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Amelia Dyer: The Woman Who Only Killed New Borns (Female Murder Documentary) | Absolute Crime — Transcript

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0:00you going to mug me I I going to mug you
0:02is that gorgeous or what e and I believe
0:05I can run a de American download V
0:10[Applause]
0:12now welcome to the Dark World of the
0:15lady killers
0:17[Music]
0:21[Applause]
0:23[Music]
0:24[Applause]
0:26[Music]
0:45why do people
0:47kill if there's one thing I've learned
0:49in my time as a crime writer it's that
0:51there are a million and one motives for
0:53murder but in the case of a serial
0:56killer what could be the motive for not
0:58one but a lifetime time of
1:01murders
1:02power
1:04corruption
1:05blackmail or maybe the most common one
1:08of all
1:10money or more precisely
1:15greed this is Amelia D perhaps Britain's
1:19most prolific serial killer a woman who
1:21is notorious for many years but whose
1:23name is barely known
1:25today she was no all painting but there
1:28are many more reasons why would be hard
1:30to paint a pretty picture of The Life
1:32and Times of Amelia Dy Amelia Dy killed
1:35for money nothing KN in that even in
1:38Victorian England but what is
1:40astonishing about Amelia is that all of
1:42her victims were
1:44newborns Amelia D delivered fostered and
1:47adopted illegitimate babies for
1:51money if you gave her 5s and the baby
1:56she would take the baby and either have
1:58it adopted
2:00or raise it
2:02herself but of course what she really
2:04did was kill it and take the
2:115B Amelia D was a murderer and she knew
2:15what she was doing this was a calculated
2:17career plan that she'd embarked on and
2:19sustained over 30 years come what
2:23may she say she felt peaceful after she
2:26put the baby's body in the river she
2:28used to look at them and dve some kind
2:30of pleasure and some kind of perverted
2:32maternal perspective on these babies who
2:34she just killed you know as as they're
2:36lying there she gets some kind of
2:39glue using many aliases and addresses
2:42Amelia D evaded detection for decades
2:45despite complaints of police in the
2:46pursuit of young mothers desperate to
2:48know the fate of their babies she
2:51disposed of a lot of them straight away
2:53by throwing them in in rivers but we
2:56also believe that she kept hold of the
2:58parcels for a while while until the
3:00body's decomposed so that there would be
3:02no chance of the babies being traced
3:04back to
3:06her the letters that survived tell of an
3:09articulate persuasive and plausible
3:11woman rather than a Savage butcher who
3:13killed and killed again for a period of
3:1530 years she wrote These adverts that
3:18would were very cleverly crafted saying
3:20that the child would be looked after and
3:22they'd been wanting a child for a long
3:24time and it would be loved it would be a
3:26caring home all these things were
3:28hitting exactly the right buttons for a
3:30young mom who you know was giving a
3:32child
3:35up in 1896 Amilia D's career caught up
3:39with her the body of a baby that she had
3:41adopted and murdered was found in a
3:43package dumped in the river and was
3:44traced back to her
3:46address at the time of her arrest Amelia
3:49D was 56 a stocky middle-aged woman with
3:52gray and brown hair the ordinariness of
3:54the picture betraying an evil
3:57within cold heart
4:02unfearing those kids meant nothing to
4:04her it was just a means of getting
4:10money upon her arrest it emerged that
4:13she' narly escaped discovery on several
4:15occasions even preferring to be
4:17committed as insane rather than face up
4:19to her
4:21crimes I don't think ailia D was insane
4:25I think she was a very bad person
4:30who
4:31deliberately committed murder for
4:35profit I am fascinated by milia dial not
4:38just because of the Savage nature of her
4:40crimes and the innocence of the victims
4:43but also because of the sheer
4:45volume this was a 30-year career um and
4:49at her worst we know that there were six
4:51babies a day various other points six
4:53babies a week even if this was one
4:55infant death a month over 30 years
4:57looking at 400
5:01but who was Amelia
5:03Dyer and what made her kill this
5:05shocking number of children over such a
5:07long period of time and how could such
5:10horrific crimes be so very easily
5:16forgotten as a crime author I'm
5:19intrigued by what circumstances and
5:21forces combine to create crimes and
5:24criminals and nowhere is this more
5:26gripping than in the story of the 19th
5:28century baby killer Amelia
5:31D Amelia D prematurely ended the lives
5:35of an estimated 400
5:37babies I'm interested to know what would
5:40prompt this woman to richly kill baby
5:42she was being paid to look
5:45after I want to find out all that I can
5:48about the real Amelia di but because she
5:51lived in Victorian times there are
5:53actually no living Witnesses and know
5:56people who are close to her so I'm going
5:58to start my search with all that's left
6:00of
6:05her this is temps Valley Police Museum
6:08and all the evidence relating to Amelia
6:10diary is kept here so I'm going to go
6:12through now and see what they've
6:20got Kim who was Amelia D um Mrs D was a
