Amelia Elizabeth Dyer
(née Hobley; 1837 – 10 June 1896)
was one of the most prolific serial killers in history, murdering infants in
her care over a 30-year period in Victorian
Britain. Trained as a nurse, and widowed in 1869, she
turned to baby farming—the practice of adopting unwanted infants in exchange
for money—to support herself. She initially cared for the children
legitimately, in addition to having two of her own, but whether intentionally
or not, a number of them died in her care, leading to a conviction for
negligence and six months' hard labor. She then began directly murdering
children she "adopted",
strangling at least some of them, and disposing of the bodies to avoid
attention. Mentally unstable, she was committed to several mental asylums
throughout her life, despite suspicions of feigning, and survived at least one
serious suicide attempt.
Dyer's downfall came when the bagged corpse of an infant was
discovered in the Thames, with
evidence leading to her. She was arrested on 4 April 1896, tried for the murder
of infant Doris Marmon, and hanged
on 10 June 1896. At the time of her death, a handful of murders were attributed
to her, but there is little doubt she was responsible for many more similar
deaths—possibly 400 or more.
Dubbed the "Ogress
of Reading", she inspired a popular ballad, and her case led to
stricter laws for adoption.
Background
Amelia Dyer was
born the youngest of five (with three brothers, Thomas, James and William, and a sister, Ann) in the small village of Pyle
Marsh, just east of Bristol (now
part of Bristol's urban sprawl known
as Pile Marsh), the daughter of a
master shoemaker, Samuel Hobley, and
Sarah Hobley née Weymouth. She learned to read and write
and developed a love of literature and poetry. However, her childhood was marred by the
mental illness of her mother, caused by typhus. Amelia witnessed her mother's
violent fits and was obliged to care for her until she died, raving, in 1848.
Researchers later commented on the effect this had on Dyer, and also what it
taught her about the symptoms exhibited by those who appear to lose their mind
through illness.
Dyer had an elder sister, Sarah Ann who died in 1841, aged 6 and a younger sister also named Sarah Ann who died in 1845, aged a few
months. An elder cousin had an illegitimate daughter at the time that was later
accepted as the daughter of the grandparents, Dyer's Aunt and Uncle William and Martha Hobley.
After her mother's death, Amelia lived with an aunt in Bristol for a while, before serving an
apprenticeship with a corset maker. Her father died in 1859. Her eldest
brother, Thomas, inherited the family shoe business. In 1861, at the age of 24,
Amelia became permanently estranged from at least one of her brothers, James,
and moved into lodgings in Trinity
Street, Bristol. There she married George Thomas. George was 59 and they
both lied about their ages on the marriage certificate to reduce the age gap.
George deducted 11 years from his age and Amelia added 6 years to her age—many
sources later reported this age as fact, causing much confusion.
Nursing
After marrying George
Thomas, Dyer trained as a nurse. From contact with a midwife, Ellen Dane, she learned of an easier
way to earn a living—using her own home to provide lodgings for young women who
had conceived illegitimately and then farming off the babies for adoption or
allowing them to die of neglect and malnutrition. (Ellen Dane was forced to decamp to the US, shortly after meeting Amelia, to escape the attention of the
authorities.) Unmarried mothers in Victorian Britain often struggled to gain an income, since the 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act had removed
any financial obligation from the fathers of illegitimate children, whilst
bringing up their children in a society where single parenthood and
illegitimacy were stigmatized. This led to the practice of baby farming in
which individuals acted as adoption or fostering agents, in return for regular
payments or a single, up-front fee from the babies' mothers. Many businesses
were set up to take in these young women and care for them until they gave
birth. The mothers subsequently left their unwanted babies to be looked after
as "nurse children".
The predicament of the parents involved was often exploited
for financial gain: if a baby had well-off parents who were simply anxious to
keep the birth secret, the single fee might be as much as £80. Fifty pounds
might be negotiated if the father of the child wanted to hush up his
involvement. However, it was more common for these expectant young women to be
impoverished. Such women would be charged about £5.
Unscrupulous carers resorted to starving the farmed-out
babies, to save money and even to hasten death. Noisy or demanding babies could
be sedated with easily available alcohol and/or opiates. Godfrey's Cordial—known colloquially as "Mother's Friend", (a syrup containing opium)—was a
frequent choice, but there were several other similar preparations. Many children died as a result of such dubious
practices: "Opium killed far more
infants through starvation than directly through overdose." Dr. Greenhow, investigating for the Privy Council, noted how children "kept in a state of continued narcotism
will be thereby disinclined for food, and be but imperfectly nourished."
