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Tamara Samsonova -

Nicknamed "Granny Ripper" and "Baba Yaga," this Russian woman was caught in 2015 after she was recorded on video carrying her victim's body parts in plastic bags. Samsonova was caretaking for Valentina Ulanova but after an argument over dirty dishes, she gave the woman sleeping pills and cut her with a saw while she was still alive. 

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Tamara Samsonova -

Samsonova may have killed others, as she detailed killing a husband and past tenants in her diary. In 2017, she was found guilty of only Ulanova's murder and sent to a mental institution after being diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. 

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Helen Golay and Olga Rutterschmidt -

Also known as "The Killer Grannies of Santa Monica," these two women allegedly set up a scheme to lure homeless men into their house and then have them take out a life insurance policy. They would then crush them with their cars in staged hit-and-run accidents. 

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Helen Golay and Olga Rutterschmidt -

They later cashed in on a US$2.8 million payout after killing two men. Ultimately, however, one of the insurance companies became suspicious and, together with the police, cracked the case. In 2008, they were charged with the crimes and sent to prison for life. 

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Nancy Crampton-Brophy -

The self-published author was accused of shooting her husband on June 2, 2018, at his place of work at the Oregon Culinary Institute.

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Nancy Crampton-Brophy -

Creepily, she had written an essay back in 2011 entitled 'How to Murder Your Husband.' On May 25, 2022, Crampton-Brophy was found guilty of second-degree murder and sentenced to life imprisonment.

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Faye Copeland -

Faye Copeland and her husband, Ray, supposedly lured drifters to their Missouri farm in order to commit cattle fraud. The couple allegedly murdered the hobos and buried their bodies in a field on the property. 

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Faye Copeland -

They were eventually caught and both sentenced to death, making Faye Copeland the oldest woman ever to sit on death row, at 69 years old. In 1999, her sentence was commuted to life in prison, where she died in 2004.

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Leonarda Cianciulli -

It was a fortune-teller's prophecy that sparked this Italian woman's killing spree. Cianciulli had been told her children were all fated to die young, and tragedy certainly did befall her family. Pregnant 17 times,  she lost 13 of her children, including three as a result of miscarriage. Cianciulli apparently came to believe she needed to protect her surviving kids' lives through dark magic.

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Leonarda Cianciulli -

Between 1939 and 1940, Cianciulli killed three women. She then turned their bodies into soap and teacakes, which she offered to friends. Cianciulli was ultimately caught and confessed to the murders. Nicknamed "The Soap-Maker of Correggio," she was sentenced to 30 years in prison and three years in an asylum, where she died in 1970. 

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Gloria Marie Tensley -

In 2016 when an Arkansas man moved in with his new roommate, 65-year-old Gloria Marie Tensley, he discovered a human skeleton in her closet.

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Gloria Marie Tensley -

After he turned her in, it was revealed that Tensley had been cashing the social security checks of the deceased man found in her closet. Authorities charged her with abuse of a corpse and fraud.

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Nilda Sheffield -

In 2015, Nilda Sheffield wrote in her diary that she wanted to kill her daughter and grandchildren to free them from hell. She compared herself to Abraham, a biblical figure God called upon to sacrifice his own son.

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Nilda Sheffield -

The Florida grandmother then shot 31-year-old Elizabeth Flores and her children, aged seven and two, before turning the gun on herself. Sheffield reportedly believed the family would be reincarnated and meet again in their next lives. 

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Amelia Dyer -

For 20 years, Amelia Dyer is said to have killed more than 400 infants while she was working as a "baby farmer"—someone who adopts children for money. 

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Amelia Dyer -

Living in England during the Victorian era, Dyer would murder the youngsters outright, or just let them die from neglect. Authorities sentenced her to death by hanging, and she was executed in the summer of 1896.

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Angela Bingham -

In 2016, Angela Bingham killed her three-year-old grandson by suffocating him with a towel, claiming she couldn't afford to raise him.

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Angela Bingham -

After turning herself in to the police, investigators apparently found her burning incense to mask the smell of the decomposing body. Delaware authorities sentenced her to 22 years in prison.

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Nannie Doss -

Born in 1905, Nannie Doss was dubbed the "Giggling Granny" by the press because she was so cheerful. However, her crimes were anything but sweet. 

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Nannie Doss -

Over the course of 30 years, the Oklahoma woman was accused of killing four husbands, her two sisters, her mother, a grandson, one of her mothers-in-law, and a nephew. She allegedly committed the murders out of boredom. Doss was sentenced to life in prison in 1955, and died incarcerated 10 years later.

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Mangal Bharat Thorat -

In November 2005, following an argument regarding a dowry, 62-year-old Mangal Bharat Thorat beat her daughter-in-law, Neelam Thorat, drenched her in kerosene, and set her on fire. Mumbai High Court sentenced Thorat to life in prison. 

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Mangal Bharat Thorat -

Neelam sustained burns over 85% of her body and later died from her injuries at Bhatia Hospital. Thorat had allegedly tormented her since their nuptials earlier that March. 

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Carolyn Hood -

In 2016, Montgomery law enforcement arrested 79-year-old Carolyn Hood for allegedly helping her son kill her husband. The husband's remains were found buried in various locations. 

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Carolyn Hood -

Both initially faced capital murder charges. But in 2017, Alabama courts dropped the case against Hood, who later moved into a nursing home. Her son pled guilty to manslaughter and received a life sentence.

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Dorothea Puente -

In the '80s, Dorothea Puente ran a boarding house in Sacramento, California, and while doing so murdered various elderly and mentally disabled residents before cashing their social security checks. 

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Dorothea Puente -

She was convicted of murdering nine people by forcing them to overdose on pills, and later burying them under her house. Puente was caught in 1988 and sentenced in 1993. She died in prison in 2011 at age 82. 

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Sandra Layne -

In 2012, law enforcement arrested 74-year-old Sandra Layne after she shot her 17-year-old grandson multiple times. At the trial, her lawyer argued self-defense, claiming that her grandson was a drug addict, and that she was afraid of him.

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Sandra Layne -

Layne was sentenced to 22 years in prison after the jury was convinced that the murder was actually premeditated.

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Melissa Ann Shepard -

The Canadian granny murdered two of her five husbands with tranquilizers. Evidence also showed that in addition, she attempted unsuccessfully to kill two of her other husbands. 

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Melissa Ann Shepard -

When she was arrested, police found a stockpile of prescription medications from five different doctors.

Sources: (Ranker) (Oxygen True Crime)

See also: Common misconceptions about serial killers

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