6:25lady who set up quite a lucrative
6:29business
6:30of fostering children that couldn't be
6:33looked after by the mother or father and
6:38she would adopt them for a fee for
6:40looking after the child which could be
6:43something like
6:4520340 I know you shouldn't sort of
6:48accuse people because of what they look
6:49like but she does look like quite a
6:51Stern person doesn't she I don't know if
6:54I'll be quite happy leaving any of my
6:55children with no
6:59[Music]
7:01Amelia D's lifetime was Victorian
7:03England a time of social extremes where
7:05person's life chances were randomly
7:07dictated by factors of class and wealth
7:10Dickens did a really good job of
7:12describing social conditions in the
7:151850s and 60s certainly there were a lot
7:19of poor people there were a lot of
7:22neglected and abandoned
7:24[Music]
7:26children Victoria in England has been
7:28recorded as a time when Family Values
7:30were a priority and it's a period that
7:33Margaret Thatcher revered and tried to
7:35revive in the 1980s but a close
7:37examination of the history of that
7:39period paints a very different
7:43picture there was no work there was no
7:46social services there was no
7:49welfare one in every 12 women was a
7:52prostitute a child being born under
7:55normal circumstances only had a 50%
7:58chance of reaching age of five so that's
8:01how bad it was dead infants or abandoned
8:05infants were as common place on the
8:07streets of British cities as roadkill
8:10today babies were found parcel up in
8:12Railway stations under Railway
8:17arches it was desperation by the vast
8:20majority of these ladies the whole
8:22illegitimacy thing was seen as hugely
8:25immoral even orphanages would only
8:28accept orphans from families where the
8:31parents were married and the father had
8:32died they wouldn't accept a child who
8:35was born out of wedlock by the mid 1800s
8:38Victorian society was facing widespread
8:41poverty and a rising illegitimacy
8:42epidemic and new laws were needed to
8:45address these problems in 1834 the
8:48British government passed the PO law
8:50Amendment act and this was one of those
8:52spectacular pieces of Victorian wisdom
8:55aimed at preventing premarital relations
8:58because what it did was to actually
8:59exacerbate an already existing problem
9:02because men could father illegitimate
9:05children and not be expected to pay for
9:08the consequences leaving women stranded
9:11completely abortion was not an option
9:15that most people considered so the
9:17simplest thing to do was hide have the
9:21baby and get rid of it pay somebody to
9:24take care of it or pay somebody to get
9:27rid of it
9:29designed to protect the sanctity of
9:31family life the illegitimacy laws would
9:33backfire and create new social problems
9:36the biggest one of these would turn out
9:38to be the baby
9:39Farmers so clim what was exactly baby
9:42farming baby farming was a business
9:47carried out throughout the
9:50country uh whereby if a mother was
9:54unable to look after their child there
9:57was an option of sending it to a baby
10:00farmer or or known as fostering uh on
10:03the understanding that they could go and
10:05visit the child whenever they wanted to
10:08farming out literally is where the
10:10expression comes from either on a weekly
10:12fee in which case they're referred to as
10:13nurse children or on a permanent basis
10:16for a oneoff sum they were actually
10:19providing a service legitimate ones they
10:22were what the Ware does today you would
10:25take a a child that was abandoned or was
10:28not wanted
10:29and then give them to a foster parent
10:32and that's what these people were doing
10:33for
10:35money established to assist with the
10:37adoption and fostering of children baby
10:39farming was a lucrative practice while
10:42many acted in good faith it was
10:43unregulated and unpoled and therefore
10:46open to
10:47exploitation had the bad ones like aad
10:51who started getting rid of the children
10:53they couldn't pass on to other foster
10:55parents you took the babies in you got
10:58quite a a reasonable feed
10:59and then you didn't do anything with
11:00them you let them die of starvation or
11:02or you hasten their
11:06end Amelia D would become the most
11:09notorious baby farmer of them all born
11:12in Bristol far from the poverty of a day
11:14nothing in her background would point to
11:16the path she would
11:18take for the time she had a pretty good
11:21start her father had a good trade and
11:23paid for her to go to a church run
11:26school um which at the time only a
11:28quarter of children her age actually got
11:31an education so she was privileged in
11:33that
11:38respect blessed with a comfortable
11:40childhood in the Bristol suburbs life
11:43would change dramatically for Amelia
11:45when her mother contracted typhus fever
11:47and suffered from violent hallucinations
11:50and delusions she witnessed her mother
11:52basically losing her mind and dying a
11:54slow horrific death and I guess being a
11:57a young girl she may have even been
11:59called called upon to you know nurse her
12:00mother slightly or at least wait upon
12:02her despite her young age at the time
12:05her mother's illness and death would be
