Good evening everybody, I hope you enjoyed your Christmas and new year :) sorry it's taken me a bit longer to get back to my blog than intended but I'm back with the truly horrific tale of Delphine LaLaurie!

Delphine LaLaurie

So as always I will start at the beginning. 

Delphine was born in New Orleans, in Spanish Louisiana on March 19th 1787, she was 1 of 5 children and her mother and father were prominent in the towns European creole community. Her mother was known as the widow Le Conte as her marriage to Delphine's father was not her first, they were a well off family and her uncle by marriage Esteban Rodriguez Miro was governor of the Spanish American provinces of Louisiana, she also had a cousin who was mayor of New Orleans so Delphine always had friends in high places growing up. When Delphine was 4 the Haitian revolution of slaves erupted which made slave holders in the southern united states very afraid of rebellion among their own slaves, this came to a head when one of Delphine's uncles was killed by his slaves seeking freedom. Sadly this        revolution led slave holders to discipline their own slaves even harsher than before. 

In 1800 Delphine married Don Ramon De Lopez a high ranking royal Spanish officer at St Louis cathedral, they lived happily for 4 years until Don was appointed to the position of consul general for Spain in the territory of New Orleans. At this time Delphine was pregnant with her first child but travelled with her husband Don as he fulfilled his job obligations unfortunately Don died suddenly in Havana a few weeks later and just a few days after Dons death Delphine gave birth to their daughter Marie Borja Delphine Lopez Y Angulo de la Candelaria (wow they had some long names back then!) her daughter was nicknamed Borquita and Delphine now widowed travelled back to New Orleans.

In 1808 Delphine married again, Jean Blanque was a prominent banker, lawyer merchant and legislator, he promptly purchased a house for his new family which was named Ville Blanque, they had 4 children together and were by all accounts very happy but Blanque died in 1825 leaving Delphine a widower yet again. Delphines last marriage was to a physician called Leonard louis Nicolas, Delphine was much older than Leonard and brought them an estate on Royal Street which she managed in her own name, her husband had very little involvement in this, she had a 2 storey mansion built to her specifications which included ample slave quarters out back.

Delphine's mansion on Royal street 

Delphine lived at her newly built mansion with her husband and 2 of her daughters, her marriage to the much younger Leonard became strained and Delphine petitioned the judicial district court for a separation from bed and board of her husband, LaLaurie claimed he had treated her in such a manor as to render their living together unsupportable, this order was granted and what had happened between them is unknown but the order did not last long, Leonard was back at the mansion by 1834

Meanwhile accounts had started to surface from the mansion about Delphines treatment of her slaves, and in 1838 Harriet Martineau a British social theorist and whig writer, recounted tales she had been told by residents of New Orleans claiming Delphine's slaves were observed to be haggard and wretched looking, however in public Delphine was always seen to be polite and fair to the black community and very solicitous of her own slaves health.

Some images taken inside LaLaurie's mansion

Delphine had always had slaves since childhood and over the years little was said about her treatment of them but between 1830 and 1834 12 deaths were registered at the royal street mansion, the causes of death had not been recorded though, they included Bonne, a cook and laundress and her 4 children who's ages were not known, they had been purchased from a refugee from ST Dominique and were described as chronic runaways. court records also showed that Delphine had freed 2 of her slaves, was this a front? was she trying to show how kind she was and that she cared for her slaves? (I have no doubt that it was). After the rumours had begun to surface a lawyer was sent to Delphine's home to remind her of the laws on the upkeep of slaves and the lawyer claimed he saw no evidence of mistreatment by Mrs LaLaurie towards her slaves but shortly after this visit one of Delphine's neighbours claimed to have seen one of Delphine's slaves fall to her death from the very top of the house, she recounted that the girl had been around 8 years old and was trying to escape punishment from a whip yielding Delphine LaLaurie, the neighbour claimed the girls body was buried in the garden, and years later it was confirmed that the girls real age was 12 and she was called either Leah or Lia, Leah had been brushing Delphine's hair and had caught a snag this enraged Delphine and she grabbed her whip and chased the girl to her death. Delphine was again investigated and found guilty of illegal cruelty, she was forced to forfeit 9 of her slaves who were all bought back for her by her cousin, so no real punishment was given. as I said Delphine had friends in high places. After this more rumours began to emerge claiming Delphine had chained her cook to the stove and if her daughters were caught trying to feed any of the slaves they too were beaten. Delphine's true nature was revealed in 1834 when a fire broke out at the Royal Street mansion and the extent of her cruelty would be known to all. Firefighters and police attended the fire and found the cook as the rumours claimed chained to the stove, she was 70 years old and had no chair to sit on, nowhere to sleep or eat just the chain around her ankle locking her to the stove, the old and dishevelled woman said she had wanted to end her own life and that is why she had started the fire, but there was much worse to come she told police that slaves who were taken to the top room never came back, the slave quarters were situated quiet close to the house and bystanders tried to gain entry into them to check everybody was out of harms way but Delphine and her family refused to give up the keys and let them gain entry so they broke down the doors and were horrified to find 7 slaves strung up by their necks with limbs stretched and torn away from their bodies, they had been imprisoned for some months by this time and they were all severely malnourished and dehydrated. One of the bystanders who had entered the rooms was judge Jean Francois Canonge who deposed to having found "a negress woman with a very deep gash on her head who was too weak to walk"

Some of the tortures claimed to have been endured by Delphine's slaves included skin flayed off their bodies, eyes gouged out, limbs ripped from the body, fingers and toes sawn off, tongues ripped from the mouth and excrement put into their mouths which were then sewn shut! and it was also claimed that Mrs LaLaurie enjoyed bathing in fresh blood from her slaves and also drinking it but none of these have ever been confirmed.

