Murder, Mystery & Makeup - Caregiver to Killer: Amelia Dyer & The Dark World of Baby Farming

Episode Date: February 11, 2025

Hi friends, happy Tuesday! In the late 1800s, Amelia Dyer ran a group home for infants called a "baby farm"... But instead of helping these babies, what she did was unthinkable... Also, let me know who you want me to talk about next time. Hope you have a great rest of your week, make good choices and I'll be seeing you very soon. xo  Bailey Sarian I sometimes talk about my Good Reads in the show. So here's the link if you want to check it out. IDK. lol: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/139701263-bailey ________ FOLLOW ME AROUND  Tik Tok: https://bit.ly/3e3jL9v Instagram: http://bit.ly/2nbO4PR Facebook: http://bit.ly/2mdZtK6 Twitter: http://bit.ly/2yT4BLV Pinterest: http://bit.ly/2mVpXnY Youtube: http://bit.ly/1HGw3Og Snapchat: https://bit.ly/3cC0V9d Discord: https://discord.gg/BaileySarian RECOMMEND A STORY HERE: [e-mail]  Business Related Emails: [e-mail] Business Related Mail:  Bailey Sarian  4400 W. Riverside Dr., Ste 110-300  Burbank, CA 91505 _________ Get your first visit for only five dollars at https://www.Apostrophe.com/MAKEUP when you use our code: MAKEUP.  Get the right life insurance for YOU, for LESS, at https://www.SELECTQUOTE.com/MAKEUP.  Cancel your unwanted subscriptions and reach your financial goals faster with Rocket Money. Go to https://www.RocketMoney.com/MAKEUP today!

Hi friends, how are you today? My name is Bailey Sarian and today is Monday, which means it's Murder, Mystery, and Makeup Monday. Today, I'm excited because we have an audio exclusive. Oh yes, this is just for the podcast. This is just for you. I just want to give a disclaimer that today's episode does involve children and infants and death and murder. Hi. I'm sorry. So listener discretion is advised. Today we're going to be talking about Amelia Dyer. Have you heard about her? Because I didn't. So let me tell you about her. Okay. So she lived in the late 1800s and if the estimates are accurate, she killed as many as 400 infants and children over the course of her life. Yes, you heard that number correctly, 400. Again,

these are estimates, but she was convicted of killing six, so it's between six to 400, the number's in there somewhere, and honestly, I think we can all agree that killing six alone is horrific in itself, right? Okay, thank you. I'm glad we agree. A lot of witnesses and neighbors at the time think that police only scratched the surface of what this woman did. So take a journey back with me to Victorian-era England, a time when young women were vilified and the government did nothing to help them. Amelia Dyer, she was born in 1838 in the southwest of England in an area called Pye Marsh. I believe it's Pye Marsh, okay? But this was like, I don't know,

a little small town, a mining district, one would say, but it was near Bristol. So she was the youngest of five children and she was born into like a pretty respectable working class family. She was the daughter of a master shoemaker. Hello. So, you know, she had things to live up to. When Amelia was around five years old, her mom contracted typhus fever, okay? So she gets this and she starts to experience hallucinations and other like mental health problems because of the typhus fever. She was going crazy, okay? And she ended up being admitted to a private asylum for treatment. And then eventually her mom,

Amelia's mom, would return home. So just because her mom was home didn't mean things were better. There was permanent brain damage to Sarah's mind, you know. And so the hallucinations, they would continue and they caused periods of mania. Her speech was also altered and dysfunctional and then in 1848 Amelia's mother passed away. You know the saying when it rains it pours and that seemed to be the case for Amelia because after her mom passed away then her two younger sisters they both passed away from an illness. I'm making an assumption here, but, you know, Amelia ended up leaving school at the age of 14. I'm assuming because she probably needed to help take care of the house and work, you know?

