Talk:Bertha Gifford

First and worst?

 * Statistically, she ranks as one of the world's first and most prolific of the known female serial killers.

The term "statistically" makes no sense here ... but anyway, Gifford is nothing like the world's first female serial killer. The idea that serial killers are extremely unlikely to be female is a myth: actually about a 1/3 of convicted serial killers are female. And if you check out you will see that they date back centuries.

For (one of the) worst, however, she has a pretty good shot -- assuming we are interested in maintaining such a grisly league table. Of all the examples I have read recently, there are quite a few with more victims than Gifford; however, all of those involved either exclusive child-killers, or multiple killers acting in concert. Of lone killers who murdered adults, Gifford may in fact be the worst female. -- 202.63.39.58 (talk) 21:42, 21 June 2010 (UTC)
 * No cancel that. Fund a few lone-wolf female killers of adults who greatly exceeded Gifford's total. Jane Toppan is the worst so far -- and also an American female serial killer who pre-dates Gifford. I think I will just remove the line I quoted above; it is wrong. -- 202.63.39.58 (talk) 21:51, 21 June 2010 (UTC)