Mon, Oct 20, 2008
As a young girl, Bristol-born Amelia Dyer watched her mother die in pain and it is assumed this had a traumatising effect on her. She qualified as a nurse and became a baby-farmer, looking after others' babies. After deaths of children in her care she was charged with neglect and served six months in jail. Later she spent time in a mental asylum but carried on baby-farming. In 1896 she was hanged for the murder of Doris Marmon, a child in her care, but is suspected of having killed many more infants.