Amelia Dyer: Britain’s Baby Butcher, Part lV

By 1890, Amelia seeking higher profits had started targeting the babies of the more affluent for this would increase her wealth. She now received £50-80 one-off fees. Some speculate that she took this additional risk for she felt that she would not be able to baby farm much longer without being caught.

Amelia Dyer serial killer.

In this year she arranged to take into her care the illegitimate baby of a governess. This young woman had fallen in love with the young master of the house she worked in—she became pregnant.

She saw one of Amelia’s adverts and moved in with the older woman to hide her condition, Amelia then was able to gain her trust. She convinced the governess to leave her baby in her care.

This governess returned to visit her baby months later. She quickly became suspicious because the infant she was handed was not hers—it did not have a birthmark on its hip that her baby had.

This young woman then informed the authorities but Amelia managed to stall them by sending them on a wild goose chase—she told the police the couple that adopted the baby moved here-- no they moved there.

Amelia moved to several towns after this, but the governess continued to pursue her.

Feeling pressured and in a panic, she fell into another depression and drank two bottles of Mother’s Friend laudanum in a suicide attempt. But she survived. This overdose would have killed most people, but her extended use of this opiate had given her a cushion.

She was placed in an asylum once more but when she was released, she quickly went back to farming and murder.

Amelia had one last breakdown in 1893. She by this time was an expert at feigning insanity—after all, she had watched her mother’s spiral into mental illness. She made repeated statements such as, “The birds were telling me to do it.”

All of her asylum placements had been timed to avoid capture by the authorities.

When she was released from Wells Mental asylum she quickly recovered. She then landed in a workhouse where she managed to lure an older widow, Jane Smith to a supposed better life—helping unwanted babies.

She told Jane to call her “Mother” and she called the old lady “Granny Smith” to create the illusion of a mother-daughter relationship in front of prospective clients.

It isn’t long before Granny Smith realizes she is just a servant who has to care for all the babies that Amelia brings.

In fact, so many babies arrive and leave that Granny Smith cannot even learn their names. The neighbors begin to notice 6 infants arriving every day.

Mother entrusting her baby
into Amelia's care.

It was during this period in 1896, that Evelina Marmon responds to Amelia’s advertisement for a lovely home in the country.

After Amelia took possession of Amelia's daughter Doris, she wrapped white edging tape around her neck, making a strangling knot. But the female baby did not die immediately.

Amelia admitted later that she enjoyed watching the tape around little Doris’ neck—but alas it was soon over. She then took the clothes Evelina had given her and pawned them—she used the money to pay her rent.

The following day, April 1,1896 Amelia accepted another baby, a one-year-old boy named Harry Simmons. She was out of tape, so she retrieved the tape from Doris’ corpse to strangle Harry.

The next day she put both bodies in a carpetbag weighted with bricks and threw them into the River Thames at a secluded spot at Caversham Lock—but a witness passing by spotted her.

In Part V of Amelia Dyer: Britain’s Baby Butcher suspicions lead to Amelia’s downfall, and her ghost is seen in a historic place.

Amelia Dyer: Britain’s Baby Butcher, Part V

Bargeman discovers corpse
of infant.

Just day’s before Amelia dumped the carpetbag containing Doris Marmon and Harry Simmons’ bodies into the Thames a bargeman had fished a package out of the river near this spot. It contained the body of an infant girl, Helena Fry.

The small Reading police force discovered a faintly legible address and the name “Mrs. Thomas” on the brown parcel paper that the baby was wrapped within.

This address was a former residence of Amelia Dyers.

The police then put Amelia under surveillance but they worried she would just disappear, so they arranged a meeting with her with a decoy—a young mother looking for adoptive services.

On April 3, 1896, the police arrived at her home while Amelia waited for this decoy. They smelled the decay of death but found no bodies.

They did find many distraught letters from mothers inquiring about their children, mounds of baby clothes and many more pawn receipts. They also found telegrams describing adoption arrangements and newspaper ads.

Pulling the carpetbag out.

Amelia was arrested on April 4^th for the murders of Doris Marmon and Harry Simmons. The Thames was searched, and 2 more bodies were found. Each child had been strangled with white seamstress tape.

Amelia told the police callously "that was how you could tell it was one of hers.”

Eleven days after Eveline Marmon watched tearfully as Amelia boarded a train with her daughter the police called her in to identify a small body.

On May 22^nd, Amelia pleaded guilty to the murder of Doris Marmon.

