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Amelia Dyer, Angel Maker: The Woman Who Murdered Babies for Money
See this lady? You would NOT want to lock horns with her. You certainly wouldn't give her your baby. But in the late nineteenth century, that's exactly what a lot of women did. Why? Because in an era when having a child out of wedlock was so severely frowned upon, Amelia Dyer took advantage of this. She advertised in the press offering to "adopt" unwanted babies, charged the poor grief-stricken mums GBP 10 for the privilege, took the wee babes off their hands - and then drowned them in the River Thames. Pocketing the cash, she strangled her victims with white tape, then wrapped their bodies either in brown parcel paper or in a carpet bag, to be recovered only weeks - or months - later. As well as relating the story, the authors explore the circumstances that enabled such crimes to be committed. Unregulated "adoption" was a widely acknowledged problem. The Child Protection Act did not yet exist. In Mrs Dyer's case, though, such shameless profiteering did not, ultimately, go unpunished: the police finally located Mrs Dyer, kept her under surveillance and then mounted a "sting" operation, using a young woman to pose as a potential customer. Amelia Dyer was arrested when she opened her front door to find two policemen on her doorstep. Finally confessing, she said, "You'll know all mine by the tape around their necks." She was hanged in 1896.
256 pages, Hardcover
First published October 1, 2007
8 people are currently reading
611 people want to read
About the author
Alison Rattle
29 books26 followersAlison Rattle grew up in Liverpool, and now lives in a medieval house in Somerset with her three teenage children, her partner - a carpenter - an extremely naughty Jack Russell and a ghost cat. She has co-authored a number of non-fiction titles on subjects as diverse as growing old, mad monarchs, how to boil a flamingo, the history of America and the biography of a nineteenth-century baby killer. She has worked as a fashion designer, a production controller, a painter and decorator, a barmaid, and now owns and runs a vintage tea room.
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Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews
February 11, 2012
A few shocking facts about this true crime story:
1. This woman, Amelia Dyer, was arguably the most prolific serial killer in history:
2. She murdered upwards of 400 people in Victorian England during the latter half of the 19th Century.
3. Dyer’s victims were newborn infants less than a year old.
4. Even after coming under suspicion from the authorities for the unusually high mortality rate for children in her care as a baby farmer, Dyer was able to continue for decades with her nefarious dispatching of hundreds of infants.
5. MOST SHOCKING...while likely the most prolific baby farmer in England, she was….by….no….means….the sole perpetrator of these kinds of atrocities!
Amelia Dyer was a monster. I want to start with that because so much of the monstrousness I’m going to write about was systemic to England (and apparently in Australia and the U.S. as well) at the time Dyer committed her atrocities. For me, she stands as the poster monster of one of the most tragic and despicable systems I have come across. She deserves all the scorn and outrage you can muster.
Human depravity is not a shock to me. However, she worked her evil as part of an industry that was endorsed, or at the very least not decried, by the public. Thus, like Gordon Gecko in Oliver Stone’s Wall Street characterizing the culture of greed of the 1980’s, Amelia Dyer is the epitome of the evil system with which she worked. And Dyer was all too real.
THE POOR LAWS OF VICTORIAN ENGLAND:
Beginning in 1834, Parliament, having completely lost its sanity, past the Poor Laws that Charles Dickens would so repeatedly and wonderfully satire in his work, most notably Oliver Twist. As part of a host of legislation passed under this ignorant umbrella, illegitimacy was deemed a moral issue that could be stamped out by, get this, removing the obligation of men to support or care for illegitimate children. The idea was that if women had to suffer the consequences for spreading their legs, they would be more likely to “do the right thing” and maintain their virtue.
Does anybody besides me see the giant, speeding train about to wreck itself.
Add to the above “get out of poking free” card granted to Victorian guys, you also have a severe societal stigma against single mothers. They could not find work outside of prostitution and employers would fire any woman showing signs of pregnancy.
No support from the fathers and no ability to support themselves. Not a pleasant situation.
