Barbara Daly Baekeland was stabbed to death in her luxurious London home by her son Antony, who was the only child of her marriage to Bakelite heir Brooks Baekeland and was later convicted of manslaughter
Emilia Randall GAU Writer
08:00, 16 Dec 2025
Barbara Daly Baekeland was stabbed to death by her son(Image: Provided)
Barbara Daly Baekeland, who married into the plastic dynasty, was brutally murdered in her opulent London residence at the age of 52 by her furious son. When police arrived on the scene, they found him in the midst of ordering a takeaway.
Her 25-year-old son Tony was discovered standing over her blood-soaked body. He was the sole offspring from Barbara and Bakelite heir Brooks Baekeland’s unsuccessful marriage.
Barbara, a former model once named among New York’s 10 most beautiful girls, met Brooks, a trainee pilot with the Royal Canadian Air Force and grandson of Leo Baekeland – the inventor of the world’s first plastic. They welcomed their first and only child, Antony, in 1946.
The relationship between Tony and his mother was rumoured to be incestuous. Tony had started a relationship with a bisexual Australian man, prompting his mother to drive to Spain to extricate him from the situation.
She then forced her son to sleep with prostitutes in an attempt to “cure” his homosexuality. When this failed, it was alleged that she began to sexually abuse him herself, as reported by Crime and Investigation, reports the Express.
Barbara Daly Baekeland(Image: YouTube)
Their relationship escalated to violence, with Tony seen attempting to kill his mother by pushing her in front of moving vehicles. It remains unclear whether their relationship was indeed incestuous.
Barbara had attempted suicide when she discovered her husband was having an affair while they were still living together. Brooks went on to remarry, father another child, and left Tony and Barbara behind.
Tony was subsequently diagnosed with schizophrenia.
They enjoyed an equally privileged existence in London, but Barbara’s increasingly uncontrollable son threatened her with blades and strangled her. Barbara’s confessions of incest stunned people, though she was also recognised for having a compulsive craving for attention.
On the evening of Barbara’s killing, Tony himself acknowledged that he and his mother quarrelled over a friend whom Tony had invited round but whom Barbara refused to see.
Anthony Baekeland
The situation escalated violently, with Tony striking his mother before stabbing her, telling police: “My mind was slightly wacky and I was very much under my mother’s influence. I felt she was controlling my mind.”
Tony couldn’t comprehend that he had murdered his mother and enquired of police whilst in custody whether she remained alive. Tony was convicted of manslaughter and committed to Broadmoor.
His paternal grandmother Nini Daly rallied supporters including Hugo Money-Coutts to lobby for Tony’s repatriation to the US. Nevertheless, Brooks remained convinced Tony could kill again, branding him as “evil”.
In 1980 Tony was discharged into the care of his 87-year-old grandmother Nini in New York. Tony’s Broadmoor consultant acknowledged his patient’s release had been an error, and shortly after Tony’s arrival in New York he constructed a ghoulish shrine to his deceased mother and muttered over her remains.
Six days after leaving Broadmoor, Tony found himself in a heated argument with his grandmother over a phone call he wanted to make to England, which resulted in him stabbing his grandmother eight times. When the police arrived, an irritated Tony told officers “she won’t die”.
He confessed that he wanted to “have sex” with the 87-year-old and thought it “kinder” to kill her. Miraculously, she survived.
Tony was sentenced to life imprisonment at Rikers Island where his access to family money provided a carousel of sexual partners and protectors. On March 20, 1981 at 3.30pm, Tony was found dead with a plastic bag tightly wrapped around his head – it has never been conclusively determined whether it was murder or suicide.