A depiction of what happened in Delphine's torture room at the top of the house

one of Delphine's slaves allowed pictures to be taken of what he endured

When questioned about the slaves Delphine's husband replied "some people had better stay at home rather than come round to other peoples houses to dictate laws and meddle in other peoples business".

Martineau who had written about Delphine LaLaurie's treatment of her slaves after the true extent of the horrors had been uncovered wrote how the slaves were emaciated and showed signs of being repeatedly flayed with a whip, how they were bound in restrictive postures to stop normal movement and wore collars with spikes facing upwards stopping them from moving their head, looking down and sleeping. After the news first broke a mob of local angry citizens descended on the mansion destroying everything but the walls, but LaLaurie and her family were long gone when the mob arrived as somehow no arrest had been made!

The slaves were moved to the local jail for public viewing! (I can't quiet believe this bit)

4000 people came to see the slaves on display, they had come to see how they had suffered at the hands of Delphine LaLaurie, thankfully after this the slaves were given food and their wounds tended but 2 of the 7 found died shortly after their rescue. The garden of the Royal street mansion was dug up the day after the fire and an undisclosed amount of human remains were found including the skeletal remains of 12 year old Leah, the body of a small infant was also found in a well within the grounds.

Meanwhile Delphine and her family had fled the country to France, although Delphine never understood why she had to flee her home, it was written by her son Paulin many years later that his mother desperately wanted to return to her home in New Orleans and still could not understand what all the fuss was about, she claimed she had done nothing wrong.

it is unclear how or when Delphine LaLaurie died but it is believed she was around 62 and is buried in a cemetary in France somewhere (after much searching I still haven't found her grave stone)

Delphine LaLaurie was never tried for her crimes, she was never punished and never admitted to doing anything wrong but if it is to be believed 90 of Delphine's slaves died in her torture room at the top of the house, murdered by a woman with a sadistic appetite who's only pleasure in life was torturing her slaves.

The mansion in which Delphine's atrocities took place still stands, it has been used as many things over the years and was even owned by actor Nicholas Cage for a short while. many claim it to be the most haunted place in New Orleans, I don't know if this is true but I do know that Delphine LaLaurie was truly one of histories most terrible serial killers and like Jack the Ripper amongst many others they never faced punishment for their truly horrific crimes.

I hope you enjoyed this weeks instalment of Forgotten Killers please like and follow my page if you did and you can find me on Instagram Forgottenkillersonig for interesting, strange and down right crazy serial killer facts. See you next week and Keep safe.

Mary Ann Cotton

Good evening everyone :) hope you're all well.

tonight I will be telling the tail of a cold hearted and extremely evil woman, Mary Ann Cotton.

Mary Ann Cotton aka 'The black widow or the west Aukland Borgia'

As always we start at the beginning, Mary Ann Robson was born quite aptly on the 31st of October 1832 at Low Moorsley, Sunderland to Michael Robson a colliery sinker (this was a job in the coal mines of Britain and the sinkers job was to be first down the shaft to dig out the walls to make it safe, it was a very dangerous job) and Margaret Robson who looked after the home, she had a sister called Margaret, born in 1834 but she lived only a few months and a brother born in 1835. When Mary was 8 the family moved to County Durham in the village of Morton because her father had been transferred to the mine there. She was a well behaved child and her school teacher described her as an exemplary and regular student, a girl of innocent disposition who was always neat and tidy. Two years after the family's move to Morton, Mary's father died after falling 150 feet down a mine shaft in February 1842, his body was delivered to her mother in a cloth bag with the stamp 'PROPERTY OF SOUTH HETTON COAL COMPANY' across it, as the miners cottage they lived in was tied to her fathers job Mary and her family were evicted (in the Victorian era coal miners were expendable and little to no concern was shown if one of them died)

