Amelia Elizabeth Hobley (1837 – 10 June 1896), popularly dubbed the Ogress of Reading, was an English serial killer who murdered infants in her care over a thirty-year period during the Victorian era.

In one of the most sensational trials of the Victorian period, she was found guilty of the murder of infant Doris Marmon and hanged on 10 June 1896.

[4] At the time of her death, a handful of murders were attributed to Dyer, but there is little doubt she was responsible for many more similar deaths—up to 400 (or possibly more), making her a candidate for history's most prolific serial killer.

[5][6][7] Dyer's case led to stricter laws for adoption and child protection, and helped raise the profile of the fledgling National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC), which formed in 1884.

From contact with a midwife, Ellen Dane, she learned of an easier way to earn a living—using her own home to provide lodgings for young women who had conceived illegitimately and then farming off the babies for adoption or allowing them to die of neglect and malnutrition.

Godfrey's Cordial—known colloquially as "Mother's Friend" (a syrup containing opium)[9]—was a frequent choice, but there were several other similar preparations.

Dr. Greenhow, investigating for the Privy Council, noted how children "kept in a state of continued narcotism will be thereby disinclined for food, and be but imperfectly nourished."

At some point in her baby farming career, Dyer decided to forgo the expense and inconvenience of letting the children die through neglect and starvation; soon after the receipt of each child, she murdered them, thus allowing her to pocket most or all of the fee.

The experience allegedly almost destroyed her mentally, though others have expressed incredulity at the leniency of the sentence when compared to those handed out for lesser crimes at that time.

Dyer at one point drank two bottles of laudanum in a serious suicide attempt, but her long-term use had built up her tolerance to opium products, and she thus survived.

In January 1896, Evelina Marmon, a popular 25-year-old barmaid, gave birth to an illegitimate daughter, Doris, in a boarding house in Cheltenham.

Coincidentally, next to her own, was an advertisement reading: "Married couple with no family would adopt a healthy child, nice country home.

Evelina Marmon wanted to pay a more affordable, weekly fee for the care of her daughter, but "Mrs. Harding" insisted on being given the one-off payment in advance.

There, Dyer quickly found some white edging tape used in dressmaking, wound it twice around the baby's neck and tied a knot.

At a secluded spot she knew well near a weir at Caversham Lock, she forced the carpetbag through railings into the River Thames.

As well as finding a label from Temple Meads station, Bristol, he used microscopic analysis of the wrapping paper and deciphered a faintly legible name—Mrs.

Additional evidence they gleaned from witnesses, and information obtained from Bristol police, only served to increase their concerns, and D.C. Anderson, with Sgt.

This may have been designed to help the detectives to positively link Dyer to her business activities, or it may have simply given them a reliable opportunity to arrest her.

[6] The police calculated that in the previous few months alone, at least twenty children had been placed in the care of a "Mrs. Thomas", now revealed to be Amelia Dyer.

At the inquest into the deaths in early May, no evidence was found that Mary Ann or Arthur Palmer had acted as Dyer's accomplices.

In Reading Gaol she wrote (with her spelling and punctuation preserved): Sir will you kindly grant me the favour of presenting this to the magistrates on Saturday the 18th instant I have made this statement out, for I may not have the opportunity then I must relieve my mind I do know and I feel my days are numbered on this earth but I do feel it is an awful thing drawing innocent people into trouble I do know I should have to answer before my Maker in Heaven for the awful crimes I have committed but as God Almighty is my judge in Heaven an on Hearth neither my daughter Mary Ann Palmer nor her husband Alfred Ernest Palmer I do most solemnly declare neither of them had anything at all to do with it, they never knew I contemplated doing such a wicked thing until it was too late I am speaking the truth and nothing but the truth as I hope to be forgiven, I and I alone must stand before my Maker in Heaven to answer it all witness my hand Amelia Dyer.

Her family and associates testified at her trial that they had been growing suspicious and uneasy about her activities, and it emerged that Dyer had narrowly escaped discovery on several occasions.

However, the prosecution argued successfully that her exhibitions of mental instability had been a ploy to avoid suspicion; both committals were said to have coincided with times when Dyer was concerned her crimes might have been exposed.

However, inquiries from mothers, evidence of other witnesses, and material found in Dyer's homes, including letters and many babies' clothes, pointed to many more.

She became known as the "Ogress of Reading", and she inspired a popular ballad: The old baby farmer, the wretched Miss DyerAt the Old Bailey her wages is paid.In times long ago, we'd 'a' made a big fy-erAnd roasted so nicely that wicked old jade.

[13]Adoption laws were subsequently made stricter, giving local authorities the power to police baby farms in the hope of stamping out abuse.

Two years after Dyer's execution, railway workers inspecting carriages at Newton Abbot, Devon, found a parcel.

[16] The character of Amelia Dyer also appeared in the short story "The Baby Farmer" by Philip Fracassi in his horror collection Behold the Void.

[18] The Amelia Dyer case was partly dramatized on an episode of the 2022 BBC Radio podcast series Lucy Worsley's Lady Killers.

[19] Amelia Dyer is the inspiration for the character ‘Mrs Bright’ in the short story ‘Confinement’ by Kiran Millwood Hargrave.