But I don't know for sure. But she left school at the age of 14, and she started an apprenticeship as a corset maker. And then sadly, her father ends up passing away of bronchitis. So now she, well, her parents are dead. Some of her sisters are dead. I mean, what the hell is she supposed to do? So she ends up living at a lodging house. And I know this might be dumb, but whatever. I'll be dumb. Because I was like, what's a lodging house. And I know this might be dumb, but whatever, I'll be dumb. Because I

was like, what's a lodging house? So I Googled it and I'm just, I'm here for you if you're like me. A lodging house is a Victorian era term for a form of cheap accommodation in which the inhabitants are all lodged together in the same room or rooms, whether for eating or sleeping. You're welcome. So she is at this lodging house, and this is where Amelia meets another boarder who was a tradesman just like her father and her brothers. This guy, his name was George Thomas. He was a 57-year-old widower whose wife had just just died I guess like a few months earlier. Look it's the 1800s so you know 24 year old Amelia naturally marries this 57 year old guy named George. It was only five months after the death of his wife when George and Amelia got married which some people

were like hmm it's a little quick and then they actually lied on their marriage license saying that George was 48 years old and Amelia was 30. I guess you know back then even back then in the 1800s people would have thought that this was a little gross. Maybe she was a little too young for him. So one thing you should know is that back in the 1800s, there was a problem. Too many people were having babies outside of marriage. Okay? They did not like this. In order to try and discourage people from having illegitimate children, the, quote, Poor Law Amendment Act was introduced in 1834. This law did a few things,

but one of the biggest was to remove financial obligation from the fathers of illegitimate children. So it was pretty much saying that if a man was to father a child outside of wedlock, he was not forced by the law to provide any financial support to said child. The idea being that if women were left without the option of financial support, they would be more likely to marry before having children. I know this is like that is that's fucked up. In reality, all this law did was make it easier for men to just up and disappear. They really didn't see that coming, I guess. So yeah, they would just disappear, leaving the mother, you know, the mother of their child with very few options. You are so fucked if this happened, okay? Orphanages, they did exist, but they would

only take in what they called, quote, respectable orphans, end quote, meaning the fathers of the children had to be officially documented as dead instead of just being out of the picture. So these poor women would either starve to death themselves or choose to, quote, make an angel of their baby. So this legislation, which was supposed to lower the number of children born outside of wedlock, actually caused a sharp increase in the rate of moms killing their babies.

Okay, listen, some, and like, look, some mothers would attempt to make it look like an accident by smothering the baby. They could claim that they had accidentally rolled on top of the baby in their sleep. Other times, the baby would be abandoned in public. These women, they did not have many choices, you know? It's sad. It's just all around sad. I think we can agree on that. So with all of that being said, going back to Amelia. So remember, Amelia and George, they got married and they're living their life. And Amelia meets this woman named Ellen Dane. They all somehow are living together. Look, I'm not going to get into it because I don't know. I couldn't figure it out. But just know that Amelia meets Ellen. And Ellen really changes Amelia's life. Ellen introduces to Amelia something called baby farming. So baby farming, it sounds, I don't wanna know.

When I first heard the word baby farming, I didn't wanna know. I was like, Bailey, go no further. So with all these new unwanted babies out there, families are adopting or fostering these children when the mothers were unable to care for them. But at this time, it came with a catch. The mothers would pay for the care of their babies. So like you would give your baby away, but then you'd be paying them.

So this is what Ellen did. She would take in pregnant women and then like once they were beginning to show, and then she would provide care for them throughout their pregnancy. This would allow the women to maintain secrecy in society and not become known as an unwed mother. So you'd be hiding out for like nine months because you didn't want people to know that your ass was pregnant and not married.

Wild times, huh? Anyway, so you'd be hiding out with like this Ellen chick. And then once the baby was born, the midwives would accept payment for the continued raising and care of the children. So there were arrangements you could make with these midwives like Ellen, where you could pay a large upfront fee or you can pay in installments. And a lot of the times, like with these installments, the family was agreeing to raise the child for a certain period of time. Like, okay, you're going to have Susie for six months and then I'm gonna come back and like I'm gonna take her back essentially or something like that or maybe five years.

