An angelmaker was a woman who adopted children or accepted them into foster care in exchange for payment, and proceeded to treat them so badly that they died—or turned them into angels, if you will. There are also cases of premeditated
murder. Maltreatment took the form of e.g. prolonged neglect and starvation, and since many of the children were illegitimate, their
parents rarely visited to check in on them. The foster home "care"givers quickly realized that letting a few of these children
die due to drawn-out starvation or maltreatment was economically profitable.
One of the most infamous angelmakers is Hilda Nilsson from
Sweden. Knee-deep in debt, she started accepting children into foster care as a way to raise money to pay her
family's bills. Her home was otherwise well-kept and
clean, lulling the
parents into a false sense of security as they relinquished their children into Nilsson's care. Eventually, she was exposed after Nilsson refused contact when one mother tried to get in touch with their (most likely already deceased) child. Nilsson was sentenced to
death in 1917 after the
murder of eight children, with some sources claiming the number of victims reaching as many as 17 children. Before Nilsson's execution, she hanged herself in her jail cell.
Although difficult to pinpoint the widespreadness of angelmakers, they were mostly present during the 19th and early 20th century.
