Waneta Hoyt (1965-1971) killed 5 of her 6 children in Oswego, New York by suffocation, claiming they had just stopped breathing. The case came on the advent and discovery of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), and one of her children became the first in the nation to be placed on a special monitor at home. The child died anyway, and Waneta said the machine malfunctioned. The trial became a test case on the medical validity of SIDS. The syndrome was determined valid, and Waneta was found innocent. In 1994, however, she confessed to the killings, but later recanted in 1995. A trial in 1995 convicted her to life in prison.

Martha Wise (1924-1925) aka "the Borgia of America" was a 39-year old widow from Ohio who fell deeply in love with a younger man whom her family was opposed to. She devised a plan to poison (arsenic) her family members one-by-one, killing 3 of them before the rest got suspicious and reported her to authorities. When questioned, she confessed to the murders, several other attempts, and even burning down a church that expressed a reluctance to carry out the marriage ceremony. Her defense at trial was "the Devil made me do it". She was sentenced to life imprisonment.

Blanche Taylor Moore (1966-1989) killed 2 husbands, one or more lovers, a pastor, her father and mother-in-law in Burlington, North Carolina by arsenic poisoning made to look like severe stomach cramps, diarrhea, and Guillain-Barre syndrome. Her husbands and men she had affairs with reminded her of her abusive father, whom she also killed in a family reconciliation meeting. She won a $250,000 sexual harassment suit against Krogers while at the same time she was poisoning a coworker-lover there. Bodies had to be exhumed for evidence, and she was convicted to die by lethal injection in 1991.

Mary Ann Cotton -- 17+ victims, all people she knew.

Genene Jones (1978-1982) a 27-year old vocational nurse who loved to work with terminally ill children, was convicted to life imprisonment in San Antonio, Texas for 11 murders in 1984. Because she was mobile, moving around Texas to work in different clinics, authorities expect she may be responsible for as many as 46 deaths. Her pattern involved injecting heart medication (digoxin) into ailing infants in order to gain recognition as a heroine when she was able to miraculously bring them back from the brink of death, or more commonly, appear as a heroine by taking extraordinary measures to resuscitate the doomed infant. She brazenly continued her pattern even while she was under a CDC investigation, and her medical supervisors defended her. When she lost the 1984 trial, hospital officials throughout Texas shredded records of her employment and activities, preventing further trials and embarrassment.

Martha Ann Johnson (1977-1982) was a 22-year old, 250-pound woman in Georgia with 4 young children who, after every argument with her husband, would roll her weight onto one of the children while they slept and suffocate them. She claimed they died of SIDS. She went unprosecuted until 1989 when an Atlanta investigative reporter dug up a medical report on one of the children which labeled the death suspicious. A 1990 trial and subsequent confession resulted in her receiving the death penalty.

Dorothea Puente (1986-1990) was a 57-year old, charming and attractive California woman who spoke Spanish fluently and supered an apartment house in Sacramento. She convinced the Dept. of Social Services to refer clients to her, and operated a state-subsidized room & boarding facility where she systematically bilked the residents out of their Social Security income to the point of killing 25 of them (officially listed as missing) and collecting their Social Security checks even after their deaths. Neighbor complaints about the stench in the backyard led police to dig up 7 bodies, and she was charged with 9 murders (2 other bodies were found in the river). The trial lasted until 1993 and was a tortuous affair involving a change of venue and whether the public wanted to execute a woman who was now 64 years old. She was sentenced to life imprisonment.

Janie Lou Gibbs (1965-1967) had a short serial killer career in Cordele, Georgia where she systematically poisoned her husband and 4 children with arsenic and later confessed. With each life insurance settlement, she donated the money to the Church.

smashed the skulls of her three young sons with rocks

Elfriede Blauensteiner -- 5+ victims, all people she knew.

Terri Rachals (1985-1986) a 23-year old intensive care nurse in Albany, Georgia was indicted on 6 counts of murder in 1986, but only sentenced to 17 years imprisonment for aggravated assault. Her defense was successful in portraying her as suffering from "fugue states" and in claiming that her elderly victims had begged her to help them die. Her pattern was to inject potassium chloride to mimic the effects of cardiac arrest. Georgia officials suspected her of 20 such acts, and used statistical probability evidence in the prosecution. A (recanted) confession she made to officials was suppressed because of her mental condition. Newspapers in 1986 called her the "murderess of the century". Everyone was surprised by the lenient jury verdict.