The Horrifying Case of Danish Serial Killer | Dagmar Overbye - video Dailymotion

Brief Case

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Transcript

00:08Hello everyone. Today we are going to Denmark to look at a case that is nearly a hundred years old.

00:17So sit back as we go to early 20th century Copenhagen.

00:26Dagmar Overby was born on April 23, 1887, in a small Danish village. Her parents, Sean and Anne-Marie, were

00:38poor farmers.

00:39She was known as a moody and demanding child. Despite being the top of her class at school, she often

00:46lied and stole.

00:47When she was 12, she was caught stealing a neighbour's purse. This really upset her parents, who are hard-working,

00:56honest people.

00:57So they sent her to work on a big farm in Funin. The owner of the farm paid Dagmar a

01:04pitfall wage,

01:05and made the young girl clean the house, wash the clothes, cook and milk the cows.

01:12After a while, she left the farm and worked as a servant in several other homes in the island.

01:18But when she was caught stealing from her last place of work, she was arrested and spent 10 days in

01:24a woman's prison in Svenborg.

01:26When she was released, she returned to her childhood home. She quickly found work as a waitress.

01:34While working there, she would often serve a regular customer named Bizgard.

01:39They would always smile at each other and make small talk, and even started to go out when Dagmar finished

01:46work.

01:47They did not get married, but eventually they moved in together, and Dagmar gave birth to a baby boy.

01:53The pressures of parenthood took their toll on the young couple, and this was compounded when their baby died in

02:01somewhat mysterious circumstances.

02:04When the doctor held an inquest, he observed that the infant had blue lips, a condition which could indicate choking.

02:12But the death certificate stated that the child had died from pneumonia.

02:16The local people were very suspicious of how the baby had died, and with all the rumours circulating about Dagmar,

02:25she left her boyfriend Bizgard and left town.

02:29In 1912, she met and fell in love with Jane Sorensen. He didn't know it, but at the time he

02:37met her, she was already pregnant with another man's child.

02:41Dagmar gave birth to a baby girl, and called her Irene Marie, and immediately put the child up for adoption,

02:48as not to further embarrass Jens.

02:51A year later, she was once again pregnant.

02:54Jens, however, didn't want her to have the child, and instructed her to have a termination.

03:00Dagmar would not do this, so went through with the pregnancy, and when the baby was born, she abandoned him

03:07in a haystack.

03:08She had hoped to marry Jens, but after the baby's birth, he told her he did not want to marry

03:14her, and a devastated Dagmar tried to commit suicide.

03:19She didn't succeed.

03:21Dagmar pulled herself together and left Jens, and managed to reunite with her daughter, Irina, who had been adopted three

03:30years earlier, and together they went to the nation's capital, Copenhagen.

03:35She was a clever and resourceful lady, and soon opened her own sweet shop.

03:41It was now 1915, and World War I was engulfing Europe.

03:47And although Denmark remained neutral, they had a land border with Germany, so the war affected the nation.

03:54Here she met a gentleman by the name of Svensden, and along with her daughter, they all moved in together.

04:02Unfortunately, the sweet shop failed to make enough money, so Dagmar closed it down, and looked for other ways of

04:09making a living.

04:12She began working as a professional childminder, and one day while reading a newspaper, she read an article about women

04:21who had been given 500 kroners to adopt a baby.

04:25The fee for taking in a child was substantial, amounting to just over a year's salary for a woman.

04:33This gave Dagmar the idea to set up a sort of unofficial adoption agency.

04:39Her plan was to take in children born out of wedlock, and find them parents to adopt them.

04:46For the first child, Dagmar accepted.

04:49She would be paid an upfront fee, and a monthly maintenance fee.

04:54She looked in the newspapers to find young mothers advertising babies for adoption, when she came across one placed by

05:0226-year-old Rasmeen Jensen.

05:06She had given birth to a boy out of wedlock, and wanted to have him adopted.

05:11Dagmar contacted the mother, and on the 15th April 1916, Rasmeen put her three-week-old infant son, Harry, into

05:21Dagmar's care.

05:22She gave her 12 kroner, which was the first month's payment.

05:28The agreement was that Rasmeen would pay Dagmar 12 kroner every month, until she had got the child adopted.

05:38Soon after accepting the child and taking payment, Dagmar put the baby into a pram, and took him for a

05:46walk.

05:46For some reason, however, she decided to strangle the child, and then dumped him in a public toilet, at a

05:53local cemetery.

05:55The body stayed there for three days, before it was found by the cleaners.

06:00The day the body was found, Dagmar wrote a letter to the mother, reassuring her that the child was doing

06:07well.

06:08Strangely, she wrote that the child was not crying at all, which of course, was tragically true.

06:16Fourteen days later, she did it again.

06:19She accepted a child from a worried mother, murdered it, and dumped the body under a bridge.

