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Mothers Who Kill: Eighteen True Cases of Filicide, Madness, Revenge, and Mystery
Paperback
Publisher: Independently Published
Published: Jul 16 2026
Pages: 436
Weight: 1.28
Height: 0.89 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
What happens when the person meant to protect a child becomes the greatest threat?
Motherhood is often portrayed as instinctive, selfless, and unconditional. But behind that reassuring image lies a darker reality-one made of psychosis, obsession, revenge, control, neglect, deception, and sometimes murder.
In Mothers Who Kill, John De Santi reconstructs eighteen true cases of maternal filicide that shocked investigators, divided courtrooms, challenged medical experts, and forced society to confront one of its deepest taboos.
These are not simplified stories of monstrous mothers. They are complex human and criminal cases examined through multiple perspectives: psychological, legal, forensic, social, and medical.
Inside this book, you will discover:
- Mothers who killed during severe psychotic or depressive crises
- Women who used their children as weapons against former partners
- Crimes driven by jealousy, possessiveness, financial pressure, or the desire for freedom
- Children who disappeared behind the closed doors of ordinary homes
- Serial deaths initially mistaken for natural causes
- Investigations shaped by lies, missed warning signs, and flawed assumptions
- Trials built on circumstantial evidence, forensic interpretation, and public perception
- Cases in which science later challenged-or completely overturned-a conviction
From Andrea Yates and Susan Smith to Darlie Routier, Annamaria Franzoni, Alessia Pifferi, Kathleen Folbigg, and many others, each chapter takes the reader beyond the headlines and into the disturbing questions at the heart of the case.
What separates mental illness from criminal responsibility?
When does neglect become murder?
Can grief, coldness, or unusual behavior be mistaken for guilt?
How many warning signs are overlooked because society refuses to imagine that a mother could be dangerous?
And what happens when statistics, medical diagnoses, or public outrage replace solid evidence?
Written in a rigorous yet accessible narrative style, Mothers Who Kill combines true-crime storytelling with psychological analysis, courtroom reconstruction, and forensic insight. The result is a book that reads with the tension of a thriller while never losing sight of the real victims: the children.
You will not simply learn what happened. You will understand how these crimes developed, why people failed to intervene, how investigators reached their conclusions, and where medicine and justice sometimes went dangerously wrong.
This is a deeply unsettling journey into family violence, maternal identity, criminal responsibility, and the fragile boundary between protection and destruction.
Some cases will horrify you.
Some will challenge your assumptions.
Some may leave you uncertain about where guilt truly lies.
But none will leave you indifferent.
If you are fascinated by true crime, criminal psychology, courtroom mysteries, forensic investigations, and the hidden dynamics of family violence, Mothers Who Kill is a book you will not be able to put down.
Enter these eighteen cases. Examine the evidence. Confront the darkest side of motherhood-and decide what you believe.
Buy your copy of Mothers Who Kill today.
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