7 Notorious Women Criminals

A Texas outlaw in the 19th century, Belle Starr (born Myra Belle Shirley) lived a bandit’s life, associating with unsavory folk such as Jesse James. She and her husband, a Cherokee Indian named Sam Starr, were known for housing outlaws on their ranch in the Oklahoma Indian Territory and for preying on travelers and cowboys passing through. She and her husband were convicted of horse stealing in 1883 and served time in a federal penitentiary. She was charged with a handful of other crimes before being shot and killed on her ranch in 1889. The killer was never identified.

Moll Cutpurse, born Mary Frith, was notorious in 17th-century London. She began her life of crime as a common pickpocket. Then she expanded her territory and became a highway robber dressed in men’s clothing. Finally, after a stint in jail, she opened a shop in London that she used as a cover for selling stolen items.

Anne Bonny was an Irish pirate who trolled the Caribbean Sea with pirate John (“Calico Jack”) Rackham in the 18th century. Rackham was wise to go against common thinking that women were bad luck on board a ship. Bonny and the crew had a successful run hijacking and pillaging merchant vessels. When they were captured in 1720, Bonny escaped execution because she was pregnant. When she was released, she went to live in South Carolina, where she proceeded to lead the rest of her life in an uneventful domestic fashion.

Charlotte Corday became an assassin at age 25. The daughter of French nobles, Corday’s allegiance during the French Revolution lay with Girondins—French republican politicians—and the French constitution. She took the conflict into her own hands and set her sights on Jean-Paul Marat, a leader of the French Revolution and enemy of all she stood for. Corday lied her way in to meet with Marat face-to-face and stabbed him to death in his bathtub on July 13, 1793. She was arrested and sent to the guillotine four days later.

Mary Surratt ran a tavern with her husband in Maryland, where they welcomed Confederate soldiers during the American Civil War. When her husband died, Surratt moved to Washington, D.C., and opened a boardinghouse. The boardinghouse became a meeting place for John Wilkes Booth and his fellow conspirators. Surratt herself became entangled in the plot to kill U.S. Pres. Abraham Lincoln. She is thought to have been in regular conversation with Booth about his plans and assisted in concealing the weapons used for the murder at her tavern in Maryland. She was tried and found guilty of conspiracy and became the first woman to be sentenced to death by the United States. She was hanged with the other conspirators on July 7, 1865.

Kate (“Ma”) Barker led the Barker gang of her sons and rose to infamy as the FBI’s Public Enemy Number One. She and her gang orchestrated a slew of robberies, murders, and kidnappings throughout the American Midwest during the early 1930s. On January 16, 1935, she and her son Fred met their deaths in what was the longest shootout in FBI history, in the home that they had made their hideout in Florida. Ma was the subject of the 1970 movie Bloody Mama starring Shelley Winters.

Half of the legendary duo Bonnie and Clyde, Bonnie Parker met Clyde Barrow in 1930, and, when he was sent to jail soon after on burglary charges, she smuggled in a gun that he was able to use to escape. She partnered with Barrow in 1932 during the Great Depression in what became a 21-month–long crime spree. The two stole cars and robbed gas stations, small-town banks, and restaurants throughout Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Missouri. They evaded the FBI and the police until 1934 and in the process set free five prisoners from Eastham State Prison in Texas, killed three police officers, and kidnapped a police chief. They were eventually caught and killed by the police in Louisiana when a friend revealed their whereabouts.