12:06a defining influence on the rest of
12:08Amelia's life Amelia was later to claim
12:12that mother died as a result of of
12:14hereditary Insanity um and I think
12:17though this isn't true it's really easy
12:19to understand how she could have
12:21remembered it that way it would
12:23certainly have a massive impact on her
12:25and she may have learned a few little
12:27things about what kind of symptoms may
12:29be shown by someone who's losing their
12:34mind the enjoing memory of the severity
12:37of her mother's illness and the early
12:38demand to be a carer may have also
12:40influenced her choice to train as a
12:42nurse at the Bristol Royal infirmary
12:44Amelia turned to one of the most arduous
12:47professions she could have turned to
12:49nursing was just starting to change it
12:51was post Crimean War nursing was
12:53starting to have a much better profile
12:56um as a result of Florence Nightingale
12:59but it was still a thankless
13:04profession it wasn't such a caring
13:06profession as it is present day they
13:08train you psychologically to be a lot
13:10more robust around dealing with people
13:13so she became quite Hardy and
13:15emotionless from having been trained
13:18through the nursing
13:25regime in
13:271864 26-year-old Amelia fell pregnant
13:30with her first child women were not
13:32allowed to continue working once their
13:34pregnancies began to show so Amelia left
13:38nursing but it wouldn't be long before
13:40she discovered another way of putting
13:41her train into use when a young woman
13:43called Ellen Dayne came to border at her
13:46[Music]
13:48house Ellen Dayne was a
13:50midwife but she earned additional money
13:55taking in women who were illegitimate
13:57who wanted to keep their pregnancies
13:58quiet
14:00and she offered the additional service
14:02of then adopting The Unwanted offspring
14:05of these women she was a baby
14:10farmer Amelia could see it was a very
14:12easy way to make money although with
14:15risks involved obviously and you know
14:17milia did have training as a midwife as
14:19well through her nursing experience so
14:22it was certainly something that she knew
14:23she was capable of
14:25doing that was the beginning of a
14:29massive change in in the direction
14:30Amelia's life was to
14:33take the influence of Ellen D would take
14:36a few years to incubate but surface when
14:39Amelia's husband George Thomas died and
14:42she was faced with a hard realities of
14:44being a single mother in Victorian
14:46England aware of the rich pickings the
14:48trade could generate Amelia decided to
14:50open a baby Farm but first she made a
14:53chilling and telling decision
14:57[Music]
15:02it was a choice that she made she had
15:04options she could have kept her child
15:06she could have worked through but
15:08instead what she does is to farm her own
15:10child out and to opt for the easy money
15:14that she'd seen elen Dayne able to make
15:16mommy is everything going to be
15:19okay as Amelia chose to go into the baby
15:23farming business she was maybe you know
15:25traveling Around Here There and
15:26Everywhere adopting babies so it made
15:28sense for her daughter to be out of the
15:35wayed come
15:39[Music]
15:41on on any day in any newspaper Ed would
15:44run soliciting for the weekly monthly or
15:47even yearly care of infants all aimed at
15:49the mothers of illegitimate babies who
15:51wouldn't be able to work with the added
15:53liability of a child in
15:561846 Amelia's ad started to appear along
15:58alongside the rest she opened the doors
16:00as a as a House of confinement accepting
16:04women at the point where their pregnancy
16:05was no longer concealable um and seeing
16:08them right through to the delivery of
16:10the child and then just as DNE had done
16:12either saying goodbye to mother and
16:14child offering to keep the child on a
16:17weekly fee or a permanent adoption for a
16:20much more considerable
16:23[Music]
16:25fee by the mid 19th century the
16:28estimated to be almost 2,000 baby
16:31farmers in London alone such was the
16:33supply of illegitimate babies and many
16:36like Amelia recruited mothers through
16:38charming and persuasive
16:40correspondents this one
16:43here is an advert that she read in the
16:49local paper yeah whereby uh a lady is
16:53asking is anybody available to Foster
16:56her child and she wrote a letter to the
16:59lady saying that she was prepared to uh
17:03Foster this child well I do like the bit
17:06here where she said I do really want a
17:08nice baby I don't mind boy or girl I
17:10would love either and I don't mind a
17:13small sum to pay for it so she obviously
17:16must have had quite a nice way with her
17:17for these people to trust
17:19her Amelia was already aware of the fact
17:22that this was not going to be her
17:23helping children this was going to be a
17:25fairly cruel and anti-m mothering act uh
17:29that would be taken that would be
17:31actually carried out in order to gain
17:33all this
17:34money life in the baby Farms would have
17:36been Grim domestic dormet is housing ill
17:39and sickly babies showing the results of
17:41a Savage
17:42practice baby farmers use different
17:44methods that I know of some of which are
