Tender Murderers: Women Who Kill (Paperback)

~ (Author), Max Allan Collins (Foreword) "Beulah May Annan could not have known, when she phoned the police on that afternoon of April 3, 1924, that she would inspire a Broadway..." (more)
Key Phrases: bandit queen, pirate queen, New York, Happy Jack, United States (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From 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.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Description

"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.

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Conari Press (January 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1573248215
• ISBN-13: 978-1573248211
• Product Dimensions: 7.2 x 7 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #413,871 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in this category: (What's this?)

  #34 in

  Books > Mystery & Thrillers > Authors, A-Z > ( C ) > Collins, Max Allan

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Shallow Gal, July 7, 2003

By	David A. Kulczyk (Sacramento, CA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.

2.0 out of 5 stars Slight recaps of famous female killers, November 10, 2008

By	Todd Stockslager (Raleigh, NC) - See all my reviews

Slight recaps of famous female killers, mostly in the last century, such as Bonnie Parker and Lizzie Borden. Nothing to go out of your way to find, but a casually interesting way to waste a couple of hours of time.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Delightfully poisonous read, June 8, 2003

By	Greg Goodsell "Kitsch Man" (Bakersfield, CA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.