User Reviews

This is another television series from England that never got to the U.S., and that dealt with British Crime. Having never seen it I can't talk about the production, but I can explain the story.

In 1899 there was a French born governess named Louise Massett who lived in England (in London), and who had a four year old boy named Manfred. The boy was born out of wedlock, but Louise left the boy with a nice lady with the name of Mrs. Gentle. Louise had met a younger man named Eudore Lucas, and was having an affair with him. All this so far we are certain about.

On October 4, 1899 Louise bought a black shawl. On October 16, 1899 she wrote to Mrs. Gentle that Manfred's father wanted to raise the boy in France, so she was taking him out of the kind lady's care. A similar story was told to Louise's sister. Arrangements were made and Manfred was turned over to Louise on October 27, 1899 at London Bridge Station. For what happened next we have to accept Louise's story, or reject it. She claimed that Manfred was given to two women who promised to put him in a school they were running. Louise turned Manfred over to them and paid them 12 pounds tuition for the year. That was the story she kept sticking to. But we know that within the day, poor little Manfred's body was found with his head smashed in in the ladies waiting room of the Dalton Junction Railway Station. He was wrapped in the black shawl Louise bought on October 4th, and there was a portion of a clinker block near his body. The block looked like those found near Louise's sister's home. However, it was also like thousands of other clinker blocks that were found around London.

Louise, when she heard of the discovery of the body, contacted a brother-in-law who suggested she speak to the police. She didn't for two days. Subsequently, after she spoke to the police she was arrested for the murder of her son. She was tried in December 1899, and convicted. The jury could not accept her story about handing Manfred over to two women. She was hanged in January 1900, despite a petition from hundreds of governesses to Queen Victoria's attention. Supposedly she confessed before she was hanged.

Most criminal historians accept that she killed her harmless little son, probably because she felt his existence was an impediment to marrying Lucas. However, no real proof of this theory has ever popped up. The police "said" (and I say "said") they could not find the two women Louise mentioned. It must be admitted, given the details she gave, the address for their school was not the best to be gotten under these circumstances.

Now why do I qualify "said". Well, how many of you ever heard of "baby farming"? Probably if you heard H.M.S. PINAFORE, you would be aware of how Little Buttercup practiced "baby farming" and mixed up the infants Captain Corcoran and Ralph Rackstraw. If properly done, "baby farming" would be like having a child day care center while parents are at work, or would be like having a trained au pare watching the kids. But in the 19th Century there had been (from 1870 onward) about six dreadful serial murder cases where illegitimate children were given to various women to take care of, and the children were strangled or poisoned or killed in some manner. One of the worst was in 1896, involving an elderly, half-mad, alcoholic named Mrs. Dyer. She was hanged for her crimes.

But in 1900 there were two women practicing "Baby Farming" on the principles of Mrs. Dyer in London, named Annie Walters and Annie Sachs. Walters was the business brains, and Sachs the "muscle". In 1903 they were caught by the police, and ended on the gallows for several infanticides.

I have no proof that they were the ladies who supposedly met Louise Masset. I have no proof those ladies ever really existed. And I don't know if this particular program even touched on them as a possible solution. But I find it curious that they were just around the chronological corner at this time and place when Louise supposedly last saw Manfred according to her story. That's why I question if the police really investigated Louise's claim. It's a matter that will always bother me.