17:48less palatable than others quite often
17:52she would smother babies at Birth
17:54suffocating the baby at the moment it
17:56its head came out so that it um
17:59didn't turn blue because that was a sign
18:01that it had taken its first breath so it
18:03would look like a still birth so the
18:05death certificate would be all above
18:07board the one-off premiums were
18:10certainly not enough to sustain a
18:12child's life for long financially and
18:15the only way that it would be profitable
18:17for a baby farmer was to subject a child
18:20to persistent underfeeding that would at
18:24some point bring about the infant's
18:26death
18:28[Music]
18:29and of course a hungry child is a noisy
18:31child is a difficult child to raise um
18:34and what they referred to was something
18:35that was chillingly referred to
18:37colloquially as the quietness this was
18:39an over-the-counter anticolic cordial
18:42and it did contain liquid opium which
18:45was linum and in some cases
18:50Brandy people gave babies Lum who were
18:53supposed to be giving them food because
18:56it DED the I guess D the need or the
19:00awareness of the baby that it was hungry
19:03of course it didn't nourish the baby So
19:05eventually a baby that was given that
19:07and not given enough food would
19:14[Music]
19:21die Amelia you know would have been
19:24quite drawn to the idea of
19:26self-medicating if you like um possibly
19:29seeing it as a root you know to to ease
19:31the situation to make it even easier for
19:33her to put up with what she was
19:38doing she took it on a regular basis she
19:40took it you know almost daily so she was
19:42an addict so that would you know induce
19:45a form of um you know state from her
19:48mentally where she'd be detached from
19:50reality and I think that was part of her
19:52coping mechanism to detach from you know
19:54reality of what she was doing
19:58[Music]
20:03by the end of the
20:041860s the scale of the national
20:06infanticide epidemic had started to get
20:08noticed by Parliament and the pressure
20:10was on for Action the high-profile
20:13arrest of brickton baby farmer Margaret
20:16Waters in 1870 threatened Amelia's
20:19livelihood Margaret Waters had The
20:22Misfortune to be
20:24caught uh having killed somebody's baby
20:30who actually didn't want the baby
20:32killed Margaret Waters and her sister
20:35were investigated and it was found that
20:37four other babies had died of neglect in
20:40their care in a very short
20:43period what the marget waters case did
20:46was to confront British Society the
20:49ruling classes with the scale of the
20:51problem of infanti side and baby farming
20:54so that it could no longer be ignored it
20:56turned it into a scandal for the first
20:58time and somebody had to hang and guilty
21:01or not Margaret Waters had to
21:03hang during the course of the trial
21:06there was evidence brought forth that
21:07connected Amelia D to Margaret Walters
21:10Amelia had worked under the pseudonyms
21:12of Mrs Harding and Mrs Smith and both
21:15names were mentioned at the Old Bailey
21:16hearing and as a result in the Press
21:19aware that her brutal business could be
21:22exposed Amelia went into hiding she saw
21:25colleagues beginning to struggle Ellen
21:28danne
21:29had fled the country to the states
21:30pursued by the police Waters had hanged
21:34and so she gave up baby farming and
21:36moved into the anonymity of the Asylum
21:38as an
21:39[Music]
21:41attendant come on it's Time come on she
21:45was a very clever lady with the police
21:49getting close to her then she needed to
21:51lose herself and what what better place
21:54but to go to somewhere like that
22:00for a time it looked like Amelia was a
22:02reformed woman she married again to
22:04William Dy in 1872 and settled down into
22:07a standard Family
22:12Life their attempts to establish their
22:14self- sustaining life however were
22:16disastrous I've lost my job and when yet
22:19another business venture failed Amelia
22:21was once again back on the
22:25farm once he loses his job that's it she
22:27seems to go you know straight back into
22:29it big
22:31time it would be easy to argue that
22:33Amelia is the victim the hard times
22:36forer to ever Desperate Measures but it
22:39wouldn't explain why she would return as
22:40a more menacing murderer time and time
22:43[Music]
22:44again committed what many serial killers
22:48um do uh the mistake of accelerating and
22:52being over enthusiastic either for
22:54reasons that she was you know either
22:56enjoying the process or qu simply greed
22:59was driving her over the
23:01edge as the pressure was increased
23:03across the country for raising the
23:05standards and conditions of infant care
23:08Amelia's practices once again came under
23:10police scrutiny when four of her nurse
23:12children died within the space of two
23:14weeks suspicions were aroused and
23:17inquests were ordered into the
23:21death convinced that the full extent of
23:23her criminal career will be exposed in
23:25the cult Amelia D decided on a very
23:28different
23:30ending Amelia Dar took a massive Lord
23:34overdose she was found to have emptied
23:37two bottles of
23:39lham during the process and she was
23:41raging she was