BABY FARMING:
In response to this horrible situation…enter the baby farms. In Victorian England, adoption and foster care were entirely unregulated during this period. For a small monthly fee, a “baby farmer” would agree to “foster” a woman’s child so she could return to work. Or, for a larger one time cash payment (usually between 5 and 15 pounds), the baby farmer woman would take permanent custody of the child in order to “place it” in a loving home via adoption.
In reality, the most profitable result for the baby farmer would be if the baby died, which is exactly what is presumed to have happened to approximately 400 infants while in the care of Amelia Dyer. Her most common method of murder was to strangle the infant with a piece of white tape that she would eventually wrap around the ear “so she could tell it was one of mine.” She would then tie a brick to it and toss it in deep water.
As bad as that is, as callously evil as a person must be to do something like that, what got to me even more while I was reading this was the constant, casual brutality she inflicted on the living infants under her care. Dyer would have between 6 and 8 infants in her home at any one time. These children were kept in cramped spaces lying in their own feces and urine with little or no food.
Wouldn’t they cry you ask?
No, and why?
Because common practice in these baby farms was to keep the children doped up on Laudanum (aka opium) because it suppressed the appetite and kept them sleeping. The babies were kept in a constant drug coma until they expired or were dispatched to make room for the next one.
They would sleep….they would starve….they would die.
The depictions of the stench of Dyer’s home (shit and human decay) described by the police, the mounds of “pawn tickets” for baby clothes and the hundreds of “sweet sounding” newspaper ads advertising Dyer’s services as a care-giver/adoption agency for children. It was enough to make me physically sick to stomach.
THOUGHTS:
The subject matter of this book is a MUST READ. If you don’t read this book, then do some reading on the Poor Laws and the baby farms of Victorian England. Like other dark periods in our history, we much never forget that these things happened and we must always be vigilant to avoid a repeat.
That said, I didn't love the book. It was competent and well researched. However, despite the explosive nature of the subject matter, the presentation was fairly dry. The writing was too clinical and dispassionate and I wanted a little more emotion from the authors. I know this is non-fiction, but that doesn’t me the prose can not be such that it engages the reader.
Also, the story of Amelia Dyer, beyond the depiction of her heinous acts was wholly unremarkable. Born of fairly well off, working class parents, she was educated (unusual for non-privileged women of the period) and she eventually became estranged from her brothers and sisters for reasons that are not known. I think the book would have been better served as a treatise on the practice of baby farming with maybe a chapter devoted to this most infamous practitioner.
In other words, the subject matter of the book was compelling...the presentation, not as much.
Still, a good book and a worthwhile read. A solid 3 stars. However, given the provocative nature of the subject matter, I can not help but feel disappointed with the antiseptice nature of the execution.
3.0 stars. Recommended!
1. This woman, Amelia Dyer, was arguably the most prolific serial killer in history:
2. She murdered upwards of 400 people in Victorian England during the latter half of the 19th Century.
3. Dyer’s victims were newborn infants less than a year old.
4. Even after coming under suspicion from the authorities for the unusually high mortality rate for children in her care as a baby farmer, Dyer was able to continue for decades with her nefarious dispatching of hundreds of infants.
5. MOST SHOCKING...while likely the most prolific baby farmer in England, she was….by….no….means….the sole perpetrator of these kinds of atrocities!
Amelia Dyer was a monster. I want to start with that because so much of the monstrousness I’m going to write about was systemic to England (and apparently in Australia and the U.S. as well) at the time Dyer committed her atrocities. For me, she stands as the poster monster of one of the most tragic and despicable systems I have come across. She deserves all the scorn and outrage you can muster.
Human depravity is not a shock to me. However, she worked her evil as part of an industry that was endorsed, or at the very least not decried, by the public. Thus, like Gordon Gecko in Oliver Stone’s Wall Street characterizing the culture of greed of the 1980’s, Amelia Dyer is the epitome of the evil system with which she worked. And Dyer was all too real.
