A Brief History
On August 30, 1918, Fanny Kaplan fired shots at Vladimir I. Lenin, leader of the Russian Revolution and founder of the Soviet Union, wounding him. Had Lenin died at this time and not six years later, history might well have been different. The fairer sex has sometimes turned to violence throughout history, either in domestic situations, for political reasons, in war or for idealistic purposes. Here 10 such murderous women are listed, in no particular order.
Digging Deeper
Her real name was Feiga Roytblat, and she was Jewish socialist revolutionary in Russia. Already in 1906 at age 16, she had been given a life sentence for her participation in a terrorist bomb plot. During her captivity, she was severely beaten and had nearly been blinded. After she was freed during the Russian Revolution, she attempted to kill Lenin because she considered him “a traitor to the revolution”. Kaplan fired 3 shots, hitting Lenin twice, one shot going in the shoulder and the other going through the neck and into a lung. Her attempted assassination along with the assassination of a Commissar (the head of a government department in the Soviet Union pre-1946), prompted the Red Terror, a mass round up and execution of people believed to be a threat to the Bolsheviks. Kaplan was executed with a bullet to the back of the head.
9. Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme, Sarah Jane Moore, Assassins.
A member of the loony “Manson Family,” Fromme attempted to kill U.S. President Gerald Ford in 1975 with a Colt .45 automatic pistol. Fromme, however, apparently did not really know how the pistol worked because although the magazine had bullets in it, the chamber was empty. Sentenced to life in prison, she was paroled in 2009. Only 3 weeks later, Sarah Jane Moore also tried to kill President Ford and fired a shot from her .38 revolver but missed. Moore also got life in prison and was paroled in 2007.
8. Violet Gibson, Assassin.
Gibson was a 49-year-old Irish woman in 1926 when she fired 3 shots at Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, hitting him in the beezer (nose) twice! Mussolini’s wounds were not severe, and he continued with his parade. Since Gibson appeared to be insane, Mussolini had her released without charges and sent her to England where she spent the remainder of her life in an insane asylum.
7. Thenmozhi Rajaratnam, Suicide Bomber.
Part of a terrorist Indian and Sri Lankan separatist group known as the Tamil Tigers, in 1991 Rajaratnam blew up herself, Rajiv Gandhi, Prime Minister of India, and as many as 25 others by detonating a bomb that had been strapped to her waist. Gandhi was the son of Indira Gandhi who in 1984 had also been assassinated. History and Headlines Note: Rajiv Gandhi is of no relation to Mohandas “Mahatma” Gandhi.
6. Izola Curry, Assassin.
History suffered another close call when Curry, a deranged African-American woman, stabbed Martin Luther King, Jr. in the chest with a letter opener in 1958. King was at a book signing, when the well-dressed and normal-looking Curry stabbed him deeply in the chest. Luckily King was saved by a very delicate surgical procedure, and fortunately Curry had been a little off mark in her aim as well; the letter opener was found to be resting right against King’s aorta! When arrested, the 42-year old Curry was also found to be carrying a loaded gun in her purse. She did not have a real reason for attacking King but believed he and the NAACP were communists and were torturing her. She was then sent to a mental asylum. Today at 98 she may be in a nursing home. Whether or not she is alive is unknown.
5. Lolita Lebron, Terrorist.
A Puerto Rican nationalist, in 1954 Lebron (No relation to Lebron James!) and 3 men attacked the U.S. House of Representatives, opening fire with pistols and wounding 5 congressmen. She and the others were arrested and charged with attempted murder. She served 25 years in prison before being pardoned by President Carter in 1981 and enjoyed nearly 30 years of freedom before dying in Puerto Rico of natural causes in 2010. History and Headlines Fact: As a teenager, Lebron had won a beauty contest.
4. Lyudmila Pavlichenko, Sniper.
In her senior year at college in 1941, as the Germans were invading the Soviet Union, this 24-year-old Ukrainian girl rushed to enlist and volunteered for training as a sniper. With 309 confirmed kills, she is the deadliest known female sniper. After being wounded by shrapnel in 1942, Pavlichenko was sent on a publicity tour to the United States, where she became the first ever Soviet citizen received by an American president. When the war was over, she completed her degree and went on to work as an historical researcher, however, she died at only 58 years old in 1974 (Please see the History and Headlines article “10 Women Who Went to War“).
3. Julia Agrippina, Empress/Assassin.
The sister of the infamous Roman Emperor Caligula, in 49 A.D. Julia married her uncle Claudius, also Emperor of Rome. She is believed to have killed the son of Claudius with poison to make her son, the reviled Nero, heir to the throne. She then allegedly killed Claudius by feeding him poisoned mushrooms, finally putting Nero on the throne of Rome. Agrippina the Younger, as she is known, died in 59 A.D. at about age 43, quite possibly murdered by Nero (like mother, like son…). Nero was rumored to have tried to kill his mother with poison on 3 occasions, by having a mechanical ceiling over her bed fall on her and by involving her boat in a wreck. Nero allegedly finally had to resort to sending assassins to kill her who returned “claiming” that she had committed suicide. Agrippina, herself, is believed to have killed at least 10 people during her lifetime.
2. Aileen Wournos, Serial Killer.
Portrayed by Charlize Theron in the 2003 movie Monster, while working as a prostitute, Wournos killed 7 men in Florida in only a year (1989-1990). She claimed self-defense, saying all her victims had tried to rape her but was convicted of the murders nonetheless and executed by lethal injection in 2002. At the time of her death, she was the tenth woman to have been executed after the Supreme Court had lifted the ban on capital punishment in 1976. Prior to the murders, Wournos had been a career criminal who had been involved in many crimes ranging from drunk driving, to robbery, assault, theft and shooting a gun from a moving car. History and Headlines Fact: Among her murder victims were a former chief of police and a police reserve officer. History and Headlines Fact: Theron earned the Oscar for Best Actress for her portrayal of Wournos.
1. Charlotte Corday, Assassin.
In 1793, Corday stabbed Jean-Paul Marat to death as he bathed in his bathtub. Marat was a French revolutionary who was a little too radical for Corday, which prompted her actions. She hoped his death would stop the violence. She did not attempt to flee, was put on trial, found guilty and executed by guillotine. Years later Corday was given the title “Angel of Assassination,” and her victim is famously depicted in a painting by Jacques-Louis David known as the The Death of Marat in which a note held by Marat implicates Corday in his death.
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For another interesting event that happened on August 30, please see the History and Headlines article: “Worst Indian Massacre of Settlers in the South (Fort Mims Massacre).”
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Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
MacDonald, Les and Tristan MacDonald. Hell Hath No Fury: Women Who Kill. 2013.
Vronsky, Peter. Female Serial Killers: How and Why Women Become Monsters. Berkley Books, 2007.