Amelia Dyer: The Serial Killer And Baby Farmer.
The annals of Victorian crime are replete with tales of malevolence, but few rival the macabre narrative of Amelia Dyer, whose actions stand as a chilling testament to the darker facets of human nature. Her life and crimes encapsulate a period in British history marked by social upheaval, wherein the vulnerability of certain societal groups was exploited with devastating consequences.
Who Was Amelia Dyer?
Amelia Dyer, born Amelia Elizabeth Hobley in 1836 in the small village of Pyle Marsh, near Bristol, came from a reasonably stable background. The daughter of a master shoemaker, she was afforded an education, a rarity for women of her time. This education, however, would later facilitate her nefarious activities rather than elevate her social standing.
The Crime and Its Victims
Amelia Dyer’s infamy rests upon her gruesome career as a “baby farmer.” In the Victorian era, the confluence of rigid social mores and rampant poverty led to the proliferation of baby farming. This practice involved taking in infants—often illegitimate or born to destitute mothers—in exchange for a fee. While some baby farmers provided adequate care, many were unscrupulous, viewing the infants merely as a means to financial gain.
In 1872, Amelia Dyer wed William Dyer, a brewer's labourer from Bristol. They had two children together: Mary Ann, also known as Polly, and William Samuel. Eventually, Amelia left her husband.
During her career as a baby farmer, Dyer decided to avoid the costs and complications of letting children die from neglect and starvation. Instead, she began murdering them shortly after their arrival, keeping most or all of the fees for herself.
For a while, Dyer managed to evade police interest. However, in 1879, she was caught after a doctor became suspicious about the high number of child deaths he was asked to certify under her care. Rather than facing charges of murder or manslaughter, Dyer received a sentence of six months' hard labour. This experience allegedly brought her to the brink of mental collapse, although many were shocked by the leniency of her sentence compared to those given for lesser crimes at the time.
After her release, Dyer tried to return to nursing. She experienced periods of mental instability and suicidal tendencies, leading to spells in mental hospitals. These hospitalizations often coincided with times when she needed to "disappear." As a former asylum nurse, Dyer knew how to behave to ensure a relatively comfortable stay as an inmate. Her mental instability may have been exacerbated by her early use of alcohol and opium-based products.
In 1890, Dyer took care of an illegitimate baby for a governess. When the governess returned to visit, she suspected something was wrong and checked the baby for a birthmark, which was not present. This raised prolonged suspicions with the authorities, leading Dyer to experience, or feign, a breakdown. She even attempted suicide by drinking two bottles of laudanum, but her long-term use of opium products had built up her tolerance, allowing her to survive.
Dyer returned to her baby farming and murdering activities. She realised the danger of involving doctors for death certificates and began disposing of the bodies herself. Her actions once again attracted unwanted attention, prompting her to stay vigilant against police and parents seeking to reclaim their children. Dyer and her family frequently moved to different towns and cities to escape suspicion and start anew. Over the years, she operated under various aliases.
Dyer began her career ostensibly with the same façade of benevolence. However, it soon became apparent that she harboured no intention of caring for the children. Instead, she embarked on a methodical campaign of infanticide. Her victims, numbering in the dozens if not hundreds, were predominantly infants entrusted to her care by desperate mothers. Dyer’s methods were both ruthless and efficient: she would sedate the babies with opiates, primarily laudanum, and then strangle them with tape or cord, disposing of their tiny corpses in the Thames or other rivers.
Motive: The Dark Catalyst
Understanding Amelia Dyer’s motive necessitates a consideration of the socio-economic conditions of the era. While financial gain was undoubtedly a driving force—each child came with a fee—the sheer scale and brutality of her crimes suggest a deeper, perhaps pathological, inclination. The Victorian fascination with the macabre and the burgeoning field of psychoanalysis would later explore such motives, but in Dyer’s time, her actions were often simply attributed to moral depravity.
In January 1896, Evelina Marmon, a well-liked 25-year-old barmaid, gave birth to her illegitimate daughter, Doris, at a boarding house in Cheltenham. Seeking to return to work, Marmon looked for adoption offers and placed an ad in the "Miscellaneous" section of the Bristol Times & Mirror newspaper. It read: "Wanted, respectable woman to take a young child." Marmon hoped to eventually reclaim her daughter.
By coincidence, an ad next to hers read: "Married couple with no family would adopt a healthy child, nice country home. Terms, £10." Marmon responded to "Mrs. Harding" and soon received a reply from Dyer. Writing from Oxford Road in Reading, "Mrs. Harding" expressed her desire to adopt a baby girl, saying, "I should be glad to have a dear baby girl, one I could bring up and call my own." She described herself and her husband as plain, homely people in good circumstances, who wanted a child not for money but for company and comfort.
