History Main / TheBlueBeard

* ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'': [[spoiler:It's revealed that Rick Prime was [[AwfulWeddedLife completely unhappy with his wife Diane Sanchez]] that he had left her to travel TheMultiverse, only to come across several versions of himself who were actually [[HappilyMarried faithful husbands with Diane]]. Enraged at this and wanting to spite the other Ricks for being happy, he decided to put his own Diane Sanchez into The Omega Machine: which not only killed his own Diane Sanchez, but also killed off '''''[[DeaderThanDead every]]''''' Diane Sanchez throughout The Multiverse.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'': [[spoiler:It's revealed that Rick Prime was [[AwfulWeddedLife completely unhappy with his wife Diane Sanchez]] that he had left her to travel TheMultiverse, only to come across several versions of himself who were actually HappilyMarried to Diane and were faithful husbands and dutiful fathers to Beth. Enraged at this and wanting to spite the other Ricks for being happy, he decided to put his own Diane Sanchez into The Omega Machine: which not only killed his own Diane Sanchez, but also killed off '''''[[DeaderThanDead every]]''''' Diane Sanchez throughout The Multiverse.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'': [[spoiler:It's revealed that Rick Prime was [[AwfulWeddedLife completely unhappy with his wife Diane Sanchez]] that he had left her to travel TheMultiverse, only to come across several versions of himself who were actually HappilyMarried to Diane and were faithful husbands and dutiful fathers to Beth. Enraged at this and wanting to spite the other Ricks for being happy, he decided to put his own Diane Sanchez into The Omega Machine: which not only killed his own Diane Sanchez, but also killed off '''''every''''' Diane Sanchez throughout The Multiverse: just to spite the other Ricks.]]

