Number of fiery girl reporters who were there to break the case open: three. (Colette reported on Moulay; Nellie Bly interviewed Lizzie; Genevieve Forbes interviewed Tillie.)
Number of executions where the criminal died mid-prayer: two. (Anna and Marie.)
Number of Elizabeths: three. (Elizabeth, Lizzie, and Erzsébet.)
Number of lady killers who more or less vanished into the sunset: three. (We don’t know what happened to Alice, Kate, or Moulay.)
Number of unproven rumors about sex: at least twelve. (Erzsébet: learned about lesbianism from her aunt, was lovers with Darvolya, had a child with a servant, was promiscuous while her husband was at war. Lizzie: had a secret lover who helped her hide bodies. Sakina: was oversexed and this led her to kill. Mary Ann: killed her husband Ward because she was sexually unsatisfied, moved in with a “lusty sailor.” Alice: slept with a demon. Darya: had a child with her jailer. Angel Makers: killed because they were frigid, killed because they were promiscuous.)
Number of ill-advised business models: five. (Anna opened a restaurant and then burned it down; Erzsébet opened her gynaeceum and then killed everyone in it; Lizzie opened a shop and burned it down; Moulay opened a brothel and then killed her workers; Raya and Sakina opened a brothel and also killed their workers.)
Number of freelance gigs: at least five. (Kate Bender advertised her spiritualist services; Anna developed a second stream of income by betting on horses; Mary Ann took a lot of gigs as a nurse; Sakina sold rotting horse meat; Rozália Takács of the Angel Makers was a masseuse.)
Number of good cooks: three. (Nannie, Anna, and Tillie were all praised for their well-seasoned meals by men who ended up sick or dead.)
Number of times dogs got involved: three. (Dogs played with bones around Erzsébet’s castle; Tillie killed a couple of poor dogs that barked too loudly; Kate Bender’s little dog was abandoned by the family during their getaway.)
About the Book
A Playlist
I listened to music very repetitively while writing this book. These were the ten songs I found most fitting.
“Miserere Mei, Deus,” by Gregorio Allegri
“Countess Bathory,” by Venom
“Kill Kill,” by Juvenile
“I Put a Spell on You,” by Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, but also the Nina Simone and Marilyn Manson covers
“Kill V. Maim,” by Grimes
“Hey Joe,” by Jimi Hendrix
“Where Did You Sleep Last Night?” both the Lead Belly and the Nirvana versions
“You Want it Darker,” by Leonard Cohen
“When I Am Laid in Earth (Dido’s Lament),” by Henry Purcell
Further reading
More About These Women
On the Angel Makers of Nagyrév: Bodó,
Béla, Tiszazug: A Social History of a Murder Epidemic
On Anna Marie Hahn: Franklin, Diana Britt, The Good-bye Door: The Incredible True Story of the First Female Serial Killer to Die in the Chair
On Erzsébet Báthory: Craft, Kimberly L., Infamous Lady: The True Story of Countess Erzsébet Báthory
On Kate Bender (an old one!): Hardy, Allison, Kate Bender, the Kansas Murderess: The Horrible History of an Arch Killer
On the Marquise de Brinvilliers and what followed her execution: Somerset, Anne, The Affair of the Poisons: Murder, Infanticide, and Satanism at the Court of Louis XIV
On Mary Ann Cotton: Wilson, David, Mary Ann Cotton: Britain’s First Female Serial Killer
Further reading
Of General Interest
Bade, Patrick, Femme Fatale: Images of Evil and Fascinating Women
A History of Evil in Popular Culture, ed. Jody W. Pennington, Sharon Packer Seltzer
Ronson, Jon, The Psychopath Test
Seltzer, Mark, Serial Killers: Death and Life in America’s Wound Culture
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Credits
Cover design by Sarah Bibel
Illustrations throughout © Dame Darcy
Copyright
LADY KILLERS. Copyright © 2017 by Tori Telfer. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
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FIRST EDITION
Digital Edition OCTOBER 2017 ISBN: 978-0-06-243374-9
Print ISBN: 978-0-06-243373-2
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