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The Victorian Nurse Who Murdered Babies
Jack the Ripper seems rather tame compared with this woman
Victorian England was not kind to single mothers. They were judged harshly by the socially-conservative standards of the time and condemned to a life of shame and poverty. An unmarried woman could either starve, become a prostitute, or seek help from a foster carer. The baby would then be looked after by a nurse (also known as a baby farmer) for a weekly fee or a one-off payment if the child was being adopted permanently.
Whilst many baby farmers acted in good faith, others used the trade for financial gain. The initial fee was the only thing that mattered. Once the money had been received, babies were either drugged to death or murdered outright.
And there was one woman who exploited this villainous practice more than any other:
Amelia Dyer.
The deeds of Mrs. Dyer
In the late 1860s, Dyer started to advertise her services as a baby farmer in local newspapers. She opened her baby farm in the Bristol suburb of Totterdown and charged unmarried, pregnant women to enter her home when they could no longer hide their pregnancies.
Due to the shame, some mothers actually asked their babies to be killed as soon as they were…