[[folder:Real Life]]
* "Bluebeard" is the ''official'' FBI designation for this type of SerialKiller.
* Some believe that the fairy tale has its origins in [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conomor Conomor the Cursed,]] known for murdering his wives as soon as they got pregnant.
* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Desire_Landru Henri Landru]] is an infamous TruthInTelevision example who was motivated by greed.
* Henry VIII of England, who had [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wives_of_Henry_VIII six wives,]] is often considered a Bluebeard, although he only had ''two'' of his wives executed: Anne Boleyn (#2), and Catherine Howard (#5). [[note]]Both were convicted of adultery - falsely, in Anne's case. Henry was [[DoubleStandard no stranger to adultery himself]]; Anne's real "crime" was failing to give him a son. Catherine Howard almost certainly ''was'' guilty, though -- not that this excuses her unhappy fate. [[ValuesDissonance At the time adultery on the part of the monarch's wife was considered treason]], since it could result in a child not of royal blood being falsely perceived as the king's heir. Which meant that charges of adultery, whether real or completely trumped-up, were an easy way for an unscrupulous king to get rid of an unwanted queen.[[/note]] Jane Seymour (#3) [[DeathByIrony died of puerperal fever after producing a male heir]]. Another two of his marriages were annulled without a wife being killed - to Catherine of Aragon (#1) and Anne of Cleves (#4) - and Catherine Parr (#6) outlived him by nearly two years. His bloody reputation in this area comes from how many ''other'' people he had executed over the political and religious complications involved in his HighTurnoverRate of wives, as well as popular rumor attributing Catherine of Aragon's death to foul play by either him or Anne Boleyn.[[note]]Modern historians attribute her death to heart cancer.[[/note]]
* [[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drew_Peterson Drew Peterson]] is a former cop from Illinois who has been married four times to increasingly younger women, to the point that his fourth wife, whom he began dating when she was ''17'', was 30 years his junior. He cheated on each wife with the woman who would become the next and physically abused all of them--his second wife Vicki is certain that he cut the brake lines on her car in an attempt to kill her. In 2012, he was convicted of the 2004 murder of his 3rd wife Kathleen and is the sole suspect in the 2007 disappearance and likely murder of his 4th, Stacy. Ironically, had Stacy not vanished, cops would probably have never taken a second look at Kathleen's death, which had heretofore been believed to be an [[MakeItLookLikeAnAccident accidental drowning]].
* In 1968, [[http://unsolvedmysteries.wikia.com/wiki/Robert_Weeks Robert Weeks's]] wife Patricia disappeared after a dinner date in which they were to hash out the terms of their divorce. Her car was later found abandoned at a local shopping mall. In 1980, his girlfriend Cynthia Jabour disappeared after a dinner date in which she intended to break off the relationship. Her car was found abandoned in a casino parking lot. Three guesses what happened to his next girlfriend Carol Ann Riley in 1986. In April 1988, Weeks was convicted of murdering Patricia and Cynthia even though no trace of them, Carol Ann, or his ''male'' business partner (who had apparently discovered his unscrupulous business dealings) was ever found.
* [[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Smith_(murderer) John David Smith's]] first and second wives disappeared without a trace. Each had complained that he was abusive and controlling and each was planning to file for divorce. While his first wife's remains were eventually found and he was convicted of her murder, his second wife's whereabouts are still unknown.
* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjTSBKgkDsc Jack Reeves]] was a housepainter and Army vet with a penchant for young brides. He was forced to annul the marriage to the first (only fifteen at the time). Wife #2 was planning to leave him and ended up "[[MakeItLookLikeAnAccident committing suicide]]" with a shotgun. Wife #3, a MailOrderBride, drowned in a shallow lake and her relatives noticed scratches and bruises on her body that indicated it wasn't accidental. Wife #4, also a MailOrderBride, vanished without a trace after planning to leave Jack for [[LipstickLesbian another woman]]. The police couldn't find Wife #4 or her body, and Wife #3 had been cremated. So, they had another look at Wife #2 and found the story Reeves told didn't match up with the evidence on the body or the crime scene photos. When they went to arrest Jack Reeves for the murder of his wife, he looked at the arresting officer and asked: "Which one?" He was convicted of Wife #2's murder, and an additional life sentence was added when they found the remains of Wife #4 in a remote campground.
* So-called [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dowry_death "dowry deaths"]] are still pretty common in certain parts of India, although dowry has officially been prohibited since 1961.
* H. H. Holmes, born Henry Mudgett was one of America's first known and prolific serial killers and was even called "The Modern Bluebeard" by the press of the day. Curiously, however, Holmes was actually an inversion of the trope because despite being in the exact situations as his victims, he never murdered any of the three women he properly married. Instead, he would kill his secretaries, female lodgers and random wealthy-seeming women he would lure back to his massive Chicago hotel (which had been specifically engineered as a massive death trap/torture dungeon/mad science lab).
* [[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lowell_Amos Lowell Edwin Amos]], who murdered his mother and three wives over a 15-year span from 1979-1994, [[MakeItLookLikeAnAccident disguising their deaths]] as from old age and drug overdoses, respectively. Police became suspicious at the amount of money he [[InheritanceMurder inherited]] from each death and his IncriminatingIndifference -- going on a spending spree ''two days'' after his 3rd wife died.
* An Israeli man named [[https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/man-who-killed-two-wives-receives-two-life-sentences-1.5414936 Shimon Cooper]] received two cumulative life sentences for murdering two of his three wives. In 1994, Cooper murdered his first wife, Orit, and staged the scene to make it look like suicide, all so he could marry his mistress and move to a larger house. The marriage to his second wife lasted less than five years, after which he met and married a third woman, Jenny. Eventually he acquired a new mistress, an anesthesiologist, and in 2009 tricked her into giving him drugs which he used to murder Jenny, faking her death by suicide as he had done 15 years before. The case against him was initially closed for lack of evidence, but was reopened as a result of an exposé conducted by a popular investigative TV program, which led to his arrest and conviction.
* [[https://www.google.com/amp/s/people.com/crime/felix-vail-america-oldest-serial-killer-people-magazine-investigates/%3famp=true Felix Vail]], whose first wife Mary drowned in 1962, second wife Sharon disappeared in 1973, and third wife Annette vanished in 1984. He was convicted of Mary's murder in 2016, but the other two women have never been found and authorities suspect there may be even more unknown victims out there.
* While spiders are usually associated with [[BlackWidow another trope]], there is at least one species, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allocosa_brasiliensis Allocosa brasiliensis]], with males that often kill and eat the females.
* [[https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-60287425.amp Ian Stewart]]'s wife Diane died of an "epileptic fit" in 2010, with Stewart receiving thousands of pounds in inheritance and life insurance. Then in 2016 his fiancée Helen Bailey disappeared shortly after naming Stewart as the sole beneficiary of her £3.4 million estate. Stewart claimed she had gone out walking the dog and not returned, but both her [[KickTheDog and the dog]] were later found dead in Stewart's septic tank. Stewart was convicted of her murder and was later convicted of murdering Diane as well when it was proven she had not died from epilepsy.
* This was allegedly the case with Alfred Leonard Cline, the "Buttermilk Bluebeard". He had married eight women, all of whom died soon after, allowing Cline to inherit their estates. Cline was accused of poisoning them with buttermilk laced with sedatives, hence his nickname, and also may have done the same to Reverend Ernest Jones. None of this could ever be proven because all his victims were cremated before they could be tested for poison, [[JusticeByOtherLegalMeans but he was convicted of forging their wills to get their estates]] and sentenced to [[LongerThanLifeSentence 126 years in prison]].
* The "Bluebeard of the Bath", George Joseph Smith. A bigamist, he was married to seven women at the same time under various identities which he used to rob them blind and get away without being caught. His ridiculous nickname came from the fact that he drowned his first three wives in the bath and likely would have killed more of them had his landlord not linked him to two of the victims.
* [[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Otto_Hoch John Schmidt]], better known by his alias "Johann Otto Hoch", was a German-American swindler and bigamist who may have married up to 55 women[[note]]The official number is 34, but others are alleged [[/note]], nineteen of whom died in suspicious circumstances. He was convicted of murdering one of his wives but evidence points to him being responsible for more murders.
* [[https://heathermonroe.medium.com/the-prolific-murders-and-marriages-of-james-p-watson-afb8216b83e7 James P. Watson]] by his own admission was married to 22 different women during his life, often at the same time. Eventually, one of these women got suspicious and Watson fled to California. A private investigator hired to track him down uncovered evidence of his bigamy and after being arrested Watson confessed to having murdered seven of his wives.
* [[https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/pictures/todd-winkler-the-case-against-man-who-killed-wife-with-scissors/ Todd Winkler]] married Catherine Winkler in 1991, only for her to die in a suspicious car accident in 1999. Winkler claimed that his wife had been driving him to hospital after he suffered an allergic reaction from a bug bite when she lost control of the car and drove into a ravine, where the car crashed and exploded while Winkler was thrown clear. Investigators were suspicious of Winkler's claims as the car had no obvious reason to explode and Winkler refused to show them the bug bite, but the death was nonetheless ruled an accident. Then Wife #2, Rachel Winkler, was stabbed to death by Winkler, allegedly in self-defence. Winkler's claims of self-defence were soon discredited and he was convicted of Rachel's murder.
[[/folder]]

