John Makin (14 February 1845 – 15 August 1893) and Sarah Jane Makin (20 December 1845 – 13 September 1918) were Australian baby farmers who were convicted in New South Wales (NSW) for the murder of infant Horace Murray. Both were tried and found guilty in March 1893 and were sentenced to death. John was hanged on 15 August 1893 but Sarah's sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. On 29 April 1911, Sarah was paroled from the State Reformatory for Women at Long Bay in response to the petition of her daughters. Sarah Jane Sutcliffe was born on 20 December 1845 to Ellen Murphy and Emanuel Sutcliffe; her father was a miller and former convict. Sarah's first marriage was to sailor Charles Edwards on 29 April 1865 in Sydney. She later married brewery drayman John Makin of Dapto, New South Wales, on 27 August 1871. John was the son of farmer William Samuel Makin and his wife Ellen Selena. John and Sarah produced five sons and five daughters. The couple turned to baby farming—the practice of caring for illegitimate babies in exchange for payment—as a source of income after John was injured in an accident. The Makins came to police attention on 11 October 1892 when worker James Hanoney was clearing a clogged underground drain in the backyard of a home in Burren Street, Macdonaldtown, and found it blocked with the remains of two infants. Investigators examined records to trace the Makins, who had moved again to Chippendale. The Makins and four of their daughters were arrested, though only John and Sarah were charged. Police exhumed remains from the backyards of eleven homes that the Makins had occupied since 1890. The bodies of twelve infants were recovered, though some sources say thirteen.Prosecutors believed the Makins sought to profit by taking in babies for childcare payments, and found it easier to kill the children and deceive the parents to continue receiving money. One of their victims was Horace Murray, whose clothing was identified by his mother Amber. Both Sarah and John Makin were sentenced to death by hanging by the Supreme Court of New South Wales at Sydney for the murder of Horace Murray, with a recommendation by the jury that Sarah Makin be spared the death penalty. Before sentencing the Makins, the judge in the case said:
“You took money from the mother of this child. You beguiled her with promises which you never meant to perform and which you never did perform having determined on the death of the child. You deceived her as to your address and you endeavoured to make it utterly fruitless that any search should be made and finally, in order to make detection impossible, as you thought, having bereft it of life, you buried this child in your yard as you would the carcase of a dog... No one who has heard the case but must believe that you were engaged in baby farming in its worst aspect. Three yards of houses in which you lived testify, with that ghastly evidence of these bodies, that you were carrying on this nefarious, this hellish business, of destroying the lives of these infants for the sake of gain.”