True crime aficionados will be familiar with the names of infamous serial killers such as Peter Sutcliffe and Ian Brady, Myra Hindley and Rosemary West, Harold Shipman and Steve Wright. Some might know about Dale Cregan or Joanna Dennehy. However, if asked to name England’s first serial killer they would probably reply “Jack the Ripper.”
In giving that answer, they would be wrong. The reason being that twenty years before the Ripper terrorised the streets of Whitechapel a ‘Black Widow’ killer posed as a wife, mother, friend and nurse to murder as many as twenty-one victims.
Mary Ann Cotton was suspected of murdering eight of her own children, seven stepchildren, her mother, three husbands, a lover and an inconvenient friend.
However, she has largely been forgotten by history and today remains only a vaguely remembered local curiosity in her native North East.
This 6,600-word review gives an insight into Mary Ann Cotton’s life and crimes, both as a study in its own right and as a stepping-stone to further research into the true crime genre.
The topics covered include:
• Introduction
• Early Life
• Four Husbands
• Two Lovers
• Inquest
• Arrest
• Trial
• Execution
• Discussion Points
True Crimes Series:
Armed Robbery
Jeremy Bamber – Slaughter at White House Farm
Levi Bellfield – The Bus Stop Stalker
David Berkowitz – The Son of Sam
Ted Bundy – The College Girl Killer
Buono and Bianchi – The Hillside Stranglers
John Christie – The 10 Rillington Place Murders
Mary Ann Cotton – England’s First Serial Killer
Dale Cregan – Gangland Enforcer
Jeffrey Dahmer – The Milwaukee Cannibal
Joanna Dennehy – The ‘Man-Woman’ Murderer
John Duffy and David Mulcahy – The Railway Killers
Ruth Ellis – The Last Woman to be Hanged
Kenneth Erskine – The Stockwell Strangler
Stephen Griffiths – The Crossbow Cannibal
Anthony Hardy – The Camden Ripper
John Haigh – The Acid Bath Murders
Brady and Hindley – The Moors Murderers
Colin Ireland – The Gay Slayer
Peter Manuel – The Beast of Birkenshaw
Donald Neilson – The Black Panther
Dennis Nilsen – The Muswell Hill Murderer
Harold Shipman – Doctor Death
George Joseph Smith – Brides in the Bath
Jack the Stripper – The Hammersmith Murders
Peter Sutcliffe – The Yorkshire Ripper
Johann ‘Jack’ Unterweger – International Serial Killer
Fred and Rose West – The House of Horrors
Steve Wight – The Suffolk Strangler
Aileen Wuornos – The Hitchhiker From Hell
Australian Serial Killers
Criminals Who Become Killers
Female Serial Killers
Killers Who Kill Again In Prison
Lesbian Serial Killers
Spree Killers
Whole Life Sentences
World’s Worse Serial Killers
In giving that answer, they would be wrong. The reason being that twenty years before the Ripper terrorised the streets of Whitechapel a ‘Black Widow’ killer posed as a wife, mother, friend and nurse to murder as many as twenty-one victims.
Mary Ann Cotton was suspected of murdering eight of her own children, seven stepchildren, her mother, three husbands, a lover and an inconvenient friend.
However, she has largely been forgotten by history and today remains only a vaguely remembered local curiosity in her native North East.
This 6,600-word review gives an insight into Mary Ann Cotton’s life and crimes, both as a study in its own right and as a stepping-stone to further research into the true crime genre.
The topics covered include:
• Introduction
• Early Life
• Four Husbands
• Two Lovers
• Inquest
• Arrest
• Trial
• Execution
• Discussion Points
True Crimes Series:
Armed Robbery
Jeremy Bamber – Slaughter at White House Farm
Levi Bellfield – The Bus Stop Stalker
David Berkowitz – The Son of Sam
Ted Bundy – The College Girl Killer
Buono and Bianchi – The Hillside Stranglers
John Christie – The 10 Rillington Place Murders
Mary Ann Cotton – England’s First Serial Killer
Dale Cregan – Gangland Enforcer
Jeffrey Dahmer – The Milwaukee Cannibal
Joanna Dennehy – The ‘Man-Woman’ Murderer
John Duffy and David Mulcahy – The Railway Killers
Ruth Ellis – The Last Woman to be Hanged
Kenneth Erskine – The Stockwell Strangler
Stephen Griffiths – The Crossbow Cannibal
Anthony Hardy – The Camden Ripper
John Haigh – The Acid Bath Murders
Brady and Hindley – The Moors Murderers
Colin Ireland – The Gay Slayer
Peter Manuel – The Beast of Birkenshaw
Donald Neilson – The Black Panther
Dennis Nilsen – The Muswell Hill Murderer
Harold Shipman – Doctor Death
George Joseph Smith – Brides in the Bath
Jack the Stripper – The Hammersmith Murders
Peter Sutcliffe – The Yorkshire Ripper
Johann ‘Jack’ Unterweger – International Serial Killer
Fred and Rose West – The House of Horrors
Steve Wight – The Suffolk Strangler
Aileen Wuornos – The Hitchhiker From Hell
Australian Serial Killers
Criminals Who Become Killers
Female Serial Killers
Killers Who Kill Again In Prison
Lesbian Serial Killers
Spree Killers
Whole Life Sentences
World’s Worse Serial Killers
