Midwife hanged in 1896 was probably Britain’s most prolific serial killer

The advertisement in the “Miscellaneous” column of the Bristol Times & Mirror newspaper was poignant. “Wanted,” it read, “respectable woman to take young child.” It was a sadly common request in Victorian Britain, where life was particularly hard for unmarried mothers. The ad had been placed by 25-year-old Evelina Marmon, who two months earlier, in January 1896, had given birth in a boarding house in Cheltenham to a little girl she named Doris. Evelina was a God-fearing farmer’s daughter who had gone astray, left the farm for city life and resorted to work as a barmaid in the saloon of the Plough Hotel, an old coaching inn. READ MORE HERE
Harold Shipman is generally considered to be Britain’s worst serial killer, with more than 250 murders ascribed to his name. But hidden among the tales of habitual drunks, petty thieves and small-time fraudsters published online last week sits the file of a little-known Bristol-born woman who may well have killed more. While largely forgotten today, Amelia Dyer’s crimes paved the way for one of the most sensational trials of the Victorian era – and spotlighted the pandemic problem of infanticide in 19th century Britain. Her Prison Commission file, now visible online, logs Dyer’s final moments on the scaffold at Newgate Gaol on June 10, 1896, and records her hanging with characteristic Victorian efficiency: “On account of her weight and the softness of the textures, rather a short drop was given. It proved to be quite sufficient.” READ MORE HERE