The Baby Farmers

Damning Evidence

The child minding industry became notorious. In Victoria in 1893 there were more than 60 inquests into babies that had been found dead or had died through neglect. More than 20 of these cases were treated as murder, but the perpetrators were usually long gone and no one was charged with a capital offense. Many more infants had gone missing without trace, presumed sold.

Frances Knorr was known at numerous addresses throughout Melbourne during her child minding career and didn't stay in one place too long. There were many mothers who wanted to have a word with her about her missing baby but were too frightened to report it to the police for fear of being exposed as a single mother. And it now seemed highly likely that the babies that Frances Knorr couldn't farm out or sell had been murdered.

As they arrived to arrest her, Sydney police found Frances Knorr in bed about to give birth to her second child. After it was born in custody, the Knorrs were taken under armed escort aboard the steamer Burrumbeet to Melbourne.

The inquest into the death of one of the baby boys found in the backyard in Brunswick, Isaac Marks, was held in Melbourne Morgue in October 1893. Among the 33 witnesses called was a 13-year-old nursemaid who had worked for Frances Knorr on and off for several years. Her evidence was damning. She recalled Frances Knorr borrowing a spade from a neighbour and then complaining that the front garden was too rocky to dig in and that she would have to dig in the back garden instead.

The doctor who examined the deceased infant said that a tape that had been drawn around his neck was the width of a sovereign coin, thus limiting the breathing capacity and causing the baby to suffocate.

The inquest heard evidence that Frances Knorr had so many dealings with unwed mothers who were reluctant to come forward, swapping babies and farming babies out to other child-minding centers at reduced rates, that it was almost impossible to keep track of what was going on. She had even pretended that her own baby, Gladys, belonged to another mother and that she was minding the girl for her.

After the inquest was held into the death of each of the three tiny bodies found in her backyard, Frances Knorr was charged with three counts of murder. But even in the face of indisputable evidence, she steadfastly denied murdering the babies or having anything to do with burying them.

At her trial the prosecution was swift to play its trump card and produce a letter that Frances Knorr had written from her cell in Old Melbourne Jail to Edward Thompson, the lover who had cast her aside, asking him to fabricate certain evidence on her behalf. The letter was given to police by Thompson's mother.

The letter was also a crude attempt to incriminate Thompson and have authorities believe that he was in some way responsible for the deaths and burials of the children. Frances Knorr wrote to Thompson urging him to pay a particular man and woman money to say that they had buried Knorr's and Thompson's child, which had died of consumption. She said in the letter that the woman would confirm this in court and clear both of them of any wrongdoing.