Female serial killers whose grisly crimes shocked Victorian Britain including ‘baby farmer’ who murdered up to 400 children
One woman murdered her boss, boiled her flesh and threw the pieces into the River Thames
THE Victorian era saw some of the world's most notorious female serial killers - including one evil woman who murdered 400 children in her care.
Chilling black and white photographs reveal the faces of those whose crimes horrified 18th century Britain.
Victorians were fascinated with women who killed as they were considered the "weaker sex" and it was thought almost unimaginable at the time that women were capable of committing murder.
But they most certainly were and the country's first ever convicted serial killer was Mary Ann Cotton who brutally murdered 21 people - 11 of those her own children.
Another included Kate Webster, 30, who killed her employer, boiled her flesh and then binned her remains in the River Thames.
AMELIA DYER
Amelia Dyer is considered one of the worst serial killers in history and is believed to have murdered up to 400 babies.
In Victorian-era England, the practice of baby farming - where women would pay people to take custody of their unwanted infants - was widespread.
For over twenty-years, Dyer worked as a baby-farmer and adopted hundreds of infants for a hefty wad of cash across Bristol and Reading.
But instead of caring for them she would allow them to starve, but she soon began killing the kids as soon as the parents had paid and left.
After a doctor became suspicious over the sheer number of deaths at the house she was sentenced to six months labour and when released continued working as a baby farmer where she began disposing of the bodies herself.
In 1896 the body of an infant was found in a bag in the Thames at Reading. She was arrested and the jury took four and a half minutes to find her guilty.
BODY COUNT: 400
MARTHA NEEDLE
Don't let the air of sophistication about her fool you, as Martha Needle poisoned her husband, three children and future brother-in-law.
She was allegedly a kind woman and her friends were shocked when they found out what she was found guilty of.
The Australian national had grown up in a violent and abusive household and had shown signs of mental health issues as a teen.
After her children's deaths she spent the insurance money on an elaborate family grave which she visited regularly.
She was hanged on 22 October 1894 aged just 30.
BODY COUNT: 5
MARY ANN COTTON
Britain's first convicted serial killer responsible for the deaths of 21 people with teapot full of arsenic.
Mary Ann killed her mother, eight of her own children, seven stepchildren, three husbands, a lover and a friend.
The reason behind her bloody crimes? To collect their insurance policies.
Arsenic poisoning would often go undetected as it mimicked other common medical conditions in the 1800s.
She was hanged at Durham County Gaol on 24 March 1873.
BODY COUNT: 21
MARY PEARCEY
The only female suspect in the Jack the Ripper case, Mary Pearcey, 24, murdered her lover's wife, Phoebe Hogg and Phoebe's 18-month baby.
Mary was living in Kentish Town, London and started an affair with Phoebe's husband Charles Creighton.
Her cunning plan was cut short when a cop found the body of a woman in Hamstead with severe blows to her head - nearby was a bloodstained pram.
The next day Phoebe's baby's body was found.
Mary's house was raided by police and they found blood splats everywhere, including murder weapons - a poker and a carving knife.
BODY COUNT: 2
AMELIA SACH AND ANNIE WALTERS
Baby farming became a business in the Victorian era that would see mums drop off unwanted babies at a high cost.
Two best friends Amelia Sach and Annie Walters ran a "lying-in" home in East Finchley, London.
Amelia's and Annie's clients were mostly servants from local houses who had become pregnant and who had employers who were keen for the matter to be resolved discreetly.
Amelia and Annie charged new mothers for lying-in and also for adoption of the baby after.
But the pair would actually collect the baby after it was born and then fatally poison the child with chlorodyne.
Their landlord, who also happened to be a cop, eventually caught the sick duo. During Amelia's and Annie's trial at the Old Bailey the quantity of baby clothes found at the lying-in home was used to indicate the sheer scale of their crimes.
It is believed that they killed over a dozen infants. Amelia and Annie became the first women to be hanged at Holloway Prison on 3rd February 1903
BODY COUNT: 12
CONSTANCE KENT
Constance killed her four-year-old brother when she was just 16 years old. Her half brother Francis disappeared from the family household in Somerset during the night in June, 1860.
The next morning his little body was found in an outhouse with his throat slit with other knife wounds to his chest.
Initially a nursemaid was suspected of the murder but she was soon released without charge.
Five years passed, before there was a dramatic turn of events when Constance confessed to murdering her brother with a razor stolen from her father.
The ensuing court case received widespread attention in the national press and even Charles Dickens was fascinated by it.
Constance was sentenced to death but this was changed to life imprisonment owing to her youth at the time of the murder.
She served twenty years in various prisons including Millbank Prison and then disappeared from records.
In the 1970s it emerged that she had changed her name to Ruth Emilie Kaye, emigrated to Australia and became a nurse.
She died there, aged 100, in 1944.
BODY COUNT: 1
KATE WEBSTER
It's not uncommon to not like your boss, but Catherine 'Kate' Webster took that to a whole other level.
Kate carried out one of the most savage murders in Victorian England after she dismembered her employer Julia Martha in Richmond.
On 2 March 1879 servant Kate, 30, then boiled Julia's flesh and chucked the remains in the River Thames.
There were even allegations that she offered her dead employer's fat to neighbours and local children to use as dripping or lard.
Kate went on the run after the murder and even impersonated her dead employer for two weeks.
After she was caught she earned the nickname The Richmond Murderess.
BODY COUNT: 1
MOST READ IN NEWS
FRANCES LYDIA ALICE KNORR
When Frances was 19 she moved to Australia with her lover Edward Thompson while still married to her husband.
But after he ended the affair with her she found herself skint and living in Melbourne, Australia.
So she set up a baby farming business.
Dubbed the Baby Farming Murderess, Frances would either sell these infants to couples who couldn't have kids or instead strangle them to death.
After the discovery of the dead body of a baby girl in her garden, Frances, 25, was arrested and was charged with the murder of two further infants.
Frances confessed to the murders just before she was executed by hanging at Old Melbourne Gaol. Her death mask is still on display at the prison.
BODY COUNT: At least 3
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