Criminal organizations, often called mafias, are associated with men in the minds of many people. This situation is quite natural. Because the members and managers of these organizations, which are established to commit crimes in an organized manner and have a hierarchical structure, are mostly men. However, there are some regions and periods where women are also an important element of the mafia. For example, in regions like Italy, where mafia structures are strong, especially in certain periods, male mafia members who are imprisoned transfer their assets to their wives or daughters! In Italy, the percentage of women imprisoned for mafia-related crimes is only 2.5%. However, women manage 1 in 3 of the mafia’s financial resources in Italy!
However, throughout history there have been women mafias who were just as ruthless, brave and famous as men! Founded and run by women, these organized crime syndicates were just as capable of committing crimes as men! Here are 6 of the most famous and ruthless female mafias in history…
- Ma Barker
Born in 1873 in the United States, Kate Barker became known as Ma Barker after becoming a highly dangerous criminal. Barker’s specialty was planning and executing dangerous highway robberies with great success. Baker was the ruthless and dangerous leader of the dangerous Barker-Karpis gang consisting of her husband and 3 sons! The dangerous actions of the gang led by Ma Baker soon attracted the attention of the press. Thus, Baker became a criminal known all over the United States. Senior US law enforcement officials even described him as “the most vicious, dangerous and resourceful criminal mastermind of the last decade”. Ma Barker’s life of crime ended in 1935 during a gunfight with police in Florida.
- Virginia Hill
Virginia Hill was born in Alabama, USA in 1916 in a very poor family. For this reason, she was closely associated with the mafia from an early age. She was involved in many crimes, from drug trafficking to courier work, from being a mafia informant to money laundering. During his teenage years, Hill met Bugsy Siegel, one of the leading gangsters of his era, which allowed Hill to increase both his fame and fortune. The two became the most feared couple in the underworld until Siegel’s death. However, with Siegel’s death, hard times began for Hill. Her criminal past made her a prime target for both the law and rival mafias. Virginia Hill’s life on the run ended in Austria in 1961. The one-time crime machine was found dead on the side of a road.
- Stephanie St. Clair
Born in 1897, Stephanie St. Clair fought against racism in the United States all her life. In this fight, she sometimes resorted to illegal means. Extortion and interest were the main source of income for St. Clair and her gang. He engaged in serious competition with many gangs in the Harlem neighborhood of New York, a predominantly African-American neighborhood known for its high crime rate. Thanks to the strategic partnerships he established, he made a huge profit from the gang war. After leaving the criminal world, she continued to work for black rights and spearheaded various campaigns. She died in 1969, a wealthy woman.
- Griselda Blanco
Griselda Blanco was perhaps the most dangerous of the female mafiosi! Born in 1943 in Colombia, the empress of crime made a fortune smuggling drugs from Colombia to the US in the 1970s and 80s. This success in smuggling made her one of the most important figures of the Medellin cartel. The Godmother of Cocaine, the “Queen of Narco-traffic” were just some of her nicknames. At one point she even invented special underwear for drug traffickers! She earned the nickname “Black Widow” after killing all her ex-wives… She took great pleasure in watching her victims being tortured. But Blanco, one of the most terrifying women in the criminal world, was very strict about not killing anyone. She herself was incapable of murder. Yet she is thought to have ordered the deaths of 2,000 people! Blanco was shot dead by a man on a motorcycle in Medellin at the age of 69.
- Sister Ping
A woman named Cheng Chiu Ping became famous and infamous in New York’s Chinatown for smuggling immigrants. She was the leader of a large criminal organization with thousands of members. At one time, this huge criminal organization was smuggling 100 people from Hong Kong to New York almost every day. Of course, many people lost their lives on this long and difficult journey. But this “smuggling success” earned Sister Ping an incredible fortune of nearly 40 million dollars in the 1980s and 90s. Sister Ping was sentenced to prison for various crimes, including human trafficking, and died at the age of 65 while serving her sentence.
- Maria Licciardi
Naples, Italy has long been one of the world’s most notorious cities when it comes to the mafia. But a woman named Maria Licciardi has managed to build a powerful empire even in this crime-ridden city full of terrible gangs! After the death of her husband and the arrest of her brother, Maria took over the Licciardi gang and quickly became one of the most important figures in the criminal world. Controlling a large part of the cigarette and drug shipments in Naples, Licciardi was known as the “Princess” among the female gang members. However, a drug shipment carried out by the Licciardi gang led to the deaths of many people from drugs. The gang wars that started after these deaths, in which many gang members lost their lives, led to Licciardi’s arrest and imprisonment…
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