Murder Cases - Female S
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Seddon, Mrs
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Amelia Sach & Annie Walters
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Amelia Sach & Annie Walters

They were known as the  'Finchley Baby Farmers', and were both found guilty of murdering young babies that had been placed in their care. Mrs Sach was the owner of a nursing home at East Finchley and also offered services to un-married mothers.  One of the services encouraged these mothers to leave their unwanted children with them and they would find them good homes. Many women were attracted to this offer which offered to free them from a sometimes unwanted child.

Mrs Sach would tell the mothers that she was in contact with a foster parent service which would gladly take the children. The fee varied depending on the circumstances of the mother. After payment, Mrs Sach would pass the children into the care of Annie Walters. They would share the money and Annie Walters would kill the child, usually by suffocation, and would then dispose of the bodies in either the River Thames or upon a rubbish dump.

Annie Walters was of low intellect, and when in 1902 Mrs Sach gave her another child for disposal, she took it home with her instead. She told her landlord, a police officer, that she was looking after the little girl while her parents were on holiday. When the landlord's wife helped change the baby's nappy, she discovered the child was actually a boy. A few days later, Mrs Walters told the couple that the child had died in its sleep and she seemed genuinely upset. She informed them that she had returned the child's body to his parents for burial, but instead disposed of it in the usual way.

She might have gotten away with the murder had she not been so stupid as to repeat the whole episode a few months later. This time when the child died, Annie's policeman landlord became suspicious and when he questioned her she fled from the house. She was soon arrested but refused to say where the child had come from. Investigations led the police to Mrs Sach and they soon had enough evidence to charge them both with murder. After conviction, Mrs Walters bore up well and blamed her fate on a lack of funds that prevented her from obtaining a good defence. Mrs Sach spent her time in the condemned cell very distressed, still maintaining her innocence. They became the first women to be executed at Holloway gaol. When they were hanged Amelia was twenty nine years old and Annie Walters was fifty four.  They were hanged on February 3rd 1903.


Seddon, Mrs

No details on this case at this time 

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