Last Updated on October 15, 2025 by Matt Staff
Before the headlines and courtrooms, there was the homeroom. These yearbook photos capture infamous women long before the trials, with smiling school portraits that now read like prologues.
Scroll for these 20-yearbook poses on faces the world later learned too well.
1. Aileen Wuornos
She was a Florida serial killer who targeted men along highways in 1989-1990. She was convicted and later executed.
2. Griselda Blanco
Known as the “Black Widow”, she helped shape the Miami cocaine trade in the late ’70s and ’80s. She was convicted on drug charges and linked to multiple murders.
3. Pamela Smart
She was a New Hampshire media coordinator whose student lover killed her husband in 1990. She was convicted of conspiracy to commit murder.
4. Sara Jane Moore
She tried to assassinate President Gerald Ford in 1975 and fired a shot in San Francisco. She pleaded guilty and served decades in prison.
5. Susan Smith
In 1994, she reported her car stolen with her sons inside, but she later confessed to letting the car roll into a lake. She was convicted of murder.
6. Casey Anthony
She was charged with the death of her daughter in Florida and stood trial in 2011. She was acquitted of the most serious charges but convicted of lesser counts.
7. Elizabeth Holmes
The Theranos founder claimed her blood-testing tech could do everything from a finger prick. She was convicted of fraud in 2022.
8. Susan Atkins
Atkins was a member of the Manson Family. She took part in the 1969 Tate-LaBianca murders. She was convicted and received a life sentence.
9. Mary Bell
At age 11, she killed two young boys in Newcastle in 1968. She was convicted of manslaughter on grounds of diminished responsibility.
10. Mary Key Letourneau
This Washington teacher began a sexual relationship with a 12-year-old student in the 1990s. She was convicted of statutory rape.
11. Patricia Kernwinkel
She followed Charles Manson and joined the 1969 killings in Los Angeles. She was convicted and remains one of the case’s central figures.
12. Leslie Van Houten
Van Houten was also tied to the Manson murders, and she was convicted for her role in the 1969 LaBianca killings. Her legal status changed over the decades, but the case defined her life.
13. Jodi Arias
She killed Travis Alexander in Arizona in 2008 after a stormy relationship. She was convicted of murder in 2013.
14. Brenda Spencer
In 1979, she opened fire on an elementary school in San Diego. Her remark, “I don’t like Mondays”, made the case infamous, and she was convicted.
15. Myra Hindly
Alongside Ian Brady, she carried out the Moors Murders in 1960s Britain. She was convicted in 1966 and became one of the UK’s most notorious offenders.
16. Diane Downs
She shot her three children in Oregon in 1983 and first blamed a stranger. She was convicted of attempted murder and murder.
17. Michelle Carter
Her texts to her boyfriend were central to a 2017 Massachusetts case. She was convicted of involuntary manslaughter.
18. Winnie Ruth Judd
Known for the “trunk murders” in Phoenix in 1931, she killed two friends after a feud. She was convicted and later spent years in psychiatric custody.
19. Lynndie England
She became the face of the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal in Iraq. She was court-martialed and convicted in 2005.
20. Betty Broderick
After a bitter divorce, she killed her ex-husband and his new wife in San Diego in 1989. She was convicted of murder and later became the subject of books and TV.
Explore more historical content:
If these throwback pages pulled you in, keep the mood going with these 20 Lesser-Known Tales About Criminals from the 1990s, or these 20 Mugshots of Famous Comedy Actresses. You can also take a look at these 20 Animals That Made Themselves Actual Criminals (1960s-2000s).
