Amelia Dyer
Unlike many of her generation, Amelia Dyer was not the
product of grinding poverty. She was born the youngest of 5 (with 3 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 somewhat privileged
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 would later comment
on the effect this had on Amelia, and also what it would teach Amelia about the
signs exhibited by those who appear to lose their mind through illness.
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 inheriting 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.
For a couple of years, after marrying George Thomas, she
trained as a nurse, a somewhat gruelling job in Victorian times, but it was
seen as a respectable occupation, and it enabled her to acquire useful skills.
From contact with a midwife, Ellen Dane, she learnt 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 USA,
shortly after meeting Amelia, to escape the attention of the authorities).
Unmarried mothers in Victorian England 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. £50 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, whose
"immorality" even precluded acceptance, at that time, into
workhouses, 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 popular 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 Danes. Amelia had had to leave nursing with the birth of a daughter,
Ellen Thomas. In 1869 the elderly George Thomas died and Amelia needed an
income.
Amelia was apparently keen to make money from baby farming,
and alongside taking in expectant women, she would advertise 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, married, and that she would provide a safe and loving
home for the child.
At some point in her baby farming career, Amelia was
prepared to forego 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 all of the entire fee.
For some time, Dyer eluded the resulting interest of 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 labour 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 Amelia 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.
Inevitably, 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
attentions 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
Wells mental asylum. 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 Amelia had recruited from a
brief spell in a workhouse and Amelia's daughter and son-in-law, Mary Ann
(known as Polly) and Arthur Palmer. This was followed by a move to Kensington Road, Reading,
Berkshire later the same year. Smith was
persuaded by Amelia 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 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 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 little 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 for company and home comfort. ... Myself 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 desperate straits, so she
reluctantly agreed to pay the £10, and a week later "Mrs Harding"
arrived in Cheltenham.
Marmon was apparently surprised by Dyer's advanced age and
stocky appearance, but Dyer seemed affectionate towards Doris.
Evelina handed over her daughter, a cardboard box of clothes and the £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. (Amelia 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'
corpse was removed and used to strangle the 13 month-old boy.
On April 2, 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 carpet bag through railings into
the River Thames.
Discovery of corpses
Unknown to Dyer, on 30 March 1896, a package was retrieved
from the Thames at Reading
by a bargeman. It contained the body of a baby girl, later identified as Helena
Fry. In the small detective force available to Reading Borough Police headed by
Chief Constable George Tewsley, a 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 became at all suspicious. 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
April 3 (Good Friday), police raided her home. They were apparently 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 the course of decades, have killed over
400 babies and children, making her one of the most prolific murderers ever, as
well as the most prolific murderess ever.
Helena Fry, the baby removed from the River Thames on March
30, had been handed over to Dyer at Temple
Meads station on March 5.
That same evening, she arrived home carrying only a brown paper parcel. She hid
the package in the house but, after three weeks, the odor of decomposition
prompted her to dump the dead baby in the river. As it was not weighted
adequately, it had been easily spotted.
Amelia Dyer was arrested on April 4 and charged with murder.
Her son-in-law Arthur Palmer was charged as an accessory. During April, the Thames was dragged 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
Police photo of Amelia Dyer after being arrested in 1896
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 own spelling and punctuation preserved):
Sir will you kindly grant me the favour 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 shal have to answer before my
Maker in Heaven for the awful crimes I have committed but as God Almighty is my
judge in Heaven a on Hearth neither my daughter Mary Ann Palmer nor her husband
Alfred Ernest Palmer I do most solemnly declare neither of them had any thing
at all to do with it, they never knew I contemplated doing such a wicked thing
until it was to late I am speaking the truth and nothing but the truth as I
hope to be forgiven, I myself and I alone must stand before my Maker in Heaven
to give an answer for it all witnes my hand Amelia Dyer.
—April 16, 1896
On 22 May 1896, Amelia 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 Amelia Dyer's conviction.
The only defence 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 3 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?"[1]
Curiously she was subpoenaed to appear as a witness in Polly's trial for
murder, set for a week after her own execution date. However it was ruled that
Amelia 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 Amelia heard that the charges against Polly had been dropped. She 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 9am 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.
Subsequently, adoption laws were 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 a
Mrs. Stewart, for £12. She had picked up the baby at Plymouth—and apparently dumped her on the
next train. It has been claimed that "Mrs. Stewart" was Polly, the
daughter of Amelia Dyer.
Identified victims
Doris Marmon, 4 months old
Harry Simmons, 13 months old
Helena Fry, Age unknown, 1 year old or less
Jack the Ripper Speculation
Because she was a murderer alive at the time of the Jack the
Ripper killings, some have suggested that Amelia 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.
