Due to the graphic nature of these killer's crimes,

listener discretion is advised.

This episode includes discussions of murder,

child murder, child abuse, and neglect.

We advise extreme caution for children under 13.

On a bitterly cold January day

in the Riverside town of Reading,

Mrs. Bennett was waiting for her husband to finish work.

Mrs. Bennett, who will call Emily,

stood in the foyer of the national society

for the prevention of cruelty to children,

trying to keep warm by the fireplace.

Despite the harsh weather,

she always enjoyed coming to meet Charles at his office.

The NSPCC had been formed 12 years earlier in 1884.

Its creation was sparked by a number of upsetting news stories,

tales of babies being given up for foster

by well-meaning parents, then starved

or smothered to death by their so-called caregivers.

These stories rattled Emily to her core.

As a mother, she couldn't imagine anything worse

than being forced to give up her child,

...