The Baby Farm Murderer : The Story of Amelia Dyer, the Victorian Serial Killer

A forensic study of the trial of Amelia Dyer, one of Britain's most prolific serial�killers, thought to have murdered up to 400 babies. This book explores how life in Victorian England created the ideal conditions for Amelia�to establish herself as a baby farmer, taking infants from desperate women in�exchange for payment. It examines what motivated her to kill and go on killing: her need for money�versus her role as custodian in a cult that worshipped Lucifer and delves into her personal life, taking evidence from hundreds of contemporary�trial and government records, memoirs and newspaper articles, and investigating what it was about society and policing in the late nineteenth-century that allowed her to get away with it for so long. The nineteenth century was a horrible time to be a woman in England. The lack�of legal and effective birth control affected even the highest in the land. Queen�Victoria, after having given birth to nine children,�was advised by physicians for�the sake of her health to have no more. Her diaries complain of `no more fun in�bed' as the only legal and safe way to avoid pregnancy was abstinence from�sexual intercourse. It was against this backdrop that Amelia Dyer carried out her monstrous campaign. In�1856, she began advertising in local papers under assumed names and reassuring�backgrounds,�offering to adopt newborn babies in exchange for fees that varied according�to the means of the mother. Her�40-year-long killing spree only ended with�a local police�force sting operation.