Episode 5305: Dark Enigma - The Baby Butcher - One of Victorian Britain's Most Evil Murderers

Please be aware the stories, theories, re-enactments and language in this podcast are of an adult nature and can be considered disturbing, frightening and in some cases even offensive.  Listener Discretion is therefore advised.  Welcome heathens welcome to the world of the weird and unexplained.  I’m your host, Nicole Delacroix and together, we will be investigating stories about the things that go bump in the night, frighteningly imagined creatures, supernatural beings and even some unsolved mysteries but I promise all sorts of weirdness.  So, sit back, grab your favorite drink, and prepare to be transported to today's dark Enigma....  And on today’s Dark enigma well, I got an interesting email with another story I had never heard before, so as always it sent down some truly dark Interwebs rabbit holes, so I hope you like it too!  So, with that said, we will still be playing our drinking game and as you know, the drinking game is only for those of us that are at home and have nowhere else to go tonight.  The choice of libation, as always my darlings, is yours, so choose your poison accordingly… Alright, now for the game part how about every time I say child that will be a single shot and every time I say Dyer, that will be a double shot.  Now that the business end is out of the way we can jump headfirst into today’s dark enigma… so don your best corset, top hat, bustle and petticoat as we dive into today’s offering Of The Baby Butcher - One of Victorian Britain's Most Evil Murderers That a man should kill a child is appalling; that a woman should kill a child is  unthinkable; but a woman who kills eight children and perhaps many more. Amelia Dyer was known as the Reading Baby-farmer; having once been a member of the Salvation Army, she was a figure of trust to those parents or guardians who, over the years, accepted her offer to adopt unwanted children, and were more than happy to pay her the regular boarding fees for their upkeep. But their trust was badly shaken when in 1885 a boatman on the Thames noticed something unusual floating in the water. Rescuing it, he was shocked to find that, wrapped in a brown paper parcel, was a dead baby, with a tape tied tightly round its neck. The parcel bore an address: Mrs Thomas, Piggotts Road, Lower Caversham.