Customer Reviews

Tender Murderers: Women Who Kill

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Tender Murderers  Women who kill by Trina Robbins is a puff piece. Twenty error filled chapters written with a wink and a nudge. Robbins couldnt of picked easier murderers to write about and they have all been written about before with more detail. Her section on Dorothea Puente, the Sacramento rooming house murderer was almost fiction. She also left out tons of information on the Benders. This book is fine if you are a novice, but anyone who has read Bloodletters and Badmen by Jay Robert Nash will know more about any of the criminals than what Robbins wrote in this book.

As a historian studying Depression Era criminals such as Bonnie and Clyde, and drawn to the sensationalized Belle Starr, I thought I would pick this up as a fun, condensed read of other female outlaws. To my surprise, Robbins account of many things Bonnie and the Barrow Gang done are completely wrong. Such as the in the Joplin, Missouri shootout that Blanche Barrow put her white dog in her pocket, when in fact Snowball was never found. She also accuses Bonnie of murder, when in fact it has never been proven that she killed anyone. If Robbins cannot get the chapter on Bonnie Parker right, I wonder how the other ladies featured fare. Her writing style also comes off as haughty and snotty. I would skip this one, unless you enjoy reading more fiction than fact.

This is a delightful read: learn all about Belle Guiness, the homesteading murderess who planted her various lonely hearts suitors all along her farm; read about Dorothy Puente, the malevolent landlord who seemed to be a benevolent caretaker of the elderly by day, murderous, mercenary monster by night; and who can forget Lizzie Borden, Bonnie Parker and Charlotte Corday?

Some of my favorites are mssing such as Caril Fugate and Myra Hindley, but by Robbins intent and design, she concentrated on women who acted alone without the influence of men. It's still a good read.