The photographs of Marybeth Tinning in the book "From Cradle to Grave" portray a homely looking woman with a bad hair cut and a penchant for cheap, serviceable clothes. She is the sort of woman who you might pass in the street without so much as a second glance. Yet Marybeth is either the unluckiest woman in the world - or she is a murderess who committed unthinkable atrocities to those most innocent of beings, her own babies.
In fourteen years, Marybeth gave birth to eight children and adopted a ninth - none of those children lived beyond five years of age and most didn't even celebrate their first birthdays. One after another they were born - and one after another they died.
As happens in the case of sudden unexplained deaths, all the children were given autopsies and all were found to have died of either natural or undetermined causes. Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) was the most commonly cited cause, but for most of the children, no specific disease was ever discovered. And, as child after child died, in the care of different doctors in different hospitals, no-one in authority connected the cases to just one mother. Seen in isolation, they were thought of as no more than terrible tragedies - until the death of baby number nine, Tami Lynne.
By this time, the steady drip, drip, drip of calls to Child Protection Services by concerned friends and neighbours over the years finally made an impression on the authorities, who elected to question Marybeth. Finally the truth came out. Or did it?
"From Cradle to Grave" is the story of a mother whose children died without explanation. Did she kill them? Or was a rare genetic disease responsible for their deaths? And how could the various doctors, social workers, coroners and Child Protection Agencies look the other way, failing to act on information received, failing even to investigate as child after child died in mysterious circumstances?
This is without doubt one of the most harrowing true crime books that you are ever likely to encounter. Yet, it is more than just a true crime book. Described on the cover as a " case report of a particular type of personality disturbance and a social document of today" (Professor J.L. Emery), it is more noteworthy for the questions which it doesn't answer than for those which it does. Was Marybeth a murderess? If so, was she in the grip of post-natal depression? Did she suffer from Munchausen's Syndrome by Proxy, a recognised psychiatric condition in which a mother deliberately harms her children in order to gain attention? Was she 'addicted' to the outpourings of sympathy from friends and relatives as she buried yet another child? Or was she simply the unluckiest mother in the world, giving birth to sick children who were too genetically damaged to survive?
The author of the book, Joyce Egginton, has produced a well - researched chronicle of Marybeth's life. She has drawn her own firm conclusions about Marybeth's guilt or innocence, yet, for me, fails to adequately explain WHY she has drawn these conclusions - will you agree?
"From Cradle to Grave" exposes a world which we all like to pretend doesn't exist. It hints at atrocious child abuse, at an uncaring society of small town people who steadfastly maintain a silence about their concerns and of doctors who are unable to recognise the truth when it is presented to them nine times.
It is a well written book which keeps the reader literally on the edge of his/her seat.It is disturbing - even frightening - a book that will turn your perceptions of motherhood upside-down. Yet, throughout, there are anomalies which make this case far from clear cut, twists, turns and reversals which raise numerous doubts. Just when you think that you have made your mind up about Marybeth, a new element is introduced and you begin to wonder...
Publisher: (recently reissued)
ISBN:0863696465
Price: £6.99
Date Reviewed: July 2002
My Rating: 4/5
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