The sad story of Fanny Adams
The sad story of Fanny Adams Fanny Adams (30 April 1859 – 24 August 1867) was an English girl who was murdered by solicitor's clerk Frederick Baker in Alton, Hampshire, on 24 August 1867. The murder itself was extraordinarily brutal and received national outcry in the United Kingdom. Fanny was murdered after being abducted by Baker and was brought into a hop garden near her home. She was brutally severed and her body cut into several pieces, with some parts never to have been found. At the trial the defence argued insanity: Baker's father had been violent, a cousin had been in asylums, his sister had died of a brain fever and he himself had attempted suicide after a love affair. The defence also argued that the diary entry was typical of the "epileptic or formal way of entry" that the defendant used and that the absence of a comma after the word killed did not render the entry a confession. Justice Mellor invited the jury to consider a verdict of not responsible by r...