April 23, 1887 - Dagmar Overby
Her crimes were enabled by a social gap — illegitimate children whose mothers paid for discreet care had few protections and left little trace. Operating as a professional caretaker across seven years, Overbye turned a position of trust into systematic killing, with the true number of victims remaining uncertain due to the care she took in disposing of remains.
From Wikipedia
Dagmar Johanne Amalie Overbye (Danish: [ˈtɑwmɑ ˈɒwɐˌpyˀ]; 23 April 1887 – 6 May 1929) was a Danish serial killer, who is sometimes known by the nicknames Englemagersken (English: The Angel Maker) and Menneskedyret fra Enghavevej (English: The Human Animal from Enghavevej). She is considered the largest serial killer in Danish history, and her crimes are among the most notorious in Danish criminal history. She murdered between nine and 25 children, including one of her own, during a seven-year period from 1913 to 1920. On 3 March 1921, she was sentenced to death in one of the most noted trials in Danish history—one that changed legislation on childcare. The sentence was later commuted to life in prison.
Overby grew up in poverty in Jutland with a large group of siblings, and her youth was marked by sexual abuse, petty crime, a wandering life as a maid, and turbulent relationships. She gave birth to several children herself, one of whom was abandoned, while others died of illness. After moving to Copenhagen in 1914, she lived at several addresses with her partner, Svend Carl Svendsen, and began taking in infants to subsidize the couple's struggling finances.
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