Female Killers

Sylvia Seegrist - Twisted and Disturbed

2010-03-06T18:43:00.004-05:00

I've noticed lately that, despite the fact that the only graphic content to disturb me is the harm to children, every single post I've made so far has involved that in one way or another. Let's try and avoid this. Today, it's SYLVIA SEEGRIST!

As you can likely tell from the above picture, Sylvia Seegrist was a sane and intelligent woman who committed her crimes to express deep, political commentary.

Wait a second...no, sorry, she was actually a paranoid schizophrenic who didn't take her pills.

Sylvia Seegrist had an obsession with the military. She constantly wore green army fatigues, and so wanted to join the army. As it turns out, the military doesn't allow psychologically-insane women into the army. Funny though, how the American people allow psychologically-insane men into the presidency. ZING!

Seegrist, ever the cunning lady, spent a lot of time at the local mall. A mall she intended to be the venue for her shooting spree. Unfortunately...she wasn't THAT subtle. She would wear her army clothes in the spa, she'd harass customers, even talking about how great OTHER shooting sprees were. This strategy slightly backfired, however, because she tried to purchase a rifle at the nearby K-mart. The clerks in charge joked that they didn't have any in stock, and by "joked" I mean they were scared out of their mind from this woman. She eventually got a gun at a different store though, and on October 30, 1985, the day before Halloween, the shooting began.

She parked outside the mall and immediately shot at a man about 30 yards a way. Now keep in mind, when she missed, she was OK with that. She was just sort of walking and shooting, no real targets. If she hit, she hit. If she missed, she missed. Consequently, the man she missed, seeing the car she had driven in, popped the tire so she couldn't escape in it. This wouldn't matter ultimately, but A+ for effort, am I right?

As she was just outside the entrance, she shot and killed a two-year old who was...FUCK, I forgot about that...who was outside a restaurant with his parents waiting to eat. As she entered the mall and began firing she managed to kill two more people. Most people ran and successfully escaped when they heard the gunfire. This is where her spree comes to an end. John Laufer thought, since this WAS the day before Halloween, that this was some creep pulling a stupid prank. He LITERALLY walks right up to her and disarms her gun. WOAH! Close one! She forced her into a nearby store as mall security arrived, followed by real police. When one of them asked why she had done it, she said,"My family makes me nervous."

Seegrist was deemed competent to stand trial. She was deemed guilty, but also insane (despite being competent to stand trial. Obviously, there's a legal difference of some kind). She was sentenced to three life-sentences for the three people she killed and seven 10-year terms for each account of attempted murder. She currently resides in the State Correction Institution in Muncy, Pennslyvania. Legend has it that she remains crazy to this day.

EDIT: Okay, apparently she's not crazy. Big fucking deal. I didn't mean it. Next time I'll try and put an asterisk next to each statement I make as a joke so you people can tell the difference.

Fun Facts

*The rifle Sylvia Seegrist used was a Mini 14

Stacey Lannert - Taking out the trash

2010-02-09T01:51:00.003-05:00

Stacey Lannert was born in 1972 in Missouri. She lived with her father, Tom, her mother, Deb, and her sister, Christy. Take a look. What a lovely family.

With just one tiny problem. Something that might be a problem down the road. Daddy has been having incestual relationships with his daughter Stacey. Since third grade, Mr. Tom Lannert has been sexually abusing his daughter. It often goes to intercourse whenever either A) he is drunk, or B) Deborah kicks him out of bed.

As Tom was having sex with his daughter, it may not surprise you to learn he was a manipulative bastard. He swore Stacey to secrecy, made her think that this was something dads did with their favorite daughters. It is true that there is no known evidence of claim that Christy was sexually abused. No, Christy had to settle for just the physical punishment. Of course, you can only trick a kid about this kind of thing for so long. By eighth grade, Stacey realizes that this whole thing is a little fucked up. She tried avoiding him but surprise, that just pisses him off even more. Some people like to get those stress balls you can squeeze. Tom likes to abuse his children. I guess we all have ways fo blowing off steam.

It's around this point that Stacey gets her own dose of physical punishment as well. Whenever she expresses any negative reaction over his sexual desires, he beats her and rapes her anyway, sometimes giving oral sex.

People often seem to wonder how those around victims of such heinous abuse don't realize what's happening. Well, they did. Or at least suspected. Stacey's mother, cousin, babysitter, and psychologist all suspected she was being abused. Her mother found a bloody pair of Stacey's underpants in the basement where Tom often abused her. To top it off, Deborah would occasionally hear Stacy was crying in the basement. Of course, you'd think maternal instinct would be to help out, but she'd think to herself "Well, Tom's down there. I'm sure he'll help her with whatever is bothering her." Why did nobody say anything? Well, I don't know. Lack of evidence, maybe. People have a tendency to not like being accused of heinous crimes, so if I were to speculate, I'd say nobody wanted to pursue beyond their suspicions. Personally, the bloody underwear found in the same room where Stacey kept crying while deranged, drunk, daddy was down there with her would have done it for me, but to each his own.

