The Black Widow Serial Killer Who Killed All Of Her Lovers

Even though it is a very rare form of killing, serial murder has been a topic of interest in the eyes of countless observers. However, the exact guidelines for serial murder have been hard to pin-point because each killer has a unique way of committing the deed. Vera Renczi was a female serial killer who “was convicted of thirty-five murders and sentenced to life imprisonment” during the 1930s (Vera Renczi – The Black Widow Serial Killer Who Killed All Of Her Lovers). She killed every one of the men in her life, including her son, by poisoning them with arsenic in fear that they were betraying her trust (Vera Renzci). Macbeth, the main character of Shakespeare’s “Macbeth”, is one of the people who fall into the gray area between a serial killer and a psychotic human being. However, by taking the basic definition of a serial killer, learning curve, and the evolving nature of motive into consideration, it can be concluded that Macbeth was a serial killer.

Even though scholars have not been able to produce a concrete definition for a serial murder, they have been able to create a broad characterization defining it as “the unlawful killing of two or more victims by the same offender(s) in separate events” (FBI). This forms the first piece of evidence supporting the aforementioned theory. Macbeth killed three people in two different events himself and also killed three additional victims through hired assassins (Shakespeare). He murders King Duncan in his desire to gain the crown; the next day, he kills the guards in order to cover up his act (Shakespeare). The fact that Macbeth does not kill all of his victims in the same day sets him apart from a mass murderer. Vera is a definite serial killer for she killed each one of her ma...

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... throughout her killing spree. This proves that not all serial killers can be classified with all the same characteristics. Vera was paranoid by the idea of her lovers losing interest in her (Vera Renczi – The Black Widow Serial Killer Who Killed All Of Her Lovers). This fear drove her to kill the moment she had the slightest insinuation of infidelity.

Even though the two serial killers, Macbeth and Vera Renczi, do not correspond with every category, they are both serial killers in their own unique way. Macbeth can be concluded to be a serial killer due to the definition of a serial killer, his learning curve, and his evolving motives. The two examples prove that not all killers can be classified using all the same classifications for there is always at least one killer who tries to do something out of the ordinary thus disproving the definition altogether.