She used an insanity defense –offering her stays in mental institutions as proof-- but since the prosecution argued these stays coincided with her efforts to avoid the authorities and that they were short-lived, her defense was not believed.

Dyer sentenced to death.

The jury took 4 and half minutes at the Old Bailey to find Amelia Dyer guilty. On June 10, 1896, she was hanged at Newgate Prison. When asked if she had anything to say she said nothing.

Her loathsome actions along with other baby farm killers of the time that were hanged-- Margaret Waters, Annie Walters, and Amelia Sach to name a few-- did eventually led to welfare and other social reforms being instated.

Even though Amelia Dyer is Britain's most prolific serial killer her crimes were mostly forgotten until recent years when her records where placed online by the National Archives.

It is estimated that Amelia over her, 30-year career as a baby farmer was responsible for the deaths of over 400 infants.

Amelia's Ghost

Often prisons are haunted and Newgate which once stood just inside London is no exception to this rule. This structure built by the Romans was torn down in 1910 to make room for the Central Criminal Courts.

The original Roman gate, Newgate Prison before
it was demolished and prisoners being hanged
on the gallows.

Dead Man's Walk

On the side of the wall were Newgate once was is a narrow pathway that still exists today. It initially led from the prison to the quicklime pits where executed prisoners were buried.

It is not surprising since this pathway also was used to take condemned prisoners from their cells to the gallows that it was dubbed, “Dead Man’s Walk.”

A young warden, a Mr. Scott, at the time Amelia Dyer was hanged—later became Newgate’s chief warden.

He often told one grim tale of the prison being haunted.

Amelia Dyer after her arrest.

He was present at the hanging of Amelia Dyer in June of 1896. As Amelia was taken to the scaffold, she stopped and looked at Mr. Scott. She then said in a low voice, “I’ll meet you again, sir.”

Not long before Newgate was closed down, several wardens including Mr. Scott were gathered together, with a bottle of whiskey, to celebrate the end of their employment at the prison.

The room they stood within was next to the Women’s Felon Yard. A door, with a window in it, looked out over this yard.

As one fellow raised his glass for a toast, Scott became aware that someone was watching him. He then heard the words in his head, “I’ll meet you again someday, sir.”

He looked out the door’s window and saw the unmistakable face of Amelia Dyer. She looked at Scott for a moment and then left.

Scott rushed to the door and opened it but nothing was there except for a woman’s handkerchief that floated to the ground and landed at his feet.

There were no female prisoners in Newgate at this time—there had not been any for several years.

One photograph that was taken of Mr. Scott outside the prison’s execution shed has a distinct image of Amelia’s face peering over his shoulder.

Execution Shed

Some witnesses claim to have seen Amelia's ghost in Dead Man's Walk recently. Several ghosts have been spotted along this pathway.

In Part l of Amelia Dyer: Britain’s Baby Butcher illegitimate babies are left out in the cold and baby farming begins.

Amelia Dyer: Britain’s Baby Butcher, Part lV

Amelia Dyer

By 1890, Amelia seeking higher profits had started targeting the babies of the more affluent for this would increase her wealth. She now received £50-80 one-off fees. Some speculate that she took this additional risk for she felt that she would not be able to baby farm much longer without being caught.

In this year she arranged to take into her care the illegitimate baby of a governess. This young woman had fallen in love with the young master of the house she worked in—she became pregnant.

She saw one of Amelia’s adverts and moved in with the older woman to hide her condition, Amelia then was able to gain her trust. She convinced the governess to leave her baby in her care.

But the governess returned to visit her baby months later. She quickly became suspicious because the infant she was handed was not hers—it did not have a birthmark on its hip like her baby.

This young woman informed the authorities but Amelia managed to stall them by sending them on wild goose chases—she told the police the couple that adopted the baby moved here-- no they moved there.

Amelia moved to several towns after this but the governess continued to pursue her.

Feeling pressured and in a panic, she fell into another depression, she then drank two bottles of Mother’s Friend laudanum in a suicide attempt. But she survived. This overdose would have killed most people but her extended use of this opiate had given her a cushion.

She was placed in an asylum once more but when she was released she quickly went back to farming and murder.

Amelia had one last breakdown in 1893. She by this time was an expert at feigning insanity—after all she had watched her mother’s spiral into madness. She made repeated statements such as, “The birds were telling me to do it.”

All of her asylum placements were timed to avoid capture by the authorities.

