Baron Hieronymus Karl Friedrich Freiherr von Münchhausen would entertain the 18th-century Germain aristocrats with stories about his escapades during the1735-1739 Russian-Turkish War, exaggerating to such an extent in 1785 it inspired the German author Rudolf Erich Raspe to write a book, titled Baron Munchausen’s Narrative of his Marvellous Travels and Campaigns in Russia, with a fictional character based upon the exploits of the real Von Münchhausen.
“Liar liar, pants on fire” – Münchhausen’s tales were outrageous, for example he rides a cannon ball, or saves himself from drowning by pulling himself up by his own hair. As the narrator in the book, the Baron is depicted as a calm, rational man, describing what he experiences with simple objectivity. He appears to believe every word of his own farfetched stories, no matter how internally inconsistent they become, and he usually appears tolerantly indifferent to any disbelief he encounters in others.
Munchausen becomes an Illness
In the decades between 1951 and 1976 several medical practitioners borrowed Münchhausen’s name to define the medical condition, Munchausen Syndrome, a Factitious Disorder Imposed on Self, a complex mental disorder where individuals present themselves to be a sick patient to receive some form of psychological validation, such as attention, sympathy, or physical care and the expansion Munchausen by Proxy (or Factitious Disorder Imposed on Another,) referring to a mental health disorder in which a caregiver creates the appearance of health problems in another person. In 90 percent of the cases the perpetrators are women.
Theories on the Origins
Generally psychologists find that Munchausen by Proxy originates from childhood trauma such as sexual abuse, bullying or parental neglect, experienced as primal abandonment and if the child was hospitalized, they experienced this as a safe haven where they were cared for. Munchausen by Proxy, may be masking other motivations.
There can also be a singularly malicious intent, originating from psychopathic and sadistic tendencies, with a complete lack of guilt feelings. Power is gained from manipulation, deceit, lying and spitefulness – it is all about control. In some cases, there is an added financial profit as mothers benefit from fundraising efforts to support their children’s medical expenses.
A chilling factor is that while most physical abuse against children happens when an adult lashes out at a child in response to some annoying behaviour such as crying, bedwetting, or clumsiness, the person practising Munchausen by Proxy secretly, carefully and methodically plans making and keeping the child sick over months and years, without the child provoking or understanding the situation.
These mothers manipulate clinicians and other health professional into prescribing diagnostic tests, scans, operations, and medications that may be potentially harmful to the child. If the medical practitioner catches on and refuses, the perpetrators are inclined to doctor-and-hospital-hopping, convincing each new doctor with evidence of the illness. These mothers are keen to cooperate with physicians and present an uncommon deep interest and knowledge of medical procedures and details – a regular Dr Google.
Most people are uncomfortable in a hospital environment, whether they are patients or visitors, yet these mothers bask in the proximity of doctors, nurses, radiologists and other white uniformed professionals. Wailing sirens excite them, the antiseptic smell arouses them and they dress up for their visits, like they would on a date. They seldom leave the child’s bedside and when they do, the child recovers.
Munchausen by Proxy could lead to permanent injury and the death of the victims. Studies have shown a mortality rate of between six and ten percent, tragically making it perhaps the most lethal form of child abuse.
Lying a Child to Death
Marybeth Tinning
Marybeth Tinning nee Roe was born in Duanesburg New York in September 1942, three years into the Second World