Tender Murderers: Women who Kill by Trina Robbins, Max Allan Collins (Foreword by)

From the Publisher

“She wasn’t even five feet tall, weighed 90 pounds, wrote poetry, and died young, riddled with bullets and with a machine gun in her lap.” The infamous Bonnie Parker, immortalized in the movie Bonnie and Clyde, is only one of a select group of 20 women killers whose stories are told in Tender Murderers. Others include Charlotte Corday, of Marat-Sade fame; Belle Starr, the “Petticoat Terror of the Plains”; and Phoolan Devi, India’s “bandit queen,” who died as she lived. Trina Robbins, award-winning author and cartoonist, even includes a section on “Women Who Missed,” such as Valerie Solanas, founder of the Society for Cutting Up Men and attempted assassin of Andy Warhol, and Amy Fisher, the “Long Island Lolita.” From murderous moms and molls to plucky pirates and Appalachian ax-handlers, Tender Murderers is a rogue's gallery of fascinating female killers. Photographs are included.

Publishers Weekly

In these 20 compact case studies of crime's most fascinating and rare breed, Robbins (Eternally Bad) delves into the psyches and motivations behind such famous lethal ladies as Aileen Wuornos, Jean Harris and Squeaky Fromme. The appealing format, divided into five chapters, including modern and historical femmes fatales and bandit queens, is enhanced throughout by photos, artists' interpretations, ballads, quotes and trivia boxes. Robbins's true-crime writing style blends well with her often sarcastic and humorous interjections, such as describing Bonnie Parker of Bonnie and Clyde infamy as a "cute 'n' perky little thang." She indulges in some armchair psychoanalysis: "Long Island Lolita" Amy Fisher was just "looking for a loving father, one who didn't hit her." Though Robbins offers no single overall explanation as to what drives these strong women, whom she finds "perversely admirable," readers, whether drawn by this genre or the sexy 1940s style cover, will find the author's exploration of the question entertaining. (Feb.) Copyright 2003 Cahners Business Information.

Product Details