The most common murder victim in 19th century Australia was a baby, and the most common perpetrator was a woman--a fascinating story of the most infamous legal trial in Australia In October 1892, a one-month-old baby boy was found buried in the backyard of Sarah and John Makin, two wretchedly poor baby farmers in inner Sydney. In the weeks that followed, 12 more babies were found buried in the backyards of other houses in which the Makins had lived. This resulted in the most infamous trial in Australian legal history, and exposed a shocking underworld of desperate mothers, drugged and starving babies, and a black market in the sale and murder of children. Annie Cossins pieces together a dramatic and tragic tale with larger than life characters: theatrical Sarah Makin; her smooth-talking husband, John; her disloyal daughter, Clarice; diligent Constable James Joyce, with curious domestic arrangements of his own; and a network of baby farmers stretching across the city. It's a glimpse into a society that preferred to turn a blind eye to the fate of its most vulnerable members, only a century ago.
In this short book, author Sylvia Perrini profiles eleven Baby Farmers. Baby farmers both repulsed and fascinated the public of the day. The term "Baby Farming" was first used by the British Medical Journal in 1867, in an article entitled "Baby-Farming" in which they described a mother who had turned her children over to the "baby farmer" with the clear understanding that they would be neglected until they died. Over the course of the following year the British Medical Journal, published in a series of sensationalist pieces that many baby farmers committed serial infanticide. The articles attracted a great deal of attention and brought the term "baby farming" into widespread use. Baby farmers were women who looked after children for a fee. Legitimate baby farms supplied a much in demand service for unmarried, pregnant women in the Victorian era. The majority of baby farmers were caring and honest. A number of them, though, abandoned, starved, or even killed the infants in their care to increase their profits. Barely a week would pass without the police finding a little corpse abandoned in a railway carriage, left on the banks of a canal, or thrown into the swiftly flowing River Thames. There were strict laws against the mistreatment of animals but, until 1872, there were no such laws to govern baby farmers. Anyone could be a baby farmer; there were no regulations to conform to, no qualifications to be met, no paperwork, and no supervision of the premises or type of care the children received. For the middle-classes, baby farms offered the perfect solution. The pregnant daughter would be sent to the country and once the infant was born, he or she would be farmed out and, all being well, forgotten. The battle against baby farming was fought more or less continuously from 1865, to 1943, seventy-eight years to push through effective legislation to regulate this "social evil."
As Charles fights to clear his name, will it be enough to give him a future with the girl he loves? Farm labourer Charles Jackson doesn’t expect much from life. For the price of a few pints of ale and enough food on the table, he’s happy to take work where he can get it. But when he finds himself at Chadwick’s farm, all that changes… Falling in love with the farmer’s daughter wasn’t part of his plans. But when they’re found in an intimate embrace, his troubles are only just beginning… Framed and imprisoned for a crime he didn’t commit, Charles must clear his name. But a twist of fate means he has far more to worry about than securing his freedom… Condemned by Fate is a short story prequel to The Ambition & Destiny Series, a Victorian Era family saga. If you like love stories that are more than just a romance, then you’ll love the prequel to VL McBeath's engaging series. GOLD Quality Mark "This is an excellent short piece to introduce the series.” BooksGoSocial
On 30 March 1896, a bargeman hooked a parcel from the river Thames at Caversham. Inside the brown paper package was the body of a baby girl - she had been strangled with tape. When two more tiny bodies were found in a carpet bag, the police launched a nationwide hunt for a serial killer. A faint name and address on the sodden wrapping provided Reading police with their first clue. Can Chief Constable George Tewsley and his colleagues catch this heartless baby farmer before more infants meet a similar fate? The first in a new historical true crime series, Victorian Supersleuth Investigates, Angela Buckley recounts the frantic race to stop Amelia Dyer - one of Britain's most prolific murderers.
This book was the inspiration for the ITV drama Dark Angel. As one of the UKs leading commentators, David Wilson shows how some serial killers stay in the headlines whilst others rapidly become invisible - or unseen. Yet Mary Ann Cotton is not just the first but perhaps the 1sts most prolific female serial killer, with more victims than Myra Hindley, Rosemary West, Beverly Allit or male predators such as Jack the Ripper and Dennis Nilsen. But her own north east of England (and criminologists) apart, she remains largely forgotten, despite poisoning to death up to 21 victims in Britains arsenic century. Exploding myths that every serial killer is a monster, the author draws attention to Cottons charms, allure, capability, skill and ambition - drawing parallels or contrasting the methods and lifestyles of other serial killers from Victorian to modern times. He also shows how events cannot be separated from their social context here the industrial revolution, growing mobility, womens emancipation and greater assertiveness. And concerning the reticence of human nature, like Dr Harold Shipman, Cotton was allowed to go on killing despite reasons to suspect her. The book contains other resonances to aid understanding of how serial murderers can go undiscovered despite such things as coincidence, gossip, whispers or motives that become more obvious with the benefit of hindsight. It is also a detective story in which the persistence of a single individual saw Cotton tried and executed, events analysed first-hand from the archives and location visits as the author fills the gaps in a remarkable story. By a leading expert on serial killers; Meticulously researched and highly readable; Fresh interpretations mean this book is destined to be the definitive title on Mary Ann Cotton. An enthralling read David Wilson does not write generic true crime, but history of the highest order: Judith Flanders, best-selling author, journalist and historian. David Wilson is Professor of Criminology and Director of the Centre for Applied Criminology at Birmingham City University. An ex-prison governor he has broadcast for the BBC, Channel 4, Sky and Channel 5 (where he presents Killers Behind Bars). His books include Serial Killers: Hunting Britons and Their Victims 1960-2006 (2007) and Looking for Laura: Public Criminology and Hot News (2011).
For almost three decades, renowned baby-seller Georgia Tann ran a children's home in Memphis, Tennessee -- selling her charges to wealthy clients nationwide, Joan Crawford among them. Part social history, part detective story, part expose, The Baby Thief is a riveting investigative narrative that explores themes that continue to reverberate today.
Examining a series of El Niño-induced droughts and the famines that they spawned around the globe in the last third of the 19th century, Mike Davis discloses the intimate, baleful relationship between imperial arrogance and natural incident that combined to produce some of the worst tragedies in human history. Late Victorian Holocausts focuses on three zones of drought and subsequent famine: India, Northern China; and Northeastern Brazil. All were affected by the same global climatic factors that caused massive crop failures, and all experienced brutal famines that decimated local populations. But the effects of drought were magnified in each case because of singularly destructive policies promulgated by different ruling elites. Davis argues that the seeds of underdevelopment in what later became known as the Third World were sown in this era of High Imperialism, as the price for capitalist modernization was paid in the currency of millions of peasants' lives.
Sometimes life is unfair. Sometimes life just plain sucks. You do what you can to get by, but sometimes even that isn't enough. Meet Gloria, aging porno star, drug addict, failed wife and mother—seduced into a monstrous world of depraved sex and violent deceit, battling to save her immortal soul and that of her only daughter from Inferno … and you thought your life was hell.
Sarah narrates a tale of her life with 'Mama', a woman who takes in babies for profit, and as these babies mysteriously disappear, Sarah's suspicions are aroused.
