cycle.
Given their basic MO, it's likely more of them have not been caught. Dead people in the nursing home is not nearly as suspicious as dead hooker bodies being found. Which is normally how they find out about a uh regular serial killer.
Also true, they go for far less extravagant methods and victims. Things like poison and overdosing that women prefer are far harder to catch as malicious instead of accidental. Same with killing old folks or children, which are two groups well known to either just die on their own or do something dumb that ends up in tragedy, aka not getting a real investigation.
Methodology may play into that. It's an old trope how the actions men take vs the ones women take are significantly different in terms of both potential bodily harm and risk.
Suicides by men often result in so much damage to a body the only chances of an open casket funeral are whether the head is intact enough to stick on the top half of a mannequin. Jumping infront of a train doesn't leave much except lasting PTSD for the train operator.
Suicides by women however are more likely to leave the body whole, if damaged in limited locations such as the wrists, eyes, mouth, and superficially the skin.
With enough makeup a mortician can hide the visible signs of someone drowning or ODing. Can't say the same if someone ended up in so many small pieces the best you can do for transporting is a bucket.
So when considering how serial killers may operate both the intention behind their actions as well notable differences in behaviour between sexes can influence actions.
Poison is historically and conceptually considered "a woman's weapon" to quote Ned Stark from Game of Thrones. Not only can it be difficult to detect but it removes the need for the killer to be present when the victim is poisoned, lessening the chances of being found out as well as removing the risk to the killer should the victim have a physical advantage. When compared to something more direct like a stabbing the act of poisoning might fail to be lethal if the dose involved isn't correct but not only does that let further attempts be made, but unlike with a stabbing there will be no defensive actions taken by the victim which can end up indicating the killer.
In addition to this the reasons why a serial killer takes action can be important to consider. The more overt an action the more likely it will eventually lead back to the perpetrator. So someone who kills to send a message will want their actions to be known, which will significantly increase the likelihood of being eventually stopped. Conversely someone who kills because they want to kill will likely want to keep killing. In this case methods which prevent alerting anyone are better suited.
This isn't to say "all shooters are men" or "all poisoners are women", Harold Shipman is a very high profile example of a man poisoning his victims and using his status as a doctor to facilitate his murders, but the typical distributions of each and similar methods will conform to sex of the killer.
On top of all this is the idea that "the best thief in the world is the one nobody knows about". This relates to the idea about what "the perfect crime" is. The simple answer to that is a crime nobody ever knows is committed. As such the "most famous" serial killer isn't necessarily "the best" because the infamy involved is likely a fact from after being stopped. The "best" will be the one who is never caught, never found out, and keeps killing until they stop for reasons outwith their own.
So taking all of this, and considering various stories that crop up from time to time about nurses who poison patients, the number of serial killers out there who are women is very likely significantly greater than is reported simply because most of them don't get found out.
Yeah, that's what I was getting at. They exist in much larger numbers than we know as the public because they are less likely to get caught and even if they are, they aren't charged like male killers so they end up either not being "officially" one or simply never getting any media coverage that the public can pick up on.
Not true, women are extremely good at the murder of children.
You couldn't prove your case when it came to serial killers, so you retreated to your usual raving about 'murder of children'?