John and Sarah Makin

We begin the story of the Makins when they saw an advertisement in the Sydney Newspaper. It read that a Miss Amber Murray was looking for a "kind person to take charge" of her baby boy, Horace Murray for a small fee.

Amber was a young woman who had given birth to her son out of wedlock on March 30 1892. By June 23, 1892 when she placed the advertisement she was finding it difficult to juggle work and a baby on her own. Little did she know but by placing the advertisement she had signed her baby's death certificate.

A kindly-looking man answered the advertisement. A Mr J Hill wrote to Miss Murray and offered to adopt the baby into his family for a meagre £6. Mr Hill told Miss Murray of his plight. His wife had lost a baby boy herself recently and was in a very melancholy state. He believed little Horace would be a perfect addition to his loving and caring family.

Amber Murray was comforted by this idea and headed to the George Street, Sydney address. At the door, Amber was greeted by John Makin, who Miss Murray believed was Mr Hill, a scruffy man but with a kind and gently voice and his two teenage daughters. 

Miss Murray paid the Makin the small amount of money she had and was given a receipt in the name of Makin's alias Mr J Hill. Before leaving her baby in the hands of the kindly strangers, she asked if she could still see her child on occasions. She was devastated by having to give her baby up for adoption but hoped it was for the best interests of her 3 month old baby boy.

When the door closed behind her, Miss Murray was to never see her baby alive again. She tried to contact the Makin family at the George Street house, but was informed they had moved away.

In October 1892 builders were renovating a house in Burren Street Macdonaldtown. While digging in the garden they uncovered the skeletal remains of two infants. Instantly suspicion was laid on the previous occupants, the Makins, at one point the couple had at least six children residing in the house.

Soon after the discoveries the Makin's other previous residence, George Street, was also excavated. Three babies were uncovered in the yard. A third yard yielded two more tiny corpses.

In the 1890's birth survival rate was indeed low and so far there was no reason to believe the babies had been murdered. With three women of child bearing age in the house, it was possible that the babies had been their own. So at the moment the only crime had been concealment of death. Both John and Sarah Makin were arrested along with their two daughters. The four of them remained in prison while autopsies and coronial inquests were held into the death of the seven babies.

The decomposition of all but two of the babies made it difficult to establish identities or cause of death. However sources claimed that the babies were pierced through the heart with knitting needles when they were no longer needed.

Two of the babies however could be identified, one of them was indeed Horace Murray , the other was the baby of Horace Bottomley and Minnie Davis.

So next the question was why had the Makin's "adopted" these babies only to kill them. Well it became obvious that they were taking the babies and selling them to wealthy childless couples. When they had babies that they could not sell they would kill them.

The two Maikin daughters were the prosecutions star witnesses. They told how they had pawned the clothes of many babies for their parents. 

The trial was a sensation and gained quite a crowd, the newspapers covered the story closely and quoted the trial judge, Justice Stephens as saying at sentencing of John Makin to death

"You were carrying on the hellish business of destroying the lives of infants for the sake of gain"

Makin was hanged for his part in the murderous campaign. His wife Sarah received a milder sentence. She was sentenced to life imprisonment. She was released in 1911.

Bibliography: An Australian Murder Almanac Ed. Patricia Dasey

Written by Korey Sifuentes

Copyright © 2002  by [The Crime Web].

Except as provided by the Copyright Act 1968, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system  or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior permission of the author.
Original Written: January 30, 2002

Updated: January 30, 2002