Fanny Adams was born on the thirtieth of April 1859 in the small market town of Alton in Hampshire, one of six children in a family that, like many in the area, depended on the land. Hops grew on the farms around Alton, and the town was home to numerous breweries. That industry had expanded rapidly after Parliament passed the Beer House Act in 1830, which allowed any ratepayer to brew and sell beer with a license. The law aimed to encourage people to drink beer rather than strong spirits, but it led to the opening of thousands of new public houses and small breweries across the country, and it drove up the demand for hops.

Fanny was a bright, polite child, always older than her years. She helped her mother at home, looked after her younger sister Lizzie, and spent her summer days playing outside with other children. On a hot Saturday afternoon in August 1867, she asked her mother for permission to walk to Flood Meadow with her friend Minnie Warner, a short distance from their home in Tan House Lane. She said she would take Lizzie along.

Her mother saw no harm in it; Fanny was a sensible girl, and many children would be out playing on a day like this. Mrs. Adams watched from outside her house until the three girls turned the corner and disappeared from sight, then went back inside. At around five o’clock, the girls made their way home.

As they approached Tan House Lane, a local lady named Mrs. Gardner stopped them and asked Lizzie why her sister was not with them. What followed was a horrifying account. The girls said that on their way to Flood Meadow, a man they did not know by name but had seen before in the town and in church had stopped them.

He wore a coat, light-colored trousers, and a tall hat. He gave each of them money, three halfpence to Minnie and Lizzie and a halfpenny to Fanny. He watched them play for a while, then asked Fanny to walk with him along the hollow toward the nearby village of Shorden. She refused.

The man simply picked her up, carried her into the hop field, and out of sight. Mrs. Gardner asked why they had not run straight home to raise the alarm. Minnie replied that they had.

She said she and Lizzie ran home and told her mother, but the mother had not thought it important and told them to carry on playing outside. Mrs. Gardner rushed to Fanny’s home and repeated the children’s story to Mrs. Adams.

Alarmed, the two women immediately set off toward Flood Meadow to investigate. Not far from the hop field, they saw a well-dressed man walking toward them, wearing the same clothes the girls had described. When he acknowledged them, the women stopped and said they wanted to speak to him. Mrs.

Gardner questioned him about the whereabouts of her neighbor’s daughter. The man identified himself as Frederick Baker, a solicitor’s clerk for a local gentleman named William Clement. He said he had given the three girls money to buy sweets, and the last time he saw them they were all playing happily together. Although Mrs.

Adams and Mrs. Gardner harbored suspicions, they reasoned that a man with a respectable position in one of the town’s most established legal offices must be an upstanding member of the community. Both women returned home expecting Fanny to appear before dark. By seven o’clock she had not returned.

Her mother grew deeply concerned; Fanny was a good girl and never stayed out this long. Neighbors, who had heard the story of the strange man giving the girls money, joined Mrs. Adams as she searched the meadows along Tan House Lane. The fields were quiet, empty of children and workers.

They called her name as they fanned out in different directions. A farm worker named Thomas Gates walked toward the hop field and peered down the rows. Something rested on top of two poles, something that looked very strange. As he drew closer, he realized it was a child’s head.

Scattered around were other parts of a dismembered body. A neighbor broke the news to Mrs. Adams, who was distraught. She insisted on telling her husband, who was at a cricket match, but overwhelmed with grief she collapsed before she reached him.

When George Adams learned what had happened to his daughter, he returned to his small house in Tan House Lane, took his shotgun, and set out to find the killer. Neighbors persuaded him not to take the law into his own hands and to let the police investigate instead. Police Superintendent Cheney took charge. The remains of the child had been gathered and laid out on a table at the Leather and Bottle pub on Amery Street.

He immediately organized a search for the missing body parts. When he learned that Frederick Baker had given the children money and carried Fanny into the hop field, he decided to visit him. Accompanied by one of his officers, the superintendent went to Mr. Clement’s office.

