Victorian Baby Farming Killer: Amelia Dyer

Betwixt The Sheets: The History of Sex, Scandal & Society

History Hit

Society, Sex, Scandal, Education, History

4.8 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 11 July 2023

⏱️ 44 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In Victorian Britain, there was no formalised state adoption. Instead, desperate mothers paid other families to take their newborns. This tragic system was known as baby farming.

As we’ll find out in today’s episode, Amelia Dyer was a notorious serial killer who saw this as a money-making opportunity, cruelly deceiving mothers and killing infants over a 30 year period.

How did she get away with it for so long? What was society’s reaction to these shocking revelations? Kate is joined by Angela Buckley, author of Amelia Dyer and the Baby Farm Murders, to take us back to Victorian Britain and find out.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Everyone leaves a legacy.
0:02.2	But a legacy can change over time as new generations
0:05.6	re-examine old preputations.
0:07.6	From Wundery and Gohanger podcasts, I'm F4hersh.
0:11.0	I'm Peter Frankapan, and in a brand new series,
0:14.0	we're exploring the lives of some of the biggest characters in history,
0:17.4	from Napoleon to Picasso.
0:19.2	And asking, what does their past tell us about our present?
0:23.4	This is legacy.
0:24.7	Follow now wherever you get your podcasts.
0:30.0	This is my extra-enphasized, fair dues warning,
0:36.8	because we're talking about serial killer who murdered babies in the 19th century.
0:41.7	And if that doesn't offend you and upset you,
0:44.7	then perhaps that's something that you want to work on.
0:48.3	Hmm?
0:48.8	This is an adult podcast spoken by adults to other adults in an adult-y way,
0:52.3	and you should be an adult too.
0:55.2	If you want to hang around and keep listing after that little lot,
0:58.6	and if you happen to get offended, which, to be frank,
1:01.9	I hope that you do, then really, you can't blame anyone but yourself,
1:05.2	because fair dues you were warned for the rest of you.
1:08.3	Let's do this!
	...

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