When she was released from Wells Mental asylum in Somerset she quickly recovered. She then landed in a workhouse where she managed to lure an older widow, Jane Smith to a supposed better life—helping unwanted babies.

Workhouse in Somerset.

She told Jane to call her “Mother” and she called Jane “Granny Smith” in order to create an illusion of a mother-daughter relationship in front of prospective clients.

It wasn't long before Granny Smith realized she was just a servant who had to care for all the babies that Amelia brought to their home.

In fact, so many babies arrived and left that Granny Smith could not even learn their names. The neighbors began to notice 6 infants arriving every day.

It was during this period in 1896, that Eveline Marmon responded to Amelia’s advertisement for a nice home in the country.

White edging tape on corset.

After Amelia took possession of Doris she wrapped white edging tape around her neck, making a strangling knot. But the female baby did not die immediately.

Amelia admitted later that she enjoyed watching the tape around little Doris’ neck—but alas it was soon over with. She then took the clothes Eveline had given her and pawned them—she used the money to pay her rent.

The following day, April 1, 1896 Amelia accepted another baby, a one year old boy named Harry Simmons. She was out of tape so she retrieved the tape from Doris’ corpse to strangle Harry.

The next day she put both bodies in a carpetbag weighted with bricks and threw them into the River Thames at a secluded spot at Caversham Lock—but a witness passing by spotted her.

In Part V of Amelia Dyer:Britain’s Baby Butcher suspicions lead to Amelia’s downfall and her ghost is seen in an historic place.

Amelia Dyer: Britain’s Baby Butcher, Part lll

This baby farmer who starved her infant charges to death for profit over almost 30 years came under the suspicion of the authorities several times.

When Dyer suspected the police were onto her, she would use insane asylums to hide. The first time she did this she worked in one as an attendant.

Wells Pauper Lunatic Asylum, Somerset.

Amelia also avoided the authorities by moving a lot and using several aliases--three were, Thomas, Smith and Harding. She plied her trade as far afield as Liverpool and Plymouth.

Three years after Amelia's first husband died she remarried William Dyer, a brewers laborer from Bristol. They had two children, Mary Ann aka Polly and William Samuel.

She eventually left Dyer when he lost his job. Amelia now strapped for cash decided to change the way she baby farmed.

Instead of her babies dying of neglect and starvation she now murdered them as soon as they were born or shortly after she adopted them. This immediately increased her profits.

She suffocated the babies she helped to deliver.  

She would smother them as soon as they came out—not allowing them to turn blue which would indicate they had taken their first breath. She did this so they would look like stillbirths so the death certificates “were all above board.”

She strangled other babies that came to her after birth—tying a white tape around their necks twice, and then knotting the ends tightly.

When her daughter Polly asked her why all the babies disappeared she told her that she was an “angel maker.” She stated she was “sending them to Jesus because he wants them more than their mothers.”

By this point, Amelia had a real taste for killing. She felt she had a God-like power to watch her unfortunate victims “peacefully die.”

Amelia successfully avoided the police until the late 1870s, by this time over 100 babies had died or been murdered under her care.

Each time the authorities came close she would panic, break down, try to commit suicide and then feign insanity, which guaranteed a placement in a mental asylum.

After her releases, she would go right back to baby farming.

But in 1879, a doctor became suspicious at the number of times he had been called in to certify children’s deaths that were under Amelia’s care.

Inquests for each infant were held in Somerset and the authorities had no doubt these infants had died of neglect and opium overdoses but there was one problem-- they could not prove it.

So despite their suspicions, Amelia received only a 6-month sentence of hard labor instead of being hanged.

Amelia was an emotional wreck during the time she spent in jail. But as soon as she was released, she continued farming. Now she became determined to leave no evidence that would lead to her being captured again.

She had cause to worry for by 1884 British society was taking a dim view of baby farms that showed signs of neglect or abuse—more people began to report their suspicions.

The first Prevention of Cruelty to Children Act was passed in 1889--mostly due to efforts by Benjamin Waugh.

Amelia, to cover her tracks, stopped bringing in coroners to write death certificates and instead just started to murder the babies under her care quickly.

She would keep their corpses until they decomposed so it would be harder to identify them. She wrapped them in brown parcel paper and then tied it with string. She then dumped these bodies into the River Thames.

She buried others in the yards of homes where she lived.

Caversham Lock with the footbridge
known as "The clappers" is where
Amelia disposed of her infant
victims.

