Amelia Dyer

Amelia Elizabeth Dyer, born Hobley on 27 November 1837 and executed on 10 June 1896, was a British serial killer known as the Ogress of Reading. She killed infants placed in her care between 1869 and 1896. After training as a nurse and losing her husband in 1869, Dyer began baby farming—taking in unwanted children for a fee to support herself. At first, she looked after the children properly, alongside raising two of her own. But after a neglect conviction in 1879 that brought six months of hard labour, she switched to directly killing the infants she "adopted," strangling at least some of them. Her crimes prompted tighter adoption and child protection laws, and boosted the profile of the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC), founded in 1884.

Dyer was the fifth of six children born to Samuel Hobley, a shoemaker, and Sarah Hobley (née Weymouth) in the small village of Pyle Marsh, east of Bristol. Her childhood was shadowed by her mother’s mental illness, caused by typhus, which led to violent fits; Amelia had to care for her until her death. Historians later wondered how this shaped her own mental health and what it taught her about spotting signs of mental illness. An older sister, Sarah Ann, died in 1841 at age six, and a younger sister, also named Sarah Ann, died in 1845 as an infant. After her mother died in 1848, Amelia lived with an aunt in Bristol and then apprenticed with 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 at least one 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—George subtracted eleven years, Amelia added six. She trained as a nurse but had to quit after giving birth to a daughter. George died in 1869, leaving her needing income. She soon discovered an easy way to earn money: renting rooms to young women with illegitimate children, then sending the babies away for adoption (baby farming) or letting them die from neglect. Alongside housing expectant mothers, she advertised to nurse and adopt children for a large one-time payment plus clothing. In ads and meetings, she claimed to be respectable, married, and able to provide a safe, loving home. In 1872, she married William Dyer, a brewer’s labourer from Bristol; they had two children, but she eventually left him.

After a few years, Dyer stopped letting children die slowly from neglect and starvation. Instead, she killed them soon after receiving them, pocketing most or all of the fee. Police arrested her in 1879 after a doctor grew suspicious about the number of child deaths he had certified in her care. But she was convicted only of neglect and sentenced to six months’ hard labour. After release, she tried to return to nursing. She was admitted to lunatic asylums several times for mental instability and suicidal tendencies, always at moments when it was convenient to disappear. Having worked as an asylum nurse, she knew how to act to secure a comfortable stay. During this period, she likely began abusing alcohol and opium-based products, and her instability may have stemmed from substance abuse. In 1890, she cared for a governess’s illegitimate baby. When the governess visited, she grew suspicious, stripped the child, and found no birthmark. Authorities became suspicious, and Dyer either had or faked a breakdown. She once drank two bottles of laudanum in a suicide attempt but survived because long-term use had built up her tolerance.

Soon after, Dyer returned to baby farming and murder. Realizing that having doctors issue death certificates was risky, she began disposing of bodies herself. Her activities again drew police attention and inquiries from parents trying to reclaim children. She and her family moved frequently to different towns and cities to avoid suspicion, regain anonymity, and find new clients. Over the years, she used many aliases. In 1893, she was discharged from her final asylum stay.

Her downfall began when a bagged infant corpse was found in the River Thames, with evidence pointing to her. Police arrested her on 4 April 1896. In one of the Victorian era’s most sensational trials, she was found guilty of murdering infant Doris Marmon and was hanged on 10 June 1896. At her death, only a handful of murders were officially linked to her, but she is believed to have killed hundreds, making her a candidate for history’s most prolific serial killer.