Even after decades studying the mind of a killer, former FBI profiler Candice DeLong continues to be fascinated with the twisted cases of Deadly Women. Ahead of Season 13 of the Investigation Discovery series, premiering Thursday at 9 p.m. ET, the criminologist talked with PopCulture.com about the undeniable fascination with women who kill, going back even to the days when it was assumed women couldn’t commit such violent offenses.
“You want the true story of someone who did something you’d never even consider,” DeLong explained, noting that the majority of ID viewers are women themselves. “You want to know you could spot a con woman or a con man when they’re standing right in front of you.”
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She continued, “For me, and I’ve been this way since I’ve been a young girl — the more knowledge, the more education I had about people who could hurt me, the better off I am.”
Diving deep into the mind of a female killer during Season 13, DeLong revealed there would be a lot of historical killers covered this year, which are some of the most interesting to her.
“I just love the historical cases,” she told PopCulture.com, explaining that with juries filled exclusively with land-owning men in the 1800s and early 1900s, it was a lot easier for women to get away with killing right under their neighbors’ noses.
The myth at the time, she added, was that since women were “life givers,” there was no way they could take a life, with juries often letting off accused women because “they don’t look like a killer” in their mind.
“In the history of the world, this is a infancy idea,” DeLong noted of the idea of a woman killer, telling PopCulture.com there is a rich history that still hasn’t been explored as much as it could be when it comes to these deadly women.
She recalls one member of Deadly Women worrying back in 2009 that they would “run out of murders” to cover.
“And I laughed and said, ‘We absolutely are not,’” she remembered. “More and more keep coming to light.”
True crime enthusiasts certainly have a lot to look forward to in Season 13, DeLong teased: “Every year at the end of the season I genuinely think, ‘This is the best group of killer women we’ve ever had.’”
Season 13 of Deadly Women premieres Thursday, Aug. 22 at 9 p.m. ET on ID.
Photo credit: Brad Barket/Getty Images
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