I don't know. But usually there was some kind of like set period of time that they would have the kid. This all started out with good faith, but soon people like Ellen realized how much money could be made, especially with those upfront fees. She's like, cha-ching.

A lot of the time, if the mother was paying an upfront fee to these midwives, it usually meant that the mothers were not coming back. Okay, so Ellen is like, okay, I can just take this lump sum and, you know, who's checking? Who's checking up on me and who's checking up on these kids? Her plan was that she would simply collect the money the mother was offering and then neglect the infant or child until death. This way, all the money would go

straight into her pocket and she, you know, not towards the baby. This is where the term baby farming comes from. People would start adopting babies for profit, farming them like crop of potatoes or something. And just like with a regular farm, the larger the crop, the more money you make. Unfortunately, these shady practices were able to thrive because mothers, like the original mothers, were not often willing to contact police or authorities. I mean, even if they knew their child was missing or dead. So Ellen would advertise her services in newspapers using a fake name. And then when the babies were in her care, she would continue collecting payment, but she would neglect the children by providing them little actual food, often cutting their milk with things like chalk. Then to keep the starving babies from crying, she would give them a helping of Godfrey's

cordial, which is this medicine, quote unquote medicine, which was marketed as a way to calm babies during teething or if they were sick. But the ingredients were ginger, sugar, aniseed, licorice extract, and opium. A healthy dose of opium. No wonder the baby stopped crying. Of course, this product was intended to be used in small quantities, but that didn't stop Ellen from using Cordial to aid in slowly neglecting babies to death. Ellen continued these practices for years until she realized the authorities were beginning to figure out her murderous ways. When she felt like they were getting too close,

she fled to America and avoided being prosecuted for her crimes. With Ellen in the wind, you'd hope the babies of Bristol would be safer. But unfortunately, before she fled, Ellen Dane had already passed along the tricks of her trade to Amelia Dyer. A couple of years into her marriage to George, Amelia started studying to become a nurse at the Bristol Royal Infirmary. But in 1864, she was forced to quit working when she became pregnant. Her daughter, Ellen Thomas, was born in 1864. Yes, she named her daughter Ellen, maybe because it was a super popular name at the time, or maybe because she was really influenced by that friend of hers who was a baby killer, the one we were just talking about. I'm not sure who can say. But Amelia's life took another turn for the worse when her husband George died in 1869. George died of diarrhea. That's what was listed on his death certificate. Diarrhea. After this, Amelia was

forced to quote unquote farm out her then five-year-old daughter Ellen, meaning she was going to have to give her baby away to one of the baby farms. Now with her daughter being taken care of elsewhere, Amelia decided to open her house to baby farming. So she farmed out her own daughter, and now she was being paid to neglect the children of people who were in the same situation as she was. It's both confusing and fucked up. I'm not trying to justify her actions rather than like explain. Remember her husband died. She's on her own. She has to take care of herself. And she learned from Ellen how to make good money by doing this baby farming thing. Maybe she gave away her own daughter, Ellen,

because she didn't want to kill her own daughter. So she was hoping her daughter, Ellen, would go on to have a better life. But then she was in turn taking in other people's babies and then killing them. So this woman is so backwards. Anyways, Amelia, she did learn from the best, Ellen, and she advertised her services under a fake name. She charged between 10 and 80 pounds for the care of a child, which is the equivalent of between $1,200 and $9,000 in today's money. Since she was neglecting these children, Amelia still had enough time in her schedule to return to work in nursing. She became a nurse attendant at the Bristol Lunatic Asylum in 1871. That was not to last, however. While her name is not listed, records show an attendant who was let go after, quote, being deemed overly

aggressive, end quote, with a patient. There was an argument that escalated until said attendant wrestled with the patient, shoving them to the ground. Many believe it was Amelia. Amelia was the only nurse attendant not listed as still being employed in 1872, so if we do the math, we can assume she was the one let go for her aggressions. But not to worry, Amelia had plans outside of her nursing career. In 1872, Amelia, now 35 years old, she met and married her second husband, William Dyer. He was 27 years old, and taking a page out of her previous husband's book, she lied about her age. Amelia is said to be only 29 on her marriage license. I wonder if he knew that, but I wonder what her skincare routine was.