When Stacey was 13, her parents got divorced. Both daughters stayed with Tom. With Deborah gone, daddy was all alone with his kids. It was like the carnival for the sick fuck. He drank and abused at increasing frequencies, often going to multiple attacks per week. Stacey finally left home after dropping out of her senior year in high school, going to live with her mom. Christy was left behind. But Christy and Stacey would still talk over the phone. Christy began pleading for Stacey to come home. The assault was too much to take. She needed her sister. Stacey began feeling guilt. She returned home to Missouri.

Daddy hadn't learned his lesson. Once home, Stacey became the subject of his twisted desires once more. And at last something was starting to click in her brain. What would it be like, she said to herself, if daddy was gone? Not only would he be dead, but she'd inherit a great deal of money that she and her sister could live on. They would finally be free.

Stacey and Christy spent their hours at a fair, and returned home at 4:15 am on the morning of July 4th, 1990, to sneak their puppy out, worried Tom was going to kill it. Stacey sneaks through the basement window. When she gets in, she sees a rifle. The same rifle she used when she learned how to shoot a gun. This is it, she told herself. This is where I can kill him. It has to be now. It WILL be now.

Tom was sleeping on the couch as Stacey shot him in his collar bone. He didn't quite ralize he was shot, he simply jolted up and ordered Stacey to call 911. Stacey quite remarkably obeyed, but was having trouble finding the phone. He yelled at her for taking so long, and she began to panic. This tells me just how huge the extent of his control over her was. Here she is, after 18 years of abuse, shooting the man responsible for all her pain, and she's taking orders to save him. But she recomposed herself, remembered what she had intended to do, and thinks to herself "He doesn't deserve to live". She returned to him, where he was now lying back down on the couch. She shot him again. She would not miss this time. The bullet hit him in the head, killing him instantly. She left the house the same way she came in - through the basement door. She kept the rifle with her.

The following day, she had some friends help her cover up the crime. One friend got rid of the gun. Another friend was with her when she went back to the house, pretending to discover the body for the first time. She called the police, but the problem with having so many people help you is that the secret spreads. And some secrets are hard to keep. The more people you tell, the more you risk that secret coming out. And so it was that during questioning, one of her friends implicated her in the shooting. She was arrested for the murder of Tom Lannert.

Initially, Stacey was given a very harsh sentence, given the abusive circumstances. Life in prison with no possibility of parole(honestly, triple-murdering 12-year old in an otherwise perfectly stable family gets 10 years? I heard the Canadians were friendlier but what the fuck?). However, in January of 2009, Missouri Governor Matt Blunt commuted the sentence to 20 years, which as the arrest was made roughly 20 years ago, was essentially time served. She currently awaits a parole hearing.

I've read about so many of these female killers. Killers from all around the world, of every status, of every race, etc... It is amazing how disturbing some minds can be. But then every now and then, one surprises me, because I find that I just can't find it in me to find an act deplorable. I just can't be angry about it. And why should I be? I've read about women who were psychopaths, delusional, psychotic, petty, greedy, and envious.

But Stacey Lannert was just taking out the trash.

Fun Facts

* After her release from prison, Stacey Lannert appeared on the Oprah Winfrey show on May 14, 2009.

* Stacey Lannert runs the website Healing Sisters, a non-profit agency to end sexual abuse in America.

Brenda Spencer - A case of the Mondays

2010-01-31T23:06:00.003-05:00

Brenda Ann Spencer was 16 when she committed her heinous crime. She developed a taste for guns and violence at an early age. While most parents might find this disturbing, Brenda's clearly ever-so-loving father bought her a .22 caliber rifle for her in the Christmas of 1978. Roughly a month later, on January 29th, 1979, Brenda took out her rifle, aimed outside her bedroom window, and began shooting towards the building across the street - Cleveland Elementary School in San Diego, California.

I said in my first post that violent details don't bother me, but there is an exception. I can't stand it when it involves children. You can show me a picture of a man's brains leaking out of his forehead and I'll stare at you and nod in acknowledgement, but tell me a story of a kid getting killed and it will really get to me. That is why this female killer is one I hate more than most. Having said that, she only managed to kill two people, both adults, and the children she shot at were only injured.

The principal, Burton Wragg, tried to protect the children when he was shot and suffered an aortic injury, an injury that's very difficult to live through even with immediate medical assistance. The head custodian, Mike Suchar, attempted to pull Wragg to safety, but was also hit by Brenda's onslaught, leading to his death as well. Brenda had injured eight children and one police officer, when she finally stopped shooting when the police put a garbage truck in between the school and her window. She barricaded herself in the house for 7 hours. During that, the phone rang.

