Female Serial Killers in the United States
Women convicted of, or officially linked to, three or more murders. Poisoning and killings of family members or patients recur in this group far more than in the male profiles.
ColdCaseIndex currently lists 13 serial killers in this group, out of 104 profiles. The list is computed from the dataset on every build, so it changes as profiles are added.
| # | Name | Alias | State | Active | Convicted | Confessed | Suspected | Legal status | Fate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jane Toppan | Jolly Jane | Massachusetts | 1895 to 1901 | — | 31 | 31 to 100 | Not guilty by reason of insanity | Died (other) |
| 2 | Belle Gunness | Brynhild Paulsdatter Størseth | Indiana, Illinois | 1900 to 1908 | — | — | 14 to more than 40 (remains of at least 11 people dug up on the farm, plus three children and a headless woman in the fire ruins) | Suspected, never charged | Unknown |
| 3 | Amy Archer-Gilligan | Amy E. Archer Gilligan | Connecticut | 1914 | 1 | — | 5 to 24 | Convicted | Died (other) |
| 4 | Nannie Doss | The Giggling Granny | Alabama, North Carolina, Kansas, Oklahoma | 1927 to 1954 | 1 | 4 | up to 11 | Convicted | Died in prison |
| 5 | Waneta Hoyt | Waneta Ethel Nixon Hoyt | New York | 1965 to 1971 | 5 | 5 | 5 | Convicted | Died in prison |
| 6 | Judy Buenoano | Judias Buenoano | Florida | 1971 to 1983 | 2 | — | 3 | Convicted | Executed |
| 7 | Marybeth Tinning | Marybeth Roe Tinning | New York | 1972 to 1985 | 1 | 3 | 8 of the 9 deaths | Convicted | Released |
| 8 | Velma Barfield | Margie Velma Barfield | North Carolina | 1974 to 1978 | 1 | 4 | 5 to 7 | Convicted | Executed |
| 9 | Genene Jones | Genene Ann Jones | Texas | 1981 to 1982 | 2 | — | more than a dozen to as many as 60 | Convicted | Imprisoned |
| 10 | Dorothea Puente | Dorothea Montalvo Puente | California | 1982 to 1988 | 3 | — | 9 (charged); seven bodies recovered from her yard, one from the Sacramento River, one earlier death reclassified | Convicted | Died in prison |
| 11 | Aileen Wuornos | Aileen Carol Wuornos | Florida | 1989 to 1990 | 6 | 7 | 7 | Convicted | Executed |
| 12 | Shelly Knotek | Michelle Knotek | Washington | 1991 to 2003 | 2 | — | 3 deaths in the household (the third was her husband's conviction) | Convicted | Released |
| 13 | Kristen Gilbert | Kristen Heather Strickland | Massachusetts | 1995 to 1996 | 4 | — | 4 murders and 3 attempted murders charged; prosecutors noted she was on duty for about half of roughly 350 deaths on her ward between 1989 and 1996, but no further murders were attributed to her | Convicted | Imprisoned |
Profiles
Jane Toppan
Jolly Jane
Died (other). Massachusetts nurse Jane Toppan confessed in 1902 to poisoning 31 people from 1895 to 1901. A Barnstable jury found her not guilty by reason of insanity, and she died in 1938 at the Taunton state hospital, where…
Belle Gunness
Brynhild Paulsdatter Størseth
Suspected, never charged. Norwegian-born widow whose La Porte, Indiana farm yielded the remains of at least 11 people after an April 1908 fire; the headless body ruled hers in 1908 is disputed and 2008 DNA tests were inconclusive.
Amy Archer-Gilligan
Amy E. Archer Gilligan
Died (other). Amy Archer-Gilligan, who ran a home for elderly people in Windsor, Connecticut, was convicted of poisoning resident Franklin Andrews with arsenic in 1914.
Nannie Doss
The Giggling Granny
Died in prison. Nannie Doss pleaded guilty in 1955 to poisoning her fifth husband, Samuel Doss, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, confessed to killing four husbands, and is linked to as many as 11 family deaths from 1927 to 1954.
Waneta Hoyt
Waneta Ethel Nixon Hoyt
Died in prison. Waneta Hoyt of Tioga County, New York, was convicted in 1995 of murdering her five children between 1965 and 1971, deaths long attributed to SIDS.
Judy Buenoano
Judias Buenoano
Executed. Judy Buenoano was convicted of poisoning her husband James Goodyear with arsenic in Orlando in 1971 and of murdering her son Michael, who drowned in 1980. She was electrocuted at Florida State Prison in March 1998.
Marybeth Tinning
Marybeth Roe Tinning
Convicted in 1987 of the murder of her infant daughter Tami Lynne; nine of her children died between 1972 and 1985 in Schenectady, New York. Sentenced to 20 years to life, paroled in August 2018.
Velma Barfield
Margie Velma Barfield
Executed. Velma Barfield was convicted in 1978 of poisoning her boyfriend Stuart Taylor with arsenic in Robeson County, North Carolina, and admitted poisoning three others, including her mother.
Genene Jones
Genene Ann Jones
Imprisoned. Texas pediatric nurse convicted by a jury in 1984 of murdering 15-month-old Chelsea McClellan and injuring another child; pleaded guilty in 2020 to the 1981 murder of 11-month-old Joshua Sawyer.
Dorothea Puente
Dorothea Montalvo Puente
Died in prison 2011. Sacramento boarding-house operator charged with nine murders after seven bodies were dug from her yard in 1988; a Monterey County jury convicted her of three in 1993 and deadlocked on six.
Aileen Wuornos
Aileen Carol Wuornos
Executed by Florida in 2002. Aileen Wuornos shot seven men along Florida highways in 1989 and 1990; a jury convicted her of the Richard Mallory murder and she pleaded guilty or no contest to five more, receiving six death…
Shelly Knotek
Michelle Knotek
Released in 2022 after serving about 19 years. Pleaded guilty (Alford pleas) in 2004 to second-degree murder of Kathy Loreno and first-degree manslaughter of Ron Woodworth, boarders who died in her Pacific County, Washington…
Kristen Gilbert
Kristen Heather Strickland
Imprisoned for life. Former VA nurse convicted by a federal jury in March 2001 of murdering four patients and trying to kill two others with epinephrine injections at the Northampton, Massachusetts, VA Medical Center in 1995 and…