Baby Farmers

I was in a fantastic bookstore in Bath called Topping and Company Booksellers of Bath and a gentleman there recommended the Jospehine Tey mysteries by Nicola Upson.  This is one of those fantastic and beautiful independent booksellers with ladders spanning ceiling high shelves packed full of books and tables stacked with all sorts of lovely finds.  Perfect for every bibliophile.  Their sales staff give spot on recommendations over tea.  When last I visited I walked away with several kilos of books.  

Anyway, this post is not about amazing bookstores but about baby farmers.  In the third installment of the Josephine Tey series Upson tackles the historic crime phenomenon of baby farming.  Specifically, the Finchley Baby Farmers.  

Amelia Sach and Annie Walters are said to have killed in excess of a dozen infants.  Sach advertised her services for unwed mothers, she would charge for their care and for the birthing process, and then would charge a fee for adopting the infants out to deserving families.  The infants were not adopted out.  Instead, Sach employed Walters to kill the infants and dispose of the remains.  

There were other infamous cases of this practice.  Margaret Waters, who was hanged in 1870, is said to have drugged and starved nineteen infants.  Amelia Dyer, who was hanged in 1896, operated over a thirty-year period.  Rhoda Willis was the final baby farmer to be hanged in 1907.