The phone call was from a reporter who simply asked, "Why?". Brenda gave her infamous response "I don't like Mondays".

"I just did it for the fun of it. I don't like Mondays. This livens up the day. I have to go now. I shot a pig [policeman] I think and I want to shoot more. I'm having too much fun [to surrender]."

"I had no reason for it, and it was just a lot of fun" "It was just like shooting ducks in a pond"' "[The children] looked like a herd of cows standing around; it was really easy pickings."

You can see why, despite not killing any children, this story really gets to me.

After seven hours, she finally surrended to the police. Despite being a young age of 16, she was tried as an adult. She pleaded guilty to two counts of murder and assult with a deadly weapon, getting a sentence of 25 years to life. She has been repeatedly denied parole, and will not be eligible again until 2019.

Fun Facts

* The phrase "I Don't Like Mondays" was written on a wall in The Breakfast Club.

* In the 1990 novel by Jonathan Kellerman, Time Bomb, a woman attempts to shoot children at a Los Angeles elementary school. This may have been at least partially inspired by the case of Brenda Spencer.

Jasmine Richardson - Forbidden Love

2010-01-24T22:56:00.002-05:00

It's April 23rd, 2006. In the small Canadian town of Medicine Hat, the bodies of Marc and Debra Richardson are found dead in the basement, both stabbed repeatedly. Upstairs, their 8-year old son is found - also dead. The scene is horrific, and that escalates when they see pictures of the daughter. Her body is nowhere to be found. They fear that she has been taken captive, and immediately put her name and picture out to the press in hopes of finding her. During the search, the police look inside her school locker. Inside is a picture.

A very disturbing picture.

It is a picture of a girl with her family at a picnic, and she's very angry. She gets some gasoline and puts it in the sprinklers. When the gasoline gets over them, she sets them on fire. She and her boyfriend laugh as they run around on fire screaming for help, as they go "Haha, you're burning alive!"

The picture above is a picture of the daughter when she was 8. Here she is at 12.

Meet Jasmine Richardson.

Jasmine has lately been getting into some eccentric things. She proclaims herself gothic and a Wiccan, as well as having an interest in human anatomy and blood, as she wrote on her MySpace page. But that's not all, she's also been getting involved with this young man here, Jeremy Steinke.

Jeremy Steinke is a 23-year old man who, like his lover Jasmine, has an interest in the Wiccan culture, among other dark concepts. He also proclaims himself to be a 300-year old werewolf, and has a violent record. Clearly a match made in heaven, these two involve themselves in a lengthy relationship and - more disgustingly - a sexual one.

But - for SOME reason - Jasmine's parents aren't crazy about Jeremy Steinke. Perhaps it's the age difference. Perhaps it's his dark nature. Or perhaps it's because she's having sex with him at the age of 12. Whatever the reason, Jasmine's parents forbid her to see him. Of course, being a gothic preteen, Jasmine reacts with angst and insecurity. Now that her parents have successfully ruined her life, she defies them by seeing Jeremy in secret and let's him in on her growing hatred. She says she wants to kill them.

Hey, I've had the teen angst moments too, we all have, but this is maybe a little far. And so I would like to pause at this part to address a concern I've seen in several message boards. The idea that there was some kind of "abuse" going on here. That the parents had essentially kept her in a prison and interfered too much in her life. By all means, it is true that many female killers are the way they are because of some kind of abusive history. It often messes up their psychology to make them more angry, hateful, insecure, or unconnected.

However...

This does not qualify as abuse. I have a baby sister who I'm extremely protective of. I get an aneurysm when she picks up a piece of string. If she's 12 and dating a 23-year old loony who thinks he's a fucking werewolf, then I am putting my foot down. There is nothing outrageous about the reaction of her parents. I can't imagine anyone wanting their children to be anywhere near such a nutcase.

Eventually, they begin planning the murders. On the night of April 22nd, the killings begin.

Jeremy sneaks into the basement. Debra Richardson, hearing a noise, goes down to check it out. She turns on the light to find Jeremy with a knife. She yells as Jeremy grabs her and stabs her repeatedly, yelling "Die! Die! Die! Die!" The father comes down seeing his wife being murdered and tries to fight back. Marc Richardson grabs a screwdriver and swipes at him. But it's no use, as Jeremy is better armed. According to Jeremy, before Marc died, he asked "Why?" and Jeremy said "`cause you treat your daughter like shit, she wanted it this way."

