Martina Cole's Lady Killers

Martina Cole explores the lives and careers of six female serial killers, re-examining evidence, and providing a comprehensive portrait of the sociological backgrounds that may have moulded them. She starts with one of the most notorious British murderers in modern times, Myra Hindley, who along with Ian Brady was responsible for a spate of child murders in the 1960s.

Martina Cole examines the life and crimes of the Victorian baby killer Amelia Dyer, who is thought to have killed more than four hundred infants over a span of 30 years.

Grantham-born Beverly Allitt studies nursing and due to staff shortages, obtains a job in a local hospital. Here she kills four children and attempts to injure another nine, for which she is put away in a secure hospital for life.

Focusing on Rosemary West who, alongside her husband Fred, sexually brutalised and murdered at least ten young women over two decades, including two of their own daughters.

The story of Victorian `Black Widow' Mary Ann Cotton, who was hanged in 1873, having been convicted of just one murder, but who may have been responsible for the deaths of up to 21 members of her own family.

Spotlighting the 16th-century Hungarian noblewoman Elizabeth Bathory, who is thought to have been responsible for the murders of over six hundred of her own maids.