Amelia’s long-term laudanum use did actually affect her mental state—she now often was completely detached from reality.

Her murders and profits increased. Witnesses reported seeing 6 infants going into her home daily—she was also often seen leaving with brown packages.

In Part lV, of Amelia Dyer: Britain’s Baby Butcher a concerned mother comes forward which leads to more trouble for Amelia.

Amelia Dyer: Britain’s Baby Butcher, Part ll

“ A many years ago

When I was young and charming

As some of you may know

I practiced baby-farming.”

 --Buttercup from Gilbert and Sullivan’s HMS Pinafore, 1878

Bristol in 1850s.

Amelia Dyer was born in 1837, during the Victorian era, in Pyle March—a tiny village just east of Bristol. She was the youngest of five children.

Her father, Samuel Hobley was a shoe marker, so the family had means. He paid for Amelia to go to school in a time when only a quarter of children had this privilege.

Amelia loved literature and wrote poems, but at an early age, her world was shaken. Her mother, Sarah Weymouth Hobley became mentally ill after suffering from typhus fever.

Young Amelia watched her mother’s seizures and outbursts until her death in 1848. Her slow, horrific death had a long-lasting effect on Amelia—she was sometimes called upon to provide care for a mother that was slowly losing her mind.

This early trauma skewed Amelia’s emotional responses for the rest of her life.

After her mother’s death Amelia was sent to live with an aunt and started an apprenticeship with a corset maker, a job she did until her father’s death in 1859.

Two years later, at the age or 24, Amelia broke off all ties with her family and moved to Bristol where she married George Thomas who at the age of 59 was 35 years her senior.

After her marriage, Amelia trained as a nurse and midwife at Bristol Royal Infirmary. In this era, nurses were not prepared to be caring or merciful; instead, they were expected to be strong and “emotionless” with their patients.

Amelia was a natural. However, when she became pregnant, she was no longer allowed to work.

Bristol Royal Infirmary

At this time, Ellen Dane was a boarder in Amelia’s home. Dane was a midwife who was a baby farmer on the “shady side.” Amelia observed that it was a lucrative profession if done right.

Dane provided housing for women who became pregnant out of wedlock—she offered them a place to hide from societies’ eyes, which condemned them for immorality.

Baby farming.

She would then take a once-off fee from these women and either adopt out or kill their babies through malnutrition. Amelia being a midwife, felt this business was ideal, despite the risk. She thought it would be an easy way to make money.

Her husband George died in 1869 leaving her with a child to support. She made two cold decisions that changed the course of her life forever.

Dane under suspicion by the police fled to America and Amelia took over her business.

Amelia, like Dane, provided a place for unwed mothers when they began to show. Once they had their babies she then firmly took control.

Amelia plying her trade.

Her education and charm lulled these women into trusting her.

She like Dane demanded an upfront, once-off fee of  £5-10 to have the babies supposedly adopted out, which cut down on the number of mothers returning to check on their children.

She did this not for the child’s welfare but to secure more profit.

She began to advertise her services in newspapers.

Two advertisements Amelia placed in newspapers.

Amelia like many baby farmers subjected her charges to persistent underfeeding—for the fees she received rarely paid for ongoing food. This resulted in these babies starving to death.

Godfrey's Cordial

A common practice at the time was to use an over the counter medicine known as Godfrey’s Cordial, also known as Mother’s Friend. This syrup was given to children and infants in the late 18^th and early 19^th centuries as a cure-all—that helped with colic, jaundice, and diarrhea.

It also helped with excessive crying. And hungry babies cried a lot, which made them difficult to handle. So Amelia like other farmers used this laudanum syrup that contained harmful opiates--to quiet the babies down.

Basically, it put them into a dull state where they felt no hunger. Many babies died from overdoses, but most died of starvation because this syrup was not a form of nourishment.

Coroners of the time noted in reports these deaths were due to “debility from birth,” “lack of breast milk,” or “starvation.”

Amelia quickly became used to making a tidy profit.

Ironically, Amelia became addicted to this laudanum syrup herself—which exasperated her mood swings and put her in deep depressions even when she was not on the opiate.

The other cold decision Amelia made at the time was to farm out her own daughter, Ellen Thomas. She didn’t want a child in her way as she traveled around to adopt babies and to avoid the authorities.

In Part lll of Amelia Dyer: Britain’s Baby Butcher this cold-hearted woman becomes even more prolific and the authorities miss their first opportunity.