Death from severe malnutrition would result, but the coroner was likely to
record the death as "' debility from
birth,' or 'lack of breast milk,' or simply 'starvation. '" Mothers who chose to reclaim or simply check
on the welfare of their children could often encounter difficulties, but some
would simply be too frightened or ashamed to tell the police about any
suspected wrongdoing. Even the authorities often had problems tracing any
children that were reported missing.
This was the world opened up to her by the now-departed Ellen Dane. Dyer had to leave nursing
with the birth of a daughter, Ellen
Thomas. In 1869 the elderly George
Thomas died and Amelia needed an income.
Murders
Dyer was keen to make money from baby farming, and alongside
taking in expectant women, she advertised to nurse and adopt a baby, in return
for a substantial one-off payment and adequate clothing for the child. In her
advertisements and meetings with clients, she assured them that she was
respectable and married and that she would provide a safe and loving home for
the child.
In 1872, Amelia married William
Dyer, a brewer's laborer from Bristol.
They had two children together: Mary Ann, also known as Polly, and William Samuel. Amelia eventually left her husband.
At some point in her baby farming career, Dyer decided to
forgo the expense and inconvenience of letting the children die through neglect
and starvation; soon after the receipt of each child, she murdered them, thus
allowing her to pocket most or the entire fee.
For some time, Dyer eluded the resulting interest of the
police. She was eventually caught in 1879 after a doctor was suspicious about
the number of child deaths he had been called to certify in Dyer's care.
However, instead of being convicted of murder or manslaughter, she was
sentenced to six months' hard labor for neglect. The experience allegedly almost
destroyed her mentally, though others have expressed incredulity at the
leniency of the sentence when compared to those handed out for lesser crimes at
that time.
Upon release, she attempted to resume her nursing career.
She had spells in mental hospitals due to her alleged mental instability and
suicidal tendencies; these always coincided with times when it was convenient
for her to "disappear".
Being a former asylum nurse Dyer knew how to behave to ensure a relatively
comfortable existence as an asylum inmate. Dyer appears to have begun abusing alcohol and
opium-based products early in her killing career; her mental instability could
have been related to her substance abuse. In 1890, Dyer cared for the illegitimate
baby of a governess. When she returned to visit the child, the governess was
immediately suspicious and stripped the baby to see if a birthmark was present
on one of its hips. It wasn't, and prolonged suspicions by the authorities led
to Dyer having or feigning, a breakdown. Dyer at one point drank two bottles of
laudanum in a serious suicide attempt, but her long-term abuse had built up her
tolerance to opium products, so she survived.
She returned to baby farming and murder. Dyer realized the
folly of involving doctors to issue death certificates and began disposing of
the bodies herself. The precarious nature and extent of her activities again
prompted undesirable attention; she was alert to the attention of police—and of
parents seeking to reclaim their children. She and her family frequently
relocated to different towns and cities to escape suspicion, regain
anonymity—and to acquire new business. Over the years, Dyer used a succession
of aliases.
In 1893, Dyer was discharged from her final committal at the
Somerset and Bath Lunatic Asylum
near Wells. Unlike previous "breakdowns" this had been a most disagreeable
experience, and she never entered another asylum. Two years later, Dyer moved
to Caversham, Berkshire, accompanied
by an unsuspecting associate, Jane
"Granny" Smith, whom Dyer had recruited from a brief spell in a
workhouse and Dyer's daughter and son-in-law, Mary Ann (known as Polly) and Arthur Palmer. This was followed by a
move to 45 Kensington Road, Reading,
Berkshire later the same year. Smith was persuaded by Dyer to be referred to
as 'mother' in front of innocent
women handing over their children. This was an effort to present a caring
mother-daughter image.
Case study: the
murder of Doris Marmon
In January 1896, Evelina
Marmon, a popular 25-year-old barmaid, gave birth to an illegitimate
daughter, Doris, in a boarding house in Cheltenham.
She quickly sought offers of adoption and placed an advertisement in the "Miscellaneous" section of the
Bristol Times & Mirror newspaper.
It simply read: "Wanted, respectable
woman to take a young child." Marmon intended to go back to work and
hoped to eventually reclaim her child.
