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Unholy Union: Andrea Yates and Dena Schlosser

In June, 2001, Andrea Yates drowned her five children in a bathtub. According to her own testimony, the act was one of kindness. Yates thought she was saving her children from damnation by dispatching them straight to heaven. In November 2004, Dena Schlosser also heard the voice of God. She was told to cut off her 10-month-old daughter's arms, and then to follow up with her own arms and head. After completing
the first part of the horrific mandate, Schlosser stopped, calmly dialed 911, and informed the operator of what she'd done. When the police arrived, Schlosser was listening to a hymn. The baby died on the way to the hospital.

Both mothers suffered from postpartum depression and had histories of mental illness. Both were also found not guilty by reason of insanity. Prior to their psychotic acts, both mothers were said to be models of maternity— conscientious churchgoers, kind neighbors. The two killer moms were assigned to live together at the same North Texas state hospital and struck up a fast friendship. Schlosser told a reporter from the Dallas Morning News, "We talk about our past, we talk about our memories, our fun memories, the things that our kids did." She also gushed of her roommate, "I think we'll be friends forever."

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Wanda Holloway

Plenty of mothers have had their exploits turned into TV movies. Usually it's "for love of" something, or for refusing to leave a child behind. Wanda Holloway has earned the rare distinction of spawning two TV movies: The Positively True Adventures of the Alleged Texas Cheerleader-Murdering Mom, starring Holly Hunter, and Willing to Kill: The Texas Cheerleader Story.

Holloway gained notoriety after she was convicted of putting out a hit on the mother of one of her 13-year-old daughter's cheerleading competitors. Her plot failed, but Halloway became a legend among stage moms everywhere. Why settle for sabotaging pleated skirts or kneecaps when you can go right to the root and throw a young child into mourning? Though the crime should have earned her 15 years in prison, she was released after six months and continues to live in Houston, Texas. After the incident, the principal of her daughter's school told Time magazine, "There is a part of Wanda Holloway in all of us." Which confirms that Texas is as screwed up as we thought.