Holly Ann Grigsby & Other Killers

Holly Ann Grigsby will go down in the annals of history not just for her murderous crimes but for her radical beliefs that she claims are misunderstood. Grigsby and her ex-boyfriend David Joey Pederson went on a ten-day killing spree that spanned three states in 2011. Because of this, they’re going to serve a sentence that will span the of their natural lives. According to the judicial record, there were four murder victims because of the couple’s treacherous acts, but there are far more victims who have to suffer, mourn, and go on living without their loved ones in their arms as a direct result of their actions. We don’t know much about Holly’s childhood, or what kinds of things may have happened to her in her early years to influence her behavior.  From a genetic and demographic background, there aren’t very many white female serial killers at all. Holly is far from the only killer woman alive, there are a few, but how does she compare to other known female offenders?

Most of the women that have been charged with multiple murders have had a male accomplice, usually men that they were romantically involved with. It is not uncommon that partners take up beliefs or personality traits of the person with which they are involved, and this appears to be  true for the serial killers in relationships as well.  Such is the case with Holly Grigsby and her lover Joey Pederson. It’s not clear who the leader was in these murder-fueled relationships, but there is little doubt that Holly was a willing participant in the pitiless slayings.

When we look at the other women who have committed violent crimes along with their boyfriends, we look at the relationship dynamic between the two.  Who was the aggressor?  Were both parties willing participants? Who’s idea was it to start committing crimes in the first place?  Let’s begin by looking at some famous female serial killers.

In the 1960’s in England, a couple named Myra Hindley and Ian Brady callously raped and killed five children. It was reported that Hindley and Brady, her boyfriend, would drive around in separate vehicles looking for young victims that suited their purposes. Once a perfect victim was found, Myra, a seemingly harmless woman, would lure the lone child or teen into her car. She would take the victim out to a remote area where Ian would attack without the possibility of witnesses. Myra was possibly more scrutinized for her role in the crimes than her boyfriend, because she partook in something that was far more sinister than simple violence, and was called The Most Evil Woman in Britain by some news outlets. After her arrest, she eventually claimed to be a reformed Catholic and argued that it was cruel to keep her imprisoned, but regardless of her claims, she still died while still behind bars in 2002.

Rosemary West, another infamous female murderer, started life with parents that were both mentally unstable and physically abusive. Sexual abuse was something she sustained all of her life which led to her having unusual and perverse opinions about sex.  Rosemary was only 15 years of age when she met Fred West, a 27-year-old man who would eventually become her husband. By the age of 17, she had moved in with Fred, bore him a daughter, and cared for his two step-daughters., She was prostituting herself while Fred watched in their own home. Rosemary and Fred would find young girls and women to victimize together, and they were eventually found to be abusing their own children in the worst possible ways regularly. It was reported that Rosemary’s own father was one of her frequent visitors, and he even had sex with his own granddaughter. Although Rosemary said she didn’t help Fred abuse or kill any of the victims, the jury found her guilty of the murder of 10 people.  Not including the families that they affected, it’s believed that they had dozens of victims.

Karla Homolka, yet another female killer, helped her husband Paul Bernardo with his insatiable desire to rape and kill young women. She offered several female victims to him, including her own sister Tammy, which resulted in Tammy’s death. Karla claimed that she was an unwilling party to the murders, yet video footage surfaced in trial of her happily torturing the victims.  She eventually was sentenced to manslaughter (a far cry from what it could have been) and served 12 years for her role in the crimes. After being released from prison in 2005, Kara wed and had three children.

Statistically it’s less likely that a woman will go on a murder spree without a man or accomplice to be the driving force, but when they do kill solo—there’s usually a reason for it.  Many female killers have had a caretaker role.  This seems exactly opposite of the mentality one might expect for a serial killer, but it actually makes a lot of sense given their convenient access to potential victims.  One of these known killers was Jan Toppan. She was a medical nurse during the turn of the century in Boston, and she admitted to killing dozens of patients because she found it arousing. After a mental evaluation she was deemed clinically insane and ultimately found not guilty.

Nursing home owner Amy Archer-Gilligan also finds herself among the ranks of these merry murderesses. Gilligan murdered at least five people, including her second husband, in order to cash in on his life insurance policy. Another caretaker, Kristen Gilbert, has been called The Angel of Death for the several murders she committed during her career by injecting patients with the drug epinephrine. Though she may have been responsible for the deaths or near-deaths of hundreds of people, she was found guilty on three accounts of murder and two accounts of attempted murder. She is serving four life sentences without the possibility of parole at the Federal Medical Center Carswell in Fort Worth, Texas. 

In Mexico, Juana Barraza astoundingly killed around 49 elderly women in the 1990s. She would beat or strangle them until they died, and then proceed to rob them. It was said that Juana may have been killing some of her victims because she didn’t want them to suffer, or because the trauma she endured as a youth led her to believe she was being merciful to her elderly victims.

