Lady Killers: The Deadly Women History Forgot — and the Sexist Myths That Let Them Get Away With It

Lady Killers: The Deadly Women History Forgot — and the Sexist Myths That Let Them Get Away With It

Author: Gwendolyn Dolske, PhD & Rudy Salo | Philosophy & Education Podcast October 9, 2022 Duration: 53:00

In 1998, an FBI profiler stood at a homicide conference and declared: "There are no female serial killers."

He was wrong. History proves it — fourteen times over, in just one book alone.

In this episode of Good Is In The Details, Gwendolyn Dolske and Rudy Salo sit down with Tori Telfer, journalist, author, and host of the true crime podcasts Criminal Broads and Red Flags, for a conversation about her book Lady Killers: Deadly Women Throughout History (HarperCollins): the first book to examine female serial killers through a feminist lens, praised by Publishers Weekly, Booklist, and Kirkus Reviews, and described as "a bloodcurdling, insightful, and irresistible journey into the heart of darkness."

The stories in Lady Killers are largely forgotten by history; not by accident, but by design. Women like Erzsébet Báthory, Nannie Doss, Tillie Klimek, Kate Bender, and Mary Ann Cotton rival their male counterparts in cunning, cruelty, and appetite for destruction. And yet the narrative we are most comfortable with, the one our culture keeps returning to, the one that shapes our true crime podcasts and Netflix documentaries and FBI profiles, is the one where women are the victims, not the perpetrators.

Tori Telfer spent years asking why. The answer, she found, is both fascinating and infuriating.

What we explore in this episode:

  • Why humans are drawn to stories about serial killers — and why the serial killer functions as "the ultimate villain" in human storytelling
  • Why the FBI didn't officially recognize female serial killers until the 1990s — and what that institutional blindness allowed to happen
  • The tired tropes and sexist clichés that surround female killers whenever they are caught — she was hormonal, she did it for love, a man made her do it, she was a femme fatale, a black widow, a witch — and why those explanations are not just wrong but dangerous
  • Why female serial killers are so much more likely to get away with their crimes than male killers — and how the same cultural myths that diminish women also protect them from suspicion
  • The women in Lady Killers themselves — their crimes, their historical contexts, their motivations, and the way history has mythologized, sexualized, and ultimately forgotten them
  • What it means to examine these women's lives seriously — not to excuse what they did, but to understand how the world they lived in shaped who they became
  • Why we don't have the cultural language for female aggression and predation — and what philosophy says about that gap
  • What the obsession with true crime reveals about us — our fear, our fascination, and our need for stories with a clear villain

This is true crime done the Good Is In The Details way: with wit, rigor, genuine philosophical curiosity, and a refusal to accept easy answers.

Guest: Tori Telfer — journalist, author of Lady Killers: Deadly Women Throughout History (HarperCollins) and Confident Women: Swindlers, Grifters, and Shapeshifters of the Feminine Persuasion, host of the true crime podcasts Criminal Broads and Red Flags (Investigation Discovery). Her work has appeared in Jezebel, The Hairpin, Vulture, Rolling Stone, and elsewhere.

Good Is In The Details is hosted by Gwendolyn Dolske, Ph.D. and Rudy Salo; a philosophy, books, and ideas podcast exploring the examined life in the spirit of Socrates.

 Check out Tori Telfer's book featured on the pod: Lady Killers

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Hosted by Gwendolyn Dolske, Ph.D., and Rudy Salo, Good Is In The Details operates on the belief that the most profound insights are often hidden in plain sight, waiting to be unpacked. This philosophy and education podcast doesn't just skim the surface of big topics; it lingers there, examining the nuances of how we think, learn, and ultimately live our lives. You'll hear thoughtful, meandering conversations with scholars, authors, and practitioners from diverse fields, all centered on how ideas from ethics, culture, and critical thinking intersect with our daily realities. The hosts have a knack for breaking down complex academic concepts without losing their depth, making each episode feel like an engaging seminar you can enjoy on a walk or during your commute. Rather than offering easy answers, this podcast provides the tools and perspectives to ask better questions, finding the substance in the subtleties that we often overlook. It’s for anyone who believes that understanding the framework of an argument or the history of a thought is just as important as the conclusion. Tune in for a consistently thoughtful exploration of the books, theories, and cultural forces that quietly shape our world.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 100

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