Amelia Dyer

Amelia Elizabeth Dyer (née Hobley; 1837 – 10 June 1896) was one of the most prolific serial-killers in history, murdering infants in her care over a 20 year period in Victorian Britain. She was tried and hanged for one murder, but there is little doubt she was responsible for many more similar deaths—possibly 400 or more.

Background

Dyer was not the product of grinding poverty. She was born the youngest of five (with three brothers, Thomas, James and William, and a sister, Ann) in the small village of Pyle Marsh, just east of Bristol (now part of Bristol's urban sprawl known as Pile Marsh), the daughter of a master shoemaker, Samuel Hobley, and Sarah Hobley née Weymouth. She learned to read and write and developed a love of literature and poetry. However, her childhood was marred by the mental illness of her mother, caused by typhus. Amelia witnessed her mother's violent fits and was obliged to care for her until she died, raving, in 1848. Researchers would later comment on the effect this had on Dyer, and also what it would teach Dyer about the signs exhibited by those who appear to lose their mind through illness.