Description
Book SynopsisA forensic study of the trial of Amelia Dyer, one of Britain's most prolific serialkillers, thought to have murdered up to 400 babies. This book explores how life in Victorian England created the ideal conditions for Ameliato establish herself as a baby farmer, taking infants from desperate women inexchange for payment. It examines what motivated her to kill and go on killing: her need for moneyversus her role as custodian in a cult that worshipped Lucifer and delves into her personal life, taking evidence from hundreds of contemporarytrial 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 lackof legal and effective birth control affected even the highest in the land. QueenVictoria, after having given birth to nine children,was advised by physicians forthe sake of her health to have no more. Her diaries complain of no more fun inbed' as the only legal and safe way to avoid pregnancy was abstinence fromsexual intercourse. It was against this backdrop that Amelia Dyer carried out her monstrous campaign. In1856, she began advertising in local papers under assumed names and reassuringbackgrounds,offering to adopt newborn babies in exchange for fees that varied accordingto the means of the mother. Her40-year-long killing spree only ended witha local policeforce sting operation.
