The Death of Fanny Adams

 

 

She was laid to rest in Alton Cemetery.

Her body pieced together, stitched and glued.

Killed, her headless body hacked apart.

Sweetness was lost from the Adam's brood.

 

Frederick Baker was hanged on Christmas Eve,

As five thousand spectators looked on.

Finally, he showed due regret and remorse,

Scaffolded, a hemp rope necklace to choke on.

 

She was a little over eight years old.

Out playing in the warm August sun,

Two others played in the meadows with her,

Picking berries, having laughs, and having fun.

 

A pillar of society and the church.

He was a twenty-nine-year-old solicitor's clerk.

The girls had no reason whatever to fear him,

Neither his sinister look nor his leering smirk.

 

As the day drew on, the girls got tired,

Lizzie and Minnie decided it was time to leave,

But Fanny, content, happy, kept playing.

Singularly living in her make-believe.

 

The older man approached the younger girl,

Invited her to walk and accompany him.

But she refused his unwanted advances,

So he grabbed and dragged her lissome limbs.

 

Her decapitated head was spiked on two hop poles,

Ear, arm, and legs dissected, her eyes removed.

Disembowelled, her vagina was never found.

Torso and face mutilated, hacked, and grooved.

 

Baker, when questioned, denied all knowledge.

Though found in possession of bloodstained knives.

Blood on his shirt cuffs, his waistcoat and trousers,

It was circumstantial; he knew Fanny survives.

 

Agreeing they had spoken, they even laughed,

She took his halfpenny for sweets as they parted.

Going their separate ways across the fields,

He watched as she skipped away, lighthearted.

 

Eventually, her eyes were discovered bobbing.

By the banks of the River Wey, near a foot in a shoe.

Her breastbone was never found, but there was a hand

Still clutching the halfpenny for a liquorice chew.

 

In court, Frederick, in desperation, tried to plead insanity,

Though others thought him responsible, he was not.

He was damned, however, by his diary that stated,

The twenty-fourth. Killed a young girl. It was fine and hot.

 

Both died unnecessarily that year,

Though he’s forgotten, history remembers her

That memory, unfortunate and derogatory.

Not regarded, more of an unwanted slur

 

Rations for the British Royal Navy two years later

Included, some almost inedible mutton, canned.

Considered the dissected remains of Sweet Fanny Adams

She represents anything mediocre, worthless, or bland.