THE POOR LAWS OF VICTORIAN ENGLAND:
Beginning in 1834, Parliament, having completely lost its sanity, past the Poor Laws that Charles Dickens would so repeatedly and wonderfully satire in his work, most notably Oliver Twist. As part of a host of legislation passed under this ignorant umbrella, illegitimacy was deemed a moral issue that could be stamped out by, get this, removing the obligation of men to support or care for illegitimate children. The idea was that if women had to suffer the consequences for spreading their legs, they would be more likely to “do the right thing” and maintain their virtue.
Does anybody besides me see the giant, speeding train about to wreck itself.
Add to the above “get out of poking free” card granted to Victorian guys, you also have a severe societal stigma against single mothers. They could not find work outside of prostitution and employers would fire any woman showing signs of pregnancy.
No support from the fathers and no ability to support themselves. Not a pleasant situation.
BABY FARMING:
In response to this horrible situation…enter the baby farms. In Victorian England, adoption and foster care were entirely unregulated during this period. For a small monthly fee, a “baby farmer” would agree to “foster” a woman’s child so she could return to work. Or, for a larger one time cash payment (usually between 5 and 15 pounds), the baby farmer woman would take permanent custody of the child in order to “place it” in a loving home via adoption.
In reality, the most profitable result for the baby farmer would be if the baby died, which is exactly what is presumed to have happened to approximately 400 infants while in the care of Amelia Dyer. Her most common method of murder was to strangle the infant with a piece of white tape that she would eventually wrap around the ear “so she could tell it was one of mine.” She would then tie a brick to it and toss it in deep water.
As bad as that is, as callously evil as a person must be to do something like that, what got to me even more while I was reading this was the constant, casual brutality she inflicted on the living infants under her care. Dyer would have between 6 and 8 infants in her home at any one time. These children were kept in cramped spaces lying in their own feces and urine with little or no food.
Wouldn’t they cry you ask?
No, and why?
Because common practice in these baby farms was to keep the children doped up on Laudanum (aka opium) because it suppressed the appetite and kept them sleeping. The babies were kept in a constant drug coma until they expired or were dispatched to make room for the next one.
They would sleep….they would starve….they would die.
The depictions of the stench of Dyer’s home (shit and human decay) described by the police, the mounds of “pawn tickets” for baby clothes and the hundreds of “sweet sounding” newspaper ads advertising Dyer’s services as a care-giver/adoption agency for children. It was enough to make me physically sick to stomach.
THOUGHTS:
The subject matter of this book is a MUST READ. If you don’t read this book, then do some reading on the Poor Laws and the baby farms of Victorian England. Like other dark periods in our history, we much never forget that these things happened and we must always be vigilant to avoid a repeat.
That said, I didn't love the book. It was competent and well researched. However, despite the explosive nature of the subject matter, the presentation was fairly dry. The writing was too clinical and dispassionate and I wanted a little more emotion from the authors. I know this is non-fiction, but that doesn’t me the prose can not be such that it engages the reader.
Also, the story of Amelia Dyer, beyond the depiction of her heinous acts was wholly unremarkable. Born of fairly well off, working class parents, she was educated (unusual for non-privileged women of the period) and she eventually became estranged from her brothers and sisters for reasons that are not known. I think the book would have been better served as a treatise on the practice of baby farming with maybe a chapter devoted to this most infamous practitioner.
In other words, the subject matter of the book was compelling...the presentation, not as much.
Still, a good book and a worthwhile read. A solid 3 stars. However, given the provocative nature of the subject matter, I can not help but feel disappointed with the antiseptice nature of the execution.
3.0 stars. Recommended!
July 25, 2011
An in-depth account of history's most infamous baby-farmer.
Many of the stories of desperate women were brought to life by the correspondence between them and Dyer, these were women driven to resort to handing their babies over only because of the deeply hypocritical and frequently misogynistic society they happened to inhabit. (Though some were fully aware of what fate might await their child, and were simply relieved to be rid of them).
I found it interesting (and baffling), that the Victorian law-makers believed that by freeing men from having to support their illegitimate offspring, this would somehow result in a population of utterly chaste women and presumably completely honourable men who would would take 'no' for an answer.
