20 Worst Mothers in History

On October 26, 1997, 33-year-old Susan Eubanks got into a heated argument with her boyfriend and called her estranged husband with a message. She cryptically told him to “say goodbye.” When deputies arrived at the house to check on Eubanks, they found that she had attempted to take her own life and kill all four of her children. Three were dead at the scene, and the fourth passed away the following day from his injuries. Eubanks survived and was later convicted of multiple counts of first degree murder. She was placed on death row, and the Supreme Court of California denied her appeal in 2016. As of 2022, she is still awaiting execution.

Pearl Fernandez

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In 2012, Gabriel Fernandez moved in with his biological mother, Pearl Fernandez, and her partner, Isauro Aguirre. He had lived with both his great uncle and his grandparents beforehand. Unfortunately, the young boy was severely mistreated by his mom and her boyfriend, and this continued for eight months. On May 22, 2013, the pair beat Gabriel so badly that he stopped breathing, prompting Fernandez to call for help. The boy was found to be brain dead, and died after a few days due to a combination of factors, including blunt trauma. Pearl Fernandez was given a life sentence. She won’t be eligible for parole. Aguirre was put on death row.

The story of Megan Huntsman is a horrifying one, and viewer discretion is certainly advised. Her ex Darren West was tidying her garage when he stumbled upon a box. Taking off the lid, he found a young corpse. This led to a gruesome truth coming out. For ten years between 1996 and 2006, Huntsman had killed six of her and West’s own children and stashed their bodies away. According to Huntsman, she “wanted to help them avoid the terrible life [she] would have given them.” She was apprehended in April of 2014 following the discovery and was later convicted of six counts of first degree felony murder. She will likely serve at least thirty years in prison.

As far as unspeakable tragedies go, this is a pretty massive one. In December 2014, Thaiday’s 20-year-old son came to see his mother, he discovered eight dead children, all of whom she had killed. Seven of the victims were Thaiday’s own, and the eighth was her niece. It has been reported that Thaiday was suffering from severe mental health issues, including undiagnosed schizophrenia. It was also said that she was suffering from a mental health episode at the time of the attack. Thaiday was therefore found to have been of an “unsound mind”, so the charges were dropped and she was sent to a psychiatric hospital for treatment.

Wives Jennifer and Sarah Hart met at South Dakota’s Northern State University, and in 2006, the couple adopted three children. Two years later, they adopted three more. Unfortunately, this large family had a long history of abuse. The kids bore evidence of physical violence, and they claimed to have been starved. They were taken out of school, and in one famous incident, one of the boys, named Devonte, was photographed hugging a cop and crying. On March 23, 2018, social services attempted to contact the Harts, as they had been tipped off by the family’s neighbors. Three days later, Jennifer Hart drove their car off a cliff, killing herself, her wife, and all six children.

This woman from Gwinnett County, Georgia contacted 911 to report a crime. But it turned out that she was calling on behalf of herself. On July 6, 2017, Martinez attacked her children with a knife inside the family’s abode. Her spouse, Martin Romero, attempted to intervene, but ended up losing his life at her hands. She also killed four of her five children, with the fifth suffering serious injuries in the attack. The following day, Martinez renounced her right to a lawyer and flashed some thumbs ups in court. She was ultimately sentenced to life in prison.

Toddler Nevaeh Allen was reported missing from Baton Rouge, Louisiana on September 24, 2021. Two days later, her body was found in the woods of Hancock County, Mississippi, which is about a two hour drive from Baton Rouge. Suspicion fell on Allen’s mother, Lanaya Cardwell, and Cardwell’s boyfriend, Phillip Gardner. They were both arrested on the charge of second degree murder, although both pleaded not guilty. As of 2022, their fates remain uncertain. Cardwell is accused of assaulting and murdering the deceased, and it’s suspected that Gardner drove to Mississippi and disposed of her body in the woods.

China Arnold

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A very disturbing incident occurred on August 30, 2005. Following an intense fight with her boyfriend, China Arnold grabbed her newborn girl and did something horrific involving a cooking device. The child quickly passed away due to severe internal injuries. An investigation was conducted, and Arnold was eventually charged with the death. It took three trials to convict her for good, as one ended in a mistrial and the other was tainted by prosecutorial misconduct. But on May 13, 2011, China Arnold was found guilty of aggravated homicide and sentenced to life in prison.

Diane Frederickson met Steve Downs in high school, and the two tied the knot in 1973. They had three kids together before splitting up. In May 1983, she arrived at an Oregon hospital in a bloody vehicle. Both she and her three children had been shot. One kid had passed away, and the others had survived with debilitating injuries. Diane Downs’ story was that they had all been viciously attacked by a stranger trying to carjack her. But her behavior raised eyebrows and an official investigation was launched. Nine months later, charges were filed against Downs. She was convicted in 1984, and minus one short-lived escape, has been imprisoned ever since.

Texas woman Andrea Kennedy was a nurse, and married engineer Russell Yates. The two started a family, but she exhibited troubling behavior after the birth of their fourth child. She subsequently received a postpartum psychosis diagnosis, though things devolved following her dad’s passing. On June 20, 2001, Andrea Yates filled the bathtub and drowned all five of her kids. Four of them were then laid on the bed, and she called 911 on herself. She was initially set to spend life in jail, but her conviction was eventually overturned. Instead, she was deemed not guilty due to mental illness and placed in a psychiatric facility.

