Just as Deadly
The Psychology of Female Serial Killers
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- $25.99
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- $25.99
Publisher Description
You've heard of Ted Bundy and John Wayne Gacy. But have you heard of Amy Archer-Gilligan? Or Belle Gunness? Or Nannie Doss? Women have committed some of the most disturbing serial killings ever seen in the United States. Yet scientific inquiry, criminal profiling, and public interest have focused more on their better-known male counterparts. As a result, female serial killers have been misunderstood, overlooked, and underestimated. In this riveting account, Dr. Marissa A. Harrison draws on original scientific research, various psychological perspectives, and richly detailed case studies to illuminate the stark differences between female and male serial killers' backgrounds, motives, and crimes. She also emphasizes the countless victims of this grisly phenomenon to capture the complexity and tragedy of serial murder. Meticulously weaving data-based evidence and insight with intimate storytelling, Just as Deadly reveals how and why these women murder—and why they often get away with it.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this engrossing account, research psychologist Harrison (Judging a Book by Its Cover: The Connection Between Physical Traits and Psychology with Susan M. Hughes) draws on 64 case studies, including that of Patty Cannon, who 200 years ago became the first known female serial killer in the U.S., to examine the similarities and differences between male and female serial killers. Unlike their male counterparts, female serial killers tend to be caregivers, nurses, and parents, the author notes. Such was the case of nurse Kristen Gilbert, who murdered at least four disabled patients at a U.S. veterans hospital in the 1990s. Gilbert enjoyed the thrill of medical emergencies, so she created them, but Harrison suggests most female serial killers are motivated by financial gain, like Dorothea Puente, who murdered her elderly boarders for their Social Security checks, or Cannon, whose gang enslaved and murdered for profit. Harrison also posits that female serial killers are less likely to sexually defile their victims, and they tend not to travel as far as male serial killers in search of victims. While highly clinical, this is well worth reading for anyone wanting to understand how female serial killers work.
