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| “ | 24 August, Saturday. Killed a young girl. It was fine and hot. | „ |
| ~ Baker's diary entry for 24 August 1867. |
Frederick Baker was an English murderer who abducted, murdered and dismembered eight-year-old Fanny Adams in Alton, Hampshire, in August 1867. The case passed into the British public consciousness with the phrase "Sweet Fanny Adams", meaning something worthless.
Biography edit
Baker, a solicitor's clerk, moved from his home in Guildford to the town of Alton in August 1866. He worked for solicitor Mr. Clements in Alton High Street opposite the Swan Hotel, a pub which Baker frequented.
On 24 August 1867, Fanny Adams, her sister Lizzie and their friend Minnie Warner went out to play in nearby Flood Meadow. On their way they encountered Frederick Baker, who gave them money to buy sweets. On their way back from the meadow an hour later they once again encountered Baker, who offered Fanny more money if she left with him. Fanny refused, at which point Baker picked her up and carried her away into a nearby hop garden. Lizzie and Minnie ran back home and reported what had happened to Minnie's mother Martha Warner, who assumed they were playing a game and ignored them. Believing this meant that Fanny was in no danger, the girls continued playing.
Several hours later, the girls were again asked where Fanny was by a neighbour, Mrs. Gardner, and replied that Baker had taken her. Shocked, Mrs. Gardner reported the abduction to Fanny's mother Harriet Adams and the two went out to confront Baker. He insisted that he had taken Fanny a short distance to buy more sweets and then let her go. Mrs. Gardner told Baker "I have a good mind to give you in charge to the police". Baker replied "You may do what you like", believing that his status as a solicitor's clerk would deflect suspicion.
A search party was raised to find Fanny. The hop garden Baker had carried Fanny into was searched by labourer Thomas Gates, who found her severed head mounted on a pole. One of her ears had been removed and a Glasgow smile had been inflicted. Her arms, legs, torso, heart, left foot, liver, stomach, pancreas, ribcage and intestines were found in various spots around the hop garden. Her eyes, sternum and vagina were missing (the eyes were later found in the River Wey).
Baker was arrested on suspicion of murder at his workplace that evening. Police smuggled him out the back way out of fear that the townsfolk would lynch him. Bloodstains were found on his clothes and two knives similar to those that would have to have been used to dismember Fanny were found in his possession, with traces of coagulated blood on them. Baker's desk was searched and found to contain a diary with an entry reading "Killed a young girl. It was fine and hot". A young boy who lived near the Adams family came forward to tell police that he had seen Baker emerging from the hop garden wiping blood off his hands and knife with a handkerchief. Dr. Lewis Leslie stated that Fanny had likely been dismembered post-mortem after being beaten to death with a stone; a stone with flesh and hair sticking to it had been found near the scene of the crime.
An inquest returned a verdict of wilful murder against Frederick Baker, who was officially charged at Winchester Crown Court. He pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, as his family had a history of mental illness. The defence also argued that the way in which his infamous diary entry was written indicated that Baker had been suffering an epileptic fit at the time. However, a jury took only fifteen minutes to convict Baker, who was sentenced to death. He was hanged outside HMP Winchester on 24 December 1867 before a crowd of 5000 people.