April 10, 2025 • 25 mins
In Victorian England, Amelia Dyer promised desperate mothers she’d care for their babies. Instead, she became one of history’s most prolific killers. In this episode of ClueTrail, we uncover the chilling truth behind “The Angel Maker,” baby farming, and a system that failed its most vulnerable.
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
Welcome to Clue Trail , the podcast where every story
is a mystery and every clueleads you deeper into the
unknown, from unsolved crimesand puzzling disappearances to
hidden histories and curiouscoincidences.
We piece together the fragmentsto uncover the truth or raise
even more questions.
Some clues lead to answers,others to even greater mysteries
(00:30):
.
But one thing is certain everytrail tells a story.
Are you ready to follow it?
Let's begin.
A grieving mother, desperateand alone, hands her infant over
to a woman who promises safety,comfort and care.
(00:52):
Days later, the baby's body isfloating in the river Thames.
The woman's name Amelia Dyer.
Name Amelia Dyer.
This isn't just a murder story.
It's a story of systemicfailure, of women with no
(01:19):
options and of one woman whoturned motherhood into a method
of murder.
Before she became known as theAngel Maker, amelia was a child.
Amelia Elizabeth Hobley was bornin 1837 in a small village
called Pile Marsh, which is nowpart of modern-day Bristol,
under the roof of a modestshoemaker's home.
Her father, samuel Hobley, wasa master shoemaker, a
(01:45):
respectable trade.
He was a stern man but heworked hard to support his wife,
sarah, and their five children.
Amelia was the youngest of five.
Her childhood was far fromstable stable.
(02:08):
When Amelia was 10, her mother,sarah, which suffered from what
we now believe wastyphus-induced mental illness,
passed away.
Amelia, as a young girl, wasoften left to care for her
mother, who reportedly screamedat night, trashed violently and
slipped in and out of terrifyingdelusions.
Now imagine being nine or tenyears old watching your mother
(02:30):
mentally unravel Alone,frightened and powerless.
At the age of 14, amelia wassent away, likely to live with
an aunt, though records aresparse there.
She trained as a corset makerand later on as a nurse and
(02:52):
midwife.
Tragedy struck again whenAmelia was 21 and her father
died Not long after this.
When she was 23, amelia took aroom at a house on Trinity
Street in Bristol.
That is where she met her firsthusband, and at the age of 24,
(03:16):
she married a man almost twiceher age, named George Thomas, in
1861.
They had a daughter together,named Ellen.
It was around this time when amidwife named Ellen Dane
introduced her to the practiceof baby farming.
In 1869, george Thomas died andAmelia was now left to survive
in a world that gave women likeher very few choices.
(03:39):
She was a widow with a child,no steady income and no
inheritance, but she did havemedical training, a sharp mind
and something else Anopportunity in the shape of baby
farming.
You might be wondering what onearth is baby farming?
(04:02):
In a nutshell, it was theVictorian era's dark and
unregulated version of fostering, but with far more sinister
motives.
In Victorian England,legitimacy was a social death
sentence.
Unwed mothers were shunned,abandoned and often forced to
(04:25):
give up their babies.
It carried a deep social stigma.
To make it worse, the 1834 PoorLaw Amendment absolved the
fathers of any responsibilitiesfor children outside wedlock,
which meant the mothers were thesole caregiver and provider.
This, combined with the factthat it was almost impossible
(04:49):
for women to make a decentliving through work, created an
environment where desperatemothers would look for any
opportunity to ensure theirchildren have a better life.
So the practice of baby farmingcame to life.
For a fee, sometimes a lump sumor sometimes a weekly payment.
(05:10):
Baby farmers promised to carefor these infants.
Some were genuine but, let'sface it, many were not.
For many women, baby farmingbecame a way to earn a living
off the desperation of others.
What is interesting is thatAmelia also decided to send her
(05:34):
child with George Thomas away.
Not long after his death, shesent little Ellen away.
However, it's unknown where sheresided.
This left Amelia alone and freeto fully immerse herself in the
role of baby farmer.
Amelia first started offeringlodging for pregnant women, and
(05:55):
then she would send theirnewborns to Ellen's Dane
Connections in London andLiverpool.
Ellen Dane was clearly the headof this operation, and Amelia
wasn't her only recruit.
There were several women in onthis.