23:44delusional and her favorite phrase at
23:47the time I took about the right amount
23:49I'm part doctor myself it was certainly
23:51a dose that was sufficient enough to
23:54have carried her off she very nearly
23:56died but the fact that she survived it
23:58at all is a very strong indication that
24:01she had a prior tolerance to the
24:03drug she certainly did genuinely tried
24:06to kill herself um because that it was
24:10you know it had all fallen down around
24:11her that was it she was you know she was
24:14caught two bottles of lorda would have
24:16killed most people but not Amelia D she
24:20had come close but her failed attempt to
24:22take her own life was to prove a costly
24:24mistake both for her own immediate
24:26future and the countless children
24:28children who would subsequently die by
24:30her
24:34hand Amilia Dy is one of the most
24:36prolific British serial killers D lived
24:39in the 19th century England and had a
24:41Savage and brutal career as a baby
24:43farmer taking advantage of the fact that
24:45illegitimate babies lives were all but
24:47worthless in Victorian
24:50Britain Amelia D fosted an adopted
24:52babies and then she killed them for
24:55profit the more children she murdered
24:57the more money she
24:59made in 1879 the police had a chance to
25:02nail her as a coldblooded murderer
25:04Amelia Dy had been arrested after four
25:07of her infants had died suspiciously
25:09within the space of two weeks the
25:12inquests are held both in the city and
25:14in sumerset and they're pretty certain
25:17that these babies have died as a direct
25:19result of neglect an opium overdose but
25:22they can't prove it and interestingly
25:25she gets off with a six-month sentence
25:28of with hard labor Amelia was charged
25:32under the infant Life protection act
25:34where the prosecution were required to
25:36prove that she was aware that the opiate
25:38she administered would cause death
25:40rather than a CIS sleep the difference
25:43between a murderer or carried away Cara
25:46she managed to side step The Gallows but
25:48without a sympathetic
25:51coroner she'd have been hanged in
25:571879 it's incredible really that she
25:59just got 6 months there was one example
26:02we read of a chap who got sentenced to
26:0412 months for stealing a piece of
26:08bacon in the long term it mostly would
26:11have served as a very hard lesson in
26:14forensic awareness that she wasn't going
26:16to get caught again and there was no way
26:19she was going to leave any evidence
26:20which had been the problem leading up to
26:23her
26:25capture at this point in her life Amelia
26:29is 46 if the calculation of her killing
26:31spr is correct her toll of murders would
26:34have reached
26:35100 I want to know how she was capable
26:38of abusing and then killing innocent
26:40babies dependent infants that look to
26:43her for life I also want to know why she
26:46repeatedly returned to Baby farming
26:48could it have been more than pure
26:51greed there was obviously more to it
26:54than just the money there was something
26:55else about her that was enabling her her
26:58to commit these horrific
27:01crimes could Amelia Dyer have been
27:03fueled and simultaneously numbed by the
27:06lordin them and alcohol cocktail she was
27:08administering certainly the drugs would
27:10have had an impact on her without a
27:12doubt on her mental state maybe induced
27:15you know this complete Detachment from
27:19reality a long-term Lord and habit will
27:23lead to periods of of depression they
27:25can lead to mood swings even when you're
27:27not Under the Influence I think it also
27:30exacerbates any underlying mental health
27:33issues if you accept you had the mental
27:35illness did it contribute to her
27:37criminal Behavior or could it be that
27:40they coexisted and I tend to think that
27:42her criminal Behavior which went on for
27:44such a long time and it it's done in
27:46such a calculated way uh wasn't related
27:48to her to her mental illness the actual
27:53killing of the child and watching the
27:55child peacefully to some degree die it
27:57paral
27:58perhaps seeing her mother U pass away
28:01where she felt an almost Godlike power
28:04over these children uh that she had
28:06decided we're going to go to their
28:10maker by 1884 pressure was mounting for
28:13the reform of the laws on infant care
28:15and baby farming was becoming a very
28:18Risky Business there was just a change
28:21in the public attitude and it was more
28:23risky because you were more likely to be
28:25reported if you were seen you know with
28:27a with with an obviously looking sickly
28:30or abused child she couldn't have all
28:33these neglected children lying around
28:36anymore she definitely changes her her
28:38modus operand at this point she
28:41doesn't use the slow neglect she's
28:44beginning to to murder these children by
28:48strangulation Amelia's murderous method
28:51had become ritual she had developed a
28:53precise practice that chillingly
28:55maximized the efficiency of her limited
28:57resources
28:59but that was as casual for her as it was
29:05routine she would go to the town where
29:07she was to collect the baby
29:10from get the
29:13money take the baby get
29:17home take out some
