When people hear the term “serial killer,” they almost automatically picture a man. It’s not just because most true crime documentaries, podcasts, and books focus on male offenders, but because society has been conditioned to believe that women aren’t capable of this kind of prolonged and calculated violence. The truth is far more unsettling. Female serial killers do exist, and they are not as rare as most people think. The only reason they seem rare is because we’re not taught to recognize them when we see them.

There have been 95 known female serial killers born between the 19th and 20th centuries. That’s not a small number. That’s nearly a hundred women who have killed three or more people, with a cooling-off period between each act, across different cultures, religions, and parts of the world. Yet when people try to recall the name of even one, most can only think of Aileen Wuornos. The reason for this is not that other women didn’t exist or weren’t as brutal, but because they didn’t fit the stereotype of what a serial killer should look like. And when something doesn’t fit the stereotype, society often ignores it or explains it away.

Women are often seen as nurturing, caring, and emotionally driven. This stereotype creates blind spots that prevent investigators, media, and even the public from recognizing violent women for what they are. In many cases, these women went undetected for years because no one suspected them. The idea that a mother, a nurse, or a sweet-looking neighbor could be behind a series of calculated murders just doesn’t align with our collective belief system. And that belief system is what allows some of the most dangerous offenders to continue undetected.

The myth that women only kill when under the control of a male partner is one of the most persistent narratives in true crime. Yes, there are women who kill alongside their boyfriends or husbands, but that’s only part of the story. There are many women who kill entirely on their own. Jane Toppan, also known as Jolly Jane, was an Aries who killed alone and later claimed she felt sexual excitement during the murders. Juana Barraza, the most prolific female serial killer on record, killed at least 42 elderly women in Mexico by pretending to be a nurse and strangling them with her own hands. Christine Malèvre, a French nurse born in 1970, was convicted for killing terminally ill patients under the guise of mercy. These women didn’t need male accomplices. They planned, lured, and executed their murders without any external coercion.

Another reason female serial killers are often overlooked is because their methods differ from those of men. While male serial killers are typically more physically violent, often using weapons such as knives or guns, women tend to rely on quieter, less confrontational methods. Poisoning, suffocation, and overdosing are far more common among women. These are methods that often don’t raise suspicion right away, especially when used on vulnerable populations like children, the elderly, or hospital patients. Because these deaths appear more “natural,” they can slip through the cracks and be dismissed as accidental or expected.

This difference in method doesn’t mean that female killers are less violent or less dangerous. In fact, many female serial killers show the same signs of manipulation, sadism, and control seen in their male counterparts. Theresa Knorr tortured and killed her own daughters. Karla Homolka drugged her little sister so that her husband could abuse and kill her, and she was seen laughing on camera shortly before the murder. Myra Hindley lured children for Ian Brady and posed on their graves. These are not acts of helpless victims or passive participants. These are choices made by women who were fully aware of their actions.

Medical killers are a particularly chilling category of female serial killers. Christine Malèvre, Lucy Letby, Ludivine Chambet, Beverly Allitt, and Linda Hazzard were all in positions of trust, charged with the care and well-being of the sick and vulnerable. Instead, they used their roles to manipulate and control life and death. Some claimed to be relieving their victims from pain. Others created emergencies to later play the hero. These women were not simply misguided caregivers. They were killers who used their professions as a cover to act on their impulses and fantasies. And because they wore a nurse’s uniform or held a medical license, their crimes went unnoticed for years.

There is also a strong tendency to view female killers through the lens of mental illness or trauma in a way that often excuses their actions. It’s true that many of these women had deeply troubled backgrounds. Juana Barraza was sold by her own mother for three beers. Aileen Wuornos grew up in abuse and became homeless by her teenage years. Myra Hindley was manipulated by a partner she idolized. But trauma alone does not create a killer. Plenty of people survive terrible childhoods without becoming murderers. When we rely too heavily on victim narratives to explain female violence, we risk removing their agency and responsibility. These women made conscious choices to kill. They deserve to be studied, understood, and held accountable the same way male serial killers are.

Another factor in the underrepresentation of female serial killers is media portrayal. Female killers are either sexualized, infantilized, or portrayed as brainwashed partners. When Karla Homolka’s case went public, the press dubbed her “The Barbie Killer” because of her looks. The media couldn’t seem to reconcile her appearance with her actions. As a result, the focus shifted from what she did to how she looked. That kind of framing doesn’t just distort public perception. It actively prevents people from recognizing similar patterns in others. If you expect every serial killer to look and act like Hannibal Lecter, you’ll never see one coming who looks like your neighbor or a pediatric nurse.

Astrology helps us look beyond appearances and get closer to behavioral patterns. In the case of female serial killers, Capricorn shows up as the most common Sun sign, followed by Virgo and Gemini. Capricorn is known for its emotional detachment, pragmatic thinking, and control-oriented nature. Virgo brings an obsessive focus on detail, while Gemini is known for its duality and unpredictability. These signs don’t cause violence, but they reflect traits that can, when combined with specific life circumstances and psychological issues, result in criminal behavior. Astrology doesn’t excuse anything, but it gives us a framework for understanding why some people may be more prone to certain behaviors, especially when cross-analyzed with psychological profiling.

The myth of rarity allows female serial killers to hide in plain sight. When investigators assume that women don’t kill, they don’t look closely enough. When the media downplays female violence, the public doesn’t take it seriously. And when society refuses to confront the idea that women are just as capable of evil as men, these crimes continue to be overlooked or misunderstood. That needs to change. We have to stop thinking of female serial killers as rare exceptions and start recognizing them as a very real, very dangerous part of the criminal world.

The data is there. The cases are there. The patterns are there. It’s not a matter of possibility. It’s a matter of visibility. And the sooner we stop treating female serial killers like anomalies, the better we’ll become at identifying them, stopping them, and understanding what drives them.

Letting go of the outdated belief that women are naturally nurturing and incapable of extreme violence opens the door to better awareness, better prevention, and ultimately, better safety for everyone. If we keep pretending that women only kill when manipulated or desperate, we’ll keep getting blindsided. We’ll keep missing the signs. And people will continue to die because no one wanted to believe that a woman could be capable of such horror.

It’s time we take off the rose-colored glasses and look at reality as it is. Not every female killer fits the mold of a tortured victim or brainwashed accomplice. Many are predators in their own right. Many know exactly what they’re doing and why. And many are still out there, undetected, because we weren’t ready to see them.