Coincidentally, next to her own, was an advertisement
reading: "Married couple with no
family would adopt a healthy child, nice country home. Terms, £10". Marmon
responded, to a "Mrs. Harding",
and a few days later she received a reply from Dyer. From Oxford Road in Reading, "Mrs. Harding" wrote that "I should be glad to have a dear baby
girl, one I could bring up and call my own." She continued: "We are plain, homely people, in fairly
good circumstances. I don't want a child for money's sake, but the company and
home comfort ... I and my husband are dearly fond of children. I have no child
of my own. A child with me will have a good home and a mother's love".
Evelina Marmon
wanted to pay a more affordable, weekly fee for the care of her daughter, but "Mrs. Harding" insisted on
being given the one-off payment in advance. Marmon was in dire straits, so she
reluctantly agreed to pay the £10, and a week later "Mrs. Harding" arrived in Cheltenham.
Marmon was surprised by Dyer's advanced age and stocky
appearance, but as Dyer was affectionate towards Doris, Evelina handed over her
daughter, a cardboard box of clothes and £10. Still distressed at having to
give up care for her daughter, Evelina accompanied Dyer to Cheltenham station, and then on to Gloucester. She returned to her lodgings "a broken woman". A few days later, she received a letter
from "Mrs. Harding" saying
all was well; Marmon wrote back but received no reply.
Dyer did not travel to Reading,
as she had told Marmon. She went instead to 76 Mayo Road, Willesden, London where her 23-year-old daughter
Polly was staying. There, Dyer quickly found some white edging tape used in
dressmaking, wound it twice around the baby's neck and tied a knot. Death would
not have been immediate. Dyer later
said: "I used to like to watch them
with the tape around their neck, but it was soon all over with them."
Both women allegedly helped to wrap the body in a napkin.
They kept some of the clothes Marmon had packed; the rest was destined for the
pawnbroker. Dyer paid the rent to the unwitting landlady and gave her a pair of
child's boots as a present for her little girl. The following day, Wednesday 1
April 1896, another child, named Harry
Simmons was taken to Mayo Road.
However, with no spare white edging tape available, the length around Doris's
corpse was removed and used to strangle the 13-month-old boy.
On 2 April, both bodies were stacked into a carpet bag,
along with bricks for added weight. Dyer then headed for Reading. At a secluded spot, she knew well near a weir at Caversham Lock, she forced the
carpetbag through railings into the River
Thames.
Dyer's downfall
Discovery of corpses
Unbeknownst to Dyer, on 30 March 1896, a package was
retrieved from the Thames at Reading by a bargeman. The package Dyer
dumped was not weighted adequately and had been easily spotted. It contained
the body of a baby girl, later identified as Helena Fry. In the small detective force available to Reading Borough Police, Detective Constable Anderson made a
crucial breakthrough. As well as finding a label from Temple Meads station, Bristol,
he used microscopic analysis of the wrapping paper and deciphered a faintly
legible name—Mrs. Thomas—and an
address.
This evidence was enough to lead police to Dyer, but they
still had no strong evidence to connect her directly with a serious crime.
Additional evidence they gleaned from witnesses, and information obtained from Bristol police, only served to increase
their concerns, and D.C. Anderson, with Sgt. James placed Dyer's home under
surveillance. Subsequent intelligence suggested that Dyer would abscond if she
came at all under suspicion. The officers decided to use a young woman as a
decoy, hoping she would be able to secure a meeting with Dyer to discuss her
services. This may have been designed to help the detectives to positively link
Dyer to her business activities, or it may have simply given them a reliable
opportunity to arrest her.
It transpired that Dyer was expecting her new client (the
decoy) to call, but instead, she found detectives waiting on her doorstep. On 3
April (Good Friday), the police raided her home. They were struck by the stench
of human decomposition, although no human remains were found. There was,
however, plenty of other related evidence, including white edging tape,
telegrams regarding adoption arrangements, pawn tickets for children's
clothing, receipts for advertisements and letters from mothers inquiring about
the well-being of their children.
The police calculated that in the previous few months alone,
at least twenty children had been placed in the care of a "Mrs. Thomas", now revealed to be Amelia Dyer. It also appeared that she was about to move home again,
this time to Somerset. This rate of murder has led to some estimates
that Mrs. Dyer may, over decades, have killed over 400 babies and children,
making her one of the most prolific murderers ever.
