Sweet FA – the true story of Fanny Adams
Peter Cansfield

Associated title: The Battle of Alton by Peter Cansfield

Contents . Introduction . Further information

• Introduction
• Alton in the 19th Century
• The Wicked Crime
• Frederick Baker
• Police Investigations
• The Trials at Alton
• Winchester Assizes, The First Day
• Winchester Assizes, The Second Day
• The Press
• Aftermath
• Baker's Confession
• A Second Charge
• Conclusions
• Legacy – quoted verse by John Owen Smith
• Bibliography

Introduction

"The neighbourhood of Alton, that pleasant little market town of Hants, on the skirts of the beautiful landscape encircling the kingly city of Winchester, will henceforth possess a dreary fame," said the Standard newspaper on Thursday 29th August 1867.

That was how the wider world came to know of the Alton Murder, the 'horrible crime' that set the whole country talking, especially as there seemed to be a lack of any motive and no gain to the culprit.

Even such a revolting crime would have paled into the mists of time had it not been for the Royal Navy, who ensured that the name of Sweet Fanny Adams wouild be remembered wherever the English language is spoken.

This then is the dreadful tale of the murder of that young girl in the Alton hop fields.

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