Besides the quiet caretaker killers, there are also the black widowed women killer types, who have been found guilty of killing a string of husbands. One such vengeful woman, Nannie Doss, killed not only four husbands—she took the lives of one mother-in-law, her sister, her grandson, and her mother by poisoning them with arsenic. She joked during an interview with a news reporter saying that she was a self-made widow.

In addition to the black-widow murderers and the angel of death killers, there are also the most rare category of female serial killers—those that seem to have no reason for it whatsoever. Aileen Wuornos is possibly the most infamous female serial killer of recent note. She admitted to killing seven men that she met either while prostituting or while hitching a ride because she claimed that they attempted to rape her, but no evidence of that was found. Aileen suffered an extremely abusive life, and she was most likely mentally ill. It was such a compelling and well known story that the 2003 movie Monster starring Charlize Theron was made about Aileen’s experiences on the road. She was executed in 2002 for her crimes at the age of 46.

Despite the long list of women who have committed murder, men are far more likely to be the perpetrators of murder. The US Department of Justice stated in 2011 that men were the culprits of 89.5% of murders. A 2006 case report about female serial killers concluded that the most common motive identified was material gain or similar extrinsic gratification while the 'hedonistic' sadistic or sexual serial killer seems to be extremely rare in women. There is no consistent theory of serial killing by women, but psychopathic personality traits and abusive childhood experiences have consistently been observed.  In other words, while men can kill for psychological or sexual gratification, women usually kill for some kind of reason.

Holly Ann Grigsby is a 31-year-old woman who, when she was younger, went on a short, yet horrific murder spree in 2011. As we have previously learned from the majority of female serial killers studied, she did not act alone in her vicious rampage. Holly performed her deeds alongside her boyfriend David Joey Pederson, an ex-convict six years her senior. She was in her early 20’s when the killings began.

Holly was a former heroin addict who had been incarcerated off and on beginning in 2006 for crimes like identity theft and unauthorized use of a vehicle. She gave birth to her son while she was in prison, and she appeared to turn her life around.  Shortly after the birth of her son, she was released on parole, and lived with her husband named Dan Larson and her son Danny in Southeast Portland.

She met Joey Pederson through a mutual friend in early 2011. Holly already held anti-Semitic and white supremacist beliefs, and she was wooed with Joey’s stories of starting a white supremacist gang in the prison where he was last incarcerated. Joey was imprisoned for most of his life beginning at 16 years old for crimes ranging from assaulting a police officer to threatening judges. After his last stint, Joey became an amateur cage fighter, and Holly would often go and watch his matches. Sometimes she would even bring along her husband, encouraging him to befriend Joey.

Joey was able to seduce Holly away, luring her away from her family to be with him. This all happened within just a few months of meeting each other. He told her that he wanted to start a revolution, with a strong intent to kill Jewish people in particular. This idea really appealed to Holly, so she quit her job, stopped checking in with her parole officer, and left her husband and son to live with her newfound love. Weeks later, Holly would commit horrendous crimes along with Joey that would soon put an end to her freedom.

The crimes were committed alongside one of the most notorious roadtrips. The journey began when Joey and Holly went to visit Joey’s estranged father, David Red Pederson, and stepmother DeeDee in Everett, Washington—because Joey wanted to end their lives. Joey had an older sister and a cousin that was adopted, and he believed that his father sometimes molested the sister and cousin, and that his stepmother had allowed it to happen.

After meeting, Joey and Holly and Red and DeeDee spent quality time together, and they took a trip to the shooting range, even though Joey wasn’t allowed to own or operate firearms because of his felon status. To the average onlooker it would have seemed like they were trying to build bridges and form new relationships, but on September 26, 2011, Joey asked Red to drive he and Holly to the bus station, and killed Red by shooting him in the back of the head. Holly had to take the wheel of the truck to maintain control of the vehicle to keep them from crashing, and it was said that it took Red about half of an hour to die.

Eventually, Holly and Joey dumped Red’s body somewhere, then took his truck back to the family house after looting Red of his weapons and credit cards. When they arrived at the home, the couple captured and bound DeeDee Pederson with duct tape, and Holly slashed her throat with a kitchen knife. It was reported that the first knife she used was too dull to cut DeeDee enough, so Holly grabbed a second knife to complete the slaying.

After they dispatched and disposed of Joey’s parents, this was a turning point for the couple.  They had experienced killing someone, and the murder-minded couple now had a new agenda.  They could kill anyone they chose. Holly and Joey set off to begin a revolution against anyone who wasn’t white or who practiced Judaism.

The couple took Red’s Jeep back to Oregon and abandoned it, and asked their friends Corey Wyatt and Kimberly Scott Wyatt to drive them to Newport.  It was there that they hitched a ride with 19-year-old Cody Faye Myers, a teen who was coming back from the Newport Jazz Festival. While riding with Cody, Joey and Holly tried to carjack him,