In the late 19th century, beneath the polished facade of Victorian society, a grim trade in human lives flourished. Unwed mothers, ostracized and with no social assistance, were often forced to relinquish their children to "baby farmers"—individuals who, for a fee, promised to care for the infants. It was a trade that operated in the shadows, and no one profited from its darkness more than Amelia Dyer, a woman who would become one of history's most prolific serial killers.
The full horror of this practice was exposed on a crisp morning in March 1896. Bargeman Charles Humphreys and his mate were making their way along the Thames when they spotted a peculiar package floating in the water near Caversham. To their horror, they discovered a parcel containing the body of a young girl, aged between six and 12 months. She had been strangled with a piece of tape, her body weighted down with a brick and wrapped in newspaper bearing a Midland Railway stamp.
Unraveling a Twisted Trade
The gruesome find ignited a determined police investigation. Detective Constable Anderson followed the railway stamp to Bristol Temple Meads and uncovered the name on the parcel: Mrs. Amelia Dyer. When officers arrived at Dyer's house, she had already left for London. A neighbor’s tip that Dyer had recently purchased a piece of string identical to that found on the parcel prompted police to place her under surveillance.
When Dyer returned, she was arrested. A search of her home revealed a trove of incriminating evidence, including a substantial amount of baby clothing, pawn tickets, and letters from desperate parents. Police were also led to a locked tin box with the unmistakable smell of a corpse. The letters provided crucial clues, leading police to identify the child from the Thames as Helena Fry, who had been given to Dyer just days before her body was found.
Dyer had begun her life of crime in the 1860s as a nurse at the Bristol Royal Infirmary. She quickly learned the baby farming trade and began using a network of aliases and moving frequently to avoid detection. She was well-versed in exploiting the lack of legal oversight, using gin and opiates like laudanum to keep babies sedated. Despite a brief conviction in 1879 for violating the Infant Life Protection Act, Dyer continued her deadly practices. Her life was marked by strange behavior and repeated institutionalization, where she would often feign insanity to avoid justice.
The Final Reckoning
As the investigation into the initial murder continued, the police began a systematic dredging of the Thames and its tributaries. More bodies were pulled from the river, all tied with tape and weighted with bricks. Each discovery added to the horrifying count and the mounting evidence against Dyer. Witnesses came forward, placing her near the river at the time of the discoveries, struggling with a heavy carpet bag that matched the one used to dispose of some of the victims.
Amelia Dyer was brought to trial, charged with willful murder. Despite her initial claims of innocence, she had written a letter to the Chief Constable confessing to her crimes and attempting to exonerate her daughter and son-in-law, Mary Ann and Arthur Palmer, who were also implicated. The letter was admitted as evidence, and three doctors testified that Dyer suffered from insanity and melancholia, but the jury retired for just five minutes before returning a verdict of guilty. The judge immediately delivered the death sentence.
The execution took place on June 10, 1896, behind prison walls. At 9 a.m., Dyer walked to the scaffold and was hanged. Her last words were "No, sir, I have nothing to say." While she was sentenced for the murders of three infants, the total number of her victims is considered to be much higher. Based on the number of bodies found in the Thames and other waterways, as well as numerous reports of missing infants, some experts estimate that Dyer may have killed up to 400 babies, a grim figure that would make her one of the most prolific serial killers in history.
Even after Dyer's death, the legacy of her crimes continued. Her daughter and son-in-law, Mary Ann and Arthur, were later caught abandoning another baby in a railway carriage. They were sentenced to two years of hard labor before disappearing from the records without a trace. The case of Amelia Dyer helped to expose the dangers of unregulated baby farming and was a catalyst for major reforms in child welfare law.