Most Dangerous Modern History Female criminals have captured headlines and imaginations since there were newspapers and people to say "holy crap, a woman did that?"
Not all the women on this list are necessarily criminals, but they are all dangerous in one form or another. They've written manifestos, murdered, maimed, run organized criminal operations, influenced hearts and minds, and even kicked a whole lot of ***.
So without much ado, here are 10 Truly Dangerous Women...!!
01) Aileen Wuornos, a Real Female Serial Killer
When it comes to dangerous women, there are few more terrifying than Aileen Wuornos, the best-known American serial killer.
Wuornos, whose story was made into the Hollywood movie "Monster," lived a life seemingly made to create a killer. The closest thing Wuornos ever got to a break was when her father was convicted of raping a 7-year-old girl. It was a break because he never had a chance to meet, and presumably screw up, his infant daughter. When she was 4, Wuornos and her brother were abandoned by their mother in 1960, leaving them to be raised by their maternal grandparents.
Wuornos, whose story was made into the Hollywood movie "Monster," lived a life seemingly made to create a killer. The closest thing Wuornos ever got to a break was when her father was convicted of raping a 7-year-old girl. It was a break because he never had a chance to meet, and presumably screw up, his infant daughter. When she was 4, Wuornos and her brother were abandoned by their mother in 1960, leaving them to be raised by their maternal grandparents.
In 1969, through the power of a Svengali-like influence, Charles Manson turned 5 attractive, intelligent young women into vicious criminals.
Sandra Good, Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme, Susan Atkins, Leslie Van Houten, and Patricia "Katie" Krenwinkel will forever be known as the Manson Women..
Sandra Good, Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme, Susan Atkins, Leslie Van Houten, and Patricia "Katie" Krenwinkel will forever be known as the Manson Women..
What does it take to be a truly dangerous woman? Consider Sandra Avila Beltran, who combines a stomach for violence with the power and influence that comes with being a beautiful woman working in a man's field.
Beltran is a massively successful drug cartel leader known in Mexico as a sort of folk hero. They call her "La Reina del Pacífico" (the Queen of the Pacific) for becoming the only woman to rise to prominence in Mexico's violent drug trade. There's even a song written in her honor -- a folk ballad that describes her as "a top lady who is a key part of the business."
In 2001, authorities busted up a shipment of 9 tons of cocaine. The trail led back to Beltran's lover at the time, Juan Diego Espinoza Ramirez, a drug trafficker known as "El Tigre" and wanted by the United States.
Beltran is a massively successful drug cartel leader known in Mexico as a sort of folk hero. They call her "La Reina del Pacífico" (the Queen of the Pacific) for becoming the only woman to rise to prominence in Mexico's violent drug trade. There's even a song written in her honor -- a folk ballad that describes her as "a top lady who is a key part of the business."
In 2001, authorities busted up a shipment of 9 tons of cocaine. The trail led back to Beltran's lover at the time, Juan Diego Espinoza Ramirez, a drug trafficker known as "El Tigre" and wanted by the United States.
Bank robberies, bombings and the formation of the German militant group Red Army Faction (RAF) made Ulrike Marie Meinhof one dangerous lady.
Known alternately as a terrorist and a folk hero, there is no question that Meinhof and the RAF were outright criminals. The left-wing members considered themselves communist urban guerillas, and organized in response to what they saw as a reluctance to deNazify conservative West German society.
But even if you agree with her political views, it's hard to get behind Meinhof's actions. After working as a journalist sympathetic to the various socialist and communist student movements emerging in Germany in the late '60s, Meinhof decided it was time to participate. With the help of an armed accomplice, Meinhof helped RAF co-founder Andreas Baader escape from prison. In the process, a 64-year-old librarian was shot, but survived -- the first victim of the Baader Meinhof Gang.
Known alternately as a terrorist and a folk hero, there is no question that Meinhof and the RAF were outright criminals. The left-wing members considered themselves communist urban guerillas, and organized in response to what they saw as a reluctance to deNazify conservative West German society.
But even if you agree with her political views, it's hard to get behind Meinhof's actions. After working as a journalist sympathetic to the various socialist and communist student movements emerging in Germany in the late '60s, Meinhof decided it was time to participate. With the help of an armed accomplice, Meinhof helped RAF co-founder Andreas Baader escape from prison. In the process, a 64-year-old librarian was shot, but survived -- the first victim of the Baader Meinhof Gang.
