Good-Bye, My Little Ones: The True Story of a Murderous Mother and Five Innocent Victims

by Charles Hickey, Todd Lighty, John O'Brien

A medical researcher came to national prominence using the Hoyt family as proof that Sudden Infant Death Syndrome is hereditary. Years later, after the Hoyt family had lost five babies in the same manner, authorities discovered the truth--Waneta Hoyt, grieving mother, was also a cold-blooded killer. Includes eight pages of photos. Soon to be a TV movie. Original.

Genres: True Crime, Nonfiction, Audiobook

384 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published March 1, 1996

Reviews

[Fishface · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really a standout in the genre, as far as I'm concerned. Painstakingly researched and approached from every possible angle. NO BORING PARTS. A great read.

[♥ Marlene♥ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this in 1 day (March 13 2007) Very interesting and sad story. very well written.
The book also referred to Mary Beth Tinning who was indicted for murdering her 9 babies.

[Bernadette Frenz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thoroughly researched story of a Waneta Hoyt, the woman from Tioga County New York, convicted of killing her five babies. It's, a story of extraordinary legal prosecutorial work, & of defense,in addition to the shocking nature of the crime involved, undetected, from 1971, then unearthed, literally, in 1994, due to a brilliant DA in Syracuse not believing the story he'd encountered about the case, while researching another case with similarities. Compelling while at time tedious to read, due in part to the legal discussions involved. Impressive work by the journalists involved in compiling & sorting through so much information involved in the amazing story - kudos to all!

[Erin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow, I really liked this one! Granted, I am the target audience--Im interested in true crime and epidemiology. I thought it might either be dry or overly lurid but the book described the main players in the case engagingly. Waneta Hoyt--holy cannoli. What an interesting specimen. I know how I feel about the verdict but this book shows how even fairly black and white court cases can be difficult to sentence. Highly recommend.

[Sandra Burns · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book, had so many errors, that it took away my enjoyment of it.
Run on sentences, no punctuation, sentences repeated after one was posted. One word, that was used erroneously.

Just sorry editing.
If you paid for that, you got ripped off.
I would be glad, to do it, if you pay me enough.

[Aziza · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would definitely recommend this to anyone who is a fan of true crime. It is an in-depth case study of a true investigation and prosecution, but also dives into two other investigations and prosecutions that set precedent for the main story. It was a bit draggy for me with all of the Legal jargon and background information on the lawyers and the detectives, but overall a good read.

[Courtney Odor · Rating 5 out of 5]

First, I have to start off by stating that I got this book free of charge in exchange for a review, but as I always state, this does not in any way impact my review. My reviews are always honest and my own.

It was such a great read. I love finding out more information about the Hoyt murders.

[HappyRuth · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very sad book about a woman who murdered all five of her children shortly after their birth. I read it on talking book. The DB number is 111567.

[Maggie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had not heard about the Waneta Hoyt case before, and it sounded very interesting, albeit a bit sad. I was excited to get a chance to listen to Goodbye, My Little Ones: The True Story of a Murderous Mother and Five Innocent Victims and eagerly listened to it every chance I got.

The narration by Kelley Huston was excellent. She has a pleasant voice with little judgement on what must have been a hard subject to delve into. I would be happy to listen to any of her other works and look forward to any books she narrates in the future.

As for the work itself, I found it to be engrossing all the way through. Through this book, I learned more about two similar cases that helped set precedent for the district attorney to go after Waneta Hoyt. I’ve already found a podcast on the Tinning case and hope to find some more about the other one.

I was just a little confused at some points about the names, but with a non-fiction book, that’s a given for me. There were so many legal figures in a case of this magnitude that it’s confusing even when reading print versions of cases, so it’s definitely not the fault of the authors.

The only thing that I didn’t understand was why the district attorney pursued this case so far. He had to relinquish control of the prosecution as many of the cases took place in a different county, but yet he kept pushing it with the appropriate people. I am in no way saying that Hoyt deserved to get away with any harm at all against any child, but it sounds like a lot of money was spent on a woman who was far past child-bearing years and would likely not come in contact with any babies. I think that pursuing justice for one child would have saved time and money, but perhaps they needed all of the children’s deaths to prove that their mother was the cause for their demise.

The tragic mystery of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) is explored in this book. Even all these years later, little is understood about SIDS and parents still worry about this silent killer taking their baby. It was interesting to find out about the research that was conducted by various doctors around the country and how Hoyt’s children’s deaths impacted this research, perhaps negatively. Her actions not only killed her poor children, but I fear that they led others to doubt other parents who lost their children to SIDS.

This is a sad book, because even though justice is served, the babies cannot be brought back to life. I feel that Waneta received a fair sentence and hope that she is able to face up to what she did at some point.

If you’re also into true crime but can bear the sadness of this book, then check out Goodbye, My Little Ones: The True Story of a Murderous Mother and Five Innocent Victims from Audible.com.

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

[Kayla Krantz · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve listened to quite a few true crime books, so I had some expectations going into this book. It was okay, but I like when true crime books focus on the event that’s mentioned in the title. There was a long history in this book of babies dying from what appeared to be SIDS on a farm and then a few hours of medical discussion about this diagnosis.

The discussion of the other cases sort of took away from the idea of the book. I wanted to learn more about Waneta Hoyt’s life and why she was eventually driven to kill all five of her children. I understand it was all important background information in setting the grounds for Hoyt’s arrest, but it was hard for me to get into this book. I had to listen in little sections which is unusual for me for a book of this genre.

Narration saved it for me.

This book was given to me for free at my request and I provided this voluntary review.

[Kathy Mescher · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the first book of this kind that I have read. I hadn't heard about this case before I read it in the book. I will say it was pretty informative, and thought it was good that they made the public aware of the case to make it aware that things like infanticide really do happen. I like how the book also goes to tell the public that they are not discrediting SIDS, just that they are saying that it is possible that babies can be killed by a caretaker and claim SIDS took the life when it really was the caretaker. I'm glad that Mrs. Hoyt didn't get away with murder.

[Jeff · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very interesting case, thoroughly researched and well documented by this trio of authors. The book covers a couple of other similar cases that serve as background to this one.

Kelley Huston's narration is competent and professional.

Note: I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

[Jennifer Laris · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I took interest to this book because it happened locally to me, it kind of dragged in the middle and I had to talk myself into getting through it so I could get to the ending, which it picked back up by then. Such a sad story.

[Heather Ingerson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very Sad. I think very relevent in a time and age were more and more mothers seem to be turning into this sick monster.

[Beth Long · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent read.
"I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review."