Everyone has certain preconceptions about criminals, and the popular image of a violent killer is certainly not a flattering one; perhaps you’d expect a hardened killer to look shifty, with cold dead eyes; your idea of a serial killer might be a wild-eyed maniac, probably wielding a bloody weapon.
But what if the phrase painted the image of a gorgeous, wholesome looking girl-next-door? Or a sultry single lady, all dyed blonde hair and perfect makeup. Those notions don’t quite measure up with what we expect from the average cold-blooded killer. But of course, in life as in art, sometimes the killer is the one you’d least expect.
This list takes a look at ten women who’ve been suspected, or convicted, of inflicting untold tragedy, turning countless lives upside down, at the same time turning preconceptions of what a killer looks like on their head. Like it or not, we’re a society that judges books by their covers. So when these femmes fatales were pulled up in court on murder charges, the world can’t help but look on in bewilderment (and just a little morbid fascination).
Sure, they’re all beautiful, but these tales of true crime are stark reminders that beauty really is only skin deep.
10. Mindy Sanghera
Pictured above is Mindy Sangera, impeccably turned out and seemingly peaceful, content, and even happy. You wouldn’t guess that this photo was of a killer, taken as she faced a long spell inside the walls of Foston Hall prison in Derbyshire, UK, where Mindy is serving a life sentence for murder. Her victim? The pregnant wife of her businessman lover.
Sana Ali was just 17 years old and in an arranged marriage when Sangera murdered her. Sanger was jealous of Sana’s marriage to successful Muslim businessman, Sair Ali, with whom Mindy was having an affair. The beautiful Sikh was 23 years old when she’s believed to have stabbed her romantic rival to death. In 2007, she was sentenced to life in prison.
However, a twist in the case emerged earlier this year. In October 2014, Sangera’s legal team suggested there was insufficient forensic evidence to convict Sangera; the case may still be reopened as it goes the Court of Appeal, and this murderous beauty might be freed.
9. Darlene Gentry
via wacotrib.com
She was the archetypal pretty Southern Belle. Darlene was the former prom queen from Texas married to the wholesome electrician, with three kids and a stable job as a nurse. Keith Gentry’s pretty wife was everything you’d expect of a small town Texan mom.
That is, until she shot her husband in cold blood, with no apparent strong motive. It was in November 2005 that Darlene called police to say her husband had been shot by home invaders. As emergency help arrived on the scene, law enforcement professionals noticed that Nurse Gentry had apparently made no effort to save her husband as he bled to death.
Suspicion arose, and upon further investigation crucial evidence arose to point to Darlene as her husband’s murder: Both forensic evidence and video tapes capturing Darlene hiding the gun in a pond proved sufficient to send her down for sixty years, leaving her three sons parentless.
8. Amanda Knox
Mark Lennihan/AP
This sorry story began in September 2007, when Amanda Knox was on an academic exchange in Perugia, Italy. Two months later, in November 2007 English student Meredith Kercher was found brutally murdered in the house Knox and Kercher shared.
Knox and her Italian lover were prime suspects in the case, and were both eventually arrested for Meredith’s murder. Knox was held in an Italian prison, and the international media followed her story attentively. The beautiful brunette was dubbed ‘Foxy Knoxy’.
The twists and turns in Knox’s case have been innumerable, but the latest installment in her story sees Knox found guilty of murder. This verdict was passed in January 2014, during a re-trial at which Amanda was not present – she had returned to the U.S. having been acquitted in a 2011 ruling.
As of 2014, she and her boyfriend were found guilty and Amanda was sentenced to over 28 years in prison. Italy are currently demanding her extradition from America.
7. Amber Hilberling
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In 2011, 23 year old Joshua Hilberling fell to his death. He tumbled from the 25th floor of his apartment building in Tulsa, Oklahoma on June 7th. On June 8th of that year, his 20 year old wife was arrested for his murder.
Amber and Joshua were seemingly happy and recently married, although Amber later admitted that the differences between their two personalities began to cause difficulties. This may seem like a weak motive for murder, and the jury who convicted Amber agreed.
She was sentenced to 25 years in prison for the callous murder of her husband, amid suggestions by many media outlets that she was enjoying the attention just a bit too much.
6. Jodi Arias
Ross D. Franklin/AP
The beautiful Jodi Arias met charismatic motivational speaker Travis Alexander in July 2006. By November 2006, Jodi was so committed to the handsome Travis that she was baptised into his church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This achieved, the two were free to date. They became a couple in early 2007.
