{"id":154935,"date":"2023-04-01T17:10:19","date_gmt":"2023-04-01T17:10:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/culture.org\/?p=154935"},"modified":"2023-04-01T17:10:19","modified_gmt":"2023-04-01T17:10:19","slug":"in-the-shadows-of-infamy-the-untold-stories-of-historys-notorious-female-killers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/culture.org\/history\/in-the-shadows-of-infamy-the-untold-stories-of-historys-notorious-female-killers\/","title":{"rendered":"In the Shadows of Infamy: The Untold Stories of History&#8217;s Notorious Female Killers"},"content":{"rendered":"           <!--  <script type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n                jQuery(document).ready(function() {\r\n                    jQuery(\".key-accordion-item .key-menu\").on(\"click\", function() {\r\n                        if (jQuery(this).parent().hasClass(\"active\")) {\r\n                            jQuery(this).next().slideUp();\r\n                            jQuery(this).parent().removeClass(\"active\");\r\n                        } else {\r\n                            jQuery(\".key-content\").slideUp();\r\n                            jQuery(\".key-accordion-item\").removeClass(\"active\");\r\n                            jQuery(this).parent().addClass(\"active\");\r\n                            jQuery(this).next().slideDown();\r\n                        }\r\n                    });\r\n                })\r\n            <\/script> -->\r\n\r\n\r\n            <!-- start html -->\r\n\r\n            <div class=\"news-key-takeaway-wapper\">\r\n                                <span style=\"background-color:#EF8638;\">Key Takeaways<\/span>\r\n                <ul class=\"news-key-nbox\" style=\"border-color:#EF8638;background-color:rgba(239, 134, 56, 0.1);\">\r\n                                                        <li>The women's stories are a blend of love, desperation, and madness, highlighting the diversity of female killers' motivations.<\/li>\r\n                                                                    <li>The article covers five historical cases: Mary McKinnon, Margaret Garner, Elizabeth Taylor, Edith Thompson, and Christiana Edmunds.<\/li>\r\n                                                                    <li>The cases demonstrate the complexities and consequences of their actions, as well as the differing ways society judged and punished them.<\/li>\r\n                                                                    <li>The article aims to bring attention to lesser-known female killers and the circumstances that led them to commit such heinous acts.<\/li>\r\n                                                <\/ul>\r\n            <\/div>\r\n            \n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Throughout history, female killers have often been overshadowed by their male counterparts, but their stories are no less captivating or tragic.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This article aims to shed light on the lives and motivations of these women, who, driven by love, desperation, or madness, committed heinous acts that left an indelible mark on society.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">From the seedy taverns of 19th-century Edinburgh to the plantation fields of antebellum America, this article examines the lives of Mary McKinnon, Margaret Garner, Elizabeth Taylor, Edith Thompson, and Christiana Edmunds.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">These cases reveal not only the complex web of circumstances that led these women to kill but also how their actions were judged and punished within the context of their time.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><strong>Mary McKinnon: The Tavern Brawl That Turned Deadly<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Edinburgh in the 1820s was a city of stark contrasts. The New Town catered to the wealthy, while the Old Town was riddled with grimy inns and taverns.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">On February 8, 1823, William Howat and his friends found themselves at Mary McKinnon&#8217;s tavern. A disagreement over payment for drinks led to a violent scuffle, resulting in Howat&#8217;s stabbing and eventual death.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mary McKinnon was accused of the murder, found guilty, and hanged on April 16, 1823.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This case emphasized the moral judgment placed on sex work and the devaluation of women&#8217;s lives in 19th-century Britain.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Margaret Garner: A Mother&#8217;s Desperate Act to Save Her Children<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the 1850s, the US was divided on the issue of slavery. In early 1856, the Garner family attempted to escape enslavement.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">After reaching Cincinnati, their plan fell apart, and they were discovered by marshals. Faced with being recaptured, Margaret Garner killed her young daughter, Mary, rather than allowing her children to return to a life of slavery.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Margaret was apprehended and, under the Fugitive Slave Act, she and her family were returned to their slaveholders.<\/span><\/p>\n                        <!-- <div class=\"container-c\"> -->\r\n                        <!-- <div class=\"row justify-content-between\"> -->\r\n                        <!-- <div class=\"col-post-800\"> -->\r\n                        <!-- start html -->\r\n                        <div class=\"blockquote-wapper\">\r\n                            <div>\r\n                                <span class=\"text_quot\">\r\n                                    <p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In 1867, Christiana Edmunds became infatuated with her neighbor, Dr. Charles Beard.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n                                <\/span>\r\n\r\n                                <div class=\"quot_icon\">\r\n                                    <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/culture.org\/wp-content\/themes\/culture\/icons\/i_quot.svg\" type=\"image\/svg+xml\">\r\n                                <\/div>\r\n                            <\/div>\r\n\r\n                            <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"quot_tick\" src=\"https:\/\/culture.org\/wp-content\/themes\/culture\/icons\/i_quot_tri.svg\" type=\"image\/svg+xml\">\r\n                        <\/div>\r\n                        <!-- end html -->\r\n                        <!-- <\/div> -->\r\n                        <!-- <\/div> -->\r\n                        <!-- <\/div> -->\r\n                                    \n<h2><strong>Elizabeth Taylor: The Illegal Abortionist<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In 1886, Elizabeth Taylor, a &#8220;ladies nurse,&#8221; performed an illegal abortion on Julia Warburton, an unmarried actress, in Melbourne, Australia.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Julia died three days later, and Elizabeth was arrested for murder. Despite being implicated in the deaths of at least eight women, it is believed that she successfully performed many more procedures.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Elizabeth was convicted of manslaughter, served her sentence, and continued her business upon release.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Edith Thompson: A Love Affair Gone Wrong<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the early 1920s, Edith Thompson had an affair with Freddy Bywaters, a shipping steward.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They planned to make a life together, but Edith&#8217;s husband, Percy, stood in their way. On October 3, 1922, Freddy stabbed Percy to death.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Both Freddy and Edith were charged with murder, convicted, and hanged on January 9, 1923.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Christiana Edmunds: A Stalker&#8217;s Poisonous Rampage<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In 1867, Christiana Edmunds became infatuated with her neighbor, Dr. Charles Beard.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Christiana attempted to poison Charles&#8217; wife, Emily, with chocolate creams laced with strychnine.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">After the attempt failed, Christiana continued her poisoning spree, contaminating chocolates at a local confectionery shop.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Four-year-old Sidney Barker died as a result, and Christiana was convicted of his murder.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A post-trial insanity diagnosis spared her from execution, and she spent the rest of her life in Broadmoor Criminal Asylum.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":154936,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[409],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-154935","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-history"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/culture.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154935"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/culture.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/culture.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/culture.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/culture.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=154935"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/culture.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154935\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/culture.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/154936"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/culture.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=154935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/culture.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=154935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/culture.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=154935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}