How politics has struggled to create the perfect leaders
In the American criminal justice system, it’s quite rare for a woman to be executed. The majority of convicts sentenced to death are men, with women making up only 3.6% of the executions performed in the country’s four-century history. While more men around the world have received capital punishment for offenses like murder and treason, the scales tipped the other way for crimes such as adultery and witchcraft.
From accused witches to spies to queens, women from all walks of life have met brutal deaths at the end of a rope or an executioner's axe. Click through the following gallery to remember the most infamous executions of women in history.
Aileen Wuornos is still one of the most famous female killers in US history. Wuornos was a sex worker who killed seven clients between the years 1989 and 1990, and is widely considered America's first female serial killer. She was arrested in 1991 and executed by lethal injection in 2002.
Ethel Rosenberg was the only woman in US history to be executed for espionage. Ethel and her husband Julius were two New Yorkers accused of being Soviet spies during the Cold War. They were found guilty and sentenced to death. They both were executed by electric chair in Sing Sing Prison in 1953.
Marie Antoinette was an Austrian princess who became the last queen of France through her marriage to King Louis XVI. The French Revolution led to the abolition of the monarchy in 1792, and Louis was executed. In 1793, Marie Antoinette was put on trial and found guilty of high treason within two days. She was executed by guillotine in front of a crowd at the Place de la Révolution.
Olympe de Gouges was a feminist playwright and activist during the French Revolution. However, she soon became disenchanted when it became clear that women’s rights were not to be included in the new regime brought by revolutionaries like Maximilien Robespierre. Her criticism of the revolutionary government led to her arrest and execution by guillotine in 1793.
Like Marie Antoinette, Alexandra Feodorovna was the last of her kind. She was married to Tsar Nicolas II and was the last empress of Russia, thanks to the Russian Revolution.
The royal family were taken captive in 1917 and moved around various safe houses as the revolution played out. On the night of July 16, 1918, the family were awoken and told to dress. They were brought down to a tiny cellar and executed by firing squad. Nicolas, Alexandra, their four daughters, and one son were all slew that night, but the Bolsheviks covered up the execution for many years.
Perhaps the most famous woman in history to be executed, Joan of Arc was a peasant girl turned warrior who led the French into battle against the English when she was just 17. Joan believed she was receiving divine messages that guided her actions, and, in the desperation brought on by the Hundred Years' War, Charles VII decided to give her a chance.
Joan led the army to victory in the Siege of Orléans, but was later captured by the English and sentenced to death for the crime of heresy. She was famously burned at the stake at just 19 years of age. She became the national heroine of France and a saint of the Catholic Church.
Mary Surratt was the first woman in the US to be executed. She was convicted and sentenced to death for her role in the plot to assassinate President Abraham Lincoln. Surratt ran a boarding house with the help of her son John, who befriended a man named John Wilkes Booth.
John Surratt, John Wilkes Booth, and their other pro-Southern friends would gather at Mary’s boarding house. They hatched a plan to kidnap President Lincoln, but Wilkes Booth decided to assassinate him instead when the Confederacy fell. Mary Surratt was arrested as a conspirator in Lincoln’s assassination, and was executed by hanging on July 7, 1865.
Anne Boleyn was Henry VIII’s second wife, for whom he famously founded the Church of England so he could divorce his first wife and remarry. Boleyn gave birth to the future Queen Elizabeth I, but failed to give Henry a son. As he grew impatient and his eyes started to wander, Anne’s position grew fragile.
With the help of Anne’s jealous sister-in-law, Jane Boleyn, Henry had Anne convicted of the crimes of adultery (supposedly with her own brother, Jane’s husband) and treason. Anne was beheaded for her crimes, and Henry married his third wife 11 days later.
Catherine Howard was Henry VIII’s fifth wife and the second to be executed. At 19 years of age, she was the youngest of his wives. After 14 months together, Henry reportedly discovered that Catherine was not a virgin before their marriage and had been engaged to a man named Thomas Culpepper. She had made Culpepper her personal secretary and was likely carrying on an affair with him.
Henry created a new law declaring that it was treason for an “unchaste woman” to marry the king, and two days later Catherine was beheaded in the Tower of London.
