Psychologist appears on CBS’s ‘Why Women Kill’ podcasts

THE Lizzie Borden murder case is known as being one of the most famous in American criminal history.  She was an American woman who was the main suspect in the 1892 axe murders of her father and stepmother in Fall River, Massachusetts. 

Although she was acquitted at her trial, Borden’s alleged crimes – murdering her stepmother and father – continue to haunt modern day society.

Dr Helen Gavin, of the University of Huddersfield, specialises in criminal psychology, specifically women who kill.  Dr Gavin, who is the author of the book Female Aggression, discusses the case with true crime writer Tori Telfer for an episode entitled The Woman Who Snapped for the podcast series Why Women Kill: Truth, Lies and Labels presented by CBS All Access.

The series of six episodes looks into why women commit murder and whether the labels of The Woman Who Snapped, Black Widow or Angel of Death help explain their crimes, or, as some believe, mask the truth.

Other notable guests heard on this episode are Dr Anna Motz, a clinical psychologist who often works with violent female offenders and the author of Psychology of Female Violence: Crimes Against the Body, and Dr Stefani Koorey, a historian and editor of the Lizzie Andrew Borden Virtual Museum and Library. 

Was she an ordinary girl caught in an extraordinary situation or was she what society labelled her “A Woman Who Snapped”?  Listen to the episode via Apple Podcasts and on Stitcher.

Dr Gavin will also be talking with Tori Telfer about Elizabeth Bathory, a Hungarian noblewoman and reputed serial killer known as the Blood Countess, in a second podcast from the series, soon to be broadcast.