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Elizabeth Amelia Dyer's Horrifying Murderous Life

A look at Amelia Dyer's heinous crimes during the Victorian era.

By Deana ContastePublished 2 years ago 9 min read
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From UNILAD

There can be not many more troublesome things possible than giving your child over to the consideration of a stranger, saying a quiet supplication for the existence you won't see unfurl. Trusting, despite yourself, that you will one day meet once more.

Yet, for some poor, frantic Victorian women, there could have been no other option. There were numerous reasons why a mother might give up her child, putting her trust in the people who promised them a better future. A path that didn't lead to the workhouse or a virus bed on a filthy road.

As a result, a monster like Amelia Dyer emerged, a terrible figure made possible by a male-centric culture that prohibited women from having genuine power or organization of their own. The same society that would later scold her for her devilishly unfeminine transgressions.

Dyer started killing her victims by overdosing them of the cordial known as Mother's Friend (From bbc.com)

Amelia Dyer is believed to have killed many infants during the 19th century. Her terrible crimes prompted one of the most electrifying trials of the period and focused on the Victorian act of "baby farming." How did a respectable nurse go as far as to succumb to such savagery?

Born in 1837 to a shoemaker in a small village in Bristol, two years after Queen Victoria's royal celebration, a rule long associated with a push for ethical quality and romanticized ideas of parenthood and ecstatic home life. Dyer had endured a tumultuous childhood in which she was the primary caregiver for her deranged mother.

She went on to become a nurse as an adult. Instead of focusing her skills on helping people, she embarked on a career doing the exact opposite.

Dyer was introduced into this world.

The Victorian Baby Framers (From Messy Nessy Chick)

"Baby Farming" was a common practice in Victorian England, fueled by frantic single parents whose obvious unethical behavior implied they were kicked out of the workhouse.

Their options were limited to prostituting themselves, starving themselves, or discreetly "getting rid" of their child. Baby Farmers would propose taking the children away from them and providing them with an alternative future—albeit not a happy one.

Dyer promoted her administrations in papers, depicting herself as "highly respectable" (From Thames Valley Museum)

However, the reality of parenthood was unique for many women, especially working-class women who became pregnant with no indication of a wedding ring.

The real problem would arise if pregnancy didn't bring about a wedding, with the woman left to manage what was happening herself, bearing the weight of social shame while tracking down a useful arrangement.

During this period, attitudes toward abortion shifted dramatically in ways that would have had a devastating impact on countless women.

Women in such circumstances didn't have many options, aside from risky backstreet abortions or finding the child an alternative home after conceiving a child. This subsequent selection was in no way, shape, or form easier.

For single women of the rich classes, the issue of a pregnancy could be taken care of discreetly. (From Owlcation.com)

Roughly 4,500 women gave over their children to the Foundling Hospital during the 19th century alone, yet it wasn't exactly as straightforward as giving them over at the door.

Before the children could be acknowledged, their moms, large numbers of whom were uneducated, were expected to present a composed appeal to demonstrate their "great character".

They would also have to present personal insights about their lives to a panel of men who might regard them as "fallen women."

As a result, it's no surprise that child murder increased dramatically in the 19th century, with vulnerable mothers seeing no other option but to cover the children they couldn't accommodate. Many others were abandoned, succumbing to the city's cold and hunger.

Amelia Dyer, The Victorian Serial Killer Who Killed More Than 300 Babies (From allthat'sInteresting.com)

For nearly 30 years, Dyer did seem to get away with her gruesome business regarding the social conditions in Victorian England.

With high death rates in the harsh reality of Victorian life, early deaths would often go undetected by authorities.

Because the murders took place at the same time, some believe Amelia Dyer and Jack the Ripper are the same people, and that the Ripper's victims were botched abortions committed by Dyer. This theory is supported by little evidence.

Amelia Dyer's Babysitting Misadventures

She had recently been widowed and had a daughter to support once she learned of the practice from a colleague. She began advertising in local papers in 1869 - "A married couple with no children would also like to adopt a healthy child and live in a nice country home. Terms and conditions - £10"

Rather than providing a safe and loving home for the child, she would take them for a fee and murder them—either by starving them, drugging them with an opiate-laced cordial known as Mother's Friend, or attempting to strangle them.

Amelia Dyer's Forgotten Victims (From Victorian Supersleuth)

Dyer traveled from her homes in Bristol and Reading to as far as Liverpool and Plymouth, charging between £10 and £80 for her services (roughly comparable to about £1,000 and £8,000 today).

According to PC, most babies left in her care were murdered within days, if not hours, according to Colin Boyes, curator of the Thames Valley Police Museum, which houses an exhibition about her crimes.

Angela Buckley, the author of Amelia Dyer and the Baby Farm Murders, claimed that her victims' parents had no idea she was planning to murder their children.

"They believed they were sending their child to a happy home," she explained.

The Horrifying Truth About Amelia Elizabeth Dyer, Britain's Baby Butcher, Has Been Revealed (From History Collection)
The packaging discovered with Helena Fry's body contained clues which thus led to Dyer's capture. (From bbc.com)

Her success was short-lived in 1879 when doctors became skeptical of the number of deaths certified in her care, and she was sentenced to six months hard labor for neglect.

However, it was insufficient to deter her from carrying on with her heinous business. Dyer's demeanor shifted after her release.

After a brief stay in Cardiff, she relocated to Reading in 1895 and, realizing the folly of involving doctors in the issuance of death certificates, began disposing of the bodies herself by throwing them into the Thames.

But even so, it was this that ultimately brought her down.

Det. Con. James Beattie Anderson noticed a clue while inspecting the packaging of Helena Fry's body, which is now on display at the police museum.