06:25At this point, Dagmar started to justify her actions.

06:29Most of the babies, born out of wedlock, were from impoverished mothers.

06:35Terminations were illegal, and often performed in backstreet clinics, and were considered dangerous.

06:42Young girls were usually frightened of both the egality of the action, and the dangers to their health.

06:48So many preferred to have the child, and tried to find a good home for the baby, once it was

06:54born.

06:57This was such easy money for her.

07:00An upfront payment, sometimes followed by maintenance payments, and no expense after she had killed the baby.

07:07But Dagmar had a concern.

07:09Whenever she disposed of the bodies, they would eventually be found.

07:13So, she came up with an idea.

07:16Instead of dumping the bodies, as she had her first two killings, she could burn the infants in her masonry

07:22heater.

07:24In July 1920, a young factory worker, named Caroline Agosen, had a baby out of wedlock.

07:32Young Caroline was from a very Christian family, who were ashamed of her, and would not permit her to bring

07:39the child into the family home.

07:41So the best solution was to put the child up for adoption.

07:46Caroline put an advertisement in a local newspaper, trying to find a nice family to adopt her newborn child.

07:53It was a simple ad that read,

07:55Parents wanted for a little girl of three weeks old, preferably a nice, loving Christian home.

08:03Dagmar was always looking for these types of adverts, and quickly answered it.

08:08The two of them arranged for Caroline to take the baby named Sarah to Dagmar's home on August the 30th,

08:171920.

08:18Caroline was very upset, and explained to Dagmar that she wasn't entirely sure if giving her baby up for adoption

08:26was the right thing to do.

08:28Dagmar told her that she would find a good home for the child, saying that she acted as an intermediary

08:35between unwanted children and adoptive families, and it usually took about two weeks until she found the right family for

08:44the baby.

08:45Eventually, Caroline agreed this probably was the best option for her baby and her family, so paid Dagmar her fee

08:53of 200 krona.

08:55This was equivalent to one year's wages for a domestic worker in Denmark in 1920.

09:02The following day, Caroline, distressed and upset, went back to Dagmar's apartment, and explained that she had made a big

09:11mistake, so asked to have her baby back.

09:14Dagmar was shocked to see the girl back so soon, and told the young mother, but unfortunately, she had already

09:23placed the child with a lady she met in the Istengard district of Copenhagen.

09:28But she couldn't remember the exact address of the family.

09:32She asked Caroline to return later, and she would have the address.

09:36Caroline returned three times, and each time Dagmar told her the family had adopted the baby, and she could not

09:45get the baby back.

09:47Caroline was a determined young woman, and desperate to be reunited with her child, went to the police.

09:54The police took the complaint very seriously, and went to visit Dagmar and searched her home.

10:01What they found was shocking.

10:03As well as baby clothes, they found the remains of babies.

10:08They found bones and a skull in the ashes of the stove.

10:13Dagmar was arrested, and the police called in investigators to search and examine the premises.

10:20Dagmar, however, did not deny her crime, and confessed to the deaths of 16 children.

10:27The authorities only recovered the remains of nine infants, so she was charged with nine counts of murder.

10:34The police suspected, but she had actually killed at least 25 babies, including her own child.

10:42The press instantly reported the crime, and the headlines about Denmark's most notorious serial killer dominated the front pages, and

10:52caused the national scandal.

10:55Dagmar's adoption service was illegal, but so was having a termination.

10:59The moral debate started to dominate the conversations in cafes, bars, and street corners.

11:06These poor, unfortunate young women, who in many cases had been abandoned by the father, and shunned by their families,

11:13had no money to raise a child, and no support from the state.

11:17Some thought an illegal adoption agency was their only choice.

11:21Adoption agencies were a service that was very much needed in 1920s Denmark.

11:28Society had turned their back on the young women whose children were born out of wedlock, and unless the state

11:34acted, there would probably be more Dagmar's, and so many more poor frightened young girls with babies they were unable

11:42to support.

11:43Dagmar's trial started in March 1921, and she did not deny her crime.

11:51At the trial, more revelations came to light when the investigators' evidence included photographs they had found in her home

11:59of 20 naked children she had murdered.

12:02She was found guilty and sentenced to death.

12:06While awaiting her execution, the reigning monarch, King Christian, commuted the sentence to life in prison, saying that in Denmark

12:17we don't put our women to death.

12:19In 1923, the Danish government passed a law relating to children born out of wedlock, which provided for both the

12:29supervision of foster children and the creation of a home for children born from unmarried mothers.

12:36Dagmar served her remaining years in prison and eventually died on the 6th of May 1929 at the age of

12:4542.

12:49Hello everyone, and thank you so much for listening to this sad and tragic case.

12:55Please leave your comments and your feedback, and I will see you all in the next brief case.

The Horrifying Case of Danish Serial Killer | Dagmar Overbye

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