Hell Hath No Fury: Women Who Kill
Because They Walk Among Us has taken much longer to get together than we had thought, we are releasing Hell Hath No Fury: Women Who Kill as an ebook first. These stories were originally intended for They Walk Among Us but, as we have mentioned, that project has taken on a life of it's own. In Hell Hath No Fury, there are 45 stories of murder committed by women. We hope you enjoy.
Released December 1, 2013. This was the original cover for the first book in the series.
On February 21. 2014, Hell Hath No Fury: Women Who Kill reached #1 in the Serial Killers category in the UK Kindle Store. It also later made #1 in the Violence in Society categories in both the US and the UK.
Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #2,595 Paid in the UK Kindle Store
#1 in > Serial Killers
#4 in > Murder
#16 in > True Accounts
Here are a few five star reviews for Hell Hath No Fury: Women Who Kill
5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating, February 27, 2014 By CristiAk "Reading is powerful" (Juneau, Alaska, USA) - See all my reviews Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?) This review is from: Hell Hath No Fury: Women Who Kill (Kindle Edition)- Hell Hath No Fury is a fascinating look at female murderers. We tend to think of women as the nurturers so we are stunned when we hear of these cases. Some of the murders in this book you will instantly remember. Others, it was the first time I heard of them. A number of the cases in this book are mothers who kill their children for reasons that range from postpartum depression/psychosis to straight out narcissism. I think we find these types of murders the hardest to take. Children should be safe in their homes. Parents should be protectors. Too often they are not. I appreciate the authors bringing up postpartum depression/psychosis. I think this is a subject we all need to learn more about. Many women have postpartum depression after giving birth. What is it that makes the difference between those who get past the depression and recover and those who slip into psychosis? What factor is present that some women step over the line and kill their child? I have the most difficulty with those who kill multiple children over the course of a few years. How does this happen? Is it really postpartum psychosis? Does the mother never come out of it? I mean how do you kill your child, then get pregnant, give birth, kill that child and repeat yet again? Do you never think about what you did? Is there no remorse that prevents you from even taking that chance of getting pregnant again? There are so many unanswered questions or unsatisfactory ones that books such as this are necessary reading. They bring up what was down and make you question, wonder, think. They require a response, an accounting, research. History forgotten is history repeated. Then there are the others in here. Women who kill out of jealousy or for greed. We all deal with some form of jealousy at some point and even the rich sometimes want more yet we all are not out there committing murders, though, in reality, we are all capable. What is the difference? This is what makes true crime fascinating to me. Perhaps, to me, the most chilling chapter of this book is the last. Youth who murder. Are we becoming a more violent society? Are we losing our moral compass? The cases in this book make me wonder if our children, (society on the whole), are capable of feeling empathy. What needs to be done to prevent the violence from rising? This book will bring these questions to you. The cases are horrifying, chilling and even baffling. Excellent book to open up discussions on society and violence. If you think women who kill are a rarity or that they kill in less horrifying ways than a man, read this book.
- 5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating Reading! January 5, 2014 By Barbara Neer Format:Kindle EditionAmazon Verified Purchase I thoroughly enjoyed this cleverly written collection of stories about women who kill. The author has carefully researched each crime and presents the particulars with skill.This book is true crime at it's best!
5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic book 15 Jan 2014 By Natalja Bleau Format:Kindle Edition
Amazon Verified Purchase I enjoyed this book thoroughly. I had heard of some of the cases but enjoyed reading the others. Amazing how evil people are.
5.0 out of 5 stars The title says all 15 Dec 2013 By nellie Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase Never a truer word spoken. I don't even know where these women get the ideas of this type of revenge. This would make your hair curl with fear! Besides that, a very good read!
This is a complete Table of Contents. There are 4 parts with 45 chapters in total. Following the TOC is Chapter 40: Girls Just Want To Have Fun
Part One: Women Who Kill Their Children
1. Marie Noe and Waneta Hoyt
2. Darlie Routier
3. Susan Smith
4. Andrea Yates
5. Dena Schlosser
6. Belle Gunness
7. Diane Downs
8. Marybeth Tinning
9. Marilyn Lemak
10. Michelle Kehoe
11. Susan Eubanks
12. China Arnold
13. Paula Sims
14. Veronica Herrera
15. Christina Marie Riggs
16. Frances Newton
17. Otty Sanchez
18. Kathleen Folbigg
19. Alexandra Tobias and Shannon Johnson
20. Marilyn Edge
21. Melissa Centeno
Part Two: Women Who Kill Their Husbands
22. The Anti Freeze Killer
23. The Black Widow of the Internet
24. The Lonely Hearts Husband Killer
25. The Merry Widow of Windy Nook
26. The Acid Lady
27. Just a Touch of Arsenic
28. The Texas Black Widow
29. The Lady in Red
30. For the Love of Money
31. For the Love of Money 2
Part Three: More Notorious Murders by Women
32. A Fatal Attraction
33. The Pickaxe Killer
34. Hell Born Hitchhiker
35. Kristen Gilbert
36. The Soap Maker of Correggio
37. Arsenic Anna
38. Janie Lou Gibbs
39. Genene Jones
Part Four: Some Younger Females Who Kill
40. Girls Just Want To Have Fun
41. The Killer and His Raven
42. Terror on County Road 2370
43. Sisters Can Be Murder
44. Murder in Medicine Hat
45. MySpace.com Murder
Chapter 40: Girls Just Want To Have Fun
Auburn, California 1983: The year was 1983. Cyndi Lauper had a top selling album She's So Unusual which featured the #1 single Girls Just Want To Have Fun. Many teenage girls at the time kept journals or diaries. Most of the time entries would be about routine things such as school, boys, shopping etc. Here is an entry that you won't see every day. Tuesday June 14: "Today Cindy and I ran away and killed an old lady. It was lots of fun." That chilling entry was made by 14 year old Shirley Wolf. The Cindy in the entry refers to Cindy Collier.
