The Murder of Fanny Adams
At least twenty years before Jack the Ripper became a household name, another English murder case would horrify and grip the country; the brutal murder of eight-year-old Fanny Adams in 1867 by a seemingly normal solicitors clerk named Frederick Baker.
Described as being a lovely, cheerful little girl, Fanny Adams was well known in the village of Alton for her beautiful cornflower blue eyes. On August 24th, 1867, Fanny was playing in the woods with two friends when they encountered Frederick Baker (24) taking a shortcut home from work; he watched the girls run races and pick blackberries before giving them money to buy sweets. As Fanny went to go with her friends, Baker snatched her in his arms and ran with her to the nearby river.
An artist's depiction of the abduction and murder of Fanny Adams
When the little girl failed to return home for dinner, a search party was formed to look for her. Naturally they went to the meadow where she was last seen, and upon arriving at a hop garden near the river the searchers came across a horrible scene - Fanny's decapitated head stuck on a wooden stake. Her eyes had been ripped out, and a large cut mutilated her lower face in an awful imitation of a smile.
Her butchered torso lay nearby, with body parts scattered throughout the garden; one entire arm lay several feet from a single foot, while both legs had been cut from her lower torso. A forearm was found on a path leading to the garden. Further examination revealed Fanny's chest had been sliced open and her heart - which was never recovered - was scooped out, alongside most of her organs.
The gruesome nature of the crime lead to it being reported nationwide, and Frederick Baker was arrested within days after Fanny's playmates identified him as the man who snatched and ran with her. His diary entry for August 24 was short but chilling:
"Killed a young girl today. It was fine and hot"
Baker remained unfazed throughout the investigation and trial, and offered no words of remorse or explanation as to why he murdered the little girl. He was found guilty of murder and hanged on Christmas Eve; a record 5000 spectators turned up to watch the execution.
The murder of Fanny Adams started to be referenced in a macabre joke within the newly enlisted Army recruits starting in 1870 - because true cuts of meat were strictly rationed, the soldiers began to refer to their tiny, inedible lumps of dinner meat as the missing body parts of "Sweet Fanny Adams". In modern times, the term has evolved into "sweet f*ck all" or "sweet F.A", used to mean something small or insignificant. Within the Army today, pots used to store or cook meat are called Fannys.
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