Is there anything scarier than a female serial killer? I honestly cannot name one. I think I would rather try to fight a bear rather than get into any sort of conflict with a female. The things that makes female serial killers so worry some is you just would not expect it from them. Not saying anything towards females of course, but them all seem so innocent, then boom you’re dead. The female we will be covering today is none other than Judy Buenoano. She is probably the most known female serial killer of all time, and rightfully so. I mean she only has 3 official murders, and one attempted murder to her name, but this should not be taken lightly. She murdered her husband and future boyfriend through arsenic poisoning, son who was also disabled by drowning, and attempted bombing of her future fiancé. Her motive was simply money. After each person she killed, she would just collect their insurance money and live a lavish life and no one ever suspected anything.

The story behind all of these deaths are so eery and heartless that I decided the best thing to do is include them. I will begin with her first husband, James. James was an air force sergeant who married Judy in 1962. As in any marriage, they were both happy, or so it seemed. Until one day, James was found dead inside his own home. Nothing ever seemed suspicious as James just came from the Vietnam War so his death was ruled as a heart attack. Not too long later, Judy was with another man. his name was Bobby Morris, and just like with James, Bobby suffered the same fate and was ruled dead by “heart attack”.

Now obviously Judy has some of correlation with these murders, however, she had no suspicion to her because poisoning is one of the most lethal ways of killing someone because it leaves little to no evidence behind. However, this next story is even more frightening as it really hints at Judy’s cruel personality. So her eldest son, Michael, who also had previously served in the military experienced signs of paralysis as he was poisoned with arsenic poisoning. He was rendered immobilized and was forced to retire from the military and head back home. Knowing she would receive finance off of veteran’s insurance and life insurance, Judy took her son canoeing and “mistakenly” rocked the boat and caused it to flip over. Reminder that Michael was paralyzed and also had to wear metal leg braces so these factors caused him to end up dying due to drowning. Judy claimed she had no opportunity to save her son as she was fretting for her life and just like that she was let off the scene and received her finance.

As stated before, she was never suspicious until she tried to blow up her future fiancé’s car. He luckily survived, and surrounding all of these coincidences piled on one another and soon enough she was arrested for her crimes. However, just like with most serial killers, Judy suffered from much distress from childhood. She grew up in a dysfunctional family which led her to bounce around foster homes and be abused as well. One psychologist said this about Buenoano, “While average in intelligence, Buenoano, suffers brain damage and serious psychiatric impairments” (Sun). The abuse as a child had definitely played an affect on her mental and psychological well-being and ultimately led to her death by electric chair in 1998.

Work Cited

https://allthatsinteresting.com/judy-buenoano

https://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/fl-xpm-1990-07-01-9001160462-story.html