The Angel Maker: Britain’s Forgotten Serial Killer

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.

Transcript

Host: 0:00

Welcome to Clue Trail, the podcast where every story is a mystery and every clue leads you deeper into the unknown. From unsolved crimes and puzzling disappearances, to hidden histories and curious coincidences, we piece together the fragments to uncover the truth or raise even more questions. Some clues lead to answers, others to even greater mysteries, but one thing is certain, every trail tells a story. Are you ready to follow it? Let's begin.

Host: 0:36

A grieving mother, desperate and alone, hands her infant over to a woman who promises safety, comfort and care. Days later, the baby's body is floating in the River Thames. The woman's name? Amelia Dyer.

Host: 1:03

This isn't just a murder story. It's a story of systemic failure, of women with no options, and of one woman who turned motherhood into a method of murder.

Host: 1:19

Before she became known as the Angel Maker, Amelia was a child. Amelia Elizabeth Hobley was born in 1837 in a small village called Pyle Marsh, which is now part of modern-day Bristol. under the roof of a modest shoemaker's home.

Host: 1:40

Her father, Samuel Hobley, was a master shoemaker, a respectable trade. He was a stern man, but he worked hard to support his wife Sarah and their five children. Amelia was the youngest of five. Her childhood was far from stable.

Host: 2:00

When Amelia was 10, her mother, Sarah, which suffered from what we now believe was typhus-induced mental illness, passed away. Amelia, as a young girl, was often left to care for her mother, who reportedly screamed at night, trashed violently, and slipped in and out of terrifying delusions.

Host: 2:26

Now, imagine being 9 or 10 years old watching your mother mentally unravel. Alone, frightened and powerless. At the age of 14, Amelia was sent away, likely to live with an aunt, though records are sparse. There she trained as a corset maker and later on as a nurse and midwife.

Host: 2:48

Tragedy struck again when Amelia was 21 and her father died. Not long after this, when she was 23, Amelia took a room at a house on Trinity Street in Bristol. That is where she met her first husband. And at the age of 24, she married a man almost twice her age named George Thomas in 1861.

Host: 3:17

They had a daughter together named Ellen. It was around this time when a midwife named Ellen Dane introduced her to the practice of baby farming.

Host: 3:30

In 1869, George Thomas died and Amelia was now left to survive in a world that gave women, like her, very few choices. She was a widow with a child, no steady income and no inheritance, but she did have medical training, a sharp mind and something else. an opportunity in the shape of baby farming.

Host: 3:59

You might be wondering, what on earth is baby farming? In a nutshell, it was the Victorian 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 give up their babies. It carried a deep social stigma. To make it worse, the 1834 Poor Law Amendment absolved the fathers of any responsibilities for children outside wedlock, which meant the mothers were the sole caregiver and provider.

Host: 4:45

This, combined with the fact that it was almost impossible for women to make a decent living through work, created an environment where desperate mothers would look for any opportunity to ensure their children have a better life. So, the practice of baby farming came to life.

Host: 5:06

For a fee, sometimes a lump sum or sometimes a weekly payment, Baby farmers promised to care for these infants. Some were genuine, but let's face it, many were not. For many women, baby farming became a way to earn a living off the desperation of others.

Host: 5:29

What is interesting is that Amelia also decided to send her child with George Thomas away, not long after his death. She sent little Ellen away, however, it's unknown where she resided. This left Amelia alone and free to fully immerse herself in the role of baby farmer.

Host: 5:51

Amelia first started offering lodging for pregnant women and then she would send their newborns to Ellen's Dane Connections in London and Liverpool. Ellen Dane was clearly the head of this operation and Amelia wasn't her only recruit. There were several women in on this. The trail of dead infants, though, didn't go unnoticed.