The coal mines of northern England

In 1843 Mary's mother married George Stott also a miner who could offer her family a place to live and a steady income. At 16 Mary left home to train as a nurse in the village of south Hetton not too far from her family, she lived in the home of Edward Potter a manager at Murton colliery and a friend of her late fathers, she stayed for 3 years before return home to further her career options and trained as a dressmaker (In those 3 years I do wonder if an affair between Mary and Edward had taken place or if he had taken advantage of the young girl?)  In 1852 aged 20 Mary married a colliery labourer named William Mowbray at Newcastle Upon Tyne registry office and moved to the south west of England, during this time it is reported that Mary had given birth to 4 or 5 children all who had died very young, there were no birth or death certificates for any of these apparent children but at the time it was not illegal not to register them, this didn't become law until 1874. The only birth Mary did register during this time was a daughter Margaret Jane born 1856, after her birth Mary and her husband moved back to the North East, William had got a job as a steam vessel fireman sailing in and out of Sunderland but this didn't last long as he was offered a job back at the mines as a colliery foreman. Another daughter Isabella was born in 1858, 2 years later her daughter Margaret Jane died aged 4 and a year later in 1861 another daughter was born which she also named Margaret Jane and lastly with Mowbray a son, Robert William was born in 1863 but died a year later of gastric fever. Mary always showed little emotion at the death of her children but in those days childhood death was not unusual and almost expected in the lower classes, It was also common practice for parents back then to insure their children's lives (something I couldn't dream of doing) In 1865 Mary's husband William died of stomach problems, his life was insured for £35 which is around £3000 in todays money which she collected promptly after his death she also collected the insurance from her son Roberts death which was £2 and 5 shillings. Soon after William's death Mary moved to Seaham Harbour back in County Durham and met a married man named Joseph Nattrass they began an affair but this didn't last long as not long after her move there her now 3 year old daughter (the second Margaret Jane) died of Typhus fever (maybe the only one of her children who died of natural causes) Mary moved on to Sunderland to take employment at the infirmary and house of recovery for the cure for contagious fever, she sent her remaining daughter Isabella to live with her grandmother. In 1865 Mary met a patient named George Ward and after a short romance they married that same year but George suffered ill health and died a year later in October 1866. His official records say he died of English Cholera and Typhoid but the attending doctor stated that he was surprised George had died so suddenly, Mary however collected his insurance and again moved on quickly, a month later and Mary had gained employment as a housekeeper to a recently widowed shipwright James Robinson, a month after she was employed by Robinson his youngest son John died of gastric fever and he turned to Mary for comfort and she became pregnant (I'm guessing this was her plan all along) but then Mary got word that her mother was ill with Hepatitis and returned to care for her, her mother began to recover but soon complained of stomach pain and died aged 54 just 9 days after Mary came home. Mary returned to the Robinson household with her daughter Isabella who soon complained of stomach pain as did 2 more of Robinsons children Elizabeth and James jr all 3 children died over the following weeks and were buried in April 1867, Mary got an insurance payment of £5 for Isabella. Mary and James welcomed their first child Margaret Isabella in November of that same year but she died only a few months later In February 1868, their second child George was born a year later but Mary's husband had become suspicious of her insistence that he got life insurance and he soon discovered she had run up debts of £60 behind his back and she had stolen £50 that she was expected to deposit in the bank for household bills, Mary had also been forcing James's older remaining children to pawn valuable items from around the house and this was enough for James, he threw Mary out and retained custody of their son George.

One of Mary Ann Cottons many homes 

Mary was now desperate and living on the street, she went to a friend of hers Margaret Cotton for help she allowed Mary to live with her and introduced her to her brother Frederick Cotton a pitman living in Northumberland with his 2 children after being widowed and losing 2 other children to childhood diseases, her friend Margaret was acting as a substitute mum for her brothers 2 remaining children Frederick jr and Charles but in 1870 she died from an undetermined stomach complaint leaving Mary to console her brother and nephews. Mary married Frederick bigamously in that same year as she was pregnant, their son Robert was born the next year in 1871 (her using the names of children she had killed I find very cold and so chilling) Not long after Roberts birth Mary learned that her former lover Joseph Nattrass was living not far away and was no longer married, she visited him and they soon rekindled their relationship she then convince her new husband to move just down the road from Nattrass and by December that year Frederick Cotton was dead, he died from gastric fever (a pattern we're familiar with now) insurance had been taken out on Cotton and his 2 sons and Mary collected her late husbands without haste. After Cottons death Joseph moved in as a 'lodger' with Mary and her children and step children, she told Joseph she had gained work as a private nurse to an excise officer who was recovering from smallpox but this was a lie Mary had found another lover Richard Quickman and was regularly going to see him, she soon became pregnant by Richard with her 12th child. Frederick Cotton jr died before the baby was born in 1872 and his brother Robert followed the same fate not long after, then Nattrass became ill with gastric fever and died just after revising his will in Marys favour, Mary then took out insurance on the still living child of Frederick, Charles Cotton. this women was ruthless! Mary Ann Cottons downfall finally came when she was asked by parish official Thomas Riley to help nurse a woman with smallpox, Mary agreed but complained to Riley that Charles was getting in her way, she asked Riley to commit him to the workhouse for her but he informed her that children could not go to the workhouse without an adult, Mary went on to tell Riley 'no matter he is sickly, I won't be troubled long, he'll go like the rest of the Cottons'

2 days later she informed Riley that Charles was dead, Riley went to the police and asked them to investigate the little boys death. Mary had again gone promptly to the insurance company for her payment but was told without a death certificate she could not collect the claim, an inquest was held into Charles's death but they recorded his death as natural causes, Mary had told the inquest that Riley was doing this to her because she had rejected his advances, the case was closed but the local newspaper had picked up on the story and after a bit of research saw the pattern of Mary Ann Cotton, they saw how she had moved around the North East of England leaving a trail of death and insurance claims, in total Mary had lost 4 husbands, 1 lover, her friend Margaret Cotton, her mother and 11 of her 12 children (not including the children she claimed to have after marrying her first husband), the majority of whom had died of gastric fever or gastric complications.

A list of Mary Ann Cottons suspected victims

The rumours printed in the local papers gave rise to suspicion and investigation by local police, Dr William Byers Kilburn who had attended Marys stepson Charles kept samples after he died, these samples contained arsenic and were handed over to the police who arrested Mary and begun the exhumation of Charles's body, after a full and thorough examination of Charles aged just 7 higher concentrations of arsenic were found and Mary Ann Cotton was charged with his murder but the trial was postponed as yet again Mary was pregnant, her 13th and last child was born in County Durham gaol on the 10th of January 1873 she named her Margaret Edith quick manning cotton.

