The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #167669   Message #4047728
Posted By: RTim
22-Apr-20 - 10:14 PM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: Execution Songs
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Execution Songs
The Old Baby Farmer.....a true story.

Tim Radford

Mrs DYER, THE BABY FARMER
"The old baby farmer has been executed" Amelia Dyer
(570 murdered Doris Marmon, drowned baby
(probably others) at Old Court Caversham, Reading
20/May/1896 & hung 10th June (JP) - ROUD#2347 –

The Old baby farmer the wretched Mrs Dyer
At the Old Bailey her wages is paid
In times long ago we'd made a big fire
And roasted so nicely that wicked old jade.

The old baby farmer has been executed
It's quite time she was put out of the way
She was a bad woman it is not disputed
Not a word in her favor could anyone say.
Poor girls what fall from the straight path of virtue
What could they do with a child in their arms
The fault they commited they could never undo
So the baby was sent to a cruel baby farm

It seems rather hard to run down a woman
But that one was hardly a woman at all
To get a fine living in a way so in human
Carousing in luxury on poor girls downfall.
To all these sad crimes there must be an ending
Secrets like these for ever can't last
Say as you like there is no defending
The horrible tales we have heard in the past.

What did she think as she stood on the gallows
Poor little victims in from of her eyes.
Her heart if she had one it must have been callous
The rope round her neck now how quickly time flies.
Down through the trap door quickly disappearing
The old baby farmer to eternity home
The sound of her own death knell she'll be hearing
Maybe she'll be sent to a poor baby farm.