The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-06-28
WOMEN ARE MOST
 BLOODTH|RSTY Commit Some of the Most Hor-
 ribIe Crimes SOME ATROCIOUS RECORDS The Crimes of Mrs. Belle Guinness Re- call Other Incidents In History
 That Bear Out the un-
 pleasant Accusation.
SOME ATROCIOUS RECORDS

From the Philadelphia North American.
 Shocked and mortified beyond eX- pression. the world recently read of the atrocious crimes of Mrs. Belle Gun ness, disclosed after the burning or her house when more than a score of i bodies and skeletons were found on the isolated farm near Laporte Ind. In this little metropolis lie the ghast- 1v records of almost inconceivable crimes, of murders executed in cold blood because of lust for gain. The ! name of this murderous ogress of h. ! diana will go down in the annals or crime as one of the most notorious blood women of time, ranking with l Locusfa, Messalina, Lucrezia Borgla, l Catherine de Medici the Brinvilliers ! and other women who reveled Tn the taking of human life.
 Even more recently has the world shuddered as 1t read of the killing or seven or more little children by Jeanne Weber, a woman now known through out France as the ogress of the Goulette d'Or," who seemed to ex- perience strange intoxication of delight as she felt the bodies of babes wr1the in death struggles beneath her strang- ling fingers.
 Reading of tn ese two recent ex- posures of dreadful crimes of women, i one recalls the murders of Jane Top pan the nurse, who seven years ago confessed to 31 murders, and also of the wholesale slaughterings by the Bender family in the far west, 50 or more of which were said to have been inspired by handsome Kate Bender called the evil genius of the family. 
 History can give the names of few men who displayed such devilish delib- erateness in the taking of individual human lives. One is constrained to ask the question-are women more bloodthirsty than men? And when the slender white hand of woman Is raised to strike or drops a powder of poison in a glass, does she experience g. strange, diabolic delight in crime not felt by men criminals?
 A curious pleasure in killing, a peculiar and keen interest in the symptoms of poison, a sense of exquisite joy in seeing victims writhe in paroxysms of pain this seems to have characterized the women who have committed such crimes in the past.
 The pitiless brutality of Mrs. Guinness parallels that of the notorious Marquise de Brnvilliers, who poisoned her father, two brothers and innumerable patients in hospitals, upon whom she experimented in administering poison.
 Both women slew without qualm of feeling, without a moment of hesitation, with as much nonchalance as though they were giving wine to guests. Mrs. Guinness used weapons, and her phlegmatic and stolid nature left no aversion at the sight of blood. More refined, the Marquise de Brinvillers resorted to poison-the favor ite means of murder among women.
 The almost inconceivable and unex- plainable delight with which Jane Toppan killed her 31 victims was paralleled in history only by the crimes of Valleria Messalna, both women revelfng in a drunken ecstacy at the sight of writhing Thurman bodies and human suffering; thrill ling with strange pleasure at the sense of ebbing vitality in a human being; the i, former glorying in the contortions of death the more ancient monstress, whom her husband put to death, exulting in mangled limbs and the flowing of crim- son blood.
 With Lucrezia Borgia and her brothers murder was a means of revenge or ad- vancement in power; although the num- ! Der of their crimes has not been definite ly fixed, it is said to exceed 20. The Borgias were skilled in poisons- poisons so subtle and insdious that death came to the victim in the inhaling of flowers presented by the dazzling Lu- crezia or shaking the hand of Cesare. In these diabolic experiments, historians declare, the lovely daughter of Alexander VI, took a most keen and tense inter- est; and from her crucibles came posons so mysterious and potent that death came to the victim either suddenly or finger ingly as was desired by her. but in such a way that there was no trace of poison, no discoloration, often little suffering. 1rt Nf compounds by the terrible Exili, the Ital- ian murderer, while imprisoned in the Bastile, the Chevalier Gaudin de Sainte croix, her lover on his release taught the Marquise de Brinvilliers the nature of new compounds of poisons-poisons that would kill, leaving little trace of their nature, yet entailing such suffering on the part of the victim that the hardest hearted could hardly bear the sight
 This extraordinary woman, who was known as a patroness of hospitals In Paris visited the patients, doling out sweatmeats little tarts or delicious dain- ties in which were varying quantities of poison.
 With an equanimity that was almost superhuman, nay fendish, she watched the results on the various victims dur ing her subsequent visits, estimating by their condition the best doses for sudden lingering deatn. The nu1nDer or her victims was never learned. When she became past-mistress of the art, after experience in hospitals, she killed her father and two brothers.
 There have been innumerable cases of men criminals capable of the greatest generosity and humanity. Nero delight ed to amuse his friends, and was often touched by emotions of mercy; Helioga- balus, despite his profiigacy and debauch- cry, was capable of great kindness; neither Hannibal,> or Mohammed nor Ma poleon killed for the delight in killing, but death was a path to victory. But with the Messalinas and De Brinvilliers of history it seems to have been differ ent.
 The amazing absence of all emotion of pity or regret in Mrs. Guinness seems to have been the characteristic of her sis- ters-in-blood of history.
 Is it true then, that when fair woman sacrifices the tenderness that is essential ly feminine she surpa sses the hardness of cruelty that would seem to be pecu- liarly masculine?
 And do women take a peculiar delight in crime itself rather than in that which they hope to gain as the result of crime?
 The woman who deliberately lured to her home in Indiana many men under the