Murderess Magazine: Female Serial Killers Get a Makeover
Aileen Wuornos on the cover of Murderess Magazine 
Who hasn't wanted to kill a man, and who hasn't wanted to feel pretty?
Like a lot of other women, I'm drawn to true crime stories of notorious women. Some of these female killers were truly monsters. But when I learned more about some of them, I found their stories resonated with me. In some cases, I can understand why these deadly women wanted to kill. In other cases, I can understand why they needed to. Some of the victims had it coming.
Female serial killers are fascinating in part because our society doesn't expect women to unleash their often-justifiable rage in the form of violence, much less to methodically carry out and inflict repeated acts of murder.
The media portrays women who kill as monsters, grotesques with washed-out faces and dead eyes, reduced to something less than human in their drab and unflattering prison garb.
I concocted the "Murderess Magazine" project as a way to shine a different, more flattering light on these infamous women. Not all monsters are ugly. Just because you're in prison doesn't mean you shouldn't look your best. What might these femme fatales have looked like if they'd had completely normal lives? How might they radiate on the cover of a magazine?
These images are not an attempt to glamorize the acts of these killers, but to provide a glimpse of the women who they could have been. "Murderess" asks the question "had these outlaw criminals led more gentle lives and been treated with love and caring, would they have ended up rampaging on a killing spree? Or might they have just been beautiful?"
Why these four? It felt impossible to make this set without Aileen Wuornos because she is so iconic. She is peak feminist and easily recognizable, probably the most famous example of a serial murderess from recent history. She was even written into the recent Netflix "Lizzie Borden" series. I included Velma Barfield because who doesn't love a giggling granny? She was the first woman in the United States to be executed by lethal injection. I felt a connection with Martha Beck, the "Lonely Hearts Killer," because of a hometown connection: she lived and was buried in Milton, Florida, where I grew up. And finally, I couldn't forget Bonnie Parker, who was so iconic for her era and a fashion trendsetter. And poet!
If you're a woman who shares my fascination with female serial killers, and if you'd like to see more notorious murderess makeovers, contact me at recalledbarbie@gmail.com
Raven Storm
Who is the next Makeover Model?
How about Joanna Dennehy?