The local newspapers front page after Mary's arrest

Mary Ann's trial began on the 5th March 1873, her defence questioned the polices evidence and claimed that Charles had inhaled arsenic from the green dye in wallpaper hung in the Cotton home and  that the Bismuth (a powder to help ease stomach ache) Mary had gone to collect for from a local chemist had in fact been arsenic after the chemist was distracted and reached for the wrong bottle on the shelf. The jury retired and after 90 minutes dismissed her defences arguments and returned a guilty verdict. The Times reported on the 20th March 'after conviction the wretched woman exhibited strong emotion but this soon gave way to to her habitual cold demeanour'

Several petitions were presented to the home secretary on Mary Ann's behalf claiming her innocence but to no avail Mary Ann Cotton was hung at Durham County goal on the 24th March 1873, she died not from a broken neck but strangulation after the rope was strung too short possibly on purpose as some people believe, of Marys 13 confirmed children and stepchildren only 2 survived, George Robinson and Margaret Edith Quick Manning Cotton.

in 2015 the British channel ITV made a drama called dark angel based on the book 'dark angel, Mary Ann Cotton, Britain's first female serial killer' by David Wilson and the rock group Macabre wrote a song titled 'Mary Ann' a few many other songs were also written about Mary and her murderous life.

I hope you've enjoyed this weeks instalment of Forgotten Killers, I won't be here next week but will return the week after with another look at the serial killers forgotten by time. please remember to follow my blog and you can find me on instagram @forgottenkillersonig.

 I wish you all a Merry Christmas  and take care.

 

        

   

 

  

Dr Thomas Neill Cream

 Good evening all and welcome to another instalment of Forgotten killers, tonight I will tell the fascinating tale of Dr Thomas Neill Cream.

Dr Thomas Neill Cream

Born in Glasgow UK on the 27th May 1850 cream was then raised on the outskirts of Quebec Canada after his family moved there in 1854. Cream had a normal upbringing with parents who loved him and at least one brother I know of, he wasn't a problem child or out of the ordinary in any way and when he grew up he attended McGill university in Montreal, he graduated with a MDCM degree in 1876 his thesis topic had been on chloroform. In 1878 aged 28 Cream travelled to the UK and did his post graduate training at St Thomas's hospital medical school London, he did well, the model student and finished his training a year later, he then moved on to Scotland where he gained further qualification as a physician and surgeon. In 1876 before travelling to Scotland Cream had married a British girl named Flora Brooks, Brooks became pregnant and Cream almost killed her whilst aborting the baby, Brooks died a year later in 1877 from apparent consumption but it is widely believed that Cream poisoned her.

After he buried his wife Cream moved back to Canada and In 1879 Kate Gardener who was allegedly in a relationship with Cream was found dead behind his office, she was pregnant and had died of chloroform poisoning. Cream claimed she had got pregnant by a locally successful business man who cream tried to get money from, but after police accused him of blackmail and murder Cream fled to America. Cream established a medical practice in the red light district of Chicago, he offered illegal abortions to the prostitutes who came to him he was investigated in 1880 after the death of a local prostitute Mary Anne Faulkner a woman cream had operated on but he escaped prosecution due to lack of evidence. A year later a woman named Alice died in her home of Strychnine poisoning after an abortion she lived only a block away from Creams practice but again lack of evidence meant police could not charge Cream with anything, Alice's murder was never solved but again it is believed she was another of Dr Creams victims. Later that same year a man named Daniel Stott died of Strychnine poisoning at home in Boone town Illinois after Cream treated him for an apparent epileptic fit, the coroner attributed his death to natural causes but Cream had written to the coroner blaming the pharmacist for Stott's death because of the wrong prescription of Strychnine, Cream had also tried to blackmail the pharmacist after convincing him he had given the wrong prescription, but he went to police and Cream along with Julia Stott (Daniels wife and creams lover) were arrested, Julia had been given the Strychnine by Cream and used it to kill her husband but after turning on him Julia testified against Cream saying he was to blame for the murder of her husband Daniel. the jury found Cream guilty and he was sentenced to life imprisonment in Joliet prison Illinois.

One night an unknown person erected a tombstone at Daniel Stott's grave, it read

'DANIEL STOTT

DIED JUNE 12TH 1881

AGED 61 YEARS

POISONED BY HIS WIFE AND DR CREAM'

Daniel Stott's gravestone

Cream was released after only 10 years in 1891, his brother had asked for lenience before bribing the authorities!

In 1887 Creams father had died and with the money he had from his inheritance Cream set sail for England again. He arrived in Liverpool on 1st October 1891 this was just after the ripper killings, he travelled to London and took lodgings at 103 Lambeth palace road, this area of London was riddled with poverty, crime and prostitution at the time and Cream could easily blend into the background.