Upstairs, Jasmine is trying to strangle her brother, which I suppose is the humane way of killing your siblings. Jeremy comes up soaked in blood and tells her that she needs to kill his brother. Jasmine recalls the conversation as "He yells at me, ‘Stab him, just stab him! Slit his throat!’ I said, ‘I can't, I can't,’ and he said, ‘You have to. I did this for you.’"

Jasmine gives in and grabs the knife. As she nears her brother, he cries in fear, yelling "I'm scared! I'm too young to die!" His pleas for life are in vain, however, and she stabs him in his upper body. Steinke finishes the job by slashing his throat.

Following the killings, Jasmine and Jeremy go to a friend's apartment to have sex.

Obviously, leaving clues like drawings of you laughing at your family's death doesn't imply that these two had put much thought in getting away with this. They were caught the next day on April 24th. While in prison, the two exchange letters. It is sometimes nice when we see someone who commits such atrocities try to apologize to the community, as futile and unfulfilling as it may be. However, we don't get that, and instead we get something more like a preteen instant message, which I suppose it was in some ways.

Steinke to Jasmine:

"I love you more than life its self, I've added you to my visitors lists so once your released please visit often. Never forget how much I care or that I love you. We can keep writing each other till we can be together again. Without you this life isn’t worth living… U said you want to get engaged? Then here's a Q...Will U marry me? If so then it is a verbal agreement!" [sic throughout].

And back:

"Ahahaha! I never thought I'd find myself hystericaly laughing in a holding cell in these kinds of circumstances...or ever really. But still! ahaha you make me so happy! Yes! Yes! I will, I would love to… Interesting information I came across. Anything you can say to anyone, including a phycistrist, unless issued by a lawyer can be used against you! For fucks sake. Rawr. The world really is against us." [sic throughout].

They're not exactly devastated by what they've done, and seem to not have a great handle on how dire the situation is.

At least for Jeremy.

Jeremy Steinke was sentenced to 3 life sentences, and will be eligible for parole after serving 25 years. What happens with Jasmine is much more shocking.

Due to the Youth Criminal Justice Act, the lowest age someone can be sentenced is 12, which is perfect for Jasmine. However, anyone under the age of 14 can NOT be charged as an adult. Jasmine is charged with triple homicide (despite not actually killing her parents, she was part of a conspiracy to do so) and is given the maximum sentence someone of her age can receive.

Ten years.

According to the same act, someone of her age can not have her name released by the press. However, I am not a Canadian citizen, nor am I affiliated with any sort of press, and so I have and will happily published her name, because it is a matter of my opinion that someone who plotted to kill her family at TWELVE and will be released in less than a decade should have their name known. I guess it's just my opinion that some people might want to be wary of a murderous psychopath in their community.

Keep an eye out for this one. She is, by far, the most interesting murderer I've ever researched into to.

Fun Facts

*Jasmine Richardson is the youngest person in Canada to be charged for multiple homicides.

*Before the murders, Jeremy Steinke and some friends watched the movie Natural Born Killers.

*Steinke's friend, Kacy Lancaster, was charged with being an accessory for disposing of evidence, although she did so unintentionally.

*Jeremy and Jasmine broke up in prison. Whoops!

Female Killers - The Blog

2010-01-24T18:18:00.000-05:00

Who doesn't love a good murder mystery?

For years I've loved the mystery genre, but my interests are not limited to fiction. Indeed, I have a high interest in the non-fiction realm of homicide. Not out of some psychotic admiration, but I just can't help being intreauged by the psychology of the people involved, the way these people think. The cold-bloodedness that can allow people to do this again and again and again. On one hand, I think it's important to know about these types of people so one can spot them before they kill a human being, but on another hand, I just find it interesting.

And this blog is dedicated to the murderers who have always fascinated me. A taboo concept in society that is in such amazingly stark contrast to what we percieve to be the perpetrators of such crimes. They are the female killers. Women who kill for money, jealousy, or even just for fun. We rarely hear of them, they are far less abundant, but they're there, and much more deadly. Women tend to be more calculating and quiet with their crimes than men. The average mlae serial killer takes about 4-5 years to be caught. The average female serial killer takes 8-10 years. I hate to be a traitor to my gender, but they're smarter than us in this field.

Their lack of abundancy makes them even more deadly. We're so used to seeing extreme acts of violence from males that we have trouble visualizing it being caused by a woman. They are masterful, manipulative, calculating killers.

I'll try to write about a new killer every week or so. A few notes here. I will not censor anything. I will give you details to the fullest extent I can, so if you have a weak stomach, this isn't the place to be. I am the kind of person who, while I might morally disapprove of such things, am not even remotely shaken or disturbed by violent images or disturbing details. So I will write using such graphic content. Also, a disclaimer, while I will try to be as factually accurate as possible with my entries, this validity of this site as a source should be considered entirely unofficial.