The Baby-Eating Monster

Anna Delpech, better known as L’Ogresse, went down in French criminal history as a child murderer. The name was derived from Ogre, a man-eating monster in French mythology. In 1868, during the last two weeks of August, two women died in the French commune of Corbarieu near Montauban in southern France, one from abdominal bleeding and one from peritonitis. Both women had been pregnant. Their deaths were caused by illegal abortions. Suspicion quickly fell on Anna Delpech, a 53-year-old, very large and very sturdy woman who had already served a sentence for theft and fraud in 1863. Anna lived in a small house in a suburb of Montauban, which was called “Perno blanco” because of the white square above the front door, where shady characters regularly met. Anna herself was known to the locals only as “gatano gatassa,” which means fat, evil cat. Anna was known for helping women who had become pregnant unintentionally to place their children in the care of the Nazareth institution in Cadillac. Emilie Lages, who had given birth to a daughter in November 1867, also brought her to Anna so that she could take the child there. Emilie paid Anna 40 francs for this on August 13, 1868. Since Emilie missed her daughter terribly, she asked Anna if she had arrived safely. Anna assured her that Emilie’s daughter would want for nothing there. But after Anna was arrested for the deaths of the two women, Emilie began to investigate the whereabouts of her daughter. It turned out that there was no such institution in Cadillac. Emilie then visited Anna in prison to confront her. Anna replied rather cynically that her daughter had long since been flushed down the drain. Emilie shared this information with the police, who turned Anna’s house upside down and indeed found the legs, severed above the knees, and then the body of a 9-month-old baby in the drain. Apart from this horrific discovery, the police found nothing. However, there was another small house on the same street where Anna had lived for two years until 1964. In this house, the police found many children’s skeletons that had been gnawed and mutilated by rats. Two more children’s skeletons were discovered under the floor in the living room, one under the stairs, and two more in the annex. Anna had meanwhile made a full confession. In it, she also stated that she had performed abortions together with the respected midwife Coyne. Of course, the rumor of the two angel makers, as women who performed abortions were popularly called, spread like wildfire in the city. Rumors grew that Anna had prepared and eaten the murdered children. Anna herself even confessed to killing her own grandchild. In 1857, her 17-year-old daughter Jeanne had become a mother. After the midwife Paul had briefly left the house, Anna had given her 48-hour-old grandchild diluted sulfuric acid, causing the baby to die. The midwife and her husband became suspicious and called a doctor, but he was unable to determine the cause of death. Anna consoled her daughter by saying that she was too young to be a mother anyway. Under French law at the time, this crime was already time-barred after 10 years. Over the years, Anna repeatedly managed to gain the trust of young, desperate women who entrusted their babies to her, believing that they would be cared for in an institution. But instead of doing this, Anna drowned the children by pressing their heads into a container of water until they suffocated. She then hid their bodies in her house. In 1863, Anna had killed the child of Marie Villadieu, from whom she had received 100 francs for placing the child in the care institution. Anna had also killed the child of Antoinette Fourcade, from whom she had collected 400 francs. The lucrative business came to a halt when Anna was sent to prison for fraud. On June 11, 1864, Anna was released from prison. In November 1865, Anna killed Eulalie Lapoque’s child, having previously received 300 francs from her for taking in her baby. It was only through the research and persistence of Emilie Lages that the whole truth came to light. In addition to the baby murders, Anna Delpech was also charged with illegal abortions she had performed together with Mrs. Coyne. Throughout the trial, Anna laughed manically, giving the impression that she was insane. Anna Delpech was sentenced by the court to life imprisonment with hard labor for her horrific crimes. Her accomplice in the illegal abortions, Mrs. Coyne, received 10 years of hard labor. This finally put an end to the cruel activities of the baby killer Anna Delpech.