It was late, and he expected no one to be there, but Frederick Baker was present. Baker told him he had given the children money and continued on his way, insisting he had harmed no one. Cheney wanted to continue the questioning at the police station. By then the story had spread through Alton, and a large, angry crowd had gathered outside the solicitor’s office.

Baker was taken out through a back door and locked up in the police station before the crowd realized he had gone. A search of his person turned up two small knives. Small blood spots were found on his shirt sleeve, and his trousers were wet, as if they had been cleaned while he was wearing them, possibly to remove stains. Baker seemed unconcerned and continued to deny any involvement.

Cheney spoke to Baker’s work colleagues. They told him Baker had left the office at around one in the afternoon and returned at half past three, staying about two hours before leaving again. This coincided with the time Mrs. Adams and Mrs.

Gardner had seen him near the hop field. An inquest was held at the Duke’s Inn on Tuesday the twenty-ninth of August. Baker still maintained his innocence, but he was transferred to Winchester Prison to await trial while the police continued investigating. It was not until October that another witness came forward.

A young boy named Alfred Vince said that at around two o’clock on the day of the murder he had been leaving the hop field when he saw a man covered in blood. The man had stopped by the river to wash himself. The boy said he saw him put two objects in his pockets, one a small knife, the other he could not identify. Asked why he had waited nearly two months to speak, he said he had told his mother.

Police searched the area for sixteen days in the hope of finding the larger object but never did. Forensic testing of the blood on the small knife found on Baker established that it was human. Further examination of his clothing revealed small traces of diluted blood on his waistcoat, trousers, socks, and shirt cuffs. In prison, Baker was a model inmate and continued to deny the crime.

The trial opened at Winchester Crown Court on the fifth of December 1867. Minnie Warner testified that the defendant had given her, Lizzie, and Fanny money, picked blackberries, watched them play, and then carried Fanny off into the hop field. Fanny’s mother told the court how she had spoken to Baker at the gate of the hop field and how he had said he had given the girls some coins and gone on his way. Mrs.

Gardner gave a similar account and identified Baker as the man she had spoken to, noting that his manner was very relaxed. A fellow clerk named Morris Biddle testified that on the day of the murder, while drinking at the Swan with Baker, Biddle had remarked that he could turn his hand at anything. Baker had replied that he thought he would be able to work as a butcher. The defense argued that Baker was insane.

They told the court his father had been a violent man, that a cousin had been sent to an asylum, that a sister had died of brain fever, and that Baker himself had attempted suicide after a failed love affair. It was a strange defense: Baker pleaded not guilty, and his lawyers claimed the evidence was insufficient, yet they also seemed to argue that if he was guilty, it was due to insanity. His father and sister testified that they had always considered him of unsound mind. Two men who had known him for years confirmed this.

A local doctor, Dr. Curtis, said some of Baker’s actions could be attributed to his mental state, and Dr. Taylor, who had attended him for twenty-five years, told the court that Baker had always had a delicate mind. The judge summed up, and the jury was sent out.

They returned in fifteen minutes with a verdict of guilty. The judge sentenced Frederick Baker to death. Before his execution, Baker wrote to Mr. and Mrs.

Adams, expressing sorrow for what he had done and asking for their forgiveness. On the twenty-fourth of December 1867, before a crowd of some five thousand people, he was hanged outside Winchester Jail. In Britain, the name Fanny Adams lived on. In 1869, sailors in the Royal Navy were introduced to tins of mutton as part of their food rations.

When they opened the tins, they claimed the contents looked inedible and said it must be the butchered remains of Sweet Fanny Adams. By the early twentieth century, the expression sweet Fanny Adams, or sweet FA, had become a common way of saying that nothing had been done or that something was worth nothing. The phrase lasted into the twenty-first century, often with the final part replaced by something ruder, but it all traced back to the terrible crime committed in Alton in 1867.