What do you think?
Rate this book
Cradle of Death
Ten Babies. Eight Murders. One Woman to Their Mother
In March of 1949, a healthy baby boy named Richard Noe entered this world. Thirty-one days later, he left it -- found dead in his parents' bedroom in a working-class Philadelphia neighborhood. Over the next nineteen years, all nine of Marie and Arthur Noe's other children would die -- one stillborn, one in the hospital, and the other seven of unexplained causes--none lived longer than fifteen months.
Gaining national sympathy for their unbelievabloe bad luck, the Noes were deemed victims of SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome). But as the years went on, may people found their SIDS defence a hard pill to swallow -- after all, SIDS is not a hereditary condition. As investigators proved, they found that in each case, the child had died while home alone with Marie Noe.
Finally, in 1999 -- fifty years after her first child died -- septuagenarian Maried Noe pled guilty to killing eight of her ten dead children. Today, she remains at home on probation helping psychiatric experts understand what is perhaps one of the most disturbing and baffling mysteries of how and why a mother could kill her own children. In this riveting true crime account, author John Glatt goes behind the headlines and into the heart of this fascinating case to reveal the shocking answers.
In March of 1949, a healthy baby boy named Richard Noe entered this world. Thirty-one days later, he left it -- found dead in his parents' bedroom in a working-class Philadelphia neighborhood. Over the next nineteen years, all nine of Marie and Arthur Noe's other children would die -- one stillborn, one in the hospital, and the other seven of unexplained causes--none lived longer than fifteen months.
Gaining national sympathy for their unbelievabloe bad luck, the Noes were deemed victims of SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome). But as the years went on, may people found their SIDS defence a hard pill to swallow -- after all, SIDS is not a hereditary condition. As investigators proved, they found that in each case, the child had died while home alone with Marie Noe.
Finally, in 1999 -- fifty years after her first child died -- septuagenarian Maried Noe pled guilty to killing eight of her ten dead children. Today, she remains at home on probation helping psychiatric experts understand what is perhaps one of the most disturbing and baffling mysteries of how and why a mother could kill her own children. In this riveting true crime account, author John Glatt goes behind the headlines and into the heart of this fascinating case to reveal the shocking answers.
236 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published March 15, 2000
8 people are currently reading
409 people want to read
About the author
John Glatt
38 books737 followersEnglish-born John Glatt is the author of Golden Boy Lost and Found, Secrets in the Cellar, Playing with Fire, and many other bestselling books of true crime. He has more than 30 years of experience as an investigative journalist in England and America. Glatt left school at 16 and worked a variety of jobs—including tea boy and messenger—before joining a small weekly newspaper. He freelanced at several English newspapers, then in 1981 moved to New York, where he joined the staff for News Limited and freelanced for publications including Newsweek and the New York Post. His first book, a biography of Bill Graham, was published in 1981, and he published For I Have Sinned, his first book of true crime, in 1998. He has appeared on television and radio programs all over the world, including ABC- 20/20Dateline NBC, Fox News, Current Affair, BBC World, and A&E Biography. He and his wife Gail divide their time between New York City, the Catskill Mountains and London.
http://us.macmillan.com/author/johnglatt
http://us.macmillan.com/author/johnglatt
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
November 12, 2020
CRADLE OF DEATH is the story of Philadelphian Marie Noe who gave birth to and murdered ten babies. Because I live in the Philly suburbs, I’ve been familiar with the case for many years so I was anxious to see if John Glatt’s book could add anything to what I already knew.
I think if I didn’t live in the area, I’d have been less interested in many of the details in the book. Because I knew some of the players and had met one of the forensic psychiatrists, Dr Sadoff (a huge asshole, but I digress), I was quite interested. I don’t know if most readers would be as interested in some of the details.
Marie Noe is less typical of most of the Münchausen’s by Proxy cases I’ve read in that she seemed less attention seeking and at times even wanted to be caught. After a few of the murders, her priest talked her out of having her tubes tied or birth control pills saying they were sacrilege. Don’t even get me started on what many Philly catholic priests were doing or covering up during the 1950s and 1960s. Marie’s husband Arthur is the biggest conundrum. From all accounts I’ve ever read, he was incredibly naive and/or stupid.
CRADLE OF DEATH is an interesting story of infanticide.
I think if I didn’t live in the area, I’d have been less interested in many of the details in the book. Because I knew some of the players and had met one of the forensic psychiatrists, Dr Sadoff (a huge asshole, but I digress), I was quite interested. I don’t know if most readers would be as interested in some of the details.
Marie Noe is less typical of most of the Münchausen’s by Proxy cases I’ve read in that she seemed less attention seeking and at times even wanted to be caught. After a few of the murders, her priest talked her out of having her tubes tied or birth control pills saying they were sacrilege. Don’t even get me started on what many Philly catholic priests were doing or covering up during the 1950s and 1960s. Marie’s husband Arthur is the biggest conundrum. From all accounts I’ve ever read, he was incredibly naive and/or stupid.