Cindy Collier was one year old when her parents broke up and divorced. Her mother Betty drifted in and out of relationships including another quickie marriage and divorce. Betty supported Cindy and three sons while working as a waitress. Later on, Cindy would reflect on her childhood. "My childhood has been rotten. I've been beaten since I was born and I've been raped a few times. I have tried to kill myself before and all it did was bring frustrations. So I take it out on others. I don't like them because they probably think they're better than I am. I don't want them around. I want them to pay."
Shirley Wolf's childhood was also a troubled one. She was sexually abused by her father right from infancy. Later she was raped by her grandfather and an uncle. Shirley was finally removed from the family home and placed in a foster home. She now says that she felt like a stranger in the foster homes. She began to have problems in school. She later commented, "you get to the point where you're pushed into a corner and I just came back fighting."
Such was the situation on Tuesday, June 14, 1983 when Cindy and Shirley met for the first time. Cindy who had just been released from Juvenile Hall was visiting a friend at a Sacramento group home when she met Shirley Wolf for the first time. The pair hit it off immediately. "Shirley is just like me" commented Cindy. "She has the same childhood." That same day they left the group home together looking for something...anything. What they found was trouble...a lot of it. The girls set out to run away but first they needed a car. They started searching for a car that they could steal. They ended up at a condo complex in Auburn where Cindy used to live with her grandparents and started looking for a suitable car. They picked a couple and then started knocking on doors inside the building. The idea was to steal the keys to one of the cars. They knocked on a few doors and were refused entry. One man, 70 year old Joe Becker, let them in. “To make a phone call and have a glass of water”, Joe said. "But after they left my wife felt so contaminated by them that she immediately washed the glass and scrubbed the phone with alcohol."
85 year old Anna Brackett invited the girls in. She was happy to have company and chatted with the girls for an hour before her son called. Carl said that he would be coming over soon to pick her up and take her to Bingo. The girls had to act fast. Shirley grabbed the elderly woman by the neck and threw her to the floor. Cindy went to the kitchen and tossed Shirley a butcher knife and Shirley stabbed Anna to death. Shirley's words: "The lady was freaking me out, telling me to stop, that she was dying. I said, Good! All of a sudden blood came out of her mouth so I knew she was dead. We decided that we were gonna kill her when we saw her. She was just an old lady. Just a perfect setup. We killed her because we wanted her car and didn't want to get caught." The girls then stole whatever money they could find and the keys to a 1970 Dodge. They couldn't get the car started and headed to the highway to hitch a ride. Carl Brackett and his wife were on their way to pick up Anna, saw the two girls and commented to his wife, “they're stupid or else they're tough! Two girls like that hitchhiking!"
Insert picture: Shirley Wolf (left) and Cindy Collier
When Carl discovered his mother, he never gave the hitchhiking teenagers another thought. The sheer brutality of the crime (Anna had suffered 28 stab wounds) made him think that a maniac was on the loose. The sheriff's deputies thought so too even after residents had given descriptions of the girls who had been knocking on doors. A couple even knew Cindy's name from the time that she had lived there. When no other leads turned up they went to Cindy's home where both girls were sleeping. Deputy George Coelho says, "when I saw them laying there sleeping, I thought that these can't be the people responsible for this murder. But you go through the motions just to be sure." Going through the motions proved to be all that was needed. Cindy remained calm and silent. It was Shirley that spilled the beans. Once Cindy was told that Shirley had confessed, she began to laugh. Cindy's words: "To honestly tell you the truth, we didn't feel any badness. Then after we did it, we wanted to do another one. We just wanted to kill someone. Just for fun!" Shirley's words: "We both felt excited. I had done something that I had never done before." Both girls were tried as juveniles and subsequently convicted of first degree murder. They were both sentenced to the maximum allowed by the law. They would end up serving less time than that.
If Cindy had served the maximum sentence, she would have been 27 years old when she got out. She was paroled in 1992 after having served nine years. She obtained her junior college law degree while still serving time with the California Youth Authority. When paroled she studied law at the Pepperdine University School of Law. She is married now with four children and is believed to be living in northern California. She has not had any more run-ins with the law.
Shirley Wolf has not been as lucky. For years she tried to reconnect with her family but was ignored. She finally tracked down her father and the pair shared phone calls over a two month period but then he stopped taking her calls. In 1995 she was paroled after having served twelve years. Since her release she has been in and out of prison for charges ranging from prostitution to assault. She is now 43 years old and has spent approximately one third of her life behind bars.
The last word goes to the victim's son Carl Brackett: "We've got a judicial system that doesn't work. I'm thoroughly disgusted."