On 13th October just 11 days after Cream had arrived in England a prostitute named Ellen 'Nellie' Donworth accepted a drink from Cream the next day she was severely ill and 3 days later she died, her cause of death was strychnine poisoning, during the inquest into Nellies death Cream wrote to the coroner offering to name the killer for a £300.000 reward, this was a huge sum of money back then, he also wrote to WFD Smith the owner of WH Smith accusing him of Nellies murder and demanding money for his silence, neither men paid and nothing came of the letters. On the 20th October Cream met with another prostitute, 27 year old Matilda Clover, she died the next morning but her death was put down to her alcoholism again for some reason Cream wrote a letter to a DR Broadbent accusing him of Matilda's murder and again demanded money for his silence, Broadbent sent the letter to Scotland yard.

The poverty stricken Lambeth Palace Road in London England

On the 2nd of April after a vacation to his homeland Canada Cream returned to London where he picked up where he had left off, he attempted to poison a woman named Lou Harvey, but Harvey had felt uncomfortable in Creams presence and after he had given her some pills that he had promised she pretended to take them and left, she threw them into the river Thames on her way home but had not gone to the police, on the 11th April Cream met 2 prostitutes Alice Mars, 21 and Emma Shrivell who was only 18, cream talked his way into the flat they shared and gave the girls a bottle of Guinness each he left shortly after they had finished their drinks and headed home. Both girls were found dead in their flat, the cause of death Strychnine poisoning, both girls and all the others would have died in agony.   

 while he had been away police from Scotland yard had been alerted to Cream through his letters of blackmail, they had quickly determined the blackmailed men had had nothing to do with the deaths of either women and they had also noted that the letter to Dr Broadbent had spoken of the murder of Matilda Clover whose cause of death had been recorded as Alcoholism no mention of murder. The police felt with this evidence they had found the serial killer known in London as the Lambeth poisoner. Cream was put under surveillance after he had given a tour of the victims homes to a travelling American police officer interested in the killings, the officer had mentioned this to a friend of his in Scotland yard who immediately contacted police in America and learned that their suspect had been convicted of murder by strychnine poisoning in 1881.

The posters which were pasted around London and in local Newspapers

Dr Thomas Neil Cream was arrested on 3rd June 1892 for the murder of Matilda Clover and formally charged on the 12th of June with the murders of Clover, Donworth, Marsh and Shrivell and the attempted murder of Harvey who had come forward after Creams initial arrest. Creams trial lasted for 5 days and after just 12 minutes deliberation the jury found him guilty on all counts, Cream was sentenced to death by hanging. 

On the 15th November 1892 Dr Neill (which he had asked to be addressed as after his arrest) was hung in the grounds of Newgate prison London and buried within the prison walls in an unmarked grave like many of  London's most infamous criminals. It was later claimed by the hangman that as he had opened the trapdoor Cream had shouted out 'I am Jack the' before the noose tightened around his neck but these claims are not true, police officers and officials who attended Creams execution stated he said no such thing and it was the hangman trying to gain his claim to fame by telling people he hung Jack the ripper, also Cream was in prison In Illinois at the time of the ripper killings but conspiracy theorist still claim he was the ripper and he had left America just after the killing of  Daniel Stott and the man who served 10 years was not Cream but a lookalike. I don't know about these claims but I find Creams story very interesting, what was his motive for murder? was he just evil or had something unknown happened in Creams past that had affected him mentally?  we will never know. Cream was charged with 5 murders in total but police in London, Canada and the USA believe his true victim count was much, much higher.

A depiction of Creams execution which ran in the local newspaper 

Well I hope you all enjoy reading this as much as I've enjoyed researching and writing it, join me next week for more Forgotten Killers and as always please follow me on Instagram @forgottenkillersonig 

for daily serial killer facts and don't forget to follow my blog so you never miss one :)

keep safe.

     

 

 

Amelia Dyer part two

Good evening all, hope you're all well, tonight I will continue with part two of my blog on Amelia Dyer

The Evil Amelia Dyer

So we left part one after Dyer had taken baby Doris from a barmaid called Evelina, Dyer had promised that the child would be well loved but what actually happened was that the little girl was killed as soon as Dyer got her home, she tied white tape around her neck and waited till she died, in a statement Dyer  said 'I used to like to watch them with the tape around their neck but it was soon all over'

(This leads me to believe that Dyer got some enjoyment from these killing and not as she claimed she did it for money to survive and that mental health issues had clouded her judgement) 

In April of the same year Dyer took another baby in named Henry he too was taken back to Dyers and killed but having run out of white tape Dyer had taken the tape from little Doris's corpse and used that, she then packed both babies into a carpet bag and weighted it down with bricks before travelling to reading where she used a secluded weir at Caversham lock to put the bag into the Thames through the bars of the lock. On the 30th of March that year unbeknownst to Dyer a package had been retrieved from the Thames in reading by a bargeman, it had not been weighed down and inside was the body of a baby girl. At the time police had limited resources forensic wise but after a lot of hard work they found a label in the package from temple meads station a piece of white tape and a faint piece of writing that gave them the name Mrs Thomas and enough of an address to find Dyers home, the police still had little evidence connecting her to a serious crime as the little girls cause of death had not been determined. The local police placed Dyer and her family under surveillance and sent a decoy young woman to secure a meeting with Dyer when Dyer replied the police had enough to search her home as technically baby farming was illegal. As soon as officers entered Dyers home the stench of human decomposition was very strong but no bodies were found on the premises, police did find letters from mothers asking how their babies were doing and some asking where their babies were! None of them had been answered, the police also found pawn receipts for baby clothing and fake adoption arrangements and lastly they found white tape the same as which had been found inside the package with the little girl. Dyer was arrested along with her son in law who was charged with accessory to murder, this charge was later dropped and he walked free. By the end of April the police had dredge the Thames near to reading and found a total of 6 bodies all babies and all with white tape around their necks. Dyer told police 'you'll know it's one of mine if there's white tape' From the bodies they found they managed to identify Henry and Evalina's little girl Doris as they were Dyers last victims, Evalina was asked to identify her little girls remains and she testified to her meeting with Dyer and how she had paid her to take Doris to a loving home.

