Dreams, you should write a book! Your ideas are marvellous.
Nohmi's right: Minnie Dean was a baby farmer. She was found guilty of murdering a child in her care, and was hanged. She was the
only woman ever executed in New Zealand, and as New Zealand hasn't had the death penalty for over fifty years she's likely to keep that distinction.
This was a scandalous case in its day. I refer to the newspaper accounts of it in one of my books.
It's quite possible that Dean was not guilty: infant mortality was high, and it was common (and dangerous) to use laudanum to keep children quiet. The deaths may well have been accidental. But there was little sympathy for baby farmers, whom some people saw as "encouraging sin". And when the judge told the jury (all male in those days) that it would be "weak-kneed" of them to bring a verdict of manslaughter, her fate was sealed.
Miniature hatboxes containing baby dolls were sold outside the courtroom during her trial. Poor taste is not a modern phenomenon.
More on Minnie Dean:
http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/2d7/1
Oh, and congratulations Harakiri! You're right.