It was attitudes such as this which allowed women such as Dyer to make money from women 'in trouble' and unwanted children, and at a time where child-centered thinking was only just beginning to emerge, her business went largely unchecked and she was easily able to evade the attentions of the authorities.
Overall, an interesting snippet of history relating to motherhood, children and one profoundly unpleasant opportunistic woman who was very much a product of her era.
Many of the stories of desperate women were brought to life by the correspondence between them and Dyer, these were women driven to resort to handing their babies over only because of the deeply hypocritical and frequently misogynistic society they happened to inhabit. (Though some were fully aware of what fate might await their child, and were simply relieved to be rid of them).
I found it interesting (and baffling), that the Victorian law-makers believed that by freeing men from having to support their illegitimate offspring, this would somehow result in a population of utterly chaste women and presumably completely honourable men who would would take 'no' for an answer.
It was attitudes such as this which allowed women such as Dyer to make money from women 'in trouble' and unwanted children, and at a time where child-centered thinking was only just beginning to emerge, her business went largely unchecked and she was easily able to evade the attentions of the authorities.
Overall, an interesting snippet of history relating to motherhood, children and one profoundly unpleasant opportunistic woman who was very much a product of her era.
May 3, 2011
I first became aware of the crimes of Amelia Dyer when I watched the ITV series 'Ladykillers' which was presented by Martina Cole. I was appalled but strangely fascinated by the story and was delighted when I found a copy of 'Amelia Dyer - The Woman Who Murdered Babies for Money' by Alison Rattle and Allison Vale on the Library for-sale table.
Amelia Dyer was tried and hanged in 1896, she was found guilty of just one murder but it is thought she may have been responsible for up to 400 deaths. Dyer trained as a nurse, and it was her nursing skills that were to come in so handy in her next 'career' - that of a 'baby farmer' - a woman who took in unwanted infants, for money.
In Victorian Britain, unmarried mothers were stigmatised and unable to get any financial help, the recently passed Poor Law had taken away the financial obligations of fathers, so many of these women were desperate. So, women like Dyer stepped in and became baby farmers - for a fee they would take the babies, often with the promise that they would care for them as their own. Dyer, however, just saw these poor children as a way to make money and most of the infants were left to strarve to death, some of them were throttled within hours of coming into her home.
This book is an excellently written account of Dyer's life, her career and the subsequent police investigation and court case. Although non-fiction, it is never tedious or stuffy and is written almost as though it were a novel.
This really is a fascinating, compelling and incredibly sad story. How many times do we hark back to the 'good old days', insisting that child cruelty and neglect, drug and alcohol addiction etc are all on rise? Reading this account of Victorian England makes one realise that things back then were so much worse. How many unmarried mothers these days have to pass over their newborn baby to an unknown person?
Amelia Dyer was tried and hanged in 1896, she was found guilty of just one murder but it is thought she may have been responsible for up to 400 deaths. Dyer trained as a nurse, and it was her nursing skills that were to come in so handy in her next 'career' - that of a 'baby farmer' - a woman who took in unwanted infants, for money.
In Victorian Britain, unmarried mothers were stigmatised and unable to get any financial help, the recently passed Poor Law had taken away the financial obligations of fathers, so many of these women were desperate. So, women like Dyer stepped in and became baby farmers - for a fee they would take the babies, often with the promise that they would care for them as their own. Dyer, however, just saw these poor children as a way to make money and most of the infants were left to strarve to death, some of them were throttled within hours of coming into her home.
This book is an excellently written account of Dyer's life, her career and the subsequent police investigation and court case. Although non-fiction, it is never tedious or stuffy and is written almost as though it were a novel.
This really is a fascinating, compelling and incredibly sad story. How many times do we hark back to the 'good old days', insisting that child cruelty and neglect, drug and alcohol addiction etc are all on rise? Reading this account of Victorian England makes one realise that things back then were so much worse. How many unmarried mothers these days have to pass over their newborn baby to an unknown person?