On the 22nd May 1896 Emilia Dyer pleaded guilty to 7 counts of murder, one of Dyers own daughters was forced to testified against her mother and the prosecution successfully argued Dyers insanity plea, claiming this was just a ploy by Dyer to avoid the noose, the jury took only 4 and a half minutes to find Dyer guilty and she was sentenced to death by hanging. 

WARNING UPSETTING PICTURE BELOW

Dyer shown in court above and little Henry's body along with Dyers kit she used to kill the babies.

Amelia Elizabeth Dyer was hung in the grounds of Newgate prison on the 10th June 1896, Dyer had no last words but had said previously that she knew what she had done was wicked and that she would have to face god when she died.

After Amelia Dyers case the laws on adoption in England changed but sadly this did not stop all baby farming for a few more years. Two years after Dyer was hung a baby was found wrapped in brown paper on railway lines, 2 rail workers found the package in the pouring rain, inside was a baby girl, amazingly the baby was still alive, she was cold and wet but alive. The mother of the baby was somehow traced and she informed police that she paid a Mrs Stewart £12 to have her baby adopted, it was claimed that Mrs Stewart was Amelia Dyers daughter Polly! Sadly Polly was never found.

This case is one of the worst I've found, it is believed through records and witness statements over the years that Dyers victim count was over 400 making her the most prolific serial killer ever. 

I hope you enjoyed part two of Amelia Dyers tale, a truly evil woman who finally got what was coming to her, please join me next week for my next instalment of Forgotten Killers and don't forget to follow my blog so you never miss one also don't forget to follow me on instagram Forgottenkillersonig.

Goodbye for now and stay safe.

  

 

Amelia Dyer

Good evening all, hope you are all well. My blog this evening will be part 1 of a 2 parter as there is so much information I wouldn't want to miss any out, I will be telling the grim tale of the most prolific female serial killer in the world Amelia Dyer.

WARNING THIS CONTENT IS OF A SENSITIVE TOPIC AND SOME READERS MAY FIND IT UPSETTING.

AMELIA DYER

So as with all of my blogs we will start at the beginning. Dyer was born Amelia Elizabeth Hobley in 1836 in Pyle marsh, Bristol UK, she was the youngest of 5 children 3 brothers and 1 sister, her father Samuel Hobley was a shoemaker and made a decent living from the family business, her mother Sarah Hobley cared for the children and kept house. As a child Amelia had a love of literature and poetry so always had her head in a book. The Victorian era was hard for a lot of people even those who had enough money for food and clothes on their backs but as with any family rich or poor of the time health issues took their toll.

Dyers elder sister died aged 6 and then a 6th child a younger sister of Dyers also died at only a few months old, not long after this Dyers mother began having violent seizures which were due to the typhus she had caught as a young girl. Amelia as the only woman in the family was obliged to care for her mother after her mental health deteriorated. Caring for her mother until she died had given Dyer an insight into mental illness and what symptoms presented when someone lost their mind or as we call it now had a breakdown.

Dyer moved to the outskirts of Bristol to live with her aunt for a short time before serving as an apprentice to a corset maker, she ended her apprenticeship in 1859 and moved back into the centre of Bristol after her father died, he had left the family business to her eldest brother and not long after this she had a falling out with all of her brothers. Aged 23 Dyer met and married a man called George Thomas, he was much older at 59 and they had lied on their wedding certificate to hide the age gap which would have been frowned upon in those days, Amelia settled down and started training as a nurse which is where she met a midwife called Ellen Dane, Dane would inspire Dyer in a way nobody could have imagined. Dane informed Dyer there was an easier way to make money as a nurse and told her about baby farming where a nurse or nanny would house young women who were illegitimately pregnant and for a fee they would look after the baby until they could find a family to adopt or foster them (as some young mothers always came back for their babies) Now the practice of baby farming was big business in Victorian times, unwed mothers would get no financial support and it wasn't required by law that the fathers had to pay towards the upkeep of these babies and sadly it was the babies who paid the price, a lot of these children were sold into workhouses or left to starve, as once the baby farmers had their money looking after the child took away from their profits, depending on the wealth of the unwed mother the fee was anywhere from £5 to £80.

Dyer found this an easy way to make money, as a respectable married woman and trained nurse young women trusted her to care for their babies until a forever home was found. Dyer gave up nursing when her daughter Ellen was born but continued to take in vulnerable young women who needed her help and trusted her and Dyer did in fact find homes for some of these babies but this didn't last long. In 1869 her husband George died and she needed more money so she started to take in more babies for a one off fee and adequate clothing for the child, Dyer maintained her image of a respectable married woman who loved children and just wanted to help but by now Dyer was leaving the children she took in to starve.

In 1872 Dyer married again, William Dyer a brewers labourer who she had 2 more children with, Polly Dyer and William Dyer, she kept Williams name even though she left him after only a few years of marriage.

