I want to keep myself cool and quiet because they are going to let me see Polly. My poor child has been brought from Reading to Holloway and she is there now … I want you to tell the world that whatever my daughter has said about me in the witness box, I forgive her from the bottom of my heart. She told them all she knew poor dear ... What makes them so cruel to me that they won’t let me live to see Polly out of her trouble? … I wish the world could understand what it is to have someone saying to you ‘Get rid of them, get rid of them’. I don’t feel mad now, it’s so nice and quiet here … I used to like to watch them with the tape around their neck, but it was soon all over with them; though when I had thrown them in the water I felt better and easier like in my mind … Before I die I want you to tell the mothers of the little babies that I pray for them every night to forgive me in their hearts.
Extract from an interview with Amelia Dyer by a journalist
from the Weekly Dispatch from Newgate Gaol
Amelia was taken to Newgate Gaol to await her execution and on the morning of Friday 5 June she received her long-wished-for visit from her daughter. Polly had been transferred temporarily from Reading Gaol to Holloway for the sole purpose of visiting her mother in Newgate. A wire grille separated the two women and their conversation was witnessed by a number of attendants. There is no surviving record as to what they talked of that day, but with Polly’s trial at Reading due to take place on the 16th of the month it is safe to assume that some mention was made of the possible outcome. Amelia’s Newgate file reveals that Polly had written to her mother on several occasions, her prime concern being that her mother’s memory and credibility as a sane witness would not hamper her own case in any way. It is telling that on the very afternoon of the visit Amelia wrote another letter to the authorities proclaiming her daughter’s innocence once again.
June 5th
I am thankful to say I have seen my dear child now this morning. The parting is more than I can bear. I was glad to see her looking so well dear child. God only knows how grieved I am to know she is suffering for no fault of her own. She did nothing, she knew nothing. I am speaking truthfully the girl is innocent of the charge against her.
The following day the governor of Newgate Gaol was served with a subpoena ordering Amelia Dyer to appear as witness at her daughter’s forthcoming trial. It was a unique occurrence in the history of criminal procedure: Amelia’s execution was due to take place a week before her daughter’s trial. But there was to be no respite for Amelia as it was deemed that a prisoner under sentence of death was considered already legally dead and therefore any evidence she could offer at her daughter’s trial would be inadmissible.
Amelia never gave up protesting her daughter’s innocence and it was only on the eve of her execution that she was to learn that the charges against Polly had been dropped. Polly was still ordered to appear before the Berkshire Assizes but, as the Treasury offered no evidence against her, the case was dismissed and she was set free.