Dyer was arrested on 4 April and charged with murder. Her
son-in-law Arthur Palmer was charged
as an accessory. During April, the Thames
was dredged and six more bodies were discovered, including Doris Marmon and Harry
Simmons—Dyer's last victims. Each baby had been strangled with white tape,
which as she later told the police "was
how you could tell it was one of mine". Eleven days after handing her daughter to
Dyer, Evelina Marmon, whose name had emerged in items kept by Dyer, identified
her daughter's remains.
Inquest and trial
At the inquest into the deaths in early May, no evidence was
found that Mary Ann or Arthur Palmer
had acted as Dyer's accomplices. Arthur
Palmer was discharged as the result of a confession written by Amelia Dyer. In Reading Gaol she wrote (with her spelling and punctuation
preserved):
Sir will you kindly
grant me the favor of presenting this to the magistrates on Saturday the 18th
instant I have made this statement out, for I may not have the opportunity then
I must relieve my mind I do know and I feel my days are numbered on this earth
but I do feel it is an awful thing drawing innocent people into trouble I do
know I should have to answer before my Maker in Heaven for the awful crimes I
have committed but as God Almighty is my judge in Heaven an on Hearth neither
my daughter Mary Ann Palmer nor her
husband Alfred Ernest Palmer I do
most solemnly declare neither of them had anything at all to do with it, they
never knew I contemplated doing such a wicked thing until it was too late I am
speaking the truth and nothing but the truth as I hope to be forgiven, I and I
alone must stand before my Maker in Heaven to answer it all witness my hand Amelia Dyer.— April 16, 1896,
On 22 May 1896, Dyer appeared at the Old Bailey and pleaded guilty to one murder, that of Doris Marmon. Her family and associates
testified at her trial that they had been growing suspicious and uneasy about
her activities and it emerged that Dyer had narrowly escaped discovery on
several occasions. Evidence from a man who had seen and spoken to Dyer when she
had disposed of the two bodies at Caversham
Lock also proved significant. Her daughter had given graphic evidence that
ensured Dyer's conviction.
The only defense Dyer offered was insanity: she had been
twice committed to asylums in Bristol.
However, the prosecution argued successfully that her exhibitions of mental
instability had been a ploy to avoid suspicion; both committals were said to
have coincided with times when Dyer was concerned her crimes might have been
exposed.
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". Visited the night before her execution by the chaplain
and asked if she had anything to confess, she offered him her exercise books,
saying, "isn't this enough?"
Curiously, she was subpoenaed to appear
as a witness in Polly's trial for murder, set for a week after her execution
date. However, it was ruled that Dyer was already legally dead once sentenced
and that therefore her evidence would be inadmissible. Thus, her execution was
not delayed. On the eve of her execution, Dyer heard that the charges against
Polly had been dropped. Dyer was hanged by James
Billington at Newgate Prison on
Wednesday, 10 June 1896. Asked on the
scaffold if she had anything to say, she said "I have nothing to say", just before being dropped at 9
a.m. precisely.
Later developments
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.
Adoption laws were subsequently made stricter, giving local
authorities the power to police baby farms in the hope of stamping out abuse.
Despite this and the scrutinizing of newspaper personal ads, the trafficking
and abuse of infants did not stop. Two years after Dyer's execution, railway
workers inspecting carriages at Newton
Abbot, Devon, found a parcel. Inside was a three-week-old girl but, though
cold and wet, she was alive. The daughter of a widow, Jane Hill, the baby had been given to Mrs. Stewart, for £12. She had picked up the baby at Plymouth—and dumped her on the next
train. It has been claimed that "Mrs.
Stewart" was Polly, the daughter of Amelia Dyer.
The character of Amelia
Dyer appeared in the short story "The
Baby Farmer" by Philip Fracassi
in his horror collection Behold the Void.
Identified victims
Doris Marmon, 4
months old
Harry Simmons, 13
months old
Helena Fry, age
unknown, 1-year-old or younger
Jack the Ripper
speculation
Because she was a murderer alive at the time of the Jack the
Ripper killings, some have suggested that Dyer was Jack the Ripper, who killed the prostitutes through botched
abortions. This suggestion was put
forward by author William Stewart,
although he preferred Mary Pearcey
as his chosen suspect. There is, however, no evidence to connect Dyer to the Jack the Ripper murders.
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