She lied on an official document so much, it's honestly hard to know what to believe. How old was she really? We don't know. Anyway, once again married, Amelia was able to retrieve her daughter Ellen and bring her back to live with her and her new husband William. Ellen returned and would live through her adulthood, apparently never suffering the same neglect Amelia made a habit of with her baby farms. Amelia and William would go on to have an additional two children together. One was a son named William Samuel, the other a daughter named Mary Ann, nicknamed Polly.

Later in life, Amelia would claim to have given birth 13 times, so it's thought she and William may have had and lost other children during this time. In 1877, William was laid off from his job at the sugar factory. Unfortunately, Amelia figured out a way of making up for the loss of income. Around this time in 1877, Amelia began working as a midwife out of her home. We know many of these details from Polly, Amelia's daughter, who would later testify during Amelia's trial. Yeah, there's a trial. And yes, we will get into it. Polly talked about how the sounds of a woman in labor were constant in childhood. Many of the children Amelia helped to deliver were declared as stillbirths and documented as such by coroners.

According to Scotland Yard records from this period, it was thought that midwives knew how to make a baby's death appear to the world like a stillbirth, which would be pretty handy if you knew a lot of desperate women with nowhere to turn. After two years of Amelia's running her midwifery and baby farming business, a doctor finally reported Amelia to authorities. Too many babies and children had died under her care for it to make statistical sense, and it was catching up with her. When Amelia learned she was under investigation, she immediately tried to commit suicide. She did so by ingesting a large amount of opiates she had been using to keep the infants quiet. She didn't ingest enough, though, and survived the suicide attempt. She was put on trial for the death of multiple children who had been under her

care, but there was no proof that the deaths had occurred intentionally. Obviously, there had been massive neglect, with the judge even calling her establishment an infant's hell, for that same judge admitted that her incompetence could not be proven as an intentional criminal act. At the same time, it would have been unthinkable that a woman was purposely committing the mass murder of children. The jury returned a guilty verdict after only 20 minutes of deliberation. But because intent couldn't be proved, she was sentenced to only six months hard labor. While she was gone, her daughter Polly was told by her father that Amelia was sick and receiving treatment.

Amelia's first daughter, Ellen, who had been farmed out as a little girl, left town after her mother's trial. She became estranged from the family, which no one can blame her for. In 1880, Amelia was released from prison right on time. Not looking to return to forced labor anytime soon, she actually attempted to earn money through a series of legitimate jobs. These attempts included a return to nursing, dressmaking, and laundry services. None worked out. Amelia had begun abusing both alcohol and opium and was unable to hold down a job because of these habits.

Not to mention, Amelia's trial was public and received enough attention for songs to be written about it. When she was released, her community was well aware of her past and treated her as such. So the Dyer family decided that they should move from their small hamlet to the larger town of Bristol. Here, again, they attempted to make money legitimately. But by 1884, the family's laundry business failed and Amelia went back to the only job she was able to hold down, baby farming. Knowing the authorities were aware of her past, Amelia and her family moved often to avoid detection. Her husband William didn't enjoy the nomadic lifestyle, and it had a large impact on their marriage.

Yes, the moving was a stressor, but the baby murdering? Less so. By the early 1890s, William and Amelia separated. I guess Amelia had learned something from her previous conviction. First off, she would no longer report the deaths of the infants to the coroners. This meant there was no record of the number of children that were dying under her care. She was then free to kill the children by whatever method she liked and disposed of the bodies herself. She no longer worried about making their deaths seem like Stilbers. So she used varied methods of murder.

This also helped avoid the crimes coming back to her since no pattern could be established, even if the bodies were found. Of course, in some cases, parents did return to Amelia asking for their children back. Because these children were overwhelmingly likely to be dead, Amelia would simply take another child in her care and give them to the parents. Since most passed off their children as newborns, they were unable to recognize that the child wasn't theirs. Again, Amelia was able to avoid suspicion. But she remained on high alert. If she felt authorities were making any gains towards catching her, Amelia would simply check herself into the local asylum.