29:21tape tie the tape around the baby's
29:24neck and pull
29:27[Music]
29:29baby would stop
29:32breathing she would wrap the baby in a
29:35package of brown paper tie it up with
29:40string and drop it into the
29:43penss with a
29:46brick the idea of strangling and using
29:49the tape may seem almost symbolic or or
29:52bizarre to to to ourselves but in terms
29:55of criminal awareness she was aware of
29:57the the fact that if she' tried to
29:59suffocate a baby it's not always
30:01absolutely certain that the baby is dead
30:03and tape around the neck meant that
30:05child was never going to come round
30:06again the first however many times when
30:09it's a new thing it's probably you know
30:12a difficult process without a doubt but
30:14the more she does it the more
30:16desensitized she is to doing it and I
30:19think for her is all she kept in her
30:21mind was the end result which was
30:24getting the money and you know bringing
30:26the next baby in and the next baby in
30:29Amelia also made a routine of her
30:30Recruitment and responded daily to
30:32notices in the papers by now she was
30:34deliberately targeting children from
30:36wealthy families where the financial
30:38return would be greater but climbing the
30:40social ladder as a baby farmer brought
30:42new risks Amelia was taking on the
30:45babies of educated people people who
30:47would not be so easy to Due pomis lead
30:51in 1890 young Governor discovered to her
30:53cost that Amelia D was not the good
30:55mother she promised or appeared to be
30:58this young woman would be the beginning
31:00of the undoing of Amelia
31:07D this was a young governor who had
31:11fallen in love with the young Master of
31:12the House that she worked in and and and
31:14had got
31:17pregnant she was left on her own and she
31:20responds to an advert gets in touch with
31:22Amelia D and moves in with
31:26her Amelia was eight able to gain the
31:29trust of this woman as with many others
31:31and um so much so that the governor was
31:34persuaded to leave her baby in the care
31:36of Amelia once once it was
31:41born a couple of months later the
31:43governor returned to pay the final
31:48payment Amelia arrives cradling a baby
31:51that the governor knows is not her own
31:53this is a two three-month old child and
31:55she knows this isn't her child
31:58Amelia tries to fobber off infants
32:00change a great deal in three months she
32:02tells her but the governor strips the
32:04baby's clothes looking for a birth milk
32:06on on her child's hip which of course
32:08isn't there coming back tomorrow and I
32:09want my
32:10[Music]
32:17baby but this was a tragedy that was far
32:19from over like many mothers before her
32:23the governor's repeatedly tried to
32:24reclaim her child from Amelia even
32:26bringing the police with her on several
32:29occasions well miss we have a problem
32:32this but each time Amelia made her
32:34familiar excuses no that's not my
32:36despite knowing that the baby in
32:37question had died a long time before and
32:40by her own hand situation SED see you
32:43next week she managed to put them off
32:45Time and Time Again by sending them on
32:47Wild Goose chases pretending the baby
32:49had been adopted by a couple that lived
32:50here a couple that lived there
32:52relocation relocation relocation just
32:55one of the ways Amelia D managed to
32:57evade the authority
32:58aided and abetted by an endless stream
33:00of alyses and a cruel ability to string
33:03innocent parents long
33:04indefinitely with the governor on a
33:06trail Amelia D is once again under a
33:09spotlight and Under
33:12Pressure she did feel hounded and hunted
33:15for a good many years whichever way she
33:17turned eventually there'd be a knock on
33:19the door with the governor and and a
33:20police officer and I'm sure that would
33:22have had an impact on her she would have
33:24felt that
33:25pressure the governor certainly raises
33:29the very real Prospect of of another
33:31prison sentence and that does seem to
33:33have a dramatic effect on Amelia's
33:35mental
33:35[Music]
33:39stability she suddenly has these period
33:42where she turns completely iral
33:44threatened suicide the doctor was called
33:46in and she flew at
33:49him she was hearing voices the birds are
33:52telling me to do it to do it um yes
33:55seemingly having a bit of an episode so
33:58much so that she was sent to an
34:02asylum but is she mental on metic
34:05Amelia's breakdown seemed to be time to
34:07coincide with a possible capture and
34:09also provided her of a convenient escape
34:12to get into a Victorian asum you needed
34:14a medical certificate and you needed the
34:16magistrate agree into it so you couldn't
34:17just walk in uh so I think at those
34:21stages uh she she was uh she was
34:26unwell her breakdowns were very
34:28shortlived even if she did kind of have
34:30a bit of an emotional collapse it was
34:32very very very short period of time and
34:33then she picked herself up and got it
34:36all back together again so I mean to me
34:38that would say that there isn't a mental
34:40illness
34:42there she should never fell apart while
34:44she was killing children she never fell
34:46apart while she was disposing of bodies
