Amelia Dyer Research Paper

During the 18th century, one of the most notorious serial killers was a woman named Amelia Dyer. Till this day she’s known as “Angel Maker”, the worst serial killer that Britain has ever had. Within a span of 20 to 30 years, she killed about 400 babies. No one was sure why she did it, but when she was asked one day, she said “After I got a baby something seemed to say in my ear, “get rid of it””.
Amelia Dyer was born in 1837, and as a child, her life wasn’t that great. Her mother was extremely ill with a disease called typhus. Typhus is an infectious disease caused by rickettsia, characterized by a purple rash, headaches, fever, and usually delirium, and historically a cause of high mortality during wars and famines. There are several forms,

After she got out, she decided to cut off any medical help from doctors, and to just get rid of the babies herself. She would kill the babies by strangling them with a dressmaking tape then she’d throw the bodies in the river Thames. For decades Amelia Dyer got away with her gruesome crimes, until 1896, when endless bodies were found in the Thames River. The police traced the bodies back to Amelia by finding an address on a newspaper used to wrap up the body of a little girl. She confessed to committing the crimes, and told the police “You’ll know all mine by the tape around their necks”. While in court, it apparently only took the jury 6 minutes to decide if Amelia was guilty. She was sentenced to death by hanging on June 10th, 1986. No one knew why Amelia Dyer was the way she was, but it could have been caused by the trauma she had of dealing with her incredibly ill and psychotic mother. Either way she did have some sort of mental issues, and on top of that, she was known to abuse alcohol and opiates through her adult life. There have been numerous serial killers all over Britain, but Amelia Dyer, the “Angel Maker”, is still known as the worst