In mid-2008, Travis Alexander was dead. His blonde bombshell girlfriend was behind bars, accused of his brutal, bloody murder. The murder was caught on cryptic photos, apparently taken by Jodi just moments after the two had been enjoying an adult photoshoot at Travis’ home.
Arias’ murder trial caused a media storm. Explicit stories of the couple’s sex life, Travis’ extensive indiscretions with other women, and Jodi’s bizarre and conflicting accounts of what happened the day Travis died made for riveting real-life crime.
In May 2013, Arias was found guilty of first degree murder and was sentenced to death. However, her defence filed for a mistrial and the sentencing retrial is currently ongoing.
5. Rachel Wade
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Rachel Wade was young and in love, when her boyfriend left her for another girl in 2008. Joshua Camacho began to date Sarah Ludemann after breaking up with 18 year old Wade, and Wade began a campaign of harassment against Ludemann.
Rachel and Sarah got into several public confrontations between 2008 and 2009, but it all came to a head in April 2009. On April 14th, Wade followed her ex-boyfriend to his house and found him with Ludemann. She proceeded to stake out Joshua’s house and followed Ludemann when she left.
Eyewitness testimonies are conflicting on what happened next. Wade had a knife with her, demonstrating intent, and she used it on Ludemann to fatal effect – but some say Ludemann was physically threatening Wade. The judge didn’t buy the self-defence plea, and sentenced Rachel Wade to 27 years for second degree murder.
4. Megan Martzen
via globalgrind.com
This case is much less brutal than many others on this list, but is surely on of the most tragic: In 2009, a 17 month old baby died while in Megan Martzan’s care.
Ella VanLeeuwen sustained fatal injuries when she and her brother were being babysat by Megan Martzan, who was 16 years old at the time. Martzan has always maintained that Ella’s injuries were accidental, caused by a fall, but she was nonetheless put on trial for the murder.
She accepted a plea bargain, pleading guilty to involuntary manslaughter and thereby admitting her part in the baby’s death. In 2013, after a lengthy legal process, she was sentenced to just 250 hours of community service.
3. Mechele Linehan
via murderpedia.org
Mechele Lineham was a young, provocative stripper when she met Kent Leppink in 1994. Michegan-born Lineham was working as a fisherman in Alaska when he met local girl Lineham, and two struck up a romantic relationship that lasted two years. During that time, Lineham lived with both Keppink and another romantic partner, John Carlin.
In 1996, Leppink was found dead in Hope, Alaska. He’d been shot four times. The trail was apparently cold, and it wasn’t until 2006 that his former lover Mechel Lineham was arrested and charged with Leppink’s murder. Authorities believed she and her lover Carlin had both conspired to kill Kent Leppink.
A letter penned by Leppink to his parents days before his death, stating that if he died Carlin and Lineham were ‘probably’ responsible, was crucial evidence in convicting Lineham. She was found guilty of murder in 2007. However, after three years behind bars the Court of Appeals found that the letter should not have been considered as evidence and her sentence was overturned. She now walks free, and is not – officially – a murderer.
2. Estibaliz Carranza
via murderpedia.org
For some of the most sinister murders on this list, Carranza became known as the ‘Ice-Cream Killer’. The Spanish-Mexican lived in Austria and ran an ice-cream parlour. It was here that she chose to stash the chopped up bodies of her husband and lover.
Carranza murdered her husband in 2008 and her lover in 2010. In her trial the waif-like, curly-haired beauty said that both her husband and lover were by turns bullying and oppressive. She pled guilty to their murders, and while in prison gave birth to a child – from another man, whom she married from within prison in March 2012.
According to the terms of her sentencing in November 2013, Carranza will spend her life in a secure mental institution.
1. Casey Anthony
via cbsnews.com
Casey Anthony became one of the most notorious women in the world when she went on trial for the murder of her 2 year old daughter, Caylee Anthony. Caylee Anthony went missing in July 2008, and her mother was charged with Caylee’s murder in October of the same year.
In what would become one of the most talked-about murder trial of the 21st century, hundreds of pieces of evidence were presented in a case against Ohio-born Casey Anthony. Prosecutors sought the death penalty for Casey Anthony.
Circumstances weren’t on Casey’s side: She was partying while her daughter was missing, her car – according to Caylee’s grandmother – smelt like there had been a dead body inside it. More damning still, an internet search on chemical chloroform was found on the Caseys’ computer. There had been chloroform detected in the trunk of Casey’s car.
Despite this evidence and Casey’s conflicting testimony provided to police, the jury made the hugely controversial decision to find Casey not guilty of her daughter’s murder in July 2009. She now walks free, unencumbered by the damning title of murderer but plagued by the legacy of her highly-publicised legal battle.
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