Cradle to Grave

Marie does not get weepy when confronted with 30-year-old accusations about any role she might have played in her children’s deaths. “They really couldn’t prove I did any harm to the children,” she says, stone-faced. “Every one of them children didn’t have a bruise, didn’t have anything medically wrong.” Then she half-smiles, her indignation giving way to resignation. “Just one of them stupid things that happens. We just weren’t meant to have children, I guess.”

”The Lord needed angels,” Art sighs, “so we got a ton of them up there.” The first of our many interviews comes to a close, and Art sees me out the door, concerned where I parked. As I walk to my car, he asks if my wife and I have children. I tell him no.

”Don’t wait to have kids,” he calls out. “Don’t wait.”

Noe baby number one was Richard Allen, born March 7, 1949, at Temple University Hospital: seven pounds, 11 ounces, discharged five days after birth in good health, with slight jaundice, a rash, and abrasions on both knees from the delivery, all considered normal. The baby did not gain weight quickly, and the mother was so upset when he vomited that she brought him to St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children, where he was briefly admitted for “colic.” Exactly one month after birth, the baby was discovered dead by the father, when he came home from working the night shift. Last seen alive by the mother, who was in the room, asleep in bed, when the baby was found either in a bassinet at the end of the bed (according to one report) or in a bureau drawer the couple used as a crib. Father ran with baby to neighbor, who drove them to Episcopal Hospital, where the infant was pronounced DOA. Cause of death attributed by coroner to “congestive heart failure due to subacute endocarditis,” a condition very rarely found in children. There was no autopsy.

Noe baby number two was Elizabeth Mary, born September 8, 1950, at Northeastern Hospital, seven pounds, ten ounces. Normal full-term birth, although the mother was hospitalized four separate times during the last trimester with false labor. No record of any major health problems until early 1951, when the five-month-old, 17-pound baby, who had a “slight cold,” was found by the mother “in her crib in the dining room ... vomiting milk mixed with blood,” according to the police dispatcher report. Mother, who had just brought the baby downstairs and given her a bottle, phoned police and woke up husband, upstairs. Rescue squad brought baby to Temple Hospital. DOA. Cause of death attributed by coroner to bronchopneumonia. According to autopsy notes, this finding, which can only be confirmed microscopically, was made without any documented internal examination. Case was briefly investigated by police; inquest purportedly held, but no notes available.

Noe baby number three was Jacqueline, born April 23, 1952, at Episcopal Hospital, seven pounds, 2.5 ounces. No record of health problems until 21 days after birth, when she was found by mother vomiting and blue. Brought to Episcopal Hospital. DOA. Cause of death attributed by coroner to “inspiration [sic] of vomitus.” Autopsy reportedly performed, but notes are missing, and actual internal examination may not have been done. Inquest purportedly held, but no notes available.

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