The trail of dead infants,though, didn't go unnoticed.
Infanticide in the metropolisareas increased significantly,
(06:21):
and Scotland Yard, in the late1860s, assigned a task force to
investigate any wrongdoings.
This task force was led byDetective Sergeant Ralph, which,
on 5th of June 1870, placed anod in a paper offering for
(06:42):
adoption a baby.
He got an overwhelming numberof responses to this and started
getting in contact with twosisters, margaret Waters and
Sarah Ellis.
This led him to the sister'shouse where the children were
kept, and he was left speechlessabout all the neglect.
In each room there were atleast five infants.
(07:04):
The children were barelyclothed.
There were vials of laudanumopen.
It was as close to hell as youcan possibly imagine.
Sergeant Ralph noticed one ofthe babies being extremely sick
and sent a doctor to the house.
The doctor removed the babyimmediately, but unfortunately
(07:25):
the weeks of neglect were toomuch for his fragile body.
Baby John Walter Cohen laterpassed away.
This led to the immediatearrest of the sisters.
At the trial, one of the workersthe sisters employed gave
evidence on the conditions inthe house.
(07:46):
There were at least 11 infantsat one time.
The children were not fed, notcared for, and at times the
sisters would leave with onebaby and come back with another
one.
No one knew what happened tothe baby they left with.
Margaret was found guilty ofmurdering the babies and
(08:08):
sentenced to hanging, and Sarahwas sent to prison and hard
labor.
There was insufficient evidenceto also convict her of murder.
There was insufficient evidenceto also convict her of murder.
It's around this time when,during his investigation,
detective Ralph also came acrossAmelia Thomas.
Only he didn't know her ofThomas, but as Harding a fake
(08:35):
name, she used to evadesuspicions.
Amelia, like many other womenoffering these services, placed
ads in newspapers that for someread like absolute salvation
Respectable married couple seeksto adopt healthy child, loving
home, assured, willing to taketrouble off your hands.
And many women responded.
(08:57):
These were mothers who hadnowhere else to turn, maids who
would be fired if found pregnant, widows on the brink of
starvation, women who thoughtthey were giving their babies a
better life.
Sergeant Ralph discovered abunch of letters in the sisters'
(09:18):
house where he connected anincreased number of infants
coming to this sisters' housefrom a house confinement in
Bristol run by a woman namedHarding.
These two women were clearlythe connection Amelia had in
London through the midwife EllenDane.
This was a tangible thread.
(09:39):
However, no inquiries were made.
This is clear proof thatbetween 1869 and 1870s Amelia
was running a lucrative babyfarm of her own, supplying the
two sisters with babies to kill.
(09:59):
The investigation and trialopened a can of worms and in the
subsequent years furtherarrests were made.
At least six other women werearrested by the end of 1870s in
connection with infant deathsand, interestingly, in almost
all cases their baby farms weresupplied regularly with infants
(10:19):
from a confinement house inBristol run by a midwife known
as Mrs Harding or in some casesMrs Smith.
For some unknown reason themidwife, which obviously was
Amelia, was never investigated.
But at least some good came outof all this hell.
(10:41):
In 1871, after all the publicoutcry to these horrific murders
, sergeant Ralph was called infront of Parliament to discuss
his experiences in baby farming.
This was to support the InfantProtection Act proposed by
Ernest Hart of the BritishMedical Journal, the act passed
(11:04):
in 1872, calling for theregistration of all nurses
caring for more than one infantunder the age of 12 months.
With all the turmoil from theinvestigations and the many
arrests, ellen Dane ran to US,fearing she might be arrested.
After all, she was definitelythe head of the operation.
(11:27):
Amelia must have counted herblessings by the fact that she
wasn't investigated, even thoughshe used a fake name.
She wasn't investigated Eventhough she used a fake name.
She knew she had to vacate thehouse in Bristol immediately to
evade being investigated.
She kept a low profile,attempting once more to live
(11:47):
honestly, and started working asa nurse in an asylum in Bristol
.
This place was pretty horrificand the salary was low, but it
offered accommodation and a goodhiding place for her.
She was in this job until 1872,when she was released for
(12:08):
having an altercation with apatient.
The same year, amelia marriedher second husband, william Dyer
.
Year Amelia married her secondhusband, william Dyer.