34:48um she only fell apart when it looked
34:51like there might be a confrontation with
34:53the
34:54law from the Asylum Amelia was
34:56eventually trans ferred back to the
34:58workhouse in 1895 but it's clear that
35:01even here she was plotting a comeback
35:03she befriends an old lady called Jane
35:05Smith who's widowed and she's resigned
35:08to spending her last days in the
35:10workhouse and Amelia seduces her really
35:12with stories of rescuing The Unwanted
35:14infants of single mothers and nursing
35:17them and it's a very very seductive
35:19image and Jane Smith buys into it
35:24wholesale Amelia's clever plot thickened
35:27she groomed Jane Smith to be the perfect
35:29front for her next assault on the young
35:31mothers of Britain Jane Smith was
35:33instructed to refer to Amelia as mother
35:36and in turn Amelia would call her Granny
35:38Smith the perfect family unit that any
35:41mother would feel comfortable
35:42surrendering their baby to Jane Smith
35:45didn't get the life she was promised at
35:46all she was treated as no more than a
35:48servant really um she was made to look
35:50after the children to clean the
35:55house Amelia seems to know now adopt
35:58infants with Fury so fast they're coming
36:01and going at such a speed that Jane
36:04Smith never gets a chance to learn their
36:06names she never knows from one minute to
36:08the next you know what child's in the
36:10house then it's taken out
36:13again eyewitnesses neighbor reports are
36:16saying that there's six infants a day
36:18coming to the house and that as many
36:20times as they're arriving they're seeing
36:22her leave the house with another
36:26baby Jane Smith has no idea where these
36:28infants are
36:29going she's beginning to feel very
36:32uneasy about the
36:37situation already suspicious about
36:40Amelia's actions and intentions the
36:42turning point for Granny Smith was just
36:44around the
36:46corner granny finds a shop in readin
36:50which had been turned into The National
36:52Society of prevention AC City children
36:54center and that's when she saw the
36:56photographs
36:59the children at being
37:01misused and that's when Mrs Bennett came
37:03out and asked her what was wrong help
37:05you how could you do this to these poor
37:08little children granny said I'm I'm a
37:10nurse to Amelia D and she takes these
37:13children in and before I can actually
37:16get attached with them they disappear
37:19the nspcc was 3 years old at this point
37:22and was Waging War on child CR in
37:24mistreatment the woman's husband was an
37:26nspcc officer called Charles Bennett but
37:29despite visiting Amelia dy's house his
37:32concern was confined to her unregistered
37:34status a lack of Records rather than the
37:37welfare of the baby's present he asked
37:39whether she had any license to do this
37:42she said she didn't and then he reported
37:44that to the police um he also reported
37:47to his headquarters and his headquarters
37:49said make a record of this and keep her
37:52under observation and that's what he did
38:00just a few weeks later it was Granny
38:02Smith who first noticed a terrible smell
38:04coming from one of the kitchen cupboards
38:06it seemed to be coming from a strangely
38:08wrapped parcel on the
38:14Shelf a lodger living in one of the
38:16downstairs rooms began to complain of
38:18the smell and so one morning um Amelia
38:22got up and characteristically early and
38:25cleaned the cupboard out scrubbed it and
38:28was seen to leave the house with a brown
38:30paper parcel under her arm saying that
38:33she was going to take some clothes to
38:34the porn
38:41shop there was a TS bargan he was on the
38:45river and he saw this package in the
38:50river he hooked it out and it's a brown
38:52paper
38:55parcel now inside that
38:58was a body of a baby with tape around
39:01the
39:01neck and then inside the package there
39:05was a name and
39:08address Amelia had been careless not
39:11only had the parcel fa to sink but one
39:13of her older dresses was still clearly
39:16visible written within the package but
39:19the capture of Amelia dial wouldn't be
39:21so cut and DED the name on the path was
39:23a Mrs Thomas and the police would have
39:26to be as clever as a criminal to bring
39:28Amelia Dyer to
39:29[Music]
39:32trial Amelia Dy is one of Britain's Most
39:34Fascinating and prolific serial killers
39:37in a career that lasted 30 years she
39:39killed into the hundreds and managed to
39:42escape detection several
39:44times but by 1890 she had started to
39:47make
39:51mistakes one of the babies that had been
39:54retrieved from the river had been WRA up
39:57in brown paper and it hadn't been in the
40:01river terribly long and when the police
40:04uh unraveled the paper and on some of
40:07the brown paper she had left a name and
40:10address uh of where she lived which was
40:13one of the ruses
40:15[Music]
40:16absolutely Mrs
40:18Thomas at Picket Road and Picket Road is
40:22where our ailia D was living under the
40:25name of Mrs Thomas
40:31from that moment on it was down to good
40:33old-fashioned police work to make the
40:35connection between the name and address
40:36on the parcel and Amelia
40:39di this is di can we have a word
40:42[Music]