The story of photo journalist Jason P. Howe serves as a grim reminder that there's nothing sexy about a life of murder for hire.
While working on a project in Colombia, Howe befriended a beautiful young girl named Marylin. With friends on all three sides of the complicated conflict between the government military, the Farc rebels and the AUC paramilitaries, she helped Howe navigate a dangerous world where one misstep meant a gruesome death.
While working on a project in Colombia, Howe befriended a beautiful young girl named Marylin. With friends on all three sides of the complicated conflict between the government military, the Farc rebels and the AUC paramilitaries, she helped Howe navigate a dangerous world where one misstep meant a gruesome death.
Without a doubt, the case of Aafia Siddiqui is the strangest and most confusing story in this list.
According to the FBI, Siddiqui was arrested with suspicious items on her person July 17, 2008, in Ghazni, Afghanistan. While being held, Siddiqui is accused of picking up an unsecured rifle and firing at a soldier working with the FBI team. She failed to hit anyone before she was disarmed and shot twice in the abdomen.
Upon her arrest, Siddiqui was called "the most important catch in five years," by former CIA terrorist hunter John Kiriakou.
According to the FBI, Siddiqui was arrested with suspicious items on her person July 17, 2008, in Ghazni, Afghanistan. While being held, Siddiqui is accused of picking up an unsecured rifle and firing at a soldier working with the FBI team. She failed to hit anyone before she was disarmed and shot twice in the abdomen.
Upon her arrest, Siddiqui was called "the most important catch in five years," by former CIA terrorist hunter John Kiriakou.
No one else in history has ever proposed a genocide as widespread and sweeping as Valerie Solanas did in her SCUM Manifesto. In 1968, Solanas proposed in her manifesto that every single male in the world should be killed. And Andy Warhol was almost her first victim.
Advocating a new all-female world order, Solanas believed that men were a plague to be wiped out. Oh and SCUM? That stands for Society for Cutting Up Men. To be fair, Solanas had never had an easy time with men. She claimed that she was sexually abused by her father. She never got along with her stepfather. And when her mother sent her to live with her grandfather at 13, things got so bad she was kicked out and rendered homeless by 15.
Advocating a new all-female world order, Solanas believed that men were a plague to be wiped out. Oh and SCUM? That stands for Society for Cutting Up Men. To be fair, Solanas had never had an easy time with men. She claimed that she was sexually abused by her father. She never got along with her stepfather. And when her mother sent her to live with her grandfather at 13, things got so bad she was kicked out and rendered homeless by 15.
Few people ever get as close to you as a nurse does. With notoriously heavy case loads, nurses are the grunts of the health care industry. They deal the most with patients. They administer the drugs. And they hold your life in their hands.
Occasionally that power is abused. History is littered with nurses known by some as Angels of Mercy -- health care professionals who take it upon themselves to put a patient out of his or her misery. Anne Grigg-Booth is one of the best known modern examples.
Occasionally that power is abused. History is littered with nurses known by some as Angels of Mercy -- health care professionals who take it upon themselves to put a patient out of his or her misery. Anne Grigg-Booth is one of the best known modern examples.
Laila Ali is the most refined and most non-criminal name on this list, but that doesn't make her any less dangerous. Considered by many to be the greatest female boxer to ever enter the ring, Ali boasts a flawless 24-0 record with 21 wins coming by way of knock out.
That was the catchphrase of the enigmatic British model turned bounty hunter Domino Harvey. If you've seen the movie, you know the rough outline of Harvey's life, but what they left out was a debilitating addiction to drugs that would ultimately take her life just months before the movie was released in 2005.
The daughter of British actor Laurence Harvey and model Paulene Stone, Domino grew up priveleged and private-school educated. At first, it seemed she might follow in her mother's footsteps, but the 6-foot-tall unabashed tomboy with a thing for guns and violence didn't mesh with the fashion world. She moved to Los Angeles in 1989 and worked as a ranch hand in San Diego and a volunteer firefighter near the Mexican border before training as a bounty hunter.