The house Dyer moved to after leaving her husband William

Amelia Dyer was once again alone with 3 children to care for, she continued with what she knew best and the poor unwed mothers carried on leaving their babies in her care, Dyer now had a system of leaving every child she took in to starve to death but she soon got frustrated waiting for them to die, they cost her money and she was fed up, this is when Dyer took the next step and began killing the babies herself shortly after thy were handed over to her, this allowed her to pocket all of the money and make extra cash pawning the clothes left for the babies. For a long time Dyer eluded the police and it wasn't until 1879 when a doctor raised concerns about the amount of death certificates dyer was requesting from him, this was investigated and instead of being convicted of murder Dyer was arrested and charged with neglect, the penalty 6 months hard labour! Dyer claimed this experience almost destroyed her mentally and a lot of local people were very angry with such a light sentence, Dyer moved away with her children after her sentance and had 2 spells in mental hospitals claiming mental instability but it seemed her time in these hospitals coincided with times when Dyer needed to disappear after raising suspicion with local people. after moving again and again Dyer took on the illegitimate baby of a governess, months later when the governess returned to check on her baby after hearing no news from dyer her suspicions were raised when dyer handed over her baby, the mother stripped the baby looking for her birth mark but it was not there, the mother alerted authorities who began to look into Dyers affairs, this lead to Dyer claiming to have a mental breakdown. Dyer tried to kill herself shortly after her apparent breakdown by drinking 2 bottles of laudanam but after years of opiate abuse Dyer survived, some claim she would have known that amount wouldn't have killed her. Dyer moved again and again started baby farming but this time she had learnt from her mistakes and no longer involved a doctor after killing the infants in her care, she began to discard of the bodies herself, Dyer also began taking aliases when obtaining the babies for adoption. In January 1896 a young unwed woman Evelina Marmon gave birth to a little girl she named Doris, Dyer replied to an advert left in the local paper by the mother and although shocked by Dyers advanced age Marmon handed over her baby, a fee of £10 and a box of clothes for her little girl, Dyer had convinced the young woman that Doris would be loved and well taken care off.

I'm going to leave the story there as it marks the beginning of the end for the disgusting Amelia Dyer.

I hope you enjoyed the first part of this grim tale, please come back tomorrow for part 2 and do check out my instagram account Forgottenkillersonig, also please follow my blog so you never miss out on an episode. Goodbye for now don't forget part 2 of Amelia Dyers tale on Forgotten killers and keep safe. 

 

 

pee Wee Gaskins

Good evening and welcome to forgotten killers, sorry I'm a bit late this week I had a run in with a dog and my hand got in the way lol.

so this evenings post is about a man named Pee Wee Gaskins

Pee Wee Gaskins at the time of his arrest 

So lets start at the beginning, Born Donald Henry Parrot Jr on march 13th 1933 in Florence county,south Carolina he was the last born in a string of illegitimate children. He was small for his age which earned him the nickname pee wee and he had a hard upbringing, a neglected child who at age 1 drank a bottle of kerosene which caused him seizures up until the age of three his mother barely spoke to him let alone looked after him, in fact his mother took so little interest that pee wee didn't learn his birth name of Donald until his first court appearance aged 17. Very little is known about his childhood other than the neglect and that he left school aged 11 to work on cars at a local garage. when he was a teenager he started to become a frequent visitor at the local police station for minor misdemeanours, his first court appearance was with friends who he met at the garage, a gang of boys just like him, they called themselves the terrible trio and together they committed robbery, assault and gang rape, he was sent to reform school after this arrest.

As a small teenager Gaskins was regularly raped by the other inmates, he eventually escaped and joined a travelling carnival where he met a 13 year old girl and they got married. Gaskins then turned himself over to police to finish his sentence at reform school (why? I don't know)

After his release Gaskins went to work on a tobacco plantation, he had just turned 18 and seemed to be going straight but this did not last long Gaskins was arrested again in 1953 after attacking the plantation owners daughter when she found gaskin burning down the barns although she did not know Gaskins was doing this with her fathers consent for insurance fraud, Gaskins cracked her head open with an axe, the girl survived and he was sentenced to 6 years in prison. It is unknown what happened in his first marriage but she divorced him in 1955 and Gaskins would marry again but this only lasted two weeks, it is known that Gaskins had a child but with whom is unknown.

Back inside pee wee earned the respect of the other inmates by killing the most feared man in the prison Hazel Brazell, he was given an extra 3 years but now Gaskins had turned from the victim into the aggressor. Donald escaped prison again in 1955 hiding in a garbage truck and again joined a travelling carnival, this didn't last long as Gaskin was rearrested later that year.

Now we come to the years when nothing was heard of Donald Gaskins, for the next 14 years Gaskins seemingly got on with his life until 1975 in Prospect Connecticut when a criminal associate of Gaskins went to the police claiming he witnessed him killing a young man aged 28 and a teenage boy aged 15, he had also confided in the man that he had killed many more people who had been listed as missing over the past five years. The associate of Gaskins led police to where he claimed Gaskins had buried the bodies

Gaskins owned land in Prospect and he drove a hearse with a bumper sticker saying 'I haul dead people'

it is reported that Gaskins bragged that he needed the hearse to move the bodies of people he had killed to his own private graveyard but not much notice was taken of him.

