| Sophia Todd carried her victim around in a tin box for a year before her crime was uncovered. The daughter of a Scottish civil engineer, sophia was educated in Brussels and became fluent in six foreign languages, including Polish and Russian. She fell on hard times however when her husband died when he was still in his 20's. In days before abortions, there was a market for unwanted babies and Sophia turned to this for money. She placed an advertisement in the Liverpool Mercury on 9th July 1875, requesting a child for a responsible married couple to bring up as their own. Shortly after, a man came to her lodgings with a baby boy who was less than one month old. Sophia took the infant and was paid £10. That night the baby's throat was split and the remains placed in a box. She took this around several lodgings until the smell was so bad her landlady opened it. At her trial, Sophia claimed the baby had died suddenly but the medical evidence refuted this. After being found guilty, Sophia was initially sentenced to death, but this was commuted to life imprisonment on the grounds that the medical evidence was not conclusive enough. |
| THE BABY IN THE BOX |
| photographs coming soon |