Bristol Temple Meads was written on the packaging, and it bore a Midland Railway stamp dated October 24, 1895.

More importantly, he deciphered Mrs. Thomas's muddled name and address at 26 Piggott's Road, Caversham—married Dyer's name and former address.

The carpet bag's only known image (From victorian-supersleuth.com)

The search for a murderer brought him to town, where neighbors informed him that she had moved to Kensington Road in Reading.

When the detective arrived, he discovered piles of baby clothing as well as numerous receipts from advertisements in newspapers across the country.

Originally, the Clappers was a wooden footbridge. (From victorian-supersleuth.com)

Dyer was arrested and charged with feloniously killing a child on April 3, 1896, four days after her body was discovered, and a white edge tape similar to that found around Fry's neck was also discovered.

Following the dredging of the Thames and Kennett, six more babies were discovered with the same tape around their necks.

Det. Con Anderson made a particularly gruesome discovery when he discovered a parcel near Clappers Pond.

"We took it straight to the mortuary, and it was confirmed that the corpse was that of a female child, about 12 months old," Ms. Buckley explained.

A child's body discovered in a parcel sent from Germany to the United Kingdom was identified and "in a more advanced state of decomposition than any other of the bodies recovered - so much so that when the parcel was opened, the body and head fell to pieces," Also according to Ms. Buckley.

The evidence that led to Dyer's conviction was later discovered in the loft of a house owned by Det. Con Anderson's relative. (From bbc.com)

The Case of Amelia Dyer (From theworldturnedupsidedownblog.com)

Amelia's strategy shifted at some point, but we're not sure when. We're not sure why. It could have been her grief over her husband's death, the lingering effects of her mother's illness, or she could have simply been amoral. However, at some point, the traditional baby-farming strategy proved insufficient. Instead of simply neglecting and allowing babies to die in her care, she began murdering them without remorse. Authorities became suspicious after a series of suspicious deaths, the stench of rotting baby corpses emanating from their homes, and an excessive number of coroner reports.

On May 22, 1896, she appeared at the Old Bailey for her trial. The 57-year-old's clarification and defense was insanity, owing to her previous confinement in a Bristol asylum.

Prosecutors, on the other hand, claimed that her displays of mental instability were merely a ruse to avoid suspicion.

It is difficult to determine the full extent of her crimes. When she was at her busiest, witnesses reported seeing up to six babies being taken into her home each day.

Ms. Buckley believes Dyer was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of children during her 30-year career as a baby farmer.

Although she had only been in Caversham for nine months, Reading police discovered evidence that she had cared for at least 15 babies at her home during that time.

"The idea of a woman killing anyone was shocking enough, but the fact that she killed babies was out of this world."

Dyer confessed to the crimes shortly before her execution. (From Daily Mail)

Dyer's case exposed a dark underworld in which mothers were selling their children, in addition to obtaining justice for those she killed.

"The trial brought to light the otherwise repressed but widespread practice of baby farming, revealing the horrors and inhumanity of this trade," Dr. Beyer explained.

The Dyer case was necessary for the law to be pursued more effectively and rigorously at the national and local levels, as well as for the then-newly formed NSPCC to gain clout.

Dyer was hanged at Newgate Prison on Wednesday, June 10, 1896, after confessing to her crimes.

Residents in Reading were terrified, so they carved wooden crosses in the handrail of Clappers footbridge as a memorial to the innocent victims of a serial baby killer who exploited society's most vulnerable members by taking advantage of their intolerance.

Those who were led to Dyer's door, a smart, educated woman with a thorough understanding of midwifery, were likely to have put their trust in her. Dyer portrayed herself to her victims as a responsible wife and mother, a Victorian ideal that had ultimately resulted in their suffering.

The world that allowed for such wholesale trade in infant life may appear foreign today, but its scars are remarkably recent. The bodies of dead infants littered the streets of British cities, and reports of their discovery were too commonplace to be considered newsworthy.

Endangered infanticide was a direct result of legislation enacted in the mid-12th century to discourage illegitimacy; rather than resolving the issue, removing all financial obligations from fathers simply forced unmarried mothers into an impossible situation. When forced out of work and barred from the workhouse, a single mother had three options: prostitute herself, starve, or "make an angel" of her baby. Baby farmers provided the last hope for a desperate minority, but few women were truly blind to the reality of their offspring's fate once farmed out.

The true scope of Dyer's crime is almost certainly unfathomable. Eyewitnesses reported seeing as many as six babies a day coming into her home when she was most agitated. Reading police discovered evidence of at least 20 children entrusted to her care in the two months preceding her arrest. Even a conservative estimate of 10 infant deaths per year results in a staggering 300 murders over 30 years.

Dyer was not the only British baby farmer, but she was the most prolific, filling a desolate need that society was loath to acknowledge and has been quick to forget.

Amelia Dyer: the woman who murdered 300 babies-INDEPENDENT

AMELIA DYER “THE READING BABY FARMER”- Crime Museum

How Amelia Dyer Killed Hundreds Of Babies And Became One Of History’s Worst Serial Killers-allthatsinteresting.com

AMELIA DYER “THE READING BABY FARMER”-Alcatraz East

Amelia Dyer Biography-thefamouspeople.com

13 Twisted Facts About Serial Killer Amelia Dyer-ranker.com

"Martina Cole's Lady Killers" Amelia Dyer (TV Episode 2008)-IMDb

Angel Maker: Serial Killer Queen (2014) - IMDb

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About the Creator

Deana Contaste

I enjoy writing poetry, stories, and creating art in general, but I also try to survive in the world like every other human being.

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