Host: 6:17

Infanticide in the metropolis areas increased significantly and Scotland Yard, in the late 1860s, assigned a task force to investigate any wrongdoings. This task force was led by Detective Sergeant Ralph, which on 5th of June, 1870, placed a note in a paper offering for adoption a baby. He got an overwhelming number of responses to this and started getting in contact with two sisters, Margaret Waters and Sarah Ellis.

Host: 6:52

This led him to the sisters' house, where the children were kept and, He was left speechless about all the neglect. In each room, there were at least five infants. The children were barely clothed. There were vials of laudanum open. It was as close to hell as you can possibly imagine. Sergeant Ralph noticed one of the babies being extremely sick and sent a doctor to the house. The doctor removed the baby immediately, but unfortunately, The weeks of neglect were too much for his fragile body. Baby John Walter Cohen later passed away.

Host: 7:34

This led to the immediate arrest of the sisters. At the trial, one of the workers the sisters employed gave evidence on the conditions in the house. There were at least 11 infants at one time.

Host: 7:50

The children were not fed, not cared for, and at times, the sisters would leave with one baby and come back with another one. No one knew what happened to the baby they left with. Margaret was found guilty of murdering the babies and sentenced to hanging, and Sarah was sent to prison and hard labor.

Host: 8:12

There was insufficient evidence to also convict her of murder. is around this time when, during his investigation, Detective Ralph also came across Amelia Thomas. Only, he didn't know her of Thomas but as Harding, a fake name she used to evade suspicions. Amelia, like many other women offering the services, placed ads in newspapers that, for some, read like absolute salvation.

Host: 8:43

Respectful married couple, seeks to adopt healthy child, loving home assured, willing to take trouble off your hands. And many women responded. These were mothers who had nowhere else to turn, maids who would be fired if found pregnant, widows on the brink of starvation, women who thought they were giving their babies a better life.

Host: 9:15

Sergeant Ralph discovered a bunch of letters in the sister's house where he connected an increased number of infants coming to this sister's house from a house confinement in Bristol, run by a woman named Harding.

Host: 9:31

These two women were clearly the connection Amelia had in London through the midwife, Ellen Dane. This was a tangible thread, however, no inquiries were made. This is clear proof that between 1869 and 1870s, Amelia was running a lucrative baby farm of her own, supplying the two sisters with babies to kill.

Host: 9:54

The investigation and trial opened a can of worms and in the subsequent years, further arrests were made. At least six other women were arrested by the end of 1870s in connection with infant deaths. And interestingly, in almost all cases, their baby farms were supplied regularly with infants from a confinement house in Bristol, run by a midwife known as Mrs. Harding or in some cases, Mrs. Smith.

Host: 10:30

For some unknown reason, the midwife, which obviously was Amelia, was never investigated. But at least some good came out of all this hell.

Host: 10:42

In 1871, after all the public outcry to these horrific murders, Sergeant Ralph was called in front of Parliament to discuss his experiences in baby farming. This was to support the Infant Protection Act proposed by Ernest Hart of the British Medical Journal. The Act passed in 1872 calling for the registration of all nurses caring for more than one infant under the age of 12 months.

Host: 11:15

With all the turmoil from the investigations and the many arrests, Ellen Dane ran to US fearing she might be arrested. After all, she was definitely the head of the operation. Amelia must have counted her blessings by the fact that she was uninvestigated.

Host: 11:34

Even though she used a fake name, she knew she had to vacate the house in Bristol immediately to evade being investigated. She kept a low profile, attempting once more to live honestly, and started working as a nurse in an asylum in Bristol.

Host: 11:53

This place was pretty horrific, and the salary was low, but it offered accommodation and a good hiding place for her. She was in this job until 1872, when she was released for having an altercation with a patient. The same year, Amelia married her second husband, William Dyer. The marriage started with lies pretty much straight away, as she lied to her new husband about her age. 27-year-old William Dyer knew his wife was 29, when in fact she was 34.

