From Cradle to Grave: The Short Lives and Strange Deaths of Marybeth Tinning's Nine Children

Marybeth Tinning of Schenectady, N.Y., bore eight children and adopted a ninth; all of the infants died, even though all but one seemed healthy. Autopsies were performed on some, with inconclusive results, and the causes of death were generally described as undetermined or ascribed to crib death. Except for the first baby, who had died of a congenital illness, Tinning had probably killed them all, according to Egginton's ( The Poisoning of Michigan ) sensitive, thought-provoking study. An insecure, unstable woman married to an emotionless, passive husband, Tinning suffered, the author concludes, from postpartum psychosis, induced by her belief that she was an unfit mother and by her inability to cope with the everyday problems of raising children. Convicted of murdering her ninth baby, Tami Lynne, Tinning is serving a 20-year-to-life sentence. Photos not seen by PW. (Mar.)