May 6, 2017
A very well researched study of the Victorian baby-farmer Amelia Dyer, who is arguably the most prolific British serial killer you've never heard of. Her story gave me new insights into the hypocrisy of Victorian society when it came to "unwanted" children, and the consequences when you fail to protect the most vulnerable. Note : It's occasionally not an easy read, as the authors pull no punches when it comes to the details of the child murders.
June 17, 2011
Fascinating account of a baby farmer and her family who were responsible for the deaths of countless small children. Found it incredible that someone could get away with this for as long as she did, and why she did what she did.
Text interspersed with adverts for people wanting to adopt and give away babies and toddlers. That someone could hand over their own child to a complete stranger at a railway station and then walk away, but this was Victorian england and society brought a lot of pressure on unmarried mothers and their children.
Text interspersed with adverts for people wanting to adopt and give away babies and toddlers. That someone could hand over their own child to a complete stranger at a railway station and then walk away, but this was Victorian england and society brought a lot of pressure on unmarried mothers and their children.
August 27, 2015
A few maps would have clarified the moving around of the main character in this history. I also had a hard time keeping the aliases straight.
September 18, 2023
Great book about reprehensible people
This is the story of Amelia Dyer, a serial killer living in the late 1800s who supported herself and her family by baby farming. Lots of present day people don't know what baby farming is, but as someone very into true crime I can tell you that it was a despicable way to make money. Apparently back in the late 1800s you are better off being an axe murderer than an unwed mother so frequently if women had illigetimate children than they would pay a fee for someone else to look after the child. Sometimes these people were complete strangers who the mothers met by placing ads in the classified section of the newspapers. I do not understand how anyone could just hand their baby over to a total stranger just to avoid being embarrassed by what some judgmental people think of them. I would never hand my baby over to anyone unless I was certain that I could trust them and I wouldn't care if everyone called me names and threw tomatoes at me whenever I left my house because I had a baby out of wedlock. Amelia Dyer was a disgusting person and so were her daughter and her son-in-law. They should have hung all three of them and not just her
This is the story of Amelia Dyer, a serial killer living in the late 1800s who supported herself and her family by baby farming. Lots of present day people don't know what baby farming is, but as someone very into true crime I can tell you that it was a despicable way to make money. Apparently back in the late 1800s you are better off being an axe murderer than an unwed mother so frequently if women had illigetimate children than they would pay a fee for someone else to look after the child. Sometimes these people were complete strangers who the mothers met by placing ads in the classified section of the newspapers. I do not understand how anyone could just hand their baby over to a total stranger just to avoid being embarrassed by what some judgmental people think of them. I would never hand my baby over to anyone unless I was certain that I could trust them and I wouldn't care if everyone called me names and threw tomatoes at me whenever I left my house because I had a baby out of wedlock. Amelia Dyer was a disgusting person and so were her daughter and her son-in-law. They should have hung all three of them and not just her
May 11, 2025
El libro cuenta la historia real de Amelia Dyer, una mujer inglesa que, a finales del siglo XIX, se dedicó al "baby farming" (crianza de bebés por dinero), pero en lugar de cuidar a los niños que le entregaban, los asesinaba tras recibir el pago. Aprovechándose de madres solteras desesperadas, Dyer se presentaba como una mujer amable, pero en realidad estrangulaba a los bebés y ocultaba sus cuerpos de varias formas. Asesinó alrededor de 400 niños. Fue descubierta cuando un cuerpo apareció en el río Támesis la pequeña Doris (era tan solo una bebe), lo que llevó a su arresto, juicio y ejecución en 1896. El caso generó gran escándalo en Inglaterra y provocó cambios en las leyes de adopción y protección infantil.
August 9, 2018
A grim but fascinating read about the life and times of Amelia Dyer. It tells the story of how Dyer, amongst others, made a business of taking in and killing infants during the Victorian period in England. It provides a grim insight into how pregnancies outside of marriage, in the main, were handled in Victorian England.
June 25, 2019
Good read
I chose this book as I live in Bristol and work for The Bristol Royal Infirmary, such a sad way of life and a sad way for those children meet their death. It's also a pity that her daughter followed suit...
