Throughout history women have caused wars, defied the rules, and brought men to their knees. The famous and the infamous, queens, divorcées, actresses, and outlaws have created a ruckus during their lifetimes-turning heads while making waves. Scandalous Women tells the stories of the risk takers who have flouted convention, beaten the odds, and determined the course of world events. *When Cleopatra (69 BC-30 BC) wasn't bathing in asses' milk, the last pharaoh of the Ptolemaic dynasty ruled Egypt and forged an important political alliance with Rome against her enemies-until her dalliance with Marc Antony turned the empire against her. *Emilie du Châtelet (1706-1748), a mathematician, physicist, author, and paramour of one of the greatest minds in France, Voltaire, shocked society with her unorthodox lifestyle and intellectual prowess-and became a leader in the study of theoretical physics in France at a time when the sciences were ruled by men. *Long before Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on the bus, Ida B. Wells-Barnett (1862-1928) fought to end discrimination and the terrible crime of lynching and helped found the NAACP, but became known as a difficult woman for her refusal to compromise and was largely lost in the annals of history. *Gertrude Bell (1868-1926) had a passion for archaeology and languages, and left her privileged world behind to become one of the foremost chroniclers of British imperialism in the Middle East, and one of the architects of the modern nation of Iraq.

The legal crusade of Myra Clark Gaines (1804?--1885) has all the trappings of classic melodrama -- a lost heir, a missing will, an illicit relationship, a questionable marriage, a bigamous husband, and a murder. For a half century the daughter of New Orleans millionaire Daniel Clark struggled to justify her claim to his enormous fortune in a case that captivated the nineteenth-century public. Elizabeth Urban Alexander taps voluminous court records and letters to unravel the twists and turns of Gaines's litigation and reveal the truth behind the mysterious saga of this notorious woman. Myra, the daughter of real estate heir Clark and Zulime Carrière, a beautiful young Frenchwoman, was raised by friends of Clark and kept ignorant of her real parentage until 1832, when she discovered her true lineage in letters among her foster father's papers. She thereupon returned to Louisiana with tales of a lost will and a secret marriage between Clark and Carrière and claimed to be Clark's missing heir. Was Myra the legitimate daughter of the prominent merchant or the "fruit of an adulterous union?" The courts would decide. The Great Gaines Case wound its tortuous path through the United States legal system from 1834 until 1891. It was considered by the U.S. Supreme Court seventeen times and pursued even after Gaines's death by lawyers trying to recoup fees. By courageously bringing her case to the courtroom and doggedly keeping it there, Alexander asserts, Gaines helped instigate a new type of family law that provided special protection of women, children, and marriages. Though Gaines never recovered more than a tiny fraction of the rumored millions, this riveting chronicle of her struggle for legitimacy and legacy as told by Elizabeth Urban Alexander is a gold mine for anyone interested in legal history, women's studies, or a good yarn superbly spun.

Very few women kill. When they do, it is often the tragic outcome of domestic abuse, drug addiction, or mental illness. It is rare for women to kill for pleasure, yet a few of that breed emerge in each generation. At the turn of the last century, with no adoption agencies to protect them, Annie Walters killed unwanted newborns.nbsp;Ninety years later, Aileennbsp;Wuornos sold herself on the highways of Florida, a well-known hunting ground for men looking for prostitutes, until she became the hunter. Rose West exploited lonely girls from nearby children's homes, and Myra Hindley took sickening advantage of the blind trust of Britain in the 1960s where children were safe to walk the streets alone. Beverley Allit and Marybeth Tinning thought that, as a nurse and a mother, the deaths of the children in their care would be seen as tragic accidents. And Karla Homolka exploited a different prejudice. She was prefect, pretty, and so caring as a veterinary nurse. No one ever imagined she could be a sexual predator and killer.

Aileen Wuornos was executed in Florida, on the 9th of October, 2002 at the age of 46. She was the 10th woman to be sentenced to death in the USA since the death penalty resumed in 1976. Convicted for the murder of six men, in a two month period, Aileen claimed she acted in self defence however the investigation into these claims was poor and she later retracted her statement announcing to the Supreme Court, "I'm one who seriously hates human life and would kill again." All-too-often female prostitutes have been the victims of male serial killers - the killings of Aileen 'Lee' Wuornos were the inverse of this. She was a child prostitute, fleeing an abusive childhood at the hands of her grandparents, which led straight into a disastrous adulthood of difficult affairs with both men and women. Her metamorphosis from victim to attacker had brutal consequences: a stream of dead men. Following a renewed interest in this woman after the film "Monster", this is her story in her own words.

