5 Murderous Moms

Today is Mother's Day—a day to take time to appreciate all the things that the mother's in your life have done. No matter how you feel about your mother (mine's great, we're super close), she brought you into this world and she deserves some thanks. 

Unfortunately, the old addage “I brought you into this world, I can take you out of it” sometimes is taken too literally. Some mothers, for reasons I cannot fathom, bring harm to their very own flesh and blood. So, call Mom this weekend—maybe take her out to a nice dinner—and thank her…at the very least, she's better than these 5 Murderous Moms:

Alexandra Tobias

We’ll start with my hometown of Jacksonville, FL—after all, it seems every crazy story comes from the Sunshine State—where 22-year-old Alexandra Tobias killed her 3-month-old son, Dylan. And, while any murder of a child is senseless, this one just oozes a certain Florida feel.

After growing increasingly angry, Tobias shook her infant son to death because he would not stop crying while she was playing Farmville on Facebook. Yep, a child died because of fake freemium farming.

Susan Eubanks

In San Marcos, California, in 1999, Susan Eubanks went day drinking, took some Valium, and decided to murder her four children—execution style. She then proceeded to shoot herself…in the stomach?

Claiming that she “blacked out” and didn’t know what she was doing (is that a defense for murdering your four children? Maybe for throwing up in the bathtub at a friend's house…), Eubanks was convicted of four accounts of first-degree murder and sentenced to death.

Andrea Yates

This case is famous for opening the world’s eyes to the very sad, very real effects of postpartum depression and postpartum psychosis. After being hospitalized several times for attempted suicide, she was left alone (against the instructions of her doctor) for only an hour. In that time, she managed to drown all five of her children in the tub. After confessing to the crimes, she was initially convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment, but upon appeal, was found not guilty by reason of insanity and admitted to a mental health facility.

Ka Yang

While all of these murdering mothers exhibited twisted behavior, this might be the most graphic (for real…I warned you). 

Ka Yang had enough of her 7-week-old infant daughter interfering with her work and put her in the microwave for somewhere between 2 and 5 minutes. The child suffered severe burns on 60% of her body, including radiation burns penetrating to her stomach and small intestine. I don’t want to live on this planet anymore.

Susan Smith

Another famous one: Susan Smith, in hopes of starting a family with a local wealthy man, strapped her children in the backseat of her Mazda Protégé and let it roll into the lake, drowning both of them. Initially claiming that a black man had carjacked her and kidnapped her children, 9 days into the investigation, she eventually confessed to the crimes. Although claiming mental health issues, Smith was convicted of killing her two children and sentenced to life in prison.