Mistresses of Death

“Mistresses of Death” who killed men with a wooden hammer and strangled them with their feet.

In the 18th century, there were strict customs in Sardinia ¹. It was believed that if a man died quickly and painlessly, it was a sign of valor, but if he suffered and did not want to die, it was considered a disgrace that darkened his family. To avoid such disgrace, the family invited an accabadora ² to the dying man. This was the name given to women who carried out the murder. Euthanasia consisted of ladies who were professional in this, striking the back of the head with a wooden hammer or strangling with their feet.

1. Sardinia (Italian: Sardegna [sarˈdeɲɲa]; Sardinian: Sardigna is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, and one of the twenty regions of Italy. It is located west of the Italian Peninsula, north of Tunisia and 16.45 km south of the French island of Corsica. ↩︎
2. La Accabadora is a middle-aged woman dressed in black with a long shawl covering her head. Her job, as appointed by the community, was to apply euthanasia to the old and infirm using a cudgel (a short thick stick used as a weapon). ↩︎