Book Bite: The Edward Street Baby Farm

This extract from The Edward Street Baby Farm by STELLA BUDRIKIS shines a light on the 1907 trial of Alice Mitchell, after she was arrested for the murder of five-month-old Ethel Booth. Mitchell would be further accused of at least another 37 infants dying in her care in the previous six years.

‘You might be surprised to know that she used to be a soft-hearted woman. It’s them babies that has made her callous.’ John Sweeney, quoted in Truth, 20 April 1907

The woman in the dock sat motionless, her hands clasped in her lap, her shoulders braced against the hostile glares from the gallery behind her. At the time of her arrest for the murder of little Ethel Booth, one newspaper had described her as elderly. Others, taking their lead from the police records, said she was 46 years old, born in Western Australia, a Wesleyan, able to read and write. Now, at the end of a draining trial, she looked weary of all her 52 years. Her name was Alice Mitchell. 

It was late in the afternoon of Saturday, 13 April 1907. Alice, like everyone else in Courtroom Two of Perth’s Supreme Court, was waiting for the jury to deliver its verdict on the charge of wilful murder. After a week of hearing evidence, Justice McMillan had insisted that the lawyers push on to finish the case that day. When he sent the jury out to deliberate, the light had already begun to fade from the windows high in the courtroom walls, and the skylights in the checkerboard ceiling.

An hour later, the 12 men, many of them young enough to be Alice’s sons, signalled that they were ready to return. The trial had been an ordeal in every way, and they were eager to get it over with and go home. Mr Justice McMillan had just resumed his seat on the judge’s bench. The sense of anticipation was as palpable as the stale, muggy air of the courtroom.

At this hour, most Perth citizens would be eating dinner. But the public gallery above and behind the prisoners dock was crammed with people keen to hear whether Alice would be found guilty of the murder of baby Ethel Booth. The ‘baby farming horror’ had riveted the attention of Perth’s population \ from the beginning. Each new disclosure kept their fascination with the case alive, and the courtroom packed with spectators. 

During the preliminary coroner’s inquest into Ethel’s death, they had heard that, over the past six years, no less than 37 infants had died in Alice Mitchell’s care – perhaps even more. The jury at the inquest concluded that Ethel Booth had died as a result of wilful starvation. That verdict sent Alice to the Supreme Court to be tried for her murder.

Lack of evidence would have made it difficult to charge her with the deaths of the other infants. Their bodies had all been passed to the undertakers without the coroner being notified. But during the trial, the circumstances surrounding their deaths had certainly been used to establish the case against Alice. Witness after witness had told dreadful tales about what went on in the Mitchells’ home. 

The medical evidence had been against her too, except for the self-serving rhetoric of children’s specialist, Dr Ned Officer. But would the jury be willing to find her guilty and send a woman to the gallows? Only two women had ever been executed in Western Australia. The second of these had been hanged nearly 40 years earlier. If the jury found Alice Mitchell guilty of murder, would Justice McMillan make her the third? Many sitting in the public gallery thought that hanging her for the death of one child would hardly be penalty enough for watching over the deaths of dozens.

Still, some whispered to each other as they waited, perhaps her family connections would save her. Others muttered that Doctor Ned Officer, called as a witness for the defence, had been let off very lightly by the judge in his comments, all things considered. After all, the doctor had signed so many of those infants’ death certificates, without raising any alarm. As for the so-called health inspectors of the Perth Local Health Board, they all deserved to be sent packing. Especially the incompetent lady inspector, Miss Lenihan.

In the area reserved for the press, reporters for the weekend newspapers checked the clock on the wall above the prisoners dock incessantly and gloomily. It was too late now to get their copy into print for tomorrow’s papers. News of the verdict would cap two months of sensational stories, but the dailies would be ahead of them by nearly a week.

Behind everyone’s fascination and horror at what had become known as ‘The Baby Farming Case’ lay the question: ‘How did it come to this?’ How could so many infants die in the care of one woman without anyone becoming concerned? The press around the country were already touting Alice Mitchell as perhaps Australia’s worst serial killer. How could such ignominy fall upon the state of Western Australia? How could such a thing happen in a small, conservative community like Perth? And who was to be held responsible?

Dr Officer was not in court to hear the verdict, but no doubt he too was eager for the case to be over. His reputation had taken a battering from his association with the Mitchell woman. Still, this wasn’t the first time he’d had to face down tough opposition. He was confident he could come outon top. 

Harriet Lenihan, the health inspector who had shouldered the task of monitoring Alice Mitchell’s home for the past six years, waited more anxiously for the outcome of the trial. Regardless of whether Alice Mitchell was found guilty, the verdict on her own future had been all but settled by the disclosures of the past few weeks.

She, too, might have wondered how it had come to this. In the past, her musical skill and masterly registration on the pipe organ had earned her praise. Now she was pilloried in the press for her incompetence at filling out office registers and inspecting drainpipes and washhouses. This was not the life she had imagined for herself when she arrived in Perth nearly 10 years earlier.

The Edward Street Baby Farm by Stella Budrikis is published by Fremantle Press