I chose this book as I live in Bristol and work for The Bristol Royal Infirmary, such a sad way of life and a sad way for those children meet their death. It's also a pity that her daughter followed suit...
May 9, 2020
Interesting but gruesome theme, unfortunately the book is badly written. I guess there are better books about her, without the mistakes and inaccuracies and without this stupid way to always address her as "mother". This horror had a name and it was Amelia Dyer.
January 11, 2026
This is not an easy read by any stretch, the horrors this woman and family committed are unthinkable.
August 11, 2013
After reading The Ghost of Lily Painter, a novel that draws upon the arrest and trial of Amelia Sach who was a baby farmer based in Finchley, I wanted to know more about how widespread this practice was.
A shocking story about baby farming in Victorian England
This book relays the life story of Amelia Dyer, born Amelia Hobley in 1838, the youngest of 5 children born to a relatively comfortable family for the times. The events surrounding the deaths of the children are truly horrifying. These children were entrusted to her care, often for [] pounds to take full responsibility for the rest of their lives thereby relieving their families of any further involvement. The authors describe how many of these were drugged and starved to death. Amelia appears to have started this career by acting as a midwife who for a fee ensured that babies were stillborn before moving on to placing adverts in papers offering to take care of children for a premium. Amelia plyed her trade, intersperced with time in prison and mental asylums for many years before finally being investigated fully in 1896.
This book also goes some way to explain why single women were persuaded that answering the adverts was the answer to their problems, orphanages would often stipulate that their charges be true orphans and a single woman with a child could not easily find employment and ensure their child was cared for. The lack of money was not helped by an act passed in 1830 which meant a single woman could not claim money for the child's upkeep from the father.
A sad but informative book about a period of history where real poverty enabled such a foul trade to flourish.
A shocking story about baby farming in Victorian England
This book relays the life story of Amelia Dyer, born Amelia Hobley in 1838, the youngest of 5 children born to a relatively comfortable family for the times. The events surrounding the deaths of the children are truly horrifying. These children were entrusted to her care, often for [] pounds to take full responsibility for the rest of their lives thereby relieving their families of any further involvement. The authors describe how many of these were drugged and starved to death. Amelia appears to have started this career by acting as a midwife who for a fee ensured that babies were stillborn before moving on to placing adverts in papers offering to take care of children for a premium. Amelia plyed her trade, intersperced with time in prison and mental asylums for many years before finally being investigated fully in 1896.
This book also goes some way to explain why single women were persuaded that answering the adverts was the answer to their problems, orphanages would often stipulate that their charges be true orphans and a single woman with a child could not easily find employment and ensure their child was cared for. The lack of money was not helped by an act passed in 1830 which meant a single woman could not claim money for the child's upkeep from the father.
A sad but informative book about a period of history where real poverty enabled such a foul trade to flourish.
Read
September 27, 2011I don't know what attracts me to such sad books. Sad nonfiction books at that. This book profiled the career of a "baby farmer" during Victorian times. The baby farmer, Amelia Dyer, would place adds asking for children to adopt for a single premium. The price was usually 10 pounds. The child would not last the day once in Dyer's hands. If she did not allow the children to expire from neglect, she would cut out the middle man and strangle the children by hand. She involved her daughter and son in law in the venture as well. The over all consensus of the book was a condemnation of some Victorian morals. The women who went to baby farmers were in desperate situations. There was not assistance for single mother's of the day, only exile and censure. Many of the women were put out of their jobs for getting pregnant, others bowed to the pressure of the father who did not want to lose his reputation over an illicit affair. However, as vunerable as most of these women were, some knew the fate of their child before the transaction was even completed. This book is not for the faint of heart. I pretty much cried by way through it. Hundreds of children disposed of like trash, because society couldn't bear their existence. Sadly Amelia Dyer was only one of many "baby farmers" of the time.
