The Noe baby murders

Marie Noe recently pleaded guilty to murdering eight of her children, all of whom were younger than 14 months, from 1949 to 1968. The 70-year-old Mrs. Noe was given 20 years of probation, including five years of home confinement. She must also be evaluated by a psychiatrist in order to give researchers some understanding of her serial infanticide. Various explanations, including post-partum depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, have been suggested in order to understand Mrs. Noe, who with her husband were featured in Life magazine in 1963 as “the most bereaved parents in America.”

The children were thought to have been victims of “crib death” (later known as “sudden infant death syndrome” or SIDS) by the Philadelphia medical examiner’s office, although the police department there kept the case open for decades. In 1997, the book “The Death of Innocents” was published about a New York woman convicted of killing her five children, all infants, originally diagnosed as SIDS victims.

This book effectively challenged the medical research establishment’s long-held view that mothers were incapable of serial murder of their own babies, and led to the murder charges against Mrs. Noe.

While there is no question that SIDS is a valid medical diagnosis, and that the vast majority of these cases are tragic accidents with multiple victims and no perpetrators, the horror of the eight Noe baby murders is that there was a perpetrator, and it was their mother. While some might call for a punishment that more accurately fits the crimes, Judge William Mazola saw the possibility of greater societal benefit than a long prison sentence. By requiring extensive psychiatric evaluation of Mrs. Noe, perhaps mental-health researchers can begin to unlock the causes of these inconceivable acts. It’s hard to imagine an adequate psychiatric explanation, but if such research can prevent another similar tragedy, it is worth the effort.