CRADLE OF DEATH is an interesting story of infanticide.
April 3, 2008
Its been years since I've read this book but I do remember a lot about it which means it was a good read. Wish I had not released it through bookcrossing now. It is a book you want to re-read.
February 14, 2009
John Glatt is an amazing true crime author. He's definitely of the best I've ever read and he has a way about his writing that really manages to suck you into the story.
This is about one woman, Marie Noe, who murdered her babies over a period of almost twenty years.
If I remember correctly a couple of the babies died from natural causes of while they were under the care of someone else. Every other baby, however, died while in Marie's care and they all died before they reached their second birthdays.
In the end Now received probation for her crimes. John Glatt does what all true crime writers do and he digs deep into the story. We learn all about Marie Noe, her husband, and their family. Glatt tries to pull the pieces together, most likely for readers to come to their own conclusion about whether this woman was seriously mentally ill or just plain evil and vicious.
In my opinion she should have been killed.
This is one of the worst I've read and I wouldn't tell anyone to read it unless they are already accustomed to true crime. Reading about babies being murdered isn't an easy thing to do and reading about babies being murdered by the ONE PERSON who should have loved and cared for them unconditionally is even harder.
This is about one woman, Marie Noe, who murdered her babies over a period of almost twenty years.
If I remember correctly a couple of the babies died from natural causes of while they were under the care of someone else. Every other baby, however, died while in Marie's care and they all died before they reached their second birthdays.
In the end Now received probation for her crimes. John Glatt does what all true crime writers do and he digs deep into the story. We learn all about Marie Noe, her husband, and their family. Glatt tries to pull the pieces together, most likely for readers to come to their own conclusion about whether this woman was seriously mentally ill or just plain evil and vicious.
In my opinion she should have been killed.
This is one of the worst I've read and I wouldn't tell anyone to read it unless they are already accustomed to true crime. Reading about babies being murdered isn't an easy thing to do and reading about babies being murdered by the ONE PERSON who should have loved and cared for them unconditionally is even harder.
December 23, 2019
True crime fans will find the story of Marie Noe riviting and gut wrenching. The author methodically weaves a complex history and paints a picture of a troubled woman who murdered all but two of her 10 children. He also exposes the use of SIDS in the 1940s-60s as a catchall cause of death in cases where clearcut evidence could not be found of infanticide. That the media kept its focus on this woman for decades, and that in the end it was their probing that ultimately led to her taking a plea, is remarkable. Readers will walk away feeling sad for the babies, and yet equally sad for the ultimate resolution of this case. Some may very well feel rage that the children got less than they deserved, still others may feel emotional knowing that both Marie and her husband Arthur, who stood by her, now live in their own private prison, unable to leave the four walls of their fast deteriorating home, aging, and fearful of speaking or owning the full truth for fear of killing each other and being left alone. Ultimately, it is up to the reader to decide if this is justice.
April 25, 2020
It was well written but it made me so angry!!! This woman kills 8 babies and she can't even remember what happened to most of them? Absolutely disgusting human being. Her husband is no better in my opinion he didn't directly kill his kids but he let them die, there's just no way he didn't know something was wrong.😠
November 18, 2020
A sad story about a woman who killed her own children and the police and medical examiner that kept pushing for justice for the children.
October 11, 2021
A terrible sad story.
February 1, 2022
when mothers kill! hard to believe it could actually happen
February 22, 2017
The only thing I'd like to nit-pick about this book is that, I think in the chapter of "Suffer the Children" the author talks about the history of infanticide. He claims that children used to be immured (sealed) into bridges as a sort of sacrifice to keep the bridge sturdy.
I have been googling relentlessly for the last hour or so, and I have found no reliable, detailed source for that information. When I do find references to it, it's usually coming from some clickbait website like Cracked.com, and clickbait websites are notoriously unreliable.
So I kind of wonder where that tidbit of information was pulled from, and strongly question how reliable it is.
I have been googling relentlessly for the last hour or so, and I have found no reliable, detailed source for that information. When I do find references to it, it's usually coming from some clickbait website like Cracked.com, and clickbait websites are notoriously unreliable.
So I kind of wonder where that tidbit of information was pulled from, and strongly question how reliable it is.
March 27, 2009
I read this when it first came out and found it horrifying then and thinking of it again now I still feel the same way. It is one of the most riveting true crime stories I have ever read. I actually cried as I read about the beautiful little babies that she killed like nothing, no emotion, all to put herself in the spotlight. I will never understand her and have absolutely no sympathy for a piece of human trash such as that.
September 3, 2013
I just flew through the last quarter of this book. It was mainly about how Marie Noe smothered her 10 infants, but really got exciting when the author began to include other cases and other authors writing and investigating the SIDS theories of the time.
March 10, 2013
Couldn't put it down!
August 9, 2013
Unbelievable. But fascinating.
May 19, 2014
really good, it did repeat itself a few times toward the end though
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews