Wikipedia: Marie
Noe (born August 23, 1928) is an American woman who was convicted in June 1999
of murdering eight of her children. Between 1949 and 1968, eight of the ten Noe
children died of mysterious causes which were then attributed to sudden infant
death syndrome. All eight
children were healthy at birth and were developing normally. Two other children
died of natural causes. Noe pleaded guilty in June 1999 to eight counts of second-degree
murder, and was sentenced to 20 years' probation and psychiatric examination.
Noe was born Marie Lyddy on August 23, 1928 in the Kensington
neighborhood of Philadelphia to Ella (née Ackler) and James Lyddy. Marie was
one of several children born of her parents' troubled marriage. Marie
contracted scarlet fever at age five, which she later credited as the cause of
learning difficulties. She dropped out of school as a young teenager to work
and help care for a niece, born to one of her older sisters when Marie was 12
and raised as Marie's sister.
Marie Lyddy and Arthur Allen Noe (1921–2009) met at a
private club in the West Kensington neighborhood of Philadelphia. On June 1,
1948, after a brief courtship, the couple eloped. The couple proceeded to have
ten children, all of whom died between the ages of five days and 14 months.
During the Caesarean birth of her last child, Noe suffered a
uterine rupture and underwent a hysterectomy.
In 1963 Life magazine published a sympathetic article
on Noe, written by Mary Cadwalader and using the pseudonyms Martha and Andrew
Moore for Noe and her husband, after six of Noe's children had died.
~ Reinvestigation and charges ~
Interest in the case was renewed after the publication of
the 1997 book The Death of Innocents, about New York woman Waneta Hoyt,
and an investigative article (Cradle to Grave by Stephen Fried) that
appeared in the April 1998 issue of Philadelphia magazine.
Stephen Fried turned over his investigation results to the
Philadelphia Police Department in March 1998. Upon questioning by police after
receiving the material, Noe admitted to suffocating four of her children. She
stated that she could not remember what happened to the other four children who
died under similar circumstances. She was charged with first-degree murder in
August 1998.
A plea agreement was reached in which Noe admitted to eight counts
of second-degree murder and she was sentenced in June 1999 to 20 years of
probation with the first five years under house arrest.
As a condition of her plea agreement, Noe agreed to
psychiatric study in hopes of identifying what caused her to kill her children.
In September 2001, a study was filed with the court that stated Noe was
suffering from mixed-personality disorder.
~ Books featuring Marie Noe ~
The book Cradle of Death by John Glatt is about Marie
Noe and her children's murders. Many other books feature Marie Noe alongside
other criminals, such as Engendered Death: Pennsylvania Women Who Kill
by Joseph W. Laythe and The Crime Buff's Guide to Outlaw Pennsylvania by
Ron Franscell and Karen B. Valentine. The book The Life You Longed For: A
Novel, by Maribeth Fischer, which is fictional, also mentions Noe's murders.
***
►FROM 1963:
FULL TEXT: Philadelphia – Mrs. Marie Noe, 38, has had eight children,
none of whom lived to be a year old.
Her doctor wants to know why.
"There has to be a cause and we're still trying to find
it," said Dr. Columbus R. Gangemi, the medical internist who has been
attending Mrs. Noe.
He spoke Saturday after it was disclosed that the woman's
eighth child, Theresa, delivered by Caesarean section June 28 lived only six
hours.
Marie and her husband, Arthur, buried their seventh child,
Mary Lee, last Jan. 8. She lived longer than any of the children a little more than
six months.
"I guess we weren't meant to have babies," the
mother was quoted as saying after being told of the eighth death. She was des-
accepting the death stoically.
"If we could only find the answer, Dr. Gangemi said
we'd have a story that would benefit the profession and people who been losing
children."
Little Theresa weighed over five a half pounds and was not
delivery took place about weeks before the mother's two weeks before the mother’s
due date. The baby was delivered by Dr. Salvatore Cucinotta.
Following the infant's death an autopsy showed signs of an
abnormality of the blood. This, Dr. Gangemi said was listed as the possible
cause of death. The other children showed no signs of such an abnormality. Of
the others, one was still born; three died in the first month of life, and one
lived five months. Autopsies have failed to show a definite cause for the
deaths of the infants.
[“Had 8 Children, None of Whom Lived To Be Year Old; Doctors
Seek Answer,” Hazleton Standard-Speaker (Pa.), Aug. 19, 1963, p. 6]
***
FULL TEXT: Philadelphia – A 70-year-old woman pleaded guilty
Monday to smothering eight of her young children decades ago but won't go to
jail so researchers can learn more about why new mothers Sometimes kill
newborns.
Marie Noe admitted killing the children between 1949 and
1968 and was sentenced to 20 years' probation, the first five of which must be
served under home confinement Noe must undergo mental health treatment sessions
with a psychiatrist to find the cause of her re- Marie Noe says peated infanticide.
“We needed to get this matter finalized,” said District
Attorney Lynne Abraham. "Is it perfect? We don't always get a perfect
outcome."
At the sentencing, Deputy District Attorney Charles F.
Gallagher said: “Its important for the medical community and the legal
community
The light sentence Monday also had to do with "the
unusual circumstances of the case and the age of the case." Also Noe is
the caretaker of her ailing husband, Arthur, 77, Deputy District Attorney
“This is not one of those situations where we have a heart
of a killer,” said defense attorney David Rudenstein.
Before her arrest Marie Noe, had confessed in March to
police that she suffocated four of the infants said she did not remember the
other four deaths. During a meeting with a state psychiatrist in November, she
confessed to killing the other four children, Gallagher said.
On Monday, Marie Noe, walking with a cane and with an
electronic monitoring bracelet around her waist, answered the judge with
deliberate “yes” and “no” answers but did not explain why she killed her
children.
Her husband sat in the courtroom looking flushed and shaking
his head as the names of the eight babies were read. He was not charged in the
case and had maintained her innocence. The couple refused to speak with
reporters after Monday’s hearing.
“I cannot speak for him, but Arthur Noe sat in court as she
admitted killing those eight babies,” Rudenstein said. “Does he believe that
she admitted that she suffgocated these babies? I trust that he does. Does he
believe that his wife’s some evil killer? I’m sure he does not.”
Gallagher said numerous medical officials indicated that a
medical study of Marie Noe could be valuable because so little known about why
women kill their babies.
“We want to know what possessed her to do it,” Gallagher
said. “When she made her admissions, she indicated she did it, but she didn’t
say why she did it. She said she doesn’t know why.”
Rudenstein said it was important for Marie Noe as well.
“Before she passes onto the next world, she wants to
understand what has occurred,” he said.
[Jennifer Brown, “Mother admits killing eight children,” The
Morning Call (Allentown, Pa.), Jun. 29, 1999, p. 1]
***
FULL TEXT: Killing the children was easy, Marie Noe said.
Here's how she killed 31-day-old Richard Alan: "He
couldn't tell me what was bothering him. He just kept crying. I put him on his
belly instead of his back in his bassinet, and there was a pillow under his
face. Then I took my hand and pressed his face down into the pillow until he stopped
moving."
Five-month-old Elizabeth Mary fought back briefly.
"Elizabeth was a lot stronger than Richard was, and she
was fighting when the pillow was over her face. I held the pillow over her face
until she stopped moving."
And so it went, one after another, as Marie Noe killed eight
of her children between 1949 and 1968. They ranged in age from 13 days to 14
months.
After 30 years of denials, in which she lied not only to
authorities but to her husband, Noe has admitted killing the children.
Two others died: one at birth and one apparently of natural
causes six hours after birth.
In exchange for pleading guilty to eight counts of
second-degree murder yesterday to Common Pleas Judge William J. Mazzola, the
silver-haired woman, now 70, was sentenced to 20 years' probation.
She is to remain under electronically monitored house arrest
for the first five years and must undergo psychiatric treatment to determine
why she killed her children.
Noe had said in a police statement, "All I can figure
is that I'm ungodly sick. I never had the money to get help, and I didn't know
where to go for help anyway."
Dressed in white slacks, Noe said she wanted to
"confront" her responsibility for the deaths of her children and to
discover "the causes of my repeated acts of infanticide. . .killing my
children."
"They all seemed to go very fast. . .," Noe told
one investigator, said Deputy District Attorney Charles Gallagher, chief of the
homicide division.
Watching from the courtroom, his head slumped in his hands,
was her 78-year-old husband, Arthur Noe, who had stood by his wife over the
last three decades as police tried to make a case against her.
When approached by a reporter, he said, "Don't think
I'm mean, but I've had enough."
Defense attorney David S. Rudenstein said Mrs. Noe is now
willing to accept responsibility for the killings, but still can't understand
her actions.
"She wishes to cooperate with medical science to
explore why this type of tragedy occurs," said Rudenstein. "She would
like to help doctors assist other mothers who may be prone to
infanticide."
[Dave Racher, “Killings Were Easy 70-year-old Tells How She
Smothered 8 Babies Over Years,” Philadelphia Daily News (Pa.), Jun. 29, 1999]
***
CHRONOLOGY
Aug. 23, 1928 – Mary Lyddy born, Philadelphia, Pa.
Jun. 1, 1948 – after a brief courtship, the couple eloped.
Apr. 7, 1949 – Richard Allan Noe dies (born Mar. 7, 1949).
Feb. 17, 1951 – Elizabeth Mary Noe dies (born Sep. 8, 1950).
May 3, 1952 – Jacqueline Noe (born Apr. 23, 1952).
Apr. 28, 1955 – Arthur Noe Jr. (born Apr. 23, 1955).
Mar. 20, 1958 – Constance Noe (born Feb. 24, 1958).
Aug. 24, 1959 – Letitia Noe (stillborn, cause of death was
umbilical cord knot).
Jan. 4, 1963 – Mary Lee Noe (born Jun. 19, 1962).
Jun. 1963 – Theresa Noe (died in hospital; cause of death
was "congenital hemorrhagic diathesis")
Feb. 24, 1966 – Catherine Ellen Noe (born Dec. 3, 1964).
Jan. 2, 1968 – Arthur Joseph Noe (born Jul. 28, 1967).
Mar. 25, 1998 – confessed killings.
Jun. 28, 1999 – pleaded
guilty. sentenced to 20 years of probation
with the first five years under house arrest.
***
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For more cases of this type, see Serial Baby-Killer Moms.
MORE cases: SIDS & Female Serial Killers
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