She would claim she suffered from suicidal thoughts and receive treatment. Once the heat from authorities died down, she would be released from the asylum, claiming to be mentally fit again. Eventually, William decided to forgive his baby-killing wife, and she moved back in with her family. The baby farming business continued to boom. By 1891, suspicions turned once again toward Amelia. Despite her many efforts to avoid suspicion, Amelia was faced with one mother who demanded her child back. Now, this mother had been a governess and had become pregnant after a relationship with one of the sons of the house she worked in. The governess gave her baby to Amelia with intentions to return. Amelia, of course, killed the baby and moved. After the governess ended up marrying the baby's father, her child

became legitimate. So she returned with the hopes of collecting her child, but she couldn't find Amelia. Amelia had used a false name and had since moved, making it even more difficult for the mother to find her. The police eventually did find Amelia and questioned her about this specific child. She was able to lie and buy herself time. Knowing they'd return, she tried to kill herself by slashing at her own throat. She also claimed to hear voices that both told her to commit suicide and threatened that her daughter Polly was trying to kill her. She even threw a knife at Polly,

which stabbed her through the hand. Amelia had not only spent time in an asylum herself, but had also worked in one and also witnessed her mother's mental illness firsthand. Because of all that, no one could say for sure whether she was actually experiencing hallucinations and dangerous delusions at this time, or if she was just particularly good at faking them. She was also addicted to both alcohol and opiates, so even if they were real, the hallucinations could have been self-inflicted. Regardless, this well-timed mental breakdown sent Amelia back into the asylum. Only a few months later, she was once again considered to be recovered and was released. After only a week at home, Amelia was back to business.

She took in yet another child in order to have enough money to move her family again. The family moved. When they arrived at their new home, there was no baby in sight. Finally, in 1893, the former governess who was looking for her baby tracked Amelia down. Amelia quickly went out and bought opiates, enough to kill herself. She ingested the opiates, but once again survived and was admitted back into an asylum. I don't think she was really good at math. She keeps trying to kill herself and like not doing it. After being released from her latest vacation at the asylum, Amelia left her husband William permanently. By this time, Polly had married a man named Arthur and Amelia left to live with them. They moved around often, but somehow still, our persistent and impressive governess

was able to find her once again, still demanding to know what happened to her child. The governess identified Amelia to police. She was not arrested and spent some months in a lunatic asylum. This one, at least, did seem to leave a lasting impact on her. She wrote to Polly, claiming she had lost her soul while under care at the asylum. Or, at least, what little of it she had left. While her mom was gone, Polly didn't just lay around. She had a family business to run. She and her husband took out ads themselves, farming babies without Amelia. Of all the children they took in, only one child would survive and continue moving

with them from house to house. Soon, Amelia returned and was ready to get back to her dark work. But just as she did, newspapers in Bristol began to write stories about the many bodies of infants that were cropping up all over town. Police were once again circling her, and now her many neighbors began to take notice of Amelia's activities. They walked, they talked to police about their suspicions, noting the sheer numbers of babies and unwed mothers that came and went from her house. But Amelia, Polly, and Arthur kept moving, leaving police constantly one step behind. By 1896, Amelia had stopped letting babies waste away and just began strangling them instead. That year, a barmaid named Evelina Marmon placed an ad in a local Bristol newspaper, hoping to find a family to adopt her illegitimate daughter, Doris. Coincidentally,

Evelina saw an advertisement next to hers for a married couple looking to adopt a child. The name on the ad was listed as Miss Harding. Unbeknownst to Evelina, this was one of the many pseudonyms used by Amelia Dyer. Evelina reached out to Miss Harding and arranged care for her daughter. She hoped to arrange a schedule of week-to-week payments, as it was her intention to go back to work and earn enough money to then reclaim her child. Amelia didn't agree to these terms and convinced Evelina to pay her a lump sum for the care of her daughter. Ms. Harding, aka Amelia, claimed to be a married woman with no children of her own. She convinced Evelina that she was not interested in taking a child just for payment, but because she and her husband were fond of children and having one would improve their home.

