These are some of the most prolific and horrifying female serial killers throughout history

News24xx.com - Although female serial killers are thought to be less common than male serial killers, they certainly exist. And they're also just as brutal as the men.

These are some of the most prolific and horrifying female serial killers throughout history that you should know.

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Aileen Wuornos
Aileen Wuornos, who was working as a sex worker, was convicted and executed for the murders of six different men between December 1989 to November 1990. 

She confessed to shooting men who picked her up hitchhiking in self-defense after she claimed they beat or raped her, a claim that she later recanted.

Wuornos was sentenced to death in 1992 and was executed by lethal injection on October 9, 2002. Her story was portrayed in the film "Monster," with Charlize Theron playing Wuornos.

Judy Buenoano
Judy Buenoano was known as the "Black Widow" and was executed in the electric chair in 1998. She had been convicted of poisoning her husband with arsenic, drowning her son who was partially paralyzed (who began needing leg braces after showing signs of arsenic poisoning), and attempting to kill her fiancé with a car bomb.

The motive appeared to be insurance money, as she received around $240,000 for the deaths of her husband, son, and a former boyfriend. Although Buenoano never admitted to any of the killings, she was nevertheless the first woman to be executed in the state of Florida since 1848.

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Juana Barraza
Juana Barraza was dubbed the "Mataviejitas," or "Little Old Lady Killer" after 16 elderly women were found strangled to death in Mexico City in 2005. According to The Guardian, forensic profilers believe Barraza’s killings were to release the rage she had towards her own alcoholic mother, who gave her away at age 12 to a man who abused her.

She used objects such as phone cables, tights, or her stethoscope to strangle her victims. She became one of Mexico’s most prolific serial killers and was eventually sentenced to 759 years in prison for 11 separate counts of murder. She is still in prison today.

Jane Toppan
Jane Toppan was born Honora Kelley and known as "Nora" but her name was changed to Jane Toppan after she was taken in by the Toppan family as an indentured servant.

She later became a nurse and was called "Jolly Jane" because of her cheerful demeanor. However, she was secretly experimenting with drugs such as morphine and atropine on her patients and then started poisoning specific people in her life, one of them being her foster sister, Elizabeth Brigham.

Toppan confessed to Brigham’s killing in 1902: "I held her in my arms and watched with delight as she gasped her life out." She later admitted to killing at least 31 people but a jury found her not guilty by reason of insanity, so Toppan was sent to Taunton State Hospital for life.

She claimed the reason behind her murderous ways was because the man she loved at 16 left her for another woman.