Unknown Gender History: Anna Bell, the South Carolina Girl Who Liked to Murder Babies

FULL TEXT: Cincinnati, O., July 20.- A Special to the Post from Columbia, S. C., says: A report from Fairfield county says Anna Bell, a 14-year-old negro girl, killed a 3-months old baby and then hanged a 9-year-old boy over a well and burned him with a poker because he refused to agree to say that he had killed the child.

The girl had been sent to the house to cook dinner by the parents, who were working in a fleld near by.

In a few minutes she called the parents and told them the boy had killed the baby.

The boy was found suspended over the well, and he told the story of the girl’s crime.

The same girl, two months ago, was found disinterring a corpse to rob it of a breast pin.

Three years ago she killed another baby, but was cleared at her trial because of her age.

[“Ferocious Anna Bell – Has Killed Babies, and Has Robbed a Dead Body.” The Sunday Post (Boston, Ma.), Jul. 21, 1895, p. 1]

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FULL TEXT: Columbia, S. C., July 20 – Reports from Fairfield county jail of the revolting crimes of a 14-year-old negro girl named Annabell [sic]. She dismembered a 3-month-old baby whom she had been left to mind and then hung a 6-year-old boy over a well and terribly burned him with a torch because he had refused to agree to say that it was he who had killed the baby.

The girl is now under arrest. Three years ago she killed another baby, but was cleared at her trial because of age.

[“Negro Girl’s Crimes.” The Topeka Daily Capital (Ka.), Jul. 21, 1895, p. 1]

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