40:45please Amelia tried to wriggle out of it
40:48tried to pretend she wasn't who she was
40:50that she operated by a different name um
40:52but the police had none of it what have
40:55we got here at that time it would only
40:57been very simple evidence they would
40:59have been looking purely for clothing
41:01and things which would link to the
41:03children which had been
41:05found they found a house bulging with
41:10evidence of the adoptions of babies
41:12reams of letters from mothers arranging
41:14adoptions cupboards full of clothes and
41:17a jar stuffed full of porn tickets where
41:20infant clothes had been
41:22porned we' have to invest them can you
41:26come with me please
41:35so here's Amelia's
41:37hair why would they have kept a locker
41:39hair all that time ago I mean what were
41:41the the state of the forensics in those
41:42days well I don't I have no idea really
41:45I've often pondered on this whether it
41:47was taken for forensic reasons for
41:50example if any of this hair could be
41:52matched to the hair uh on the uh
41:56clothing of the babies that have been
41:58retrieved from the river but I don't
42:00really feel that the advancement of
42:03looking at hair was the same as it is
42:06today it seemed a bit ghoulish somehow
42:08doesn't it having her
42:09here um so this is her child sheet and
42:12it says here she did feloniously
42:14willfully and with malice of forethought
42:16kill and murder a certain female infant
42:19Helena fry daughter of one Mary
42:22fry Amilia was taken to the reading
42:24police station where the first thing she
42:26did was to attempt suicide again this
42:29time by removing a bootlace and tying it
42:31round her neck with a knot under her
42:34right ear in the same way that she'
42:35strangled her
42:38infants the police dredged the river
42:40looking for more evidence and on the
42:4210th of April 1896 a carpet bag
42:45containing Doris Maron and Harry Simmons
42:48was discovered the carpet bag was a key
42:51piece of evidence Amelia had a nurse
42:53child an older boy um living in the
42:56house and he identified the carpet bag
42:58as his
43:00[Music]
43:03own over the course of the dragging
43:05operations upwards of 50 babies are
43:07pulled out of the temps between reading
43:10and London and Amelia says well you'll
43:12know All Mine by the tape around their
43:16necks with the news tightening around
43:19Amelia's neck her daughter and
43:20son-in-law were also arrested as
43:22accessories to murder Amelia was so
43:25distressed by this that she confessed
43:27and wrote a letter taking all
43:29responsibility for the crimes as God
43:32Almighty is my judge in heaven as on
43:34Earth neither my daughter Maryanne
43:37Palmer nor her husband Alfred Ernest
43:40Palmer I do most solemnly declare
43:42neither of them had anything at all to
43:45do with it they never knew I
43:47contemplated doing such a wicked
43:50thing she knew the chances of her living
43:54through uh a trial like this uh and
43:57coming out and being just given a
43:58sentence of prison or something would
44:00virtually nil um women of this statue
44:03were almost always
44:06hanged she decided a plea of insanity
44:09was going to be the only possible way
44:12that she was going to get off she
44:13claimed that there was Insanity in the
44:15family because of her mother mama mama
44:19to go for a plea of insanity what you're
44:22effectively trying to do is stop them
44:23executing you there's two questions that
44:25come out that did she know what she was
44:27doing yes she did did she know what she
44:29was doing was wrong simple question if a
44:32police officer was standing beside you
44:33would you have done it no you know it's
44:36wrong the jury said she's sane she's
44:41[Music]
44:43guilty on the 10th of June 1896 Amelia
44:47Dy was executed at Newgate wall like
44:50many of a victim she felt a noose around
44:52her neck and suddenly knew no
44:55more her death closed a case book on one
44:57of the most deadly serial killer cases
45:00in British
45:03history the idea that over time Amelia
45:06will have dispensed with you know
45:08possibly 500 children um is is quite
45:11remarkable because you know you would
45:13think that someone would get become
45:15jaded uh or at least would start to feel
45:17you know that some kind of pangs of
45:19conscience that you are cannot carry on
45:21slaughtering these
45:23babies she had a final interview and she
45:27described the murdering she described
45:29the voices that drove her to murder and
45:31she said I used to like to watch them
45:33with a tape around their neck this was a
45:36woman who grew to love what she did to
45:38these children she grew to like the act
45:42and standing back and watching the child
45:46die amila Dar is one of the most brutal
45:48and consistent serial killers we have
45:50come across in this series her crimes
45:53have to be seen in the context of the
45:54times in which she lived Victor England
45:57was a brutal and barbaric period where
45:59the life of a child and bastard children
46:01especially was
46:04worthless so when we remember the
46:06crimes even in history we should always
46:10remember the victims
46:14[Music]
46:38[Music]

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