Evelina was heartbroken to be unable to care for her own daughter, but sent her daughter with a box of her clothes to live with Miss Harding. Evelina received one letter stating that everything was going according to plan with her daughter and sent a response. She would never receive a reply. Amelia ends up taking the girl to the London home her daughter was staying in. There, she used white edging tape to strangle the baby. The tape was normally utilized in dressmaking, which was just one of the many legit careers Amelia had attempted. Amelia tied it around baby Doris's throat, saying she liked to watch the babies with the tape around their necks.

By the next day, after Doris was dead, the tape was removed and used to murder another child, Henry Simmons. Both bodies were put in a carpet bag, which was then thrown into the River Thames. The clothes that Doris's mother had lovingly sent with her were pawned off. Just before the deaths of Doris and Henry, a fisherman found a different carpet bag in the River Thames. This one contained the body of yet another baby, Helena Fry. The girl's body was wrapped in brown paper, on which was the address for a Miss Thomas. This was yet another false name used by Amelia Dyer. The police, who by now were aware of Amelia, quickly connected the alias back to her and placed her home under surveillance. They used a young woman to arrange a meeting with Amelia.

The woman claimed to want to use her services and Amelia agreed. But instead of a young mother, the police arrived at the decided time of the appointment and quickly searched Amelia's home. In the house, police found a wild amount of evidence. Telegrams regarding adoption arrangements, pawn tickets for children's clothing, receipts for advertising, and letters from mothers checking in on their children. Apparently, of all the evidence, the worst was the smell. There was a stench of rotting flesh coming from the kitchen pantry and a trunk under Amelia's bed. Confident they had discovered a baby farm, the police quickly dragged the river Thames, looking for more victims of Amelia Dyer. More bodies were discovered, including those of Doris and Henry. Evidence showed at least 20

children had been placed under Amelia's care in the last few months alone. Police estimated that over the course of the decade she participated in baby farming, Amelia Dyer would have had access to somewhere in the realm of 400 infants and children. So while the only crimes officially linked to her belonged to the six bodies found in the river, this is why her actual victim count is considered to be in the hundreds. Due to overwhelming evidence, Amelia was promptly arrested, along with Polly's husband, Arthur, as an accessory. Amelia was quick to confess, stating, you'll know all mine by the tape around their necks. Like, oh, okay. This may have been a final effort to avoid at least some of the

punishment she deserved, since for years she had used opiates to kill the infants in her care. Maybe that was the only choice she had left once her asylum method would no longer work in her favor. Somehow, there was not enough evidence to charge Arthur or Polly as accomplices for the crimes. Amelia, however, gave a written confession, but only for the murder of Doris Marmon. She also did not implicate her daughter or son-in-law. Arthur was released while Amelia appeared at the Old Bailey. She tried to plead insanity, pointing out her numerous trips in and out of the asylum. While in custody, Amelia used a lot of religious rhetoric, prophesying to other prisoners and hoping she would be forgiven for her crimes by God.

These hopes can be seen in the letter she wrote prior to her trial. Her defense team tried to use her letters as evidence, but the prosecution pointed out she had done this act before. Using her trips to the asylum to avoid detection when police were getting too close had become a hobby for her. Polly testified against her mother, detailing one of the murders, but also being sure to say both she and her husband didn't participate or even fully realized what had happened to the babies in Amelia's care. She claimed Amelia told them both the baby was sleeping and shooed them away when

