Wolf in sheep’s skin

It was found that an English nurse turned out to be one of the worst serial killers, Britain has ever seen. According to criminal records archives, Amelia Elizabeth Dyer, killed 400 babies in the Victorian era

In what looks like a practical adaptation of Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hide, an Englishwoman fondly called the “Angel Maker” one has now emerged as Britain’s worst-ever serial killer. In a spine-chilling discovery, it was found that she brutally killed 400 babies in the Victorian era, according to criminal records from 1770 through 1934 placed online by the National Archives.

According to reports, Amelia Elizabeth Dyer, born in 1829 in Bristol, killed about 400 babies - mostly illegitimate infants - between 1880 and 1896. The killings horrified society, and the public outcry led to stronger regulations on adoption and foster care in England.

Dyer was a trained nurse and decided to be a caretaker who would look after children until they were placed in foster care or were adopted, because it was a more lucrative business. She advertised her services and got responses from desperate unwed mothers who gave their children to Dyer for a fee to place them for adoption. Greedy Dyer was quick in pocketing the fee from the mothers – mostly impoverished laborers - but never took care of the babies. Instead, she gave them an opiate drug to keep them sedated and let them starve to death, says the report.

For almost a decade Dyer continued to do her nefarious activities, but was arrested for child neglect and sentenced to six months in prison. It was then that she was believed to have realized that killing the children immediately would be easier and safer than putting them to a slow death.

After her probation period, Dyer moved to Reading, which had liberal adoption rules, and started an adoption agency. She preyed on unmarried mothers who were more than relieved to hand over their unlucky children to Dyer. Some of the mothers asked her to kill their illegitimate children while others trusted her to find their children a loving home, say reports.

Dyer reportedly strangled the babies with a dressmaking tape and threw the bodies to the River Thames. She could continue her crimes unabated as doctors at the time couldn’t differentiate a stillborn baby from one that was strangled, reports say.

She continued her ghastly crimes for about three decades until 1896, when she was arrested after scores of bodies fished out of the Thames aroused suspicion and triggered an investigation. When interrogated, Dyer confessed to the crimes.

She was sentenced to death and hanged at Newgate Prison June 10, 1896.