1893: Baby Farmer John Makin Hanged at Darlinghurst Gaol
John Makin and his wife Sarah were convicted of murdering infants left in their care in one of the most notorious baby farming cases in the history of Sydney. The couple had accepted children for informal adoption and killed them for profit, burying the small bodies around their properties.
Makin was hanged at Darlinghurst Gaol on 15 August 1893, precisely at 9 o’clock. When asked if he had anything to say on the scaffold, Makin simply muttered ‘No.’ Hangman Howard adjusted the noose with care, the lever was pulled, and death was instantaneous.
The night before his execution, Makin wrote a statement he claimed related to the child Amber Murray, for whose death he had been convicted. The statement maintained he had been convicted for the wrong child entirely.
