Mrs. Dyer's Return (A ghost story)

Time for something a little different.  So, another murder and ghost story - this time combined in one!

 

The Evil Mrs. Dyer.

Mrs. Amelia Dyer. She was known as the “Reading Baby Farmer” Short and squat, grey and wrinkled, she was 57 years old. She was at one time a member of the Salvation Army. She was separated from her husband and decided to take in children at her home in Bristol. In Victorian times many girls found themselves pregnant with no husband to support them and no way of bringing up their children whilst having to earn a living. This is where Mrs. Dyer came in. She placed advertisements saying that she was willing and happy to board and/or adopt children. Of course, she charged a handsome fee for doing so. Many women paid the price - literally.

In 1895 she moved to Reading in Berkshire and once again continued to advertise. One day a bargeman working on the Thames fished a bundle out of the river which proved to be the body of a child. The bundle just happened to carry a Reading postmark.  Mrs. Dyer had already moved from her home. She used several aliases to cover her tracks. Shortly afterwards, two more dead babies were taken from the Thames. All of the babies had been strangled with white tape. Mrs. Dyer was careless. Maybe she had thought she would never be caught. After all, she had been evading the law for at least fifteen years and it is thought that she disposed of over fifty infants. However, when she parcelled the tiny corpses she left clues. It was inevitable that she would be caught. When she was eventually tracked down and her home was searched, the police found a mountain of baby clothes. They also found scores of heartbreaking letters from women enquiring as to their children and their whereabouts. When they searched the home of her daughter and son-in-law, a similar amount of clothes was found although Mrs. Dyer was to state that her family knew nothing of what she had done.

She was arrested in April of 1896 and taken to Newgate Prison. Without any sign of pity she calmly told the police “You’ll know all mine by the tape around their necks”. She was charged with the murders of Doris Marmon and Harry Simmons. In the meantime, more bodies had been taken from the water. Whilst in prison, Mrs. Dyer tried to commit suicide. She also pleaded insanity. In truth she had been in two asylums but only escaped into them when she felt the police were getting too close. It was decided that she knew exactly what she was doing, she was happy to accept the money from desperate women and decided to get rid of babies to make room to take in more. She made a full confession but showed absolutely no remorse.

This wicked woman was hanged at Newgate Prison on June 10th 1896.  Four years after her execution, the bodies of more babies were found in the garden of her previous home in Bristol.

But this is not the end of the story……………

Amen Court in London is where the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul’s Cathedral live. At the rear of the Court there is a large and dark wall. Behind it once stood the much feared Newgate Prison which was demolished in 1902. But there still remains a tiny passage which was known as “Deadman’s Walk”. The passage was so named because condemned prisoners were led along it to the gallows and were afterward buried beneath it.

Amelia Dyer was a prison in Newgate as mentioned above. She, like others before her used Deadman’s Walk to meet her end. On her way she passed a young warder, Mr. Scott. She stopped abruptly and fixed him with an evil gaze. Suddenly she gave a hideous grin and in a low rasping voice she sneered at Mr. Scott “I’ll meet you again some day, sir”. Moments later she was dangling from the end of a noose.

Years passed. Amelia Dyer was all but forgotten. Then just before the prison was demolished, Mr. Scott, now a very senior officer,  found himself alone one night in the warders’ room. His back was to the grille that looked out onto Deadman’s Walk. He suddenly felt a chill run right through him and had the eerie feeling that someone was watching him. Suddenly he heard that unmistakable voice repeating over and over “meet you again, meet you again”. He spun round to find Mrs. Dyer’s  evil grinning face staring back at him through the grille. He rushed at her but she disappeared before his eyes. Mr. Scott , although scared, was ready to put it down to his imagination until, the next moment a woman’s handkerchief fluttered down beside him from out of nowhere and landed at his feet!

Amen Court is also haunted by a slithering black shape………but that is another story.