they tried to see for themselves. She also brought up her mother's delusions and confirmed her many, many, many, many trips to the asylum. The defense also cited her suicide attempts and difficult childhood with her being witness to the horrible death of her mother as evidence that she was mentally unwell. In the end, the trial lasted only two days. The jury declared her guilty in five minutes, shattering the previous 20-minute record of her first trial. This time, her luck had finally run out, and instead of hard labor, she was sentenced to death. While waiting for her sentence to be enacted, Amelia wrote a last and true confession, as well as several poems. Only one poem survives, and it reads, By nature, Lord, I know with grief, I am a poor fallen leaf, shriveled and dry, near unto death, driven with sin, as well with a breath. But if by

grace I am made new, washed in the blood of Jesus, too, Like to a lily I shall stand, spotless and pure at his right hand. It was signed Mother, because sometimes real life is a horror movie. Amelia Dyer was hanged on June 10, 1896. When prompted for her final words, she said, I have nothing to say.

Apparently, she thought the poem said it all. At the time of her death, Amelia was the oldest woman to be executed in over 50 years. In the wake of Amelia's crimes, the Children's Act was passed in the United Kingdom in 1908. It required legal registration for foster parents and allowed authorities to have additional powers to protect children in the foster system. This helped stop people from taking advantage of the system the way Amelia Dyer had. Let's not forget about Ellen, huh? After this law, it became significantly more difficult for a foster family to up and disappear after gaining charge of a child. Between 1917 and

1918, multiple societies were created to help ensure that children would only be adopted by respectable people in stable homes. Even with these organizations, which attempted to ensure baby farming would become a thing of the past, It wasn't until 1926 that child adoption became a legally regulated act in the UK. Prior to that, adoptions were all informal and secretive, largely because of the shame that led to adoption being necessary in the first place. In the mid-1800s, the government created laws that were intended to reduce the amount of children born outside of wedlock and therefore lessen the need for services like foster care or adoption. Instead, they managed to help encourage a business model that relied on the deaths of children. Baby farming preyed on women when they were out of options and led to the death of more children than we'll ever be able to fully account for.

Amelia Dyer was convicted of only a small fraction of the crimes she committed, but at least she was convicted at all. Her mentor, Ellen Dane, managed to live the rest of her life in the United States and avoided being punished at all for her role in baby farming. All the changes to the laws in the UK only started over 10 years after Amelia Dyer was hanged. But prior to her case, the general public couldn't imagine the mass murder of children. That's why she received such a light sentence early in life. Because of this, she was able to continue her horrific crimes for decades to come. But the grisly details of her crimes helped bring to light

the horrible practice of babyyer and baby farming essentially. Unfortunately this is just one story in the grand scheme of many people who were baby farming at this time. She wasn't the only one. She was the one who got caught. And luckily she did because of that, all of these laws came from it. But you know, it's just so sad. It's weird because she cared so much for her own children.

You just think she would have that natural mother instinct when it came to these other children. But maybe it doesn't work like that. I don't know. I don't have children. So I don't have that mother's instinct but I would assume you would care for other children too but I guess that's not the case.

I am uneducated in that field so I apologize there. I want to know what happened to Ellen Dane because you know she continued doing some shady shit. What a basic white name too because it's like if I google that and try and go down a rabbit hole to see what happened to Ellen Dane like I'm do you know how many Ellen Danes there probably are

how am I gonna find her because watch me watch me go down a rabbit hole as soon as I'm done recording this rabbit hole I'm making a note any, I would love to hear your thoughts. Would I though? Not really. This story is sad. I mean, a bunch of babies died. Who knows how many? I was going to say this one's kind of tricky because look, at the end of the day, I think we can all agree killing babies is not it, right? Okay, great. I'm glad we can decide that. But at this time, these women didn't have any options. If you got pregnant, you had to have, if you got pregnant, you had to have these babies. And financially, you were so fucked.

Like, what were you supposed to do? I'm not saying kill the baby, but you would just drop them off and probably never look back and just hope for the best, right? I don't know. Anyhow, it wasn't that funny, you guys. Wow, we laughed, we cried.

I'm just kidding. That was awful. Let me know of any murder mystery and makeup suggestions you may have. But other than that, I hope you have a good day. You make good choices and you be safe out there. And I'll be talking to you guys later. Goodbye.