Host: 12:30

By this point, Amelia's daughter with her first husband also returned in her care, and by 1873, she was pregnant with William's child. They had a daughter called Marianne, known as Polly.

Host: 12:46

And for the next five years, their lives seemed normal. Nothing remarkable was noted. Things for the family took a turn in 1877, when William lost his job and Amelia took it upon herself to provide for the family. She got back to her old job of offering lodging for pregnant women, followed by taking their infants and sending them away.

Host: 13:15

Her daughter Polly later recounted the horrors she witnessed during that period. She was around four years old. She remembers seeing pregnant women staying from weeks to months. They were coming from all over the country. And she remembers her mother disappearing for days sometimes in their rooms delivering the babies.

Host: 13:37

Polly would sometimes see a new mother nursing a baby. But most times, there was no baby after birth. She also remembers seeing Amelia and Ellen, her older sister, consistently tending to infants. The house would always be full with newborns. And some of them were being brought to the house from the outside.

Host: 14:01

Most importantly, Polly remembers 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 and active, all the other babies were not. Polly recounted seeing the children being extremely quiet. They would barely have the energy to cry. Amelia would starve them, poison them with laudanum to make them sleep for hours. And there would always be an influx of babies.

Host: 14:38

And as for all the babies disappearing, Amelia would always have an explanation. The mother came back after them, they were in the care of a relative or they just have been adopted on the spot. What these suffering children went through from the very first time they were born is unimaginable. All to the hands of this group of cruel women which would have done anything to earn money.

Host: 15:06

Amelia was extremely cunning and for years she evaded detection by moving frequently, using fake names, renting different houses. Many of these arrangements were done through letters, so she also made sure to burn them and falsify documents. Basically tried to remove any type of evidence. We'll never know exactly how many lives she ended.

Host: 15:30

Some say 100, others believe it could be as many as 400. Amelia Dyer didn't have any remorse. For her, this was a job, a routine. She didn't kill in rage. She killed for convenience and money. And she continued to walk free, free to kill, for almost 30 years. But that was until the river gave up its secrets.

Host: 16:06

It was a cold day on March 30th, 1896. Bargeman Charles Humphreys was navigating up the Thames River when, upon reaching the shore near Reading, he and his crew spotted a brown paper parcel.

Host: 16:25

It was heavy, waterlogged, and when he pulled it out of the water and they cut the ropes inside, they found the tiny body of a baby girl. The police were immediately called and they discovered she had been strangled with white tape. The tape still tied around her neck.

Host: 16:49

Inside the wrappings was a name, Mrs. Thomas, one of Amelia's many aliases. It was the first real lead investigators had. That string of white tape would become her undoing. Police tracked the parcel to a house Dyer had recently vacated.

Host: 17:09

From there, they followed a trail of addresses, signatures and suspicious baby adoptions ads. They actually moved very quick with this investigation. Within four days, they were in Amelia's house performing a house search.

Host: 17:27

They were hit with the smell of decay. They found baby clothes, hundreds of them. letters from desperate mothers, adoption forms, toys, feeding bottles, even the same white tape used to strangle the baby found in the river. Emilia was also seen earlier the day when the baby in the river was found, carrying a brown parasol similar to the one in the river.

Host: 17:55

The police moved swiftly and arrested her on suspicion of murder of the child in the river. She was imprisoned at HMS Reading, 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.

Host: 18:17

So, who was Arthur Palmer and how is he involved? Well, remember Polly, Amelia's child with her second husband? it looks like baby farming turned into a family business and Polly and her husband Arthur Palmer were also involved in this. It was found that Arthur would pawn baby clothes, collect the infants from mothers and send them to Amelia, including the baby in the river, all for profit.

Host: 18:48

He was immediately arrested and Polly was later placed under house arrest. Few days later, When police visited Polly's place, she was found packing children clothes, probably to sell or dispose of them.

Host: 19:04

These clothes were later identified by several mothers as belonging to the infants they sent to be cared for by Amelia.

