Amelia Elizabeth Dyer, known as the most profuse ‘baby farmer’ in all of Victorian England, was said to have murdered and neglected over approximately 400 babies and infants for almost 20 years without any raised suspicion. After failing to be a nurse, Amelia resorted to getting amiable amounts of money in a more peculiar way. She decided to begin advertising herself to single and otherwise desperate mothers who did not wish to keep their illegitimate child any longer and were putting them up for adoption (illegitimacy and single mothers in particular did not go hand in hand at the time as it was  frowned upon for a single mother to not be able to properly provide for their child). She would convince the parent that she was a trustworthy, respectable married woman who would ensure a safe and loving environment for their child. Not very long after receiving payment, she would either let the child die of starvation and neglect or with many other more profound methods (those can be up to your own interpretation as I’m trying not to get too morbid with the matter).

Each time that there had been any possible raised suspicion surrounding the rising number of dead children that had been in her care, Dyer had “coincidentally” landed herself in mental hospitals in correlation to substance abuse of opium-based products and suicidal tendencies at around the same time. In 1879, she had  been given a six month sentence of intense labor for neglect after a doctor that had taken care of the numerous deceased infants decided to report her, although she could not be sentenced to murder since there was no relevant evidence that she herself murdered the children since there were so many epidemics at the time that she could have used as a reason in her defense. Following her release and various trips to the mental ward, Dyer instantaneously returned to baby farming, although had no other option but to begin disposing of the infants herself. To avoid the police and parents who wanted their (now deceased) children back, she had to constantly change her name and move her business elsewhere. Soon enough, Dyer’s downfall began.

After detectives had brought together enough evidence that Dyer had in fact undoubtedly been an active serial killer, police raided her home and arrested her on April 4th 1896 and was charged for murder and would soon be put up for trial by execution after finding her guilty in court within only five minutes since using the excuse that she was insane clearly wasn’t a sustainable argument. On June 10, 1896, Amelia Dyer was hanged and killed at Newgate Prison. A few years after her death, laws in England surrounding unregistered adoption were initiated and baby farming was for the most part put to rest.

Sources:

http://murderpedia.org/female.D/d/dyer-amelia.html

http://www.murderuk.com/female_amelia_dyer.html

http://www.oldpolicecellsmuseum.org.uk/page/evil_female_murderers_part_3

http://www.prisonersofeternity.co.uk/amelia-dyer-baby-farming-and-murder/