The marriage started with liespretty much straight away.
As she lied to her new husbandabout her age 27-year-old,
william Dyer knew his wife was29, when in fact she was 34.
(12:30):
By this point Amelia's daughterwith her first husband also
returned in her care and by 1873, she was pregnant with
William's child.
They had a daughter calledMarianne, known as Polly, and
for the next five years theirlives seemed normal.
(12:51):
Nothing remarkable was noted.
Nothing remarkable was noted.
Things for the family took aturn in 1877, when William lost
his job and Amelia took it uponherself to provide for the
family.
She got back to her old job ofoffering lodging for pregnant
women, followed by taking theirinfants and sending them away.
(13:13):
Her daughter, polly, laterrecounted the horrors she
witnessed during that period.
She was around four years old.
She remembers seeing pregnantwomen staying from weeks to
months.
They were coming from all overthe country and she remembers
her mother disappearing for days, sometimes in their rooms
(13:34):
delivering the babies, appearingfor days, sometimes in their
rooms delivering the babies.
Polly would sometimes see a newmother nursing a baby, but most
times there was no baby afterbirth.
She also remembers seeingAmelia and Ellen, her older
sister, consistently tending toinfants.
(13:59):
The house would always be fullwith newborns and some of them
were being brought to the housefrom the outside.
Most importantly, pollyremembers the way the children
were cared for.
Whilst Amelia, now third child,the boy, was well taken care of
.
He was a normal way, happy andactive.
All the other babies were notPolly recounted.
(14:21):
Seeing the children beingextremely quiet, they would
barely have the energy to cry.
Amelia would starve them,poison them with loud noise to
make them sleep for hours, andthere would always be an influx
of babies.
And as for all the babiesdisappearing, amelia would
(14:41):
always have an explanation themother came back after them,
they were in the care of arelative or they just have been
adopted on the spot.
What these suffering childrenwent through, from the very
first time they were born, isunimaginable.
All to the hands of this groupof cruel women which would have
(15:02):
done anything to earn money,money.
Amelia was extremely cunningand for years she evaded
detection by moving frequently,using fake names, renting
different houses.
Many of these arrangements weredone through letters, so she
also made sure to burn them andfalsify documents, basically
(15:23):
tried to remove any type ofevidence.
We'll never know exactly howmany lives she ended.
Some say a hundred, othersbelieve it could be as many as
400.
Amelia Dyer didn't have anyremorse.
For her, this was a job, aroutine.
She didn't kill in rage, shekilled for convenience and money
(15:46):
.
And she continued to walk free,free to kill for almost 30
years.
But that was until the rivergave up its secrets.
(16:07):
It was a cold day on March 30th1896.
Parchment Charles Humphreys wasnavigating up the Thames River
when, upon reaching the shorenear Reading, he and his crew
spotted a brown paper parcel.
It was heavy, waterlogged, andwhen he pulled it out of the
(16:29):
water and they cut the robesinside, they found the tiny body
of a baby girl.
The police were immediatelycalled and they discovered she
had been strangled with whitetape.
The tape still tied around herneck.
Inside the wrappings was a nameMrs Thomas, one of Amelia's
(16:54):
many aliases.
It was the first real leadinvestigators had.
That string of white tape wouldbecome her undoing.
Police tracked the parcel to ahouse Dyer had recently vacated
From there.
They followed a trail ofaddresses, signatures and
(17:14):
suspicious baby adoptions ads.
They actually moved very quickwith this investigation.
Within four days they were inAmelia's house performing a
house search.
They were hit with the smell ofdecay.
They found baby clothes,hundreds of them, letters from
desperate mothers, adoptionforms, toys, feeding bottles,
(17:40):
even the same white tape used tostrangle the baby found in the
river.
Amelia was also seen earlierthe day when the baby in the
river was found carrying a brownparcel similar to the one in
the river, the police movedswiftly and arrested her on
suspicion of murder of the childin the river.
(18:00):
She was imprisoned at HMSReading where she was to stay
for four weeks until trial.
Only a few days after her arrest, police traveled to London to
inspect Arthur Palmer's house.
So who was Arthur Palmer andhow is he involved?
(18:22):
Well, remember Polly, amelia'schild with her second husband.
It looks like baby farmingturned into a family business
and Polly and her husband,arthur Palmer, were also
involved in this.
It was found that Arthur wouldpawn baby clothes, collect
infants from mothers and sendthem to Amelia, including the
(18:45):
baby in the river, all forprofit.
He was immediately arrested andPolly was later placed under
house arrest.
A few days later, when policevisited Polly's place, she was
found packing children clothes,probably to sell or dispose of
them.
These clothes were lateridentified by several mothers as
(19:07):
belonging to the infants theysent to be cared for by Emilia.
The gig was up now.
Emilia, during questioning,confessed flatly coldly.
She admitted she had nointention of caring for the
babies she took.
Her method was simple she tooktheir money and ended their
(19:29):
lives, she said I used to liketo wash them with the tape
around their necks, but it gottiring.
Let that sink in In the daysthat followed until her trial.
Police found a trail of babybodies on the river's bed.
Some were just dumped and somewere weighed down with bricks.
(19:53):
How did she manage to evadesuspicion for so long and get
away with so many murders isjust unbelievable.
Her trial lasted for over fourdays.
She pleaded insanity, but thejury took only four minutes to
find her guilty.
On June 10, 1869, amelia Dyerwas hanged at Newgate Prison.
(20:19):
Her final words I have nothingto say.
Polly and Arthur were acquittedof all charges and set free.
We will never know all of AmeliaSteyer's victims.
Most left no record, no birthcertificate, no gravestone, no
(20:39):
chance to grow up.
But we do know some names, someletters, some final hopes of
mothers who trusted the wrongwoman.
Here is some of them.
Dear Mrs Thomas, I am a poorgirl and my baby is illegitimate
.
I love her dearly but I cannotkeep her.
Please take care of her.
(21:00):
I have enclosed two pounds.
God bless you.
That baby's name was DorisMarmon.
She was the child found in theriver, the one whose body led
police to Amelia Dyer.
She was just seven months old.
Another mother, writing to Dyerin desperation, asked only one
(21:24):
thing Please let her keep thename I gave her.
Her baby was never seen again.
Amelia Dart wasn't the only babyfarmer in Victorian England,
she wasn't even the only one tokill, but she was the most
prolific and the most chilling.
(21:45):
She didn't scream, she didn'tstab, she didn't hide in the
shadows, she placed ads innewspapers, she offered kindness
, smiled and then she ended thelife Again and again.
And the truth is she got awaywith it because no one was
watching carefully.
They had the chance to stop allthis 30 years earlier.
(22:08):
But because in Victoriansociety unwed mothers were
shamed, she and many othersexploited a system that already
felt the most vulnerable.
Historians estimate she mayhave murdered over 400 children.
That would make her one of themost prolific serial killers in
(22:30):
history, man or woman.
And yet until that, one smallmistake, she walked free.
And that would be where usuallyour story today would end.
An evil woman was arrested andpaid for her crimes.
Her family learned a valuablelesson and moved on.
(22:51):
But unfortunately, no, this isnot where we are ending today.
On 13th of September, two yearsand three months after the
execution of Amelia Dyer.
After the execution of AmeliaDyer, a carriage examiner for
Great Western Railway was setfor his morning shift to examine
(23:13):
a train docked overnight atNewton Abbott Station.
Whilst moving through thecarriage, he heard a child cry.
He was faint, but it wasdefinitely a cry.
He moved swiftly through thecompartments to find where the
cry is coming from.
Under a seat in the ladiescompartment he found a brown
(23:34):
paper parcel and inside therewas a baby.
The baby was still alive,barely, she was cold and her
clothes were wet.
She was no more than threeweeks old.
Police found from the trainstaff that a woman in her early
20s was seen with the baby.
She changed the train and part,but she didn't have a baby with
(23:58):
her.
They managed to track the womandown a day later, on 14th of
September, and she was arrestedalongside with her husband of
September, and she was arrestedalongside with her husband.
Letters were found in thecouple's house revealing that
this woman, named Mrs Stewart,traveled to Plymouth to take
this child froma widow.
The mother trusted this womanto care for her newborn.
(24:20):
This couple was lateridentified, after being arrested
, as Polly Palmer and herhusband, arthur Palmer.
That's a wrap for today'sepisode.
Thanks so much for tuning in.
(24:40):
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(25:01):
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Thank you.
Welcome to Clue Trail , the podcast where every story
is a mystery and every clueleads you deeper into the
unknown, from unsolved crimesand puzzling disappearances to
hidden histories and curiouscoincidences.
We piece together the fragmentsto uncover the truth or raise
even more questions.
Some clues lead to answers,others to even greater mysteries
(00:30):
.
But one thing is certain everytrail tells a story.
Are you ready to follow it?
Let's begin.
A grieving mother, desperateand alone, hands her infant over
to a woman who promises safety,comfort and care.
(00:52):
Days later, the baby's body isfloating in the river Thames.
The woman's name Amelia Dyer.
Name Amelia Dyer.
This isn't just a murder story.
It's a story of systemicfailure, of women with no
(01:19):
options and of one woman whoturned motherhood into a method
of murder.
Before she became known as theAngel Maker, amelia was a child.
Amelia Elizabeth Hobley was bornin 1837 in a small village
called Pile Marsh, which is nowpart of modern-day Bristol,
under the roof of a modestshoemaker's home.
Her father, samuel Hobley, wasa master shoemaker, a
(01:45):
respectable trade.
He was a stern man but heworked hard to support his wife,
sarah, and their five children.
Amelia was the youngest of five.
Her childhood was far fromstable stable.
(02:08):
When Amelia was 10, her mother,sarah, which suffered from what
we now believe wastyphus-induced mental illness,
passed away.
Amelia, as a young girl, wasoften left to care for her
mother, who reportedly screamedat night, trashed violently and
slipped in and out of terrifyingdelusions.
Now imagine being nine or tenyears old watching your mother
(02:30):
mentally unravel Alone,frightened and powerless.
At the age of 14, amelia wassent away, likely to live with
an aunt, though records aresparse there.
She trained as a corset makerand later on as a nurse and
(02:52):
midwife.
Tragedy struck again whenAmelia was 21 and her father
died Not long after this.
When she was 23, amelia took aroom at a house on Trinity
Street in Bristol.
That is where she met her firsthusband, and at the age of 24,
(03:16):
she married a man almost twiceher age, named George Thomas, in
1861.
They had a daughter together,named Ellen.
It was around this time when amidwife named Ellen Dane
introduced her to the practiceof baby farming.
In 1869, george Thomas died andAmelia was now left to survive
in a world that gave women likeher very few choices.
(03:39):
She was a widow with a child,no steady income and no
inheritance, but she did havemedical training, a sharp mind
and something else Anopportunity in the shape of baby
farming.
You might be wondering what onearth is baby farming?
(04:02):
In a nutshell, it was theVictorian era's dark and
unregulated version of fostering, but with far more sinister
motives.
In Victorian England,legitimacy was a social death
sentence.
Unwed mothers were shunned,abandoned and often forced to
(04:25):
give up their babies.
It carried a deep social stigma.
To make it worse, the 1834 PoorLaw Amendment absolved the
fathers of any responsibilitiesfor children outside wedlock,
which meant the mothers were thesole caregiver and provider.
This, combined with the factthat it was almost impossible
(04:49):
for women to make a decentliving through work, created an
environment where desperatemothers would look for any
opportunity to ensure theirchildren have a better life.
So the practice of baby farmingcame to life.
For a fee, sometimes a lump sumor sometimes a weekly payment.
(05:10):
Baby farmers promised to carefor these infants.
Some were genuine but, let'sface it, many were not.
For many women, baby farmingbecame a way to earn a living
off the desperation of others.
What is interesting is thatAmelia also decided to send her
(05:34):
child with George Thomas away.
Not long after his death, shesent little Ellen away.
However, it's unknown where sheresided.
This left Amelia alone and freeto fully immerse herself in the
role of baby farmer.
Amelia first started offeringlodging for pregnant women, and
(05:55):
then she would send theirnewborns to Ellen's Dane
Connections in London andLiverpool.
Ellen Dane was clearly the headof this operation, and Amelia
wasn't her only recruit.
There were several women in onthis.
The trail of dead infants,though, didn't go unnoticed.
Infanticide in the metropolisareas increased significantly,
(06:21):
and Scotland Yard, in the late1860s, assigned a task force to
investigate any wrongdoings.
This task force was led byDetective Sergeant Ralph, which,
on 5th of June 1870, placed anod in a paper offering for
(06:42):
adoption a baby.
He got an overwhelming numberof responses to this and started
getting in contact with twosisters, margaret Waters and
Sarah Ellis.
This led him to the sister'shouse where the children were
kept, and he was left speechlessabout all the neglect.
In each room there were atleast five infants.
(07:04):
The children were barelyclothed.
There were vials of laudanumopen.
It was as close to hell as youcan possibly imagine.
Sergeant Ralph noticed one ofthe babies being extremely sick
and sent a doctor to the house.
The doctor removed the babyimmediately, but unfortunately
(07:25):
the weeks of neglect were toomuch for his fragile body.
Baby John Walter Cohen laterpassed away.
This led to the immediatearrest of the sisters.
At the trial, one of the workersthe sisters employed gave
evidence on the conditions inthe house.
(07:46):
There were at least 11 infantsat one time.
The children were not fed, notcared for, and at times the
sisters would leave with onebaby and come back with another
one.
No one knew what happened tothe baby they left with.
Margaret was found guilty ofmurdering the babies and
(08:08):
sentenced to hanging, and Sarahwas sent to prison and hard
labor.
There was insufficient evidenceto also convict her of murder.
There was insufficient evidenceto also convict her of murder.
It's around this time when,during his investigation,
detective Ralph also came acrossAmelia Thomas.
Only he didn't know her ofThomas, but as Harding a fake
(08:35):
name, she used to evadesuspicions.
Amelia, like many other womenoffering these services, placed
ads in newspapers that for someread like absolute salvation
Respectable married couple seeksto adopt healthy child, loving
home, assured, willing to taketrouble off your hands.
And many women responded.
(08:57):
These were mothers who hadnowhere else to turn, maids who
would be fired if found pregnant, widows on the brink of
starvation, women who thoughtthey were giving their babies a
better life.
Sergeant Ralph discovered abunch of letters in the sisters'
(09:18):
house where he connected anincreased number of infants
coming to this sisters' housefrom a house confinement in
Bristol run by a woman namedHarding.
These two women were clearlythe connection Amelia had in
London through the midwife EllenDane.
This was a tangible thread.
(09:39):
However, no inquiries were made.
This is clear proof thatbetween 1869 and 1870s Amelia
was running a lucrative babyfarm of her own, supplying the
two sisters with babies to kill.
(09:59):
The investigation and trialopened a can of worms and in the
subsequent years furtherarrests were made.
At least six other women werearrested by the end of 1870s in
connection with infant deathsand, interestingly, in almost
all cases their baby farms weresupplied regularly with infants
(10:19):
from a confinement house inBristol run by a midwife known
as Mrs Harding or in some casesMrs Smith.
For some unknown reason themidwife, which obviously was
Amelia, was never investigated.
But at least some good came outof all this hell.
(10:41):
In 1871, after all the publicoutcry to these horrific murders
, sergeant Ralph was called infront of Parliament to discuss
his experiences in baby farming.
This was to support the InfantProtection Act proposed by
Ernest Hart of the BritishMedical Journal, the act passed
(11:04):
in 1872, calling for theregistration of all nurses
caring for more than one infantunder the age of 12 months.
With all the turmoil from theinvestigations and the many
arrests, ellen Dane ran to US,fearing she might be arrested.
After all, she was definitelythe head of the operation.
(11:27):
Amelia must have counted herblessings by the fact that she
wasn't investigated, even thoughshe used a fake name.
She wasn't investigated Eventhough she used a fake name.
She knew she had to vacate thehouse in Bristol immediately to
evade being investigated.
She kept a low profile,attempting once more to live
(11:47):
honestly, and started working asa nurse in an asylum in Bristol
.
This place was pretty horrificand the salary was low, but it
offered accommodation and a goodhiding place for her.
She was in this job until 1872,when she was released for
(12:08):
having an altercation with apatient.
The same year, amelia marriedher second husband, william Dyer
.
Year Amelia married her secondhusband, william Dyer.
The marriage started with liespretty much straight away.
As she lied to her new husbandabout her age 27-year-old,
william Dyer knew his wife was29, when in fact she was 34.
(12:30):
By this point Amelia's daughterwith her first husband also
returned in her care and by 1873, she was pregnant with
William's child.
They had a daughter calledMarianne, known as Polly, and
for the next five years theirlives seemed normal.
(12:51):
Nothing remarkable was noted.
Nothing remarkable was noted.
Things for the family took aturn in 1877, when William lost
his job and Amelia took it uponherself to provide for the
family.
She got back to her old job ofoffering lodging for pregnant
women, followed by taking theirinfants and sending them away.
(13:13):
Her daughter, polly, laterrecounted the horrors she
witnessed during that period.
She was around four years old.
She remembers seeing pregnantwomen staying from weeks to
months.
They were coming from all overthe country and she remembers
her mother disappearing for days, sometimes in their rooms
(13:34):
delivering the babies, appearingfor days, sometimes in their
rooms delivering the babies.
Polly would sometimes see a newmother nursing a baby, but most
times there was no baby afterbirth.
She also remembers seeingAmelia and Ellen, her older
sister, consistently tending toinfants.
(13:59):
The house would always be fullwith newborns and some of them
were being brought to the housefrom the outside.
Most importantly, pollyremembers the way the children
were cared for.
Whilst Amelia, now third child,the boy, was well taken care of
.
He was a normal way, happy andactive.
All the other babies were notPolly recounted.
(14:21):
Seeing the children beingextremely quiet, they would
barely have the energy to cry.
Amelia would starve them,poison them with loud noise to
make them sleep for hours, andthere would always be an influx
of babies.
And as for all the babiesdisappearing, amelia would
(14:41):
always have an explanation themother came back after them,
they were in the care of arelative or they just have been
adopted on the spot.
What these suffering childrenwent through, from the very
first time they were born, isunimaginable.
All to the hands of this groupof cruel women which would have
(15:02):
done anything to earn money,money.
Amelia was extremely cunningand for years she evaded
detection by moving frequently,using fake names, renting
different houses.
Many of these arrangements weredone through letters, so she
also made sure to burn them andfalsify documents, basically
(15:23):
tried to remove any type ofevidence.
We'll never know exactly howmany lives she ended.
Some say a hundred, othersbelieve it could be as many as
400.
Amelia Dyer didn't have anyremorse.
For her, this was a job, aroutine.
She didn't kill in rage, shekilled for convenience and money
(15:46):
.
And she continued to walk free,free to kill for almost 30
years.
But that was until the rivergave up its secrets.
(16:07):
It was a cold day on March 30th1896.
Parchment Charles Humphreys wasnavigating up the Thames River
when, upon reaching the shorenear Reading, he and his crew
spotted a brown paper parcel.
It was heavy, waterlogged, andwhen he pulled it out of the
(16:29):
water and they cut the robesinside, they found the tiny body
of a baby girl.
The police were immediatelycalled and they discovered she
had been strangled with whitetape.
The tape still tied around herneck.
Inside the wrappings was a nameMrs Thomas, one of Amelia's
(16:54):
many aliases.
It was the first real leadinvestigators had.
That string of white tape wouldbecome her undoing.
Police tracked the parcel to ahouse Dyer had recently vacated
From there.
They followed a trail ofaddresses, signatures and
(17:14):
suspicious baby adoptions ads.
They actually moved very quickwith this investigation.
Within four days they were inAmelia's house performing a
house search.
They were hit with the smell ofdecay.
They found baby clothes,hundreds of them, letters from
desperate mothers, adoptionforms, toys, feeding bottles,
(17:40):
even the same white tape used tostrangle the baby found in the
river.
Amelia was also seen earlierthe day when the baby in the
river was found carrying a brownparcel similar to the one in
the river, the police movedswiftly and arrested her on
suspicion of murder of the childin the river.
(18:00):
She was imprisoned at HMSReading where she was to stay
for four weeks until trial.
Only a few days after her arrest, police traveled to London to
inspect Arthur Palmer's house.
So who was Arthur Palmer andhow is he involved?
(18:22):
Well, remember Polly, amelia'schild with her second husband.
It looks like baby farmingturned into a family business
and Polly and her husband,arthur Palmer, were also
involved in this.
It was found that Arthur wouldpawn baby clothes, collect
infants from mothers and sendthem to Amelia, including the
(18:45):
baby in the river, all forprofit.
He was immediately arrested andPolly was later placed under
house arrest.
A few days later, when policevisited Polly's place, she was
found packing children clothes,probably to sell or dispose of
them.
