Women Who've Murdered Their Husbands: A Comprehensive List Compiled by Our Sleuthers

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Pepper

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Far more men then women are arrested and convicted for murdering their spouse or significant other. But women also murder their spouses. Do you think they are more likely to get away with it? I think women who murder are far more cunning then men. They often use poison or some non violent (i.e. bloody) means of committing the crime. And when they are caught, their sentences are often far less than men receive for a similar crime. Sometimes this is warranted because of physical abuse from the husband, and sometimes not.

http://www.glennsacks.com/domestic_violence_a_2.htm :

Nor do husbands murder their wives significantly more than wives murder their husbands. A 1994 Department of Justice study analyzed 10,000 cases and found that women make up over 40 percent of those charged in familial murders. And because women who murder their husbands tend to use less detectable or traceable methods--such as poisoning (which are often ruled "heart attacks") and hiring others to do the killing (which usually aren't counted as "murders by wives" in official crime statistics), these murders are far less likely to be noticed than murders by men, which are usually committed with guns.


Nonetheless, I thought it would be interesting to list the females who have murdered their husband's or boyfriends:

1. Pamela Smart
2. Betty Broderick
3. Kristin Rossum
3. Clara Harris
4. Lynn Turner - twice! One her husband the other a boyfriend
5. Larissa Schuster
 
That information is from 1994. That's about 12 years old. I'm sorry, but I think the information has changed quite a bit. Not saying women don't murder too, but it's far more often that the husband murders the wife.
 
Clara Harris (local here in Houston - ran hubby over with car)
Francis Newton (who was executed recently)
Jennifer Wright (local here in Houston)

I'll think of more and add...
 
Velma Barfield
Dorthea Puente
Madeleine Smith
Yvonne Chevallier
Nancy Kissel
 
I'd be interested in seeing this research that prove these statistics because I know of a big story that was uncovered years ago where the numbers were greatly inflated with homeless people to serve their cause. When so much info was brought to the public during the Laci Peterson case it was reported that most states don't distinguish that a murdered woman was pregnant so even though those calculations weren't included the number of murdered pregnant women are very high.

My daughter told me she saw on a show like dateline or 20/20 don't remember the show but that they claimed many more men go missing every year in this country than women but the media doesn't pick up these stories and report them like they do with females. I don't believe it and again I'd like to see the proof of that. I simply see otherwise and I think when these research groups do their studies they're out to prove what's contrary to common belief and by ommiting certain info it can be molded into what they want the results to be. For instance children and teenagers, male and female I have seen females under the age of 18 listed as adults whereas a 19 year old boy will be classified as a teen.
 
Strach - by FAR many more men go missing than women. Just look through missing persons sites, it's predominantly men.
 
I could be wrong because I haven't put aLOT of thought behind this (still working on my morning coffee) but I think the circumstances of women killing their spouse/sig. other is different than mens. It seems women are scorned and men want to get out of the relationship???????:cool:
 
detectivewannabe said:
I could be wrong because I haven't put aLOT of thought behind this (still working on my morning coffee) but I think the circumstances of women killing their spouse/sig. other is different than mens. It seems women are scorned and men want to get out of the relationship???????:cool:
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I think probably more men kill their wives/girlfriends because the women are leaving them. Those ones don't make national news for weeks, because there's no mystery involved and it's just kind of grisly, but that seems to me to be the usual cause.
 
KatherineQ said:
I think probably more men kill their wives/girlfriends because the women are leaving them. Those ones don't make national news for weeks, because there's no mystery involved and it's just kind of grisly, but that seems to me to be the usual cause.
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You're probably right KQ (like I said, still working on morning coffee) but do you agree with women kill because of being scorned or do you think otherwise? Just curious.
 
Clara Harris, man i watched the video of her running him over and over, i couldnt believe it, with his daughter in the car!! That was crazy!!
 
michelle said:
Clara Harris, man i watched the video of her running him over and over, i couldnt believe it, with his daughter in the car!! That was crazy!!
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I, too, have seen the video. Gotta say the woman just snapped! Poor thing. How devastated she was to find out he hadn't ended the affair. I really think she was just completely overcome with rage and snapped, however, if the jury had given her a light sentence, men would never walk anywhere..... I just feel so bad for their kids and his daughter who was in the car. She had no business being with Clara for that confrontation anyway.
 
Jules said:
I, too, have seen the video. Gotta say the woman just snapped! Poor thing. How devastated she was to find out he hadn't ended the affair. I really think she was just completely overcome with rage and snapped, however, if the jury had given her a light sentence, men would never walk anywhere..... I just feel so bad for their kids and his daughter who was in the car. She had no business being with Clara for that confrontation anyway.
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She still says she didnt know she was running him over. I think she snapped, no doubt! I think she really loved him and her seeing him with that woman at the hotel, well she freaking lost it!
 
michelle said:
Clara Harris, man i watched the video of her running him over and over, i couldnt believe it, with his daughter in the car!! That was crazy!!
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As far as I'm concerned her sentence was way too light. She only got something like 20 years. IMO, she should have life in prison. I understand her rage, but to murder him???? No way.

I remember the day the verdict came in. We were having dinner with friends and one of the wives said she was sad that Clara was convicted at all. This woman was almost in tears over it. She said it was David's fault that he was dead because he was having an affair and he deserved what Clara did to him. I almost came out of my chair at her because I had never heard something so profoundly stupid come out of her mouth. My husband literally held my legs on my chair with his hands under the table. He could tell I was about to make a scene. Needless to say we don't socialize with this couple anymore. To this day she believes Clara was wrongly convicted. :doh:

I do feel sorry for Clara's children and her step-daughter because they have lost their parents, but this was Clara's doing and she must pay the consequences.
 