January 7, 2015
This is a gripping truth about a nurse who gets paid for taking children whose parents don't want them anymore. The outcome of this woman's trial is very much justified for the things she did to the children and for the pain she has caused parents of these children. this nurse murdered all the babies with a tape around their necks and suffocate them. She then throw them in the river of leave them at train railway. I wonder if God blessed her with a heart at all. I wish there was an insight in this book in trying to understand what leads her to think and act this way. But I believe at that point in time, perhaps there was lack of psychologists and resources for this matter.
On another note, mothers are blessed with maternal sensitivity particularly to their children. I'm amazed however how these mothers in this book could give their children away. Probably plagued with poverty or shame of bearing illegitimate children but still How could these reasons be more import than keeping their kids.. I will never understand probably because I was not in their shoes. Even after reading this book I just couldn't.
It's sad. The whole book gripped me with so much sadness of information and knowledge about a crime I didn't know existed.
On another note, mothers are blessed with maternal sensitivity particularly to their children. I'm amazed however how these mothers in this book could give their children away. Probably plagued with poverty or shame of bearing illegitimate children but still How could these reasons be more import than keeping their kids.. I will never understand probably because I was not in their shoes. Even after reading this book I just couldn't.
It's sad. The whole book gripped me with so much sadness of information and knowledge about a crime I didn't know existed.
December 2, 2015
The blurb tells it all. She offered to adopt unwanted children but didn't keep them very long at all, sometimes just the ride home on the train was enough. Or she offered her home as a maternity facility and then killed the babies as they were being born. Or babysat for a few months and then dropped them in the river.
A few things I wanted to know:
With all the letters and telegrams lying about (what an idiot) could the police not guess how many kids she offed?
Who was she visiting at the mental hospital? I wondered who she felt was important enough to swing by and visit on her way to pick up a baby.
What happened to the cash? Did she use it for the hospitalized person? Use it for starting fires instead of using all those incriminating pawn tickets and letters? It's not like laudanum was all that costly. Blackmail? Police payoffs? Lottery tickets? Where did the money go?
What was her motivation? It seemed as if the voices in her head were from detox or were an effort at an insanity plea.
What was the deal with Granny? Why did she hang around when she knew perfectly well what was going on here?
A few things I wanted to know:
With all the letters and telegrams lying about (what an idiot) could the police not guess how many kids she offed?
Who was she visiting at the mental hospital? I wondered who she felt was important enough to swing by and visit on her way to pick up a baby.
What happened to the cash? Did she use it for the hospitalized person? Use it for starting fires instead of using all those incriminating pawn tickets and letters? It's not like laudanum was all that costly. Blackmail? Police payoffs? Lottery tickets? Where did the money go?
What was her motivation? It seemed as if the voices in her head were from detox or were an effort at an insanity plea.
What was the deal with Granny? Why did she hang around when she knew perfectly well what was going on here?
March 16, 2015
I was not aware of this woman in British crime history,and I found it very interesting but difficult and upsetting to read in parts.I know now where the British phrase 'farmed out' comes from as regards children.I would recommend this book as it will make people realise how far we have come regarding babies born the wrong side of the blanket.Often this type of 'adoption' was the only thing left for an unmarried Mother to do.
March 12, 2012
Had to give this book a four-star rating as it was absolutely fascinating. I appreciate some people would do anything to get some money but ................. Those poor women who gave their child up quite innocently would have had to live with those consequences - just terrible and so very sad. Those poor poor babies x
Currently reading
May 8, 2009So far, appalling woman but interesting book.
October 23, 2011
Horrible subject but well written and easy to read none the less
November 7, 2011
Great book, very well written & easy to read. Couldn't put it down! Was shocked that this really went on, So interesting.
June 18, 2012
I wrote about Amelia Dyer on Executed Today.
May 17, 2013
well written and I could name put it down. Great description of life at that time. Maybe we are not as badly off as we think
September 28, 2014
i found the read to be all over the place, could have shortened the story by at least half. book was way too expensive
April 28, 2017
It's quite amazing how much detail the writer has from crimes so long ago. The author also gives good context. It does wander around a lot narratively so I found it hard to stay motivated reading it.
Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews