| Between
May of 1967
and December of 1985, Mary Beth Tinning gave birth to eight perfectly
healthy
children and adopted another perfectly healthy child. Between those
same
years, Mary Beth Tinning murdered eight of those children.
The
one child that
she didn't "technically" murder, was Jennifer though Dr. Michael Baden
stated
in his book,
"Confessions
Of
A Medical Examiner", that Jennifer was the victim of Mary Beth wanting
to give birth on
Christmas
day so
that her father, who had died while she was pregnant, would be happy.
Mary
Beth used a
hanger
to bring
on the birth of Jennifer and in the process caused Meningitis according
to Dr. Baden. Jennifer
had
lived for nine
days and never left the hospital while alive.
For
14 years, Mary
Beth Tinning had managed to fool people into thinking that her children
died of Sudden Infants Death Syndrome or some kind of "Death Gene".
Mary
Beth's friends and neighbors also suspected something was not right
with
all of these children dying. Each child's death was ruled a SIDS death
so nothing was done.
Mary
Beth's luck
would run out when a man named Michael Baden, a Board -certified,
forensic
pathologist, heard about the case. Dr. Baden became suspicious
after
learning that one of Mary Beth's children had been adopted.
Dr.
Michael Baden
Police
started an
investigation and Mary Beth kept denying that she had killed her
children.
After several hours of questioning, she did confessed to her husband
that
she had killed their children, though
she
said she had
not killed all of of them:
"After 5 or
10 minutes Marybeth said I killed Tami very low. She had to repeat it.
I had
withdrawn
into myself. I was hearing but I wasn't reacting"
Joe Tinning
In
a 36 page statement,
Mary Beth would talk about how she had killed three of her children,
including
Tami Lynn. Mary Beth would continue to deny any wrong doing in the
deaths
of all but three of her children:
"I was about
to doze off when Tami woke up and started to cry," Marybeth said. I got
up and
went to her
crib and tried to do something with her to get her to stop crying. I
finally
used
the pillow
from my bed and put it over her head. I held it until she stopped
crying.
Then I took
the pillow
and put it on the couch to convince Joe she had been sleeping. I
screamed
for
Joe and he
woke up. I told Joe Tami wasn't breathing. I did do CPR, stupid as it
sounds,
but I knew
that she wasn't alive anymore."
Mary
Beth said she
killed Tami because was always crying and that she, Mary Beth, couldn't
do anything right. She said of the other children who died:
"I did not
do anything to Jennifer, Joseph, Barbara, Michael, Mary Frances,
Jonathan,"
she said to
Barnes and Karas, "Just these three, Timothy, Nathan and Tami. I
smothered
them each
with a pillow because I'm not a good mother. I'm not a good mother
because
of the other
children"
Mary Beth
Tinning
Mary
Beth was supposedly
suffering from Munchausen
By Proxy Syndrome.
On
October 2, 1987,
Mary Beth was brought to court to face Judge Clifford T. Harrigan, the
Judge who would
sentence
her. Prosecutor
John B. Poersch had asked the court for the maximum allowed, 25 years
to
life:
"This woman
knew the consequences of all her acts. She is a wicked woman"
John
B. Poersch
Mary
Beth's defense
attorney, Paul Callahan requested the minimum of 15 years. Judge
Clifford
asked Mary
Beth
is she had
anything to say and she read from a written statement:
"I want you
and the people in this courtroom to know that I am very sorry that Tami
Lynne
is dead. There
is not a day that goes by that I don't think of her. I miss her very
much.
I just
want you to
know that I played no part in the death of my daughter, Tami Lynne. I
will
try to
hold my head
high and accept the punishment that society and the court requires for
the
crime I was
convicted of. I did not commit this crime but will serve the time in
prison
to the
best of my
ability. However, I will never stop fighting to prove my innocence. The
Lord
above and
I know I am innocent. One day the whole world will know that I am
innocent
and
maybe then
I can have my life back once again or what is left of it"
Mary Beth
Tinning
Disgustingly,
Mary
Beth was convicted of the murder of only one of her children and is
serving
a 20 years to life sentence. She would be eligible for parole in March
of 2007. Marybeth Tinning, inmate No. 87G0597, is living
at
the Bedford Hills
Prison for Women in New York.
Update:
On
March 29, 2007,
Mary Beth was up for parole and she had a supporter that shocked
people.
The same man who had been the one to get Mary Beth to confess, State
Police
Investigator, William Barnes spoke on her behalf in an effort to get
her
released:
"She is no
danger to society at that age. What harm is
she to somebody
and how much are you going to get
from her by
keeping her in?"
William
Barnes supposedly
wrote a letter of recommendation to the judge, Clifford Herringbone, to
try to get Mary Beth released.
Thankfully,
Mary
Beth's parole was denied by the the Parole Commissioners who sited her
obvious lack of remorse for what she did and her insistence that she
does
not remember what happened to her daughter, Tami Lynne:
"You were found
guilty of causing the death of your infant daughter by asphyxiation.
The
victim
was vulnerable
and totally reliant on you for love, care and safety. You stated that
during
the
interview
that you could not believe that you would harm your child but could not
recall exactly
what occurred.
You appear to have little insight into your crime and display little
remorse.
You have absolved
yourself of responsibility."
Parole
boards will
take factors such as the inmates understanding of the crime they
committed,
their own willingness to accept their part in the crime by accepting
responsibility
and their rehabilitation. This parole board hearing showed that Mary
Beth
lacked all of these:
"Your depraved
indifference to human life leads this panel to conclude your release
is
incompatible
with the welfare of society. To release you would deprecate
the serious
nature of this crime. Parole is denied."
March
2009 would
be her next scheduled parole hearing.
UPDATE:
In
January of 2009,
Mary Beth went before the parole board again and this time she said:
"I was
going through bad times,"
Speaking
of when
she killed her daughter. Thank God she was denied parole again. The
parole
board said
that
at best, her
remorse was superficial. Mary Beth will be eligible for parole again,
in
2011. Let us all hope
and
pray that she
is denied.
UPDATE:
Mary Beth was denied parole in 2011 and will become eligible again in
2013.
Read an interview
with Mary Beth and the February 2011 Parole Board decision
Return
To The Story Of The Tinning Children
You
can read the full
story by purchasing this book:
"From
Cradle To Grave"
|