NewMom2003 said:
As far as I'm concerned her sentence was way too light. She only got something like 20 years. IMO, she should have life in prison. I understand her rage, but to murder him???? No way.

I remember the day the verdict came in. We were having dinner with friends and one of the wives said she was sad that Clara was convicted at all. This woman was almost in tears over it. She said it was David's fault that he was dead because he was having an affair and he deserved what Clara did to him. I almost came out of my chair at her because I had never heard something so profoundly stupid come out of her mouth. My husband literally held my legs on my chair with his hands under the table. He could tell I was about to make a scene. Needless to say we don't socialize with this couple anymore. To this day she believes Clara was wrongly convicted. :doh:

I do feel sorry for Clara's children and her step-daughter because they have lost their parents, but this was Clara's doing and she must pay the consequences.
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Oh she deserves to be in jail. But I can understand her rage too, but to run him over with his daughter in the car, she is crazy! Also, I think that betty broderick is right where she belongs too, she was methodical in her killing she took the gun there she knew what she was going to do. I watched that movie the other day on lifetime. I seen it a million times and always seem to watch it when its on, lol...
 
michelle said:
Oh she deserves to be in jail. But I can understand her rage too, but to run him over with his daughter in the car, she is crazy! Also, I think that betty broderick is right where she belongs too, she was methodical in her killing she took the gun there she knew what she was going to do. I watched that movie the other day on lifetime. I seen it a million times and always seem to watch it when its on, lol...
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I agree about Betty. The same woman I talked about in my first post that was sad for Clara also thinks that Betty Broderick is a hero for what she did. She and I have had major debates/discussions about it in the past and I just can't see her logic at all. Yes, both David and Dan were a-holes for having affairs, etc. and yes I understand Clara and Betty's rage. I just don't understand murder as the end result. I just don't get it. Take him to the cleaners, take all his money, ruin his reputation. Anything but murder.

If there was proven abuse or children involved being hurt then I could justify it, but that was not the case for either of these woman.
 
NewMom2003 said:
I agree about Betty. The same woman I talked about in my first post that was sad for Clara also thinks that Betty Broderick is a hero for what she did. She and I have had major debates/discussions about it in the past and I just can't see her logic at all. Yes, both David and Dan were a-holes for having affairs, etc. and yes I understand Clara and Betty's rage. I just don't understand murder as the end result. I just don't get it. Take him to the cleaners, take all his money, ruin his reputation. Anything but murder.

If there was proven abuse or children involved being hurt then I could justify it, but that was not the case for either of these woman.
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Oh i agree, I would have more satisfaction ruining their reputation and taking them to the bank, especially with the kind of careers that these womans hubbys had. Of course DH and i always joke that we have nothing to take to the cleaners,lol..So that wouldnt work for us. But that woman you are talking about obviously has a warped way of thinking, does she think that OJ is a hero? or other people who murder their spouses??
 
I know I said "Emily Harris" in my first post, but I meant Clara Harris!

Anyway, here's another article on it:

http://www.uiowa.edu/~030116/158/articles/dershowitz3.htm

Though O.J. Simpson vehemently denies that he murdered his former wife, his case has provoked a flurry of media attention toward other husbands who kill their wives. Coincidentally with the Simpson case, the Department of Justice has just released the first detailed empirical study of "murder in families." It contains some surprising information, which contrasts sharply with the media headlines.

The most shocking finding of this study--which analyzed nearly ten thousand cases--is that wives murder their husbands far more frequently than press reports would suggest. To put the issue in context, women in general account for only about 10 percent of defendants charged with all murders. But for all spousal murders, women accounted for more than 40 percent of defendants. And "among black marital partners, wives were just about as likely to kill their husbands as husbands were to kill their wives." Not surprisingly, when it comes to parents who kill their children, mothers kill more often than fathers.
 
The doctor who took out my tonsils was murdered by his wife. He came home and she was waiting with a pointed gun. He was fooling around with his nurse, supposedly. Just two years later, my brother and I shrieked when we saw her taking her dog for a walk (she lived in our neighborhood). She was already out after just 2 years.

So in her honor, another for your list: Arlene Gardner

Also, Liysa Mattson
Patricia Allanson

Eve
 
NewMom2003 said:
I agree about Betty. The same woman I talked about in my first post that was sad for Clara also thinks that Betty Broderick is a hero for what she did. She and I have had major debates/discussions about it in the past and I just can't see her logic at all. Yes, both David and Dan were a-holes for having affairs, etc. and yes I understand Clara and Betty's rage. I just don't understand murder as the end result. I just don't get it. Take him to the cleaners, take all his money, ruin his reputation. Anything but murder.

If there was proven abuse or children involved being hurt then I could justify it, but that was not the case for either of these woman.
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I don't think it's quite fair to lump Clara in with Betty (I know you're not doing that - just stating that they are entirely different situations). Betty was a bey-otch for a long time and did some really messed up stuff. Clara had one instance where she snapped.

While I would have liked to have seen Clara get a bit lighter sentence (vehicular homicide) as I don't feel her crime was premeditated, I believe the jury did the right thing. I don't believe Clara went there to run him over and kill him. I think her rage had taken over for those few short minutes and she couldn't control herself. I do not think she is a cold-blooded murderer. However, had they given her a lighter sentence, there would be plenty more situations just like hers in the news.
 
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