Murder has always fascinated us, and when women are the masterminds, the intrigue grows exponentially. Not only are female murderers much rarer than male killers, but their crimes usually also involve a more sophisticated type of plotting. In Blood on her hands, award-winning journalist Tanya Farber investigates the lives, minds and motivations of some of South Africa's most notorious female murderers, from the poisonous nurse Daisy de Melker, to the privileged but deeply disturbed Najwa Petersen, to the mysterious Joey Harhoff who died before revealing where the bodies of her victims (including her own niece) were. Farber sets each case against the backdrop of the different eras and regions of 20th and early 21st century South Africa the women operated in. Her writing style is lighter than the subject matter might suggest and Blood on Her Hands will keep you reading until late at night – probably with your light on. The women featured also include: Dina Rodrigues, Phoenix Racing Cloud Theron, Marlene Lehnberg, Chane van Heerden and Celiwe Mbokazi.

In this fascinating book, Peter Vronsky exposes and investigates the phenomenon of women who kill—and the political, economic, social and sexual implications buried with each victim. How many of us are even remotely prepared to imagine our mothers, daughters, sisters or grandmothers as fiendish killers? For centuries we have been conditioned to think of serial murderers and psychopathic predators as men—with women registering low on our paranoia radar. Perhaps that’s why so many trusting husbands, lovers, family friends, and children have fallen prey to “the female monster.” From history’s earliest recorded cases of homicidal females to Irma Grese, the Nazi Beast of Belsen, from Britain’s notorious child-slayer Myra Hindley to ‘Honeymoon Killer’ Martha Beck to the sensational cult of Aileen Wournos—the first female serial killer-as-celebrity—to cult killers, homicidal missionaries, and our pop-culture fascination with the sexy femme fatale, Vronsky not only challenges our ordinary standards of good and evil but also defies our basic accepted perceptions of gender role and identity. INCLUDES PHOTOGRAPHS

Drawing on extensive interviews with the accused herself, here is the sordid, twisted, and surprising story of Brookey Lee West—a successful technical writer from Silicon Valley who became Las Vegas’ most notorious female serial killer. In February, 2001, police uncovered the decomposed remains of Christine Smith bagged like garbage in a Las Vegas storage unit. She’d been dead for years. Next to the makeshift tomb were books on witchcraft and Satanism. It didn’t take long for authorities to discover that the owner of the foul Canyon Gate Unit #317 was Christine’s own daughter, Brookey Lee West. Further investigation revealed something even more shocking—a one-woman crime spree that spanned two decades, stretched from Nevada to California, and may have counted among its victims Brookey’s own husband and brother....

A True West magazine Best Book of 2021, a nominee for the MPIBA Annual Reading the West Book Award, and a Top Pick in the Annual Southwest Books of the Year by Pima County Public Library “[A] true-life adventure saga about the female outlaw who robbed a stagecoach at gunpoint in Arizona in 1899.” –New York Times Book Review The little-known story of Pearl Hart, the most famous female bandit in the American West. On May 30, 1899, history was made when Pearl Hart, disguised as a man, held up a stagecoach in Arizona and robbed the passengers at gunpoint. A manhunt ensued as word of her heist spread, and Pearl Hart went on to become a media sensation and the most notorious female outlaw on the Western frontier. Her early life, family and fate after her later release from prison have long remained a mystery to scholars and historians—until now. Drawing on groundbreaking research into territorial records and genealogical data, ’s is the first book to uncover the enigma of Pearl Hart. Hailed by many as “The Bandit Queen,” her epic life of crime and legacy as a female trailblazer provide a crucial lens into the lives of the rare women who made their mark in the American West.

How could these attractive, feminine, girl-next-door stereotypes be capable of such crimes as rape, torture and sexual assault? Out of Control details the continuing story of these convicted women - their sex crimes, their excuses, their dramatic lives, and their twisted notions of love. Supported by court transcripts, research studies, psychiatric reports and expert opinions, Out of Control dares to tell the truth about female sex crimes and female sexuality. It exposes the myths about love, power and gender differences and it exposes the drama and media hype that makes celebrity superstars out of attractive women criminals. Linda Stunell, a certified clinical hypnotherapist and sex counsellor, takes the reader on a fascinating journey inside the minds of celebrity female sex predators who lost control.