Episode 111 - Baby Farmer

In 1907, Perth woman Alice Mitchell was arrested for the murder of five-month-old Ethel Booth. During the inquest and subsequent trial, the citizens of Western Australia were horrified to learn that at least 37 infants had died in Mitchell’s care in the previous six years. It became clear that she had been running a ‘baby farm’, making a profit out of caring for the children of single mothers and other ‘unfortunate women’.