Movie Review: Angel Maker: Serial Killer Queen

I'd never heard of Amelia Dyer before seeing this movie, but as soon as it started, I was researching the name. I was absolutely terrified. Amelia Dyer was a monster.

A nurse in Victorian Britain, Dyer realized there was money to be made in the "baby farming" business. After her own daughter was born and her husband died, darkness fell upon her. She soon began to starve the children as to be rid of them. She'd put ads in newspapers as a reputable married woman seeking a child to bring into her empty good-natured and well-off family. She became well-off, and she began to murder the babies as soon as they were in her care. The coroner was suspicious, but she was only sentenced to six months of hard labor for neglect. Her stay in prison was too much for and she was committed multiple times. Her mother had been mentally unwell and she'd been a nurse at a mental institution so she knew how to appear insane. She coincidentally would pull these mental episodes any time she needed to disappear.

Dyer's downfall came when she took in babies named Doris Marmon and Harry Simmons. A package was found floating in the Thames. It held a baby, later identified as Helena Fry. Police setup a sting with a young woman, but before that even happened, they raided her home. The stench of decomposition greeted them, but they didn't find any bodies. They did find edging tape (her murder weapon) and evidence that she was making arrangements to take in more babies.

Dyer was arrested on April 4th for murder and her son-in-law was arrested as an accessory. A deal was made with Dyer for a written confession, the officials granted pardons to Dyer's daughter and son-in-law. Dyer was tried and hanged on June 10, 1896.

Dyer was one of the most prolific serial killers in history, murdering over 400 children.

I'm not going to put a moral to this because I can't possibly think of one. The movie wasn't terrifying, but the facts behind it have made me very uneasy. No boogie man is scarier than this woman.