Baby Farms and Amelia Dyer La’Jada

What is a Baby farm? The actual definition A Baby Farm refers to a person, usually a woman, who took in and cared for the children of other women. The practice of baby farming grew rapidly in late Victorian era when there was no effective contraception and great social stigma attached to having a child out of wedlock.

Why Were Baby Farms Needed? Women who had children out of wedlock could not support their babies Proper adoption agencies and social services didn't exist at this time. They called it “rehoming” Abortion was illegal, back street abortions that were carried out were a very high risk alternative. mothers had few real alternatives

Baby Farms Gone Wrong If having been “re-homed,” a baby disappeared, the mother was often too frightened or ashamed to tell the police so it was very easy for the crooked baby farmers to kill off unwanted or hard to foster babies. A few of the baby farmers found killing off the babies far easier than re-homing. Murder yielded a quicker profit without the need for caring for the child for some weeks or months, at their own expense. In an age of high infant mortality, deaths of babies and small children attracted little attention and were actually quite common. Where a baby’s body was found, it was often impossible to trace the mother as the authorities did not have the advantage of DNA tests.

Baby Farm Owners Six baby farmers were hanged in England and one each in Scotland and Wales over the 40 year period from 1870 - 1909. These were : Margaret Waters (35) who was hanged by William Calcraft at Horsemonger Lane Goal in Surrey on Tuesday, the 11th of October 1870 for the murder John Walter Cowen. Annie Tooke (40) who was hanged by William Marwood at Exeter on Monday, the 11th of August, 1879. Annie was executed for the murder of six month old Reginald Hyde. Jessie King, (27), was hanged by James Berry at Calton prison, Edinburgh on Monday, the 11th of March, 1889 for the murder, by strangling, of Alexander Gunn, one of two children in her care whom she murdered and buried in her cellar. Amelia Dyer (57) was hanged by James Billington at Newgate prison on Wednesday, the 10th of June, 1896 for the murder of four month old Doris Marmon. Ada Chard-Williams (24) was hanged at Newgate prison in London by James Billington on Tuesday, the 6th of March, 1900. She was the last woman to hang at Newgate. Annie Walters (54) and Amelia Sach (29), the "Finchley Baby Farmers," became the first women to be hanged in London’s new women's prison at Holloway on the 3rd of February 1903 by William Billington and Henry Pierrepoint. Rhoda Willis (44), also known as Leslie James, was hanged by Henry and Thomas Pierrepoint at Cardiff prison on Wednesday, the 14th of August, 1907 for the murder of a one day old girl child by the surname of Treasure.

Who Is Amelia Dyer? Amelia Dyer is known as the most prolific killers serial killers in history. She was born Amelia Elizabeth Hobley in1837. Once she was older she became a nurse until her husband died then she turned to baby Farming to support herself and family. 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. She then began directly murdering children she "adopted", strangling at least some of them, and disposing of the bodies in order to avoid attention. Dyer first opened a house of confinement in the Bristol suburb of Totterdown in the late 1860s, and charged a fee to take in unmarried women when they could no longer hide their pregnancies. Some asked for their infants to be stifled at the moment of birth, since Victorian coroners were unable to distinguish between suffocation and still-birth. Ten years later, having completed a six- month prison sentence for infant neglect. No longer would her house be filled with emaciating infants. Now she accepted only full adoption in  exchange for a lucrative one-off payment.

The Way She Killed She silenced the infants within hours, using a length of white tape tied twice around their necks and dumped their bodies in rivers or buried them in the gardens of her rented lodgings.

Amelia Dyer’s Downfall Amelia Dyer's downfall came when the bagged corpse of an infant was discovered in the Thames, with evidence leading to her. (strangled white tape) Her home was crammed with evidence of trade in infant life – dozens of vaccination papers. The most gruesome evidence was the heavy stench of rotting flesh coming from the kitchen pantry and from a trunk under her bed. The police were in little doubt that they had uncovered a baby farm. She was arrested on April the 4th, 1896 when she opened the door to the person she thought would be this customer only to find two policemen standing there. She soon confessed saying, "You’ll know all mine by the tape around their necks.".

Amelia Dyer Hanged She made two attempts to commit suicide in Reading police station. She came to trial before Mr. Justice Hawkins at the Old Bailey on the 21st and 22nd of May 1896 charged with Doris’(dead body they found) murder in the first instance, so that if she was acquitted, she could be tried for another. She was hanged 10th of June 1896 by James Billington, assisted by William Wilkinson, becoming at 57, the oldest woman to be executed since 1843. Amelia Dyer Killed over 300 babies in her 20 year period of baby farming.

SOURCES http://ultimatehistoryproject.com/baby-farmers-and-angelmakers-childcare-in-19th- century-england.html http://www.capitalpunishmentuk.org/babyfarm.html http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-berkshire-39330793 http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/amelia-dyer-the-woman-who-murdered- 300-babies-8507570.html