Although Marmon preferred to pay a weekly fee for her daughter's care, "Mrs. Harding" insisted on a one-off payment of £10 in advance. Marmon, in a desperate situation, reluctantly agreed. A week later, "Mrs. Harding" arrived in Cheltenham.
Marmon was taken aback by Dyer's age and stocky appearance but, reassured by Dyer's affectionate demeanour towards Doris, she handed over her daughter, a box of clothes, and £10. Deeply distressed, Evelina accompanied Dyer to Cheltenham station and then to Gloucester before returning to her lodgings heartbroken. A few days later, she received a letter from "Mrs. Harding" assuring her that all was well, but when Marmon wrote back, she received no reply.
Instead of traveling to Reading, Dyer went to 76 Mayo Road, Willesden, London, where her 23-year-old daughter Polly was staying. There, Dyer used white edging tape to strangle Doris, tying it twice around the baby's neck. Death was not immediate; Dyer later admitted,
"I used to like to watch them with the tape around their neck, but it was soon all over with them."
Both women allegedly wrapped Doris's body in a napkin, keeping some of her clothes and pawning the rest. Dyer paid the landlady and even gave her a pair of child's boots as a gift for her daughter. The next day, on April 1, 1896, another child named Harry Simmons was brought to Mayo Road. Lacking spare tape, Dyer reused the tape from Doris's corpse to strangle the 13-month-old boy.
On April 2, both bodies were placed in a carpet bag with bricks for weight. Dyer then travelled to Reading and, at a secluded spot near Caversham Lock, forced the carpet bag through railings into the River Thames.
The Net Tightens: Capture and Trial
Amelia Dyer’s arrest and subsequent trial form a significant chapter in criminal jurisprudence. Her capture was precipitated by the discovery of a corpse in the Thames at Reading by a bargeman on 30 March 1896 , wrapped in material bearing a faintly legible name and address. This clue led investigators to Dyer’s door. However, a more elaborate trap was set to secure her apprehension.
Detective Constable James Anderson, leading the investigation, devised a plan to catch Dyer in the act. An undercover officer, posing as a mother seeking to place her illegitimate child, arranged a meeting with Dyer. This sting operation was meticulously planned, with the officer delivering a marked baby basket as bait. When Dyer accepted the baby and the payment, the police swooped in, catching her red-handed.
Upon searching her residence, authorities uncovered damning evidence: the stench of decay, a plethora of baby clothes, and letters from mothers inquiring after the welfare of their children. The trap not only provided irrefutable evidence of her guilt but also highlighted the methodical nature of her crimes.
Dyer’s trial, held at the Old Bailey in May 1896, was a sensational affair, capturing the morbid curiosity of the public. Despite her attempts to feign insanity, it took the jury only four and a half minutes to find her guilty. In her three weeks in the condemned cell, she filled five exercise books with her "last true and only confession". A chaplain visited her the night before her execution and asked if she had anything to confess, she offered him her exercise books, saying, "isn't this enough?"
Execution: The End of a Grim Tale
On the 10th of June, 1896, Amelia Dyer was hanged at Newgate Prison. Her execution was carried out by James Billington, the era’s most notable hangman. Asked on the scaffold if she had anything to say, she said "I have nothing to say", just before being dropped at 9:00 a.m. precisely.
As the noose tightened around her neck, the public consciousness was left grappling with the enormity of her crimes. Dyer’s death brought a measure of closure, yet also served as a grim reminder of the vulnerabilities and moral quandaries facing society.
A Grisly Discovery: The Attic Bag
The narrative of Amelia Dyer took a startling turn with a recent discovery in 2023 that reignited public interest in her case. In a dilapidated attic of a Victorian-era house in Reading, a leather bag was found during renovation work. The bag, which had been tucked away and forgotten for over a century, contained a chilling collection of items: baby clothes, newspaper clippings about Dyer's trial, and remnants of letters written by mothers who had sought her services.
It is believed that the bag had been placed in the attic by a former resident who was a great-great grandson of one of the investigators relatives. The discovery of this bag not only provides tangible evidence of Dyer’s operations but also brings a personal and harrowing dimension to the historical narrative, highlighting the tragic lives intertwined with her malevolent activities.
It is uncertain how many more children Amelia Dyer murdered. However, inquiries from mothers, evidence of other witnesses, and material found in Dyer's homes, including letters and many babies' clothes, pointed to many more.
The Dyer case caused a scandal. She became known as the "Ogress of Reading", and she inspired a popular ballad:
The old baby farmer, the wretched Miss Dyer
At the Old Bailey her wages is paid.
In times long ago, we'd 'a' made a big fy-er
And roasted so nicely that wicked old jade.
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