The female of the species....I have read that that in the American Indian Wars, the torture of captives by the women of some tribes was worse than that of the warriors. Didn’t Kipling write a verse about saving the last bullet for yourself rather than be taken alive and turned over to the women?
When you’re wounded and left on Afghanistan’s plains,
And the women come out to cut up what remains,
Jest roll to your rifle and blow out your brains
An’ go to your Gawd like a soldier.
Among the Iroquois anyway, the first thing a captive was made to do on reaching the village is run a gauntlet of women and children with sticks and clubs. I’m not sure if you can say they were the worst at it—the men tortured plenty as well, but the women did often have a LOT of pent up rage at the death of a loved one in battle and then took it out on the captive.
There was one famous instance where a high-ranking Iroquois war chief was captured by the Erie and the elders wanted to save his life and adopt him. But the woman slated to adopt him, who had lost a relative to a skirmish earlier, insisted he be put to death instead. That launched an all-out war between the Erie and Iroquois in which the Erie were destroyed.
(Quoted it in my fourth novel, "Sovereign Order")
Too disgusting to copy and paste. Read at your own discretion.