Psychopathy and the Female Serial Killer
A recent book analyzes the prevalence, motives, and backgrounds of female serial killers.
Updated March 31, 2026 | Reviewed by Michelle Quirk
Serial killers captivate the public’s attention . They create community turmoil as one murder unfolds into a series of murders. Infamous serial killers like “Son of Sam” David Berkowitz, “Boston Strangler” Albert DeSalvo, or “Jack the Ripper” terrorized millions in New York, Boston, and London. These marquee serial killers and countless others are all male and are frequently psychopathic . But what about female serial killers? Do they exist, and how do they compare?
Prevalence of female serial killers
Marissa Harrison, a professor at Penn State, Harrisburg, provides insight into female serial killers in her recent book, Just as Deadly: The Psychology of Female Serial Killers . 1 Though it is rare, women can be and are serial murderers . As part of her research, Harrison and her team examined records of U.S. cases dating back over 200 years. They defined a serial killer as someone who intentionally murdered three victims with a “cooling-off” period of at least one week between murders. This definition was designed to differentiate from mass murders or spree killing. Based on this definition, Harrison identified a cohort of 64 female serial killers who committed their crimes from 1821 to 2008. 2 According to Harrison, 2 percent of murders are committed by serial killers, and approximately one-sixth of that number, or 0.3 percent, may be female serial killers. 3
Harrison’s analysis indicated that the female serial killers came from all classes, but most were middle-class. While their occupational status varied, an alarming number of female serial killers, 39 percent, have worked in health-related positions, including as nurses and nurse’s aides. 4 And 77 percent of female serial killers employed passive means of murder, such as poisoning or asphyxiation. 5 In past years, before forensic analysis was routine, death by such means was often mistaken as accidental or coming from medical conditions, thereby making detection and prosecution more of a challenge. This might be a reason for undercounting female serial killers. Harrison notes that while many male serial killers were motivated by sexual desires, females were more motivated by financial gain. 6
Are female serial killers psychopaths?
Not all female serial killers are necessarily psychopaths, but the callous and unemotional hallmarks of the psychopath rule their character. These characteristics are seen in the blithe disregard for human life they exhibit as they murder their victims. An examination of a case will help make the point.
Dorothea Montalvo Puente, 7 a grandmotherly figure in her early 60s, ran a boarding house in Sacramento, California, in the 1980s and had ingratiated herself with the local social service agencies. She sought and received clients with various impairments or disabilities, and the agencies were pleased with her efforts. No one was suspicious as some of these clients disappeared. Unbeknownst to them, she murdered at least nine vulnerable people, feeding them “cake poisoned with the heavy sedative flurazepam…She smothered her victims with pillows, then dismembered them and dumped their body parts into a mass grave in her backyard. She did this to collect their disability compensation checks. But Puente did more than murder. She forged letters, posed as a medical doctor, and lied about her ethnicity , claiming she was Egyptian to some people while telling others she was Mexican. She had a string of aliases and was able to fool people by her grandmotherly side. 8 She was spared the death penalty but ultimately died in prison. Her story is vintage psychopathy.
The “halo effect” can benefit female serial killers
Another case recounted in Just as Deadly displays the power of the “ halo effect ,” where attractive and charming female defendants can sway a jury because the jurors cannot believe someone so pretty would commit such a crime . 9 Sharon Kinne committed three murders by gunshot in a period of five years from 1960 to 1964—her ex-lover’s girlfriend, her own husband, and a subsequent boyfriend in Mexico. A newspaper declared she was “probably the prettiest defendant ever tried for murder in Kansas City.” 10 At trial for the murder of her ex-lover’s girlfriend, an all-male jury found her innocent in just two hours. When her verdict was announced, she received a round of applause and later took photos with the jury and even gave out autographs. Kinne was charming and cool-headed in court but displayed psychopathic traits such as a “callous disregard for others” and a “long history of antisocial behavior.” 11 Both the prosecutor and lead detective felt she was a psychopath.
Next time Kinne went back to court, she was on trial for killing her husband with a fatal gunshot to the head. She blamed her daughter, who was less than 3 years old, for the shooting. Due to a procedural defect in the trial, Kinne's guilty verdict was overturned. She displayed no emotions and no remorse, and while awaiting a new trial, ran away with a new boyfriend to Mexico, where she killed a man at a bar with the same gun that she used to kill her ex-lover’s wife. She finally went to jail. Her history showed she had shot other men and gotten away with it. After being in jail for only five years, she escaped, and no one has seen her since. 12
The female psychopathic serial killer is a subset of serial killers that deserves more attention and study. There is scant material on this topic, but Harrison’s work has opened the door for more.
- Harrison, Marissa A. (2023). Just as Deadly: The Psychology of Female Serial Killers . Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
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Winifred Rule is a member of the Society for the Scientific Study of Psychopathy and author of Born to Destroy , the first instructional book on the female psychopath, based on her experiences and lessons learned from living with two psychopaths.
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