Host: 19:13

The gig was up now. Amelia, during questioning, confessed, flatly, coldly. She admitted she had no intention of caring for the babies she took. Her method was simple. She took their money and ended their lives. She said, I used to like to wash them with the tape around their necks, but it got tiring. Let that sink in.

Host: 19:42

In the days that followed until her trial, police found a trail of baby bodies on the river's bed. Some were just dumped and some were weighed down with bricks. How did she manage to evade suspicion for so long and get away with so many murders is just unbelievable. Her trial lasted for over four days.

Host: 20:07

She pleaded insanity, but the jury took only four minutes to find her guilty. On June 10, 1869, Amelia Dyer was hanged at Newgate Prison. Her final words? I have nothing to say.

Host: 20:25

Polly and Arthur were acquitted of all charges and set free. We will never know all of Amelia Dyer's victims. Most left no record, no birth certificate, no gravestone, no chance to grow up. But we do know some names, some letters, some final hopes of mothers who trusted the wrong woman. Here is some of them.

Host: 20:51

'Dear Mrs. Thomas, I am a poor girl And my baby is illegitimate. I love her dearly, but I cannot keep her. Please take care of her. I have enclosed two pounds. God bless you.' That baby's name was Doris Marmon. She was the child found in the river. The one whose body led police to Amelia Dyer. She was just seven months old.

Host: 21:19

Another mother, writing to Dyer in desperation, 'Asking only one thing. 'Please let her keep the name I gave her.' Her baby was never seen again.

Host: 21:35

Amelia wasn't the only baby farmer in Victorian England. She wasn't even the only one to kill. But she was the most prolific and the most chilling. She didn't scream. She didn't stop. She didn't hide in the shadows. She placed ads in newspapers. She offered kindness, smiled, and then she ended the life, again and again. And the truth is, she got away with it because no one was watching carefully.

Host: 22:05

T hey had the chance to stop all this 30 years earlier, but because in Victorian society unwed mothers were shamed, she and many others exploited the system that already felt the most vulnerable.

Host: 22:21

Historians estimate she may have murdered over 400 children. That would make her one of the most prolific serial killers in history, man or woman. And yet, until that one small mistake, she walked free. And that would be where, usually, our story today would end. An evil woman was arrested and paid for her crimes. Her family learned a valuable lesson and moved on, but unfortunately, no, this is not where we are ending today.

Host: 22:59

On 13th of September, two years and three months after the execution of Amelia Dyer, a carriage examiner for Great Western Railway was set for his morning shift to examine a train docked overnight at Newton Abbott Station. Whilst moving through the carriage, he heard a child cry.

Host: 23:21

It was faint, but it was definitely a cry. He moved swiftly through the compartments to find where the cry is coming from.

Host: 23:30

Under a seat in the ladies' compartment, he found a brown paper parcel, and inside, there was a baby. The baby was still alive, barely. She was cold and her clothes were wet. She was no more than three weeks old. Police found from the train staff that a woman in her early 20s was seen with the baby.

Host: 23:54

She changed the train and part, but she didn't have a baby with her. They managed to track the woman down a day later on 14th of September and she was arrested alongside with her husband. Letters were found in the couple's house revealing that this woman, named Mrs. Stewart, traveled to Plymouth to take this child from a widow.

Host: 24:16

The mother trusted this woman to care for her newborn.

Host: 24:22

This couple was later identified after being arrested as Polly Palmer and her husband, Arthur Palmer.

Host: 24:36

That's a wrap for today's episode. Thanks so much for tuning in. We appreciate every single one of you. If you enjoyed the show, don't forget to follow us on social media to stay updated on all things Clue Trail. You can find us on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok on Clue Trail Podcast. And if you want to support the podcast and get even more content, check out our Patreon. Members get access to an exclusive bonus episode every month. just head over to Patreon and look for ClueTrail.