All of our Divas featured so far have made headlines, caused palpitations, moved mountains - this new selection fills these criteria too - but in radically different ways than their sisters on the star and movers pages. Here the tools of their trade, rather than looks, voices and brains are arsenic, pickaxes and guns!

Less than sixty women were executed for murder in the USA and Britain between 1900 and 2000 - less than 1% of executions overall but in every case the interest shown by the media outweighed that shown towards their male counterparts by 1000%.

Witness the gun toting Ruth who achieved the fame she craved but on the end of a rope rather than on the silver screen; the pickaxe wielding Karla Faye who achieved an orgasm with every deadly hit; the voluptuous Martha who found true love with a serial killer and joined him in his trade!

Not the sort of gals you would take home to mother - but there again - most of them were mothers too…!