Jane Boleyn plotted against her sister-in-law Anne to bring about her death, but she was executed herself for trying to help another of Henry’s wives. Jane apparently helped Catherine Howard arrange secret meetings with her suspected lover, Thomas Culpepper. Jane was imprisoned for months and eventually beheaded after being declared insane.
Lady Jane Grey was a noblewoman raised as a devout Protestant. Her father was a close advisor to the young and sickly King Edward VI, the only son and heir of Henry VIII. As Edward grew closer to his premature death, it was decided that Jane should be appointed queen to prevent the Catholic Mary I from ascending the throne.
Queen Jane ruled for a mere nine days before Mary I took control and had her imprisoned for treason, along with her husband and father. She eventually had Jane executed. The “Nine Days' Queen,” as she’s known, was only 16 or 17 when she died.
Following King Henry VIII’s creation of the Church of England, the nation was put at odds with its Catholic neighbor, Scotland. The battle for power between the two countries became heightened by their religious differences over the decades. At the center of this struggle were two cousins, Queen Elizabeth of England (right) and Queen Mary of Scotland (left). Many English Catholics felt that Mary should take the throne from Elizabeth.
Meanwhile, civil unrest broke out in Scotland and Mary was forced to abdicate. She escaped south to seek the protection of her cousin, Queen Elizabeth. In England, Elizabeth forced Mary into captivity, believing her to be a threat to the crown. After 18 years and increasing unrest among Catholic rebels, Queen Elizabeth had Mary charged with plotting to assassinate her. Mary was beheaded in 1587.
Mata Hari was the stage name of a renowned exotic dancer from the Netherlands. She was accused of espionage during World War I while she was living in Paris, where she dated both French and German officers. The French believed she was passing state secrets to the Germans.
Although it was never proven, Mata Hari was convicted and beheaded in 1917. Her head famously went missing from the archives of a Paris museum at some point during the 20th century, but its absence was only discovered in 2000. It has yet to be found.
Mary Ann Cotton was an English woman believed to be a serial killer. She was convicted for murdering her stepson by poisoning in 1873, but it’s believed she had many other victims, including 11 of her 13 children and three of her four husbands. She was executed by hanging at the age of 40.
Lucilla was the daughter of Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius, and the older sister of future emperor Commodus. Lucilla hatched a plot to kill her brother Commodus so that she might take his place as ruler of Rome, but the attempt on his life failed.
The assassin she chose didn’t act fast enough and was seized by the emperor’s guards. Commodus sentenced Lucilla to exile on the island of Capris and sent his men to execute her a few months later.
Bridget Bishop was one of 20 people who were executed as a result of the Salem witch trials. Bishop was a widow who fit all the criteria for suspicion: she was old, she was poor, and she was difficult.
Ten of her fellow townspeople testified that an apparition of Bishop pinched and poked them, while others said she could control others with a glance. She was found guilty and hanged in 1692.
Unlike many of the other accused women of Salem, Martha Corey was a devout woman who was respected in the community. However, she drew suspicion when she tried to forbid her husband from attending one of the early examinations of the trials.
A girl who was supposedly cursed then accused Martha Corey of bewitching her, and Corey was arrested. She was found guilty at trial and was hanged along with seven other convicted witches on September 22, 1692.
Edith Cavell was a celebrated English nurse during WWI. She was lauded for treating soldiers from both sides with equal dedication, and helped around 200 Allied soldiers escape from German-occupied Belgium. She was arrested by the German military in 1915 and executed by firing squad for her activities in the Allied resistance. She became a symbol of the Allied cause in Europe and the US.
Sources: (History) (Business Insider) (Listverse)
See also: History's most merciless executioners
The most famous women in history who were executed
From antiquity to the modern day
LIFESTYLE Crime
In the American criminal justice system, it’s quite rare for a woman to be executed. The majority of convicts sentenced to death are men, with women making up only 3.6% of the executions performed in the country’s four-century history. While more men around the world have received capital punishment for offenses like murder and treason, the scales tipped the other way for crimes such as adultery and witchcraft.
From accused witches to spies to queens, women from all walks of life have met brutal deaths at the end of a rope or an executioner's axe. Click through the following gallery to remember the most infamous executions of women in history.