Amelia Dyer

Amelia Elizabeth Dyer, known as the Ogress of Reading, was a British serial killer active from 1869 to 1896. After training as a nurse and being widowed in 1869, she turned to baby farming—taking in unwanted infants for payment—and eventually murdered many of them, making her a possible contender for the most prolific serial killer in history.

Born Amelia Elizabeth Hobley on 27 November 1837 in the village of Pyle Marsh, near Bristol, she was the fifth of seven children. Her father, Samuel Hobley, was a shoemaker; her mother, Sarah, suffered from mental illness caused by typhus, which led to violent fits. Amelia had to care for her mother until Sarah’s death in 1848. Two of Amelia’s sisters died young: Sarah Ann in 1841 at age six, and another sister named Mary Ann in 1845 as an infant. After her mother died, Amelia lived with an aunt in Bristol and later apprenticed as a corsetmaker. Following her father’s death in 1859, her eldest brother Thomas took over the family shoe business. In 1861, at 24, she became permanently estranged from her brother James and moved into lodgings on Trinity Street in Bristol.

While in Bristol, she married 59-year-old George Thomas; both lied about their ages on the marriage certificate—he deducted eleven years, she added six. She trained as a nurse but left the profession after giving birth to a daughter. George died in 1869, leaving her in need of income. She soon began taking in young women whose children were born out of wedlock, either housing them or advertising to nurse and adopt infants for a one-time fee and clothing, promising a safe, loving home. In 1872, she married William Dyer, a brewer’s labourer, and had two children with him, but eventually left him.

After a few years, Dyer stopped letting children die through neglect and began killing them soon after receiving them, keeping most of the fee. In 1879, a doctor grew suspicious of the number of child deaths he had certified in her care, leading to her arrest. She was sentenced to only six months’ hard labour. After release, she tried to resume nursing but was admitted to lunatic asylums several times for mental instability and suicidal tendencies, often at convenient moments to disappear. Having worked as an asylum nurse, she knew how to behave to ensure a comfortable stay.