British crime writer, Martina Cole, examines the life and times of the most notorious female serial killers across history and asks: Why do women kill and why are we surprised when they do? Each programme tells the story of an individual killer with expert analysis and dramatic reconstruction. The first programme looks at Myra Hindley, who along with Ian Brady was responsible for a spate of child murders in the 1960s, and features interviews with Hindley s lawyer and prison chaplain. Crime writer Martina Cole examines the backgrounds, personalities and behaviour of the notorious female murderer, re-examining evidence and providing a portrait of the sociological backgrounds that may have moulded her. The case of Rose West, who is currently serving a life sentence without parole for 10 separate counts of murder, committed during the 1970s and 80s. Her husband and partner in the sexually motivated crimes committed suicide in prison in 1995. Herself a victim of abuse, Rose directed her appetites toward her own children as well as at least eight other girls, whose dismembered remains were found buried at their home in Cromwell Street, Gloucester. Profile of nurse Beverley Allitt, dubbed the Angel of Death, who was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1993 for the murders of four children in her care at a hospital in Lincolnshire. Although she had repeatedly failed her exams, she was granted a six-month nursing position, during which she attacked 13 young patients before being arrested and eventually charged. Bristol-born Amelia Dyer qualified as a nurse and became a baby-farmer, looking after others babies. After deaths of children in her care she was charged with neglect and served six months in jail. Later she spent time in a mental asylum but carried on baby-farming. In 1896 she was hanged for the murder of Doris Marmon, a child in her care, but is suspected of having killed many more infants.