These clothes were lateridentified by several mothers as
(19:07):
belonging to the infants theysent to be cared for by Emilia.
The gig was up now.
Emilia, during questioning,confessed flatly coldly.
She admitted she had nointention of caring for the
babies she took.
Her method was simple she tooktheir money and ended their
(19:29):
lives, she said I used to liketo wash them with the tape
around their necks, but it gottiring.
Let that sink in In the daysthat followed until her trial.
Police found a trail of babybodies on the river's bed.
Some were just dumped and somewere weighed down with bricks.
(19:53):
How did she manage to evadesuspicion for so long and get
away with so many murders isjust unbelievable.
Her trial lasted for over fourdays.
She pleaded insanity, but thejury took only four minutes to
find her guilty.
On June 10, 1869, amelia Dyerwas hanged at Newgate Prison.
(20:19):
Her final words I have nothingto say.
Polly and Arthur were acquittedof all charges and set free.
We will never know all of AmeliaSteyer's victims.
Most left no record, no birthcertificate, no gravestone, no
(20:39):
chance to grow up.
But we do know some names, someletters, some final hopes of
mothers who trusted the wrongwoman.
Here is some of them.
Dear Mrs Thomas, I am a poorgirl and my baby is illegitimate
.
I love her dearly but I cannotkeep her.
Please take care of her.
(21:00):
I have enclosed two pounds.
God bless you.
That baby's name was DorisMarmon.
She was the child found in theriver, the one whose body led
police to Amelia Dyer.
She was just seven months old.
Another mother, writing to Dyerin desperation, asked only one
(21:24):
thing Please let her keep thename I gave her.
Her baby was never seen again.
Amelia Dart wasn't the only babyfarmer in Victorian England,
she wasn't even the only one tokill, but she was the most
prolific and the most chilling.
(21:45):
She didn't scream, she didn'tstab, she didn't hide in the
shadows, she placed ads innewspapers, she offered kindness
, smiled and then she ended thelife Again and again.
And the truth is she got awaywith it because no one was
watching carefully.
They had the chance to stop allthis 30 years earlier.
(22:08):
But because in Victoriansociety unwed mothers were
shamed, she and many othersexploited a system that already
felt the most vulnerable.
Historians estimate she mayhave murdered over 400 children.
That would make her one of themost prolific serial killers in
(22:30):
history, man or woman.
And yet until that, one smallmistake, she walked free.
And that would be where usuallyour story today would end.
An evil woman was arrested andpaid for her crimes.
Her family learned a valuablelesson and moved on.
(22:51):
But unfortunately, no, this isnot where we are ending today.
On 13th of September, two yearsand three months after the
execution of Amelia Dyer.
After the execution of AmeliaDyer, a carriage examiner for
Great Western Railway was setfor his morning shift to examine
(23:13):
a train docked overnight atNewton Abbott Station.
Whilst moving through thecarriage, he heard a child cry.
He was faint, but it wasdefinitely a cry.
He moved swiftly through thecompartments to find where the
cry is coming from.
Under a seat in the ladiescompartment he found a brown
(23:34):
paper parcel and inside therewas a baby.
The baby was still alive,barely, she was cold and her
clothes were wet.
She was no more than threeweeks old.
Police found from the trainstaff that a woman in her early
20s was seen with the baby.
She changed the train and part,but she didn't have a baby with
(23:58):
her.
They managed to track the womandown a day later, on 14th of
September, and she was arrestedalongside with her husband of
September, and she was arrestedalongside with her husband.
Letters were found in thecouple's house revealing that
this woman, named Mrs Stewart,traveled to Plymouth to take
this child froma widow.
The mother trusted this womanto care for her newborn.
(24:20):
This couple was lateridentified, after being arrested
, as Polly Palmer and herhusband, arthur Palmer.
That's a wrap for today'sepisode.
Thanks so much for tuning in.
(24:40):
We appreciate every single oneof you.
If you enjoyed the show, don'tforget to follow us on social
media to stay updated on allthings Clue Trail.
You can find us on Instagram,facebook and TikTok on Clue
Trail Podcast.
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content, check out our Patreon.
(25:01):
Members.
Get access to an exclusivebonus episode every month.
Just head over to Patreon andlook for ClueTrail.
Thank you.
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