The hearse Gaskins drove

After his arrest Gaskins led police to his land in Prospect where they found the bodies of 8 of his victims (it is claimed there are many more) most of his victims were women who he would rape and murder in woodland near to him, it is also said that he ate some of his victims flesh but this is not confirmed.

Gaskins leading police to the bodies on his property

Police digging up Gaskins land to recover the bodies of 8 victims

Donald 'pee wee' Gaskins was found guilty on 8 counts of murder and sentenced to death, this was later committed to life in prison without the possibility of parole after a change in the law which angered Gaskins. In 1982 Gaskins killed again in prison, he murdered a death row inmate after he was hired by the son of the mans victims, Gaskins tried many ways to kill him including poisoning his food and drink but none of them worked until he rigged a portable radio with explosives (how he got all of this I do not know!) he told the man they could talk to each other between their cells with the radio and agreed an exact time to talk that evening, at the arranged time Gaskin detonated the explosives killing the inmate, he later said that the last thing the death row inmate heard was him laughing. Gaskins was tried again for murder and again sentenced to death, this was an historic case as it was the first time a white man had been convicted and sentenced to death for killing a black man. While he waited on death row Gaskins claimed to have killed around 110 people including the 13 year old daughter of the then state of senate senator.

Gaskins was finally executed in September 1991 by electric chair his last words were 'I'll let my lawyers talk for me, I'm ready to go'

It is not known exactly how many victims Gaskins killed but he is known as one of the worst serial killers in south Carolina history, his victims were mostly young women who came to a grisly end at the hands of Gaskins and even prison couldn't stop his murderous tendencies.

Well I hope you enjoyed this weeks instalment of Forgotten Killers, if you did please follow my blog ready for next weeks instalment.

you can also follow me on Instagram forgottenkillersonig for my daily serial killer facts.

see you next week and keep safe.

 

  

Good evening everyone and welcome to Forgotten killers.

Tonight I will be telling the tale of Karl Denke, the cannibal of Ziebice.

This is the only picture of Karl Denke taken after his death.

Karle Denke was born in February 1860 in Munsterberg in the kingdom of Prussia, now in Poland.

 He was raised on a farm and little is known about his childhood except that he was a shy, quiet and soft spoken child who was difficult to raise, at the age of 12 Denke ran away from home. He graduated high school though and got an apprenticeship as a gardener, he made a life for himself from this. At 25 Denke's father passed away and although the farm and property was left to his older brother (who's name I could not find anywhere!) he left Denke a sum of money which he invested in land and began farming like his family before him, this however didn't last long Denke failed and had to sell the land. With the money he had left Denke brought himself a house but again this didn't end well when inflation forced him to sell up once again but Denke refused to move off the property and lived in a small apartment adjoining his old house.

The small apartment that Denke moved into after selling his house.

Denke made a living from the shop he had purchased with the money left over from the sale of his farm, he sold meat and was a popular man in the town of Ziebice as it is now know, he was well liked and volunteered at his local church as a cross bearer and organist, he was affectionately referred to as 'Papa' but in 1906 he quit his duties at the church and concentrated on his shop.

 In 1909 a woman who worked at a local slaughter house was found dead, consequently a man named Eduard Trautman was found guilty of her murder and sent to prison.15 years later in 1924 a homeless man was found in the street with a large gash to his head he was taken to the local authorities where he named his attacker as Karl Denke he claimed Denke offered him a warm meal and a bed for the night only to be attacked by Denke with an axe, the man was lucky to escape. Karl Denke was arrested and after police searched his home the gruesome truth of his seemingly ordinary life was uncovered. Denke's home was full of human remains, bones  meat and skin, he also kept a ledger of people, presumably of those he had killed, the local girl from the slaughter house name was on the list and after all those years in prison Eduard Trautman was finally cleared and released.

Police pieced together what they had found at Denke's home and concluded his first victim was in 1903, since then it was unknown how many victims there were except those written in the ledger which totalled 30 but the amount of bones and body parts in Denke's home would make the total much higher, it was also concluded that Denke had sold human flesh in his meat shop as well as consuming it himself hence the name the cannibal of Ziebice. Denke had picked his victims from the most unfortunate and vulnerable group of people the homeless and the poor, very few were missed and even if they were reported to the police it wasn't high on their priorities looking for  missing homeless men! he would offer them warmth and food then bludgeon them with his axe, cut up the body and store it in his pantry.

The tools Denke used to kill and butcher his victims

A report of some of what police found in Denke's home consisted of

16 femurs

15 medium sized long bones

4 pairs of elbows

1 pair of upper shin bones

1 pair of lower arms with hands attached

1 pair of upper arms

2 shoulder blades

8 pairs of heel and ankle bones

120 toes

65 feet

and 150 pieces of ribs

Just some of the human remains found in Denke's house

Karl Denke hung himself 2 days after he was arrested so the people of Ziebice will never know what drove a seemingly ordinary well liked man to carry out such horrific crimes, little is known about his private life, he never married and the saying 'you never know what goes on behind close doors' is quite apt in this case whatever his reasons the little town in Poland will always bear the scars of the cannibal of Ziebice,

KARL DENKE.

I hope you all enjoyed my second instalment of Forgotten killers, please follow my blog and check out my Instagram page    Forgottenkillersonig     where I dish out daily facts on some of the more well known serial killers out there. I will be posting weekly so see you next time on Forgotten Killers, stay safe :)