Ma Barker

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When it comes to Depression Era gangsters, it doesn’t get much worse than the Barker–Karpis Gang. Between 1931 and ‘35, the group was involved in a slew of criminal activity. Co-founder Fred Barker and some of the other members had a famous mother, widely known as Ma Barker, who was killed. Barker was publicly portrayed as a villainous matriarch, and even depicted as the one pulling all the strings behind the curtain. This is thought to be false, but she was still involved in some capacity. Ma Barker was aware of the gang’s violent activities, serving as their accomplice and helping to keep them hidden from prying eyes.

A 22-year-old German woman identified as Bianca N. fed her baby, put her down to sleep, and proceeded to leave for a Halloween party. The child was left home alone while her mother was out for the next three days. In that time, she lacked food and water, and passed away. Upon returning home and finding her daughter deceased, Bianca N. ran away. The child was then found by social services, and her mother was arrested. According to Bianca N., the death was not premeditated, and she had only meant to be gone for a couple of hours. Regardless, she was convicted of homicide and sentenced to life in prison.

The story of Susan Smith shares some similarities with that of Diane Downs. Like Downs, Smith initially tried passing off her crime as carjacking. Smith publicly pretended that a Black man had stolen her vehicle and her two boys. The incident became national news starting in late October of 1994. However, investigators quickly noticed holes in her story, and suspicion fell on Smith herself. Nine days later, on November 3, she admitted that she had indeed killed her sons. According to her, she had trapped them inside the car and sent it into South Carolina’s John D. Long Lake. Smith avoided the death penalty but was given a life sentence.

The Theresa Knorr case has shocked people for decades. Knorr severely mistreated her six children, often subjecting them to physical violence and imprisonment. In July 1984, following years of horrific treatment, Knorr killed her daughter Suesan. Then, in June of 1985, Knorr killed another of her kids, Sheila, by locking her in a closet. The corpse remained in the hot space for days, until the odor overwhelmed the residence and Knorr forced two of her boys to get rid of it. Knorr eventually fled to Salt Lake City, and her daughter Terry called “America's Most Wanted” to report what had transpired. She was ultimately found, arrested, and given two life sentences.

Mary Ann Cotton

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Mary Ann Cotton’s adult life was filled with death. Her first husband passed away in 1865. Her second followed in 1866. Following this, both her mother and fourth husband also died. Suspiciously, everyone seemed to succumb to stomach ailments. Throughout these years, eleven of her thirteen kids died of similar causes. Following her stepson’s passing, she was investigated. Authorities soon realized that she had deliberately poisoned the deceased using arsenic. It is now thought that Cotton had murdered all the aforementioned victims as well. She was executed in March of 1873.

This mother had an infant son named Rhys, whom she continuously mistreated. Rhys had reportedly suffered many broken bones, including his wrist and shoulder. He had also endured numerous fractured ribs, the result of Biggs’ violence. Tragically, he passed away in 2005, and Biggs was sentenced to eight years in prison. Her significant other, Paul Husband, didn’t act to end the mistreatment, and he too was imprisoned. While inside, Biggs was reportedly disliked by her fellow inmates, supposedly owing to the nature of her crime. In May of 2012, she was apparently trapped inside a gardening shed and badly beaten by a group of prisoners.

On Monday July 21, 2014, Stacie Parsons went into her local police department and confessed to murdering her daughter, Victoria Wyatt. It was said that Parsons’ husband threatened to leave her, leading her to become violent. She reportedly took her child to a bridge, drowned her, then wrapped up her body and went home. When she got back, a friend named Randy Dyess checked the trunk of her car, finding a deceased Wyatt. Though Wyatt’s dad and Dyess attempted to save her, it was too late. Parsons will spend the rest of her life in prison, as she was denied the possibility of parole.

Like Mary Ann Cotton, Belle Gunness was a serial killer who claimed the lives of her children. Gunness murdered a minimum of fourteen individuals, although the true number could be in the dozens. She attracted men, and would proceed to kill and bury them on her Indiana farm. She also took the lives of numerous kids, including her own and those of her spouses. When her farm burned down in 1908, investigators unearthed numerous remains, including what were thought to be her and her kids’ corpses. Unlike the other mothers on this list, Gunness faced no legal repercussions. Though it’s never been validated, many think she faked her death, fleeing into an unknown and undocumented future. Others say she passed away.

Often regarded as the most horrific case in Indiana’s history, the story of Gertrude Baniszewski is a disturbing one. Baniszewski was a depressed woman with seven children. Two of her daughters befriended sisters Sylvia and Jenny Likens at school. The Likens sisters were later sent to live with Baniszewski, and the matriarch embarked on an infamous string of abuse. Sylvia was routinely tormented by Baniszewski, who sometimes forced her own children and Jenny to help. This lasted for months before Likens’ body gave out and she died. Baniszewski was given a life sentence. Two of her kids and some neighbors received varying convictions and prison terms. Despite the life sentence, Baniszewski was paroled in 1985 after serving less than twenty years.

This Japanese woman had grown sick of taking care of her children, so she abandoned them. On June 9, 2010, Shimomura locked her young kids inside her apartment and went to stay with a friend. Neighbors reportedly heard the little ones’ cries but didn’t think it was cause for alarm. After fifty days, Shimomura is said to have returned home and found them deceased. She subsequently went out, although she did inform a colleague of her children’s deaths. The police were contacted, and Shimomura was arrested. It was revealed that the kids had survived about twenty days, using garbage, condiments, and frost from the fridge to stay alive. Shimomura was found guilty of their deaths and sentenced to thirty years in prison.