* ''Series/SherlockHolmes'': In "The Eligible Bachelor"[[note]] Adapted from [[AdaptationTitleChange The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor]][[/note]] the titular Lord Robert St. Simon is a [[AdaptationalVillainy sadistic cad]] who courts and marries wealthy women and then disposes of them once he [[GoldDigger has their fortune.]]

* Henry VIII of England, who had [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wives_of_Henry_VIII six wives,]] is often considered a Bluebeard, although he only had ''two'' of said wives executed: Anne Boleyn (#2), and Catherine Howard (#5). [[note]]Both were convicted of adultery - falsely, in Anne's case. Henry was [[DoubleStandard no stranger to adultery himself]]; Anne's real "crime" was failing to give him a son. Catherine Howard almost certainly ''was'' guilty, though -- not that this excuses her unhappy fate. [[ValuesDissonance At the time adultery on the part of the monarch's wife was considered treason]], since it could result in a child not of royal blood being falsely perceived as the king's heir. Which meant that charges of adultery, whether real or completely trumped-up, were an easy way for an unscrupulous king to get rid of an unwanted queen.[[/note]] Jane Seymour (#3) [[DeathByIrony died of puerperal fever after producing a male heir]]. Another two of his marriages were annulled without a wife being killed - to Catherine of Aragon (#1) and Anne of Cleves (#4) - and Catherine Parr (#6) outlived him by nearly two years. His bloody reputation in this area comes from how many ''other'' people he had executed over the political and religious complications involved in his HighTurnoverRate of wives, as well as popular rumor attributing Catherine of Aragon's death to foul play by either him or Anne Boleyn.[[note]]Modern historians attribute her death to heart cancer.[[/note]]

* ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'': General Tarquin has had ''[[SerialSpouse nine]]'' wives: while we know that he simply divorced the first one ([[spoiler:Elan and Nale's mother]]), the ninth recently died "of mysterious circumstances". It also turns out that some of his former wives were convinced to marry him through [[ColdBloodedTorture brutal torture]]. It's also distinctly possible that [[spoiler:when he said he was going out of the way to keep from having children (he didn't want an heir), he meant he was killing his wives for getting pregnant.]] Subverted in the case of Tarquin's ninth wife, who really ''[[NotMeThisTime did]]'' die due to mysterious circumstances. [[spoiler:She had conceived a child with a descendant of a certain black dragon whose family line Vaarsuvius cast the infamous Familicide spell upon]]. Furthermore, WordOfGod is that [[spoiler:Julio was rescuing Tarquin's wives at their weddings. Due to the TheoryOfNarrativeCausality, he only rescued the wives who didn't want to marry Tarquin. At least some of them did genuinely love Tarquin, no torture required]].

* ''Series/SherlockHolmes'': In "The Eligible Bachelor"[[note]] Adapted from [[AdaptationTitleChange The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor]]/note]] the titular Lord Robert St. Simon is a [[AdaptationalVillainy sadistic cad]] who courts and marries wealthy women and then disposes of them once he [[GoldDigger has their fortune.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/CorpseBride'': Emily's fiancé [[spoiler:Lord Barkis]] tricked her into getting ready to run away with him, then killed her before their wedding and took her money and family jewelry. She became known in the underworld as the "Corpse Bride", waiting for her true love she could marry. The villain wants to do the same with one more girl ([[spoiler:Victor's girlfriend Victoria Everglot]]), and perhaps there were more unfortunate ladies. [[spoiler:Towards the end of the movie, after Emily lets go of Victor so he can return to Victoria's side, she sees Barkis and recognizes him as her killer; soon he properly dies, and Emily's undead friends [[TheDogBitesBack happily and viciously attack him]].]]

* In 1968, [[http://unsolvedmysteries.wikia.com/wiki/Robert_Weeks Robert Weeks']] wife Patricia disappeared after a dinner date in which they were to hash out the terms of their divorce. Her car was later found abandoned at a local shopping mall. In 1980, his girlfriend Cynthia Jabour disappeared after a dinner date in which she intended to break off the relationship. Her car was found abandoned in a casino parking lot. Three guesses what happened to his next girlfriend Carol Ann Riley in 1986.. In April 1988, Weeks was convicted of murdering Patricia and Cynthia, even though no trace of them, Carol Ann, or his ''male'' business partner (who had apparently discovered his unscrupulous business dealings) was ever found.

* Zanoba from ''LightNovel/MushokuTenseiJoblessReincarnation'' ripped off his wife's head because she looked like a doll.
* In ''LightNovel/ShinigamiHimeNoSaikon'', [[spoiler:Lord Kashburn's father was one of these. Originally, he lured noblewomen with the promise of wealth, then murdered them; when the money ran out, he moved onto the servants and farmers' daughters. In the end, Kashburn killed him.]]

* The freeware ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}''-engine game ''VideoGame/{[Judith}}'', in which a series of flashbacks of a wife finding a secret room in her husband's castle with a torture victim inside and the subsequent mercy-killing of the victim leads to the wife encountering a particularly haunting version of this trope.

* In 1968, [[http://unsolvedmysteries.wikia.com/wiki/Robert_Weeks Robert Weeks']] wife Patricia disappeared after a dinner date in which they were to hash out the terms of their divorce. Her car was later found abandoned at a local shopping mall. In 1980, his girlfriend Cynthia Jabour disappeared after a dinner date in which she intended to break off the relationship. Her car was found abandoned in a casino parking lot. Three guesses what happened to his next girlfriend, Carol Ann Riley. In April 1988, Weeks was convicted of murdering Patricia and Cynthia, even though no trace of them, Carol Ann, or his ''male'' business partner (who had apparently discovered his unscrupulous business dealings) was ever found.

* Music/LadyGaGa's boyfriend in the video for "Paparazzi" is implied to be one.
* The traditional ballad "False Sir John" is about one wife-killer.

* [[http://www.magpiegames.com/bluebeards-bride/ Bluebeard's Bride]] is this trope: The Game, told from the perspective of the bride as she discovers the truth.
* ''TabletopGame/ArsMagica'': The [[FaerieCourt faerie lord]] Marsyne marries human women, treats them with every respect, and entombs them in ice if they ever break the convoluted rules of his Court (including the classic "Never enter this room. Here is the key."). Worse, with his BlueAndOrangeMorality, he's genuinely fond of them all, including the ones who win their freedom somehow.

* Nikolai Belinski, the Russian soldier in ''VideoGame/NaziZombies'', has murdered at least five of his wives. Some of his weapon pickup quotes have him remarking on how it's the same one he shot one of them with. It is intentionally PlayedForLaughs. However, ''Gorod Krovi'' reveals that [[spoiler:he had only one wife, and her loss in an air raid pained him so much that he began drinking to try and forget her.]]
* Zoltan Carnovasch from the first ''VideoGame/{{Phantasmagoria}}'' was made for this trope, with [[spoiler:Don almost following in his footsteps.]]
* The freeware ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}''-engine game ''Judith'', in which a series of flashbacks of a wife finding a secret room in her husband's castle with a torture victim inside and the subsequent mercy-killing of the victim leads to the wife encountering a particularly haunting version of this trope.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers'', [[EvilOverlord Baron Ünderbheit]] has the heads of his seven ex-wives mounted on his dining room wall.

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

* Conwellians have this as their ''hat'' in ''Manga/LevelE'', as their BizarreAlienReproduction entails devouring their females and digesting them in order to fertilise their eggs. [[TragicMonster Even if they genuinely loved their mate.]] They destroyed their planet over a battle between a faction who were dedicated to genetically altering their species to remove this trait and a faction who thought that this was an intolerable heresy.
* Zanoba from ''LightNovel/MushokuTenseiJoblessReincarnation'' ripped off his wife's head because she looked like a doll.
* In Creator/MohiroKitoh's anthology ''Manga/HallucinationsFromTheWomb'', the villain in one of the short stories is a man who clones his wife once for every year she has lived, killing the clones and preserving them in tanks of alcohol.

* He-She, a one-shot ''Crimebuster'' villain, married a landlady and swindled her out of her money, all the while keeping their [[TwoFaced right, female half obscured]]. Once she found out, He-She killed her and stuffed her in a wall. Crimebuster even calls them a Bluebeard once he finds the body.
* Before joining the ComicBook/{{Runaways}}, Klara was married to an older man who had convinced her mother that he was a devout, God-fearing man, but who turned out to be a lazy drunkard who abused Klara in every way imaginable.
* The Indian comic series Tinkle Digest had a {{Bowdlerized}} version of the tale: two sisters seek work at Bluebeard's castle because their older sibling Elsa worked there for a month and vanished. Bluebeard hires them as maids, and each cleaning girl lasts no longer than a month. They're hoping to find evidence while their older brother gets an army to arrest Bluebeard on charges of kidnapping. [[spoiler:Instead of being murdered, all the girls who open the hidden room are turned into statues. As a result, they're all restored to life when the older brother kills Bluebeard, and Elsa's family happily reunites with her]]

* A variation of this tale appears in many versions of "The Robber Bridegroom" by Creator/TheBrothersGrimm and others. In this story, the murderer is a member of a gang of cannibalistic bandits. After he invites the potential fiancée to his house, she gets some help from the bandits' servant, an old woman who hides her behind a cask. The would-be bride then witnesses another woman being murdered and devoured, and later, the old woman helps her escape on the condition that she brings her along (presumably because the bride knows the way and the old woman doesn't). The bride brings along a ring from the victim of the murder she witnessed, and on the day of the wedding, exposes her fiancé with the evidence. The story ends with the Bridegroom and the other bandits executed.

* The bride in the Literature/{{Child Ballad|s}} ''The Outlandish Knight'' manages to save her life. "Six pretty maidens have you drowned here/And the seventh has drowned thee."
* There is a version that completely subverts the story with a PerspectiveFlip. Bluebeard strictly forbids his wife from entering a particular room, but when she does, she finds that the room is perfectly normal and empty. It turns out that Bluebeard simply uses the room as a private place to rest when he doesn't want to be disturbed. He's understandably pissed when he finds out that his wife entered the room when he asked her not to, and ends up divorcing her and kicking her out of the house for her lack of trust.

* Interestingly, it is inverted in Eastern European tales. In "Literature/TheDeathOfKoscheiTheDeathless", "Literature/TheNinePeahensAndTheGoldenApples"... the male main character opens a locked cellar which his wife to had told to NOT look into, and frees a monster.

* ''WebVideo/DragonBallZAbridged'' heavily implies that Dr. Briefs kills his wife and replaces her with a clone whenever she shows the first sign of aging.

[[folder:Films -- Animation]]

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]

* The villain in ''Film/SoulsForSale'' marries women, takes out insurance policies on them, and kills them.
* The title character of the Creator/CharlieChaplin film ''Film/MonsieurVerdoux''.
* Legendary screen cad George Sanders essays a modern-day (as in circa 1960) version of the role in ''Bluebeard's Ten Honeymoons''.
* Played fairly straight in the early-'60s French film ''Landru'', based upon the story of Henri Landru (see the RealLife entry below).

* The title character of the horror movie ''Film/TheStepfather'' marries women with children, only to slaughter them when they fall short of his expectations. He has ridiculously high standards, and so he goes through families fairly quickly.
* It is revealed in ''Film/ThePrincessBride'' that [[spoiler: Prince Humperdinck wants to use his fiancee Buttercup]] as a pretext to go to war with the neighboring kingdom of Guilder. When his original plan falls through, he decides to simply murder her himself and frame Guilder for it.
* Harry Powell from ''Film/TheNightOfTheHunter''. The film's main plot is him chasing after the children of his latest victim. [[spoiler:And after he's caught, he's called as such.]]
* In the original ''Film/HouseOnHauntedHill1959'', eccentric millionaire Frederick Loren (Creator/VincentPrice) is currently on his fourth wife. The first one disappeared, and the second two died of heart attacks, despite being in their 20s. [[spoiler:At the end of the film, he frightens his fourth wife to death, but only because [[GoldDigger she was plotting to kill him for his money]]. It's implied that her predecessors may have been similarly interested in becoming rich young widows.]]
* Creator/FritzLang's ''Film/SecretBeyondTheDoor'' (1948), starring Creator/MichaelRedgrave and Joan Bennett, combines the Bluebeard motif with a hefty helping of HollywoodPsych.
* Implied to be the case with [[MeaningfulName Blue]] in ''Film/SuckerPunch''.
* Spoofed in the old Italian comedy ''Le Sei Mogli di Barbablu'', starring the great Toto (Antonio De Curtis). Bluebeard's previous wives in this one, including a young Creator/SophiaLoren in one of her first roles, [[spoiler:haven't actually been killed, but are being held in suspended animation, and are revived by Toto]].

* The 1934 movie ''Film/TheBlackCat''. This time, Bela Lugosi plays an ex-prisoner of war whose wife and daughter were married, then murdered by his evil rival (played by Boris Karloff). Karloff's character was a Satanist who preserved his murdered wives and displayed them in his creepy house.
* Invoked in ''Film/BatmanForever''. Dick Grayson asks what's behind a door (it contains the hidden entrance to the Batcave), and [[DeadpanSnarker Alfred]] replies, "Master Wayne's dead wives."
* Uncle Charlie in Alfred Hitchcock's ''Film/ShadowOfADoubt'' is one, although his motivation has more to do with being a misogynistic SerialKiller than it does with greed.
* In ''Film/TheAmazingSpiderMan'', Peter has a book titled ''Bluebeard'' on the shelf by his computer, perhaps as a hint to [[spoiler: Peter falling in love with and eventually (accidentally) killing Gwen]].
* In ''Film/ExMachina'', Nathan is a pioneer in designing and building lifelike A.I that can pass the Turing test and fool real humans. He uses this technology to build robotic women that he uses for [[SexBot his own pleasure]] before eventually torturing and destroying them. He even has a secret closet with wrecked prototypes in it.
* In ''Film/CrimsonPeak'', [[spoiler: Sir Thomas Sharpe has been married three times already and none of his wives lasted that long, and although he was fully complicit it was his sister Lucille who actually poisoned them. Unlike most Bluebeard stories, Thomas actually falls for his latest wife.]].

* In ''Literature/TheShining'', Danny recalls Bluebeard as he opens the door to a certain hotel room.
* In ''Literature/WhichWitch'', the ghost haunting Arriman's home murdered a ridiculously long line of wives and spends his death hitting his head in grief. [[spoiler:This is PlayedForLaughs when he is brought back to life and does absolutely nothing but prattle on about his wives and how he killed them for the pettiest of reasons (having a small yappy dog, smelling bad, eating too much, etc). The protagonists eventually are rid of him by hooking him up with Madame Olympia, who was infamous for murdering her husbands. After the two run off, there's speculation as to which will off the other first.]]
* Lord Laphroig of Terry Brooks' ''Literature/APrincessOfLandover''. Like Henry VIII, it was in order to produce a male heir. (And then he killed the heir and his mother when he found a better match in [[AmbitionIsEvil the daughter of the king]].)

* ''Literature/TheReynardCycle'': Gaspard, the reputably insane Count of Lorn has married, and suspiciously lost, three wives. This trope is one possible explanation for this. (The other is that the wives are being assassinated by the Count's younger brother, who wishes to inherit the family title.)
* ''The Seventh Bride'' by T. Kingfisher (aka Creator/UrsulaVernon) is a retelling of a Bluebeard-type story. Rhea, a miller's daughter, is claimed by a local lord and sent to live at his house, where he sets her deceptive tasks with a fearful penalty for failing them. In this version, he is a sorcerer, and what he did to his previous six wives wasn't anything as simple as murder.
** Vernon wrote another variation on the story, "Bluebeard's Wife." In this one, Althea, the newest wife, is relieved to get away from her overbearing family and doesn't want to do anything to jeopardize her new situation. She interprets Bluebeard's order to avoid the room as being similar to her own desire for solitude and associates it with her own father's study (where he kept his PornStash). She puts the key Bluebeard gives her OutOfSightOutOfMind and lives out a quiet and largely platonic marriage with him. On his deathbed, he begs her to burn down the house when he dies, but it's her home, so she doesn't - and that's when everything finally comes out.

* According to ''Literature/DaveBarrySleptHere'', UsefulNotes/HenryVIII "could barely get through a day without beheading a wife," sometimes during the wedding ceremony itself.

* A FracturedFairytale show put a twist on this trope -- the Bluebeard [[spoiler:sold his wives' souls to the devil, to represent the SevenDeadlySins. In the end, his seventh wife [[HoistByHisOwnPetard catches him in his own trap]].]]
* ''Series/GameOfThrones'': Ramsay has a penchant for killing lovers who bore him, as Myranda is pleased to explain and enumerate for Sansa.
* Naturally, shows up on ''Series/TalesFromTheCrypt'', with the expected comeuppance: [[spoiler:his now-dead wives lure him to their graveyard, declaring they can't live... or die... without him]].
* Michael Dobson, committer of DomesticAbuse, played by Larry Miller on ''Series/LawAndOrder'', had his wives killed by hitmen on two separate occasions for the insurance money.

* One of the killers whose statue is displayed in ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'' episode "The New Exhibit."
* Played for laughs with the character Dr. Mickhead from the series ''Series/{{Scrubs}}''. He's suspected of murdering his wife, and it's an OpenSecret amongst the Sacred Heart staff, and several scenes have him attempting to hide evidence (including giving a hammer to JD's then-girlfriend for safekeeping) before getting carted off in handcuffs.
* An episode of ''Series/{{Grimm}}'' was based on this story, although he wasn't killing them but keeping them for breeding.
* ''Series/TheFBI'': In "The Chameleon", the FBI pursues a ConMan with an M.O. of romancing wealthy widows, then murdering them, and disappearing with their wealth in cash.

* In the British ''Thriller'' series, the episode, "A Coffin for the Bride," revolves around a man who marries older, unattractive, but wealthy, women and kills them after the honeymoon. After falling in love with a young woman, played by Creator/HelenMirren, he wants to go straight, but can't resist a new target, a haggard loudmouth with an annoying laugh. This time, however, his wife seems suspicious early on and mysteriously disappears before he can go through with killing her. The man ends up arrested for her murder, ironically for a crime he didn't commit. In jail, he seems to suspect that the younger girl killed the final wife and, when she visits him in prison, tries to get her to confess. The truth is a bit more complicated: [[spoiler: She was the sister of one of the man's previous victims and wanted him brought to justice. When he points out the truth will come out when his wife's body is found, she laughs a very familiar laugh, revealing that the final wife wasn't a real person, but her in disguise all along. And, yes, Mirren plays both "characters."]]

The SpearCounterpart of the BlackWidow, the Bluebeard is a man who appears [[TheCasanova charming]] but hides a nefarious secret: he keeps marrying women and then murdering them.

A subtrope of SerialKiller and MurderInTheFamily.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* Some believe that the fairy tale has its origins in [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conomor Conomor the Cursed,]] known for murdering his wives as soon as they got pregnant.
* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Desire_Landru Henri Landru]] is an infamous TruthInTelevision example who was motivated by greed.
* Henry VIII of England, who had [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wives_of_Henry_VIII six wives,]] is often considered a Bluebeard, although he only had ''two'' of said wives executed: Anne Boleyn (#2), and Catherine Howard (#5). [[note]]Both were convicted of adultery - falsely, in Anne's case. Henry was [[DoubleStandard no stranger to adultery himself]]; Anne's real "crime" was failing to give him a son. Catherine Howard almost certainly ''was'' guilty, though -- not that this excuses her unhappy fate. [[ValuesDissonance At the time adultery on the part of the monarch's wife was considered treason]], since it could result in a child not of royal blood being falsely perceived as the king's heir. Which meant that charges of adultery, whether real or completely trumped-up, were an easy way for an unscrupulous king to get rid of an unwanted queen.[[/note]] Jane Seymour (#3) [[DeathByIrony died of puerperal fever after producing a male heir]]. Another two of his marriages were annulled without a wife being killed - to Catherine of Aragon (#1) and Anne of Cleves (#4) - and Catherine Parr (#6) outlived him by nearly two years. His bloody reputation in this area comes from how many ''other'' people he had executed over the political and religious complications involved in his HighTurnoverRate of wives, as well as popular rumor attributing Catherine of Aragon's death to foul play by either him or Anne Boleyn.[[note]]Modern historians attribute her death to heart cancer.[[/note]]

* Bartok's ''Bluebeard's Castle'' is a Freudian re-examination of the story. His castle is his subconscious, and Judith (wife #4) is casting light on his past by opening up every door with him, hand in hand. [[DownerEnding It doesn't end well...]]

A subtrope of MurderInTheFamily.

* ''WesternAnimation/CorpseBride'': Emily's fiancé [[spoiler:Lord Barkis]] tricked her into getting ready to run away with him, then killed her before their wedding and took her money and family jewelry. She became known in the underworld as the "Corpse Bride", waiting for her true love she could marry. The villain wants to do the same with one more girl ([[spoiler: Victor's girlfriend Victoria Everglot]]), and perhaps there were more unfortunate ladies. [[spoiler: Towards the end of the movie, after Emily lets go of Victor so he can return to Victoria's side, she sees Barkis and recognizes him as her killer; soon he properly dies, and Emily's undead friends [[TheDogBitesBack happily and viciously attack him]].]]
* ''WesternAnimation/Frozen2013'': This almost happened. [[spoiler:Prince Hans had been planning to marry the newly-crowned Queen Elsa, then kill her and taking her throne for himself. He changes his target to her younger and naïve sister Anna, opting to dispose of both women once he's secured]].

* It is revealed in ''Film/ThePrincessBride'' that [[spoiler: Prince Humperdinck's purpose in marrying Buttercup is to murder her after the wedding and frame the rival kingdom for it to start a war.]]