The Roanoke daily times. (Roanoke, Va.) 1895-1897, 1896-06-11
WAS 4 WHOLESALE HURDERESS
The Execution of an English
Baby Farmer.
Evidently tho Accomplish OF Many Un-
natural Mothers-she is Known to
Have Murdered Forty Children, Prob
ably One Hundred-she Was q Pious
Standardization.

LONDON, June 10.-Mrs. Annie Dyer,
the baby farmer, Of Reading, who was
arrested on April On the charge OF
numbering many infants entrusted to
her care. WAS hanged in New Gate
prison at O'Clock this morning.
Mrs. Dyer was one of the most ex.
traordinary criminals OF she age,
wholesale. cold-blooded murderess. The
police frst became suspicious Of her
and her son-in-law, Arthur E. Palmer,
number OF children, apparently
strsngled to death, were recovered from
the river Thames, where they had been
thrown, weighted down with bricks, etc.
ADMINISTRATION led to she arrest of
Mrs. Dyer and Palmer. Letters found
in her house showed that many Of the
parents with whom she and her accom-
plice had dealings were aware OF the
fate intended for the infants. These
letters were from persons in all ranks
OF society The coreners had long been
puzzled at the fact that so many bodies
OF infants were found in the Thames
between Mapping and Battersea, some
OF them naked and others wrapped in
old linen or brown paper, but all of
them weighted down in some way or
other and all of them evidently
strsngled to death.
The preliminary examination de-
veloped most horrifying state Of affairs.
1t was proved that since Christmas at
least twenty children had been en-
trusted to Mrs. Dyers care, and Of that
number only four were then living. In
addition, prior to Christmas, many
other children that had been placed in
the womans charge:were unaccounted
for and are admitted 10 have been muir
dered.
A conservative estimate places the
number of children killed at forty, but
other estimates have 1t that as many as
100 infants were strAngled or drowned
by Mrs. Dyer.
Mrs. Dyer and her son-in-law lived In
Reading, where they had great repua
tation for piety. Mrs. Dyer had been
arrested on four previous occasions, but
somehow she not only managed TO ca
cape punishment but succeeded in main
tanning her reputation for piety. But In
court. the woman's nerve entirely de.
serted her. She had detected. terri
fed look and apparently was in despair
and saw the gallows ahead.
The baby farmer was q gaunt, yet
fairly good looking woman OF about
fifty years OF age. and she seems to have
0ChtNS0 HdAbC kOOQ lnCOue IECh Qcf
crimes.
Three children were found at Mrs.
Dyer's residence when she was arrested.
They were boy years OF age, q girl
OF years old and boy months
old. There is little doubt that they
would have gone the way OF the other
charges OF the baby farmer had the lat
ter not been arrested.
Some idea OF the extent OF the bust
ness done by Mrs Dyer may be gathered
from the statement that baby clothes
weighing nearly 800 pounds were found
at her house when the police made the
first search. A box containing the de-
posed body Of an infant has also dis
covered in the woman's dwelling, evils
IDENTIFY having been placed there while
she awaited an opportunity to throw il
into the Thames.
ten confession, admitting the murders
OF which she was accused. Il WAS
proposed to introduce the plea Of In
sanity in her defense. She WAS ex-
amined later by q physician employed
by the home office and was declared to
be sane.
On May 81 Mrs. Dyer was indicted
for murder and on the following day she
WAS sentenced to death.
In prison Mrs. Dyer made several at
tempts to commit suicide. At Reading
she tried to strangle herself with her
shoe laces. Some time later she tried
TO force 9 handkerchief down her
throat and upon another occasion she
attempted to cut her wrist against
piece OF iron. Her last attempt at
suicide WAS on May 90. In New Case
prison, when, while lying in bed, ap-
psrently asleep, she twisted handker.
chief around her throat and almost sue
ceeded in strangling herself