26 of The Most Dangerous Female Criminals The World Has Seen Till Date

11. Ching Shih: A Prostitute Turned Pirate Turned Lady

So, Ching Shih is still mostly a mystery. Nothing is known about her origins except that she first burst into history in 1810 where she was a prostitute aboard one of Canton’s many floating brothels. For some reason, she was carried off to be married to a notorious pirate, Cheng Yi. She, badass as she was, demanded an equal share in his loot and a say in his piracy. He agreed. Barely had they become a success that Cheng Yi was killed in a typhoon upon which Ching Shih (widow of Cheng) took command of both piracy and fleet.

So successful was she, that she became the head of one of Asia’s biggest and baddest pirate crews, the Red Flag Fleet. Rich at sea, she decided to become rich on land too, and resorted to extortion and blackmail. Finally, the governments of China, Britain, and Portugal gave up trying to defeat her and the Emperor of China offered a truce. Wherein she won amnesty for herself and almost all her men, jobs in the armed forces for any pirate, a title of “Lady by Imperial Decree” and then retired to Canton to open a gambling den, married, and died at 89, as a sweet old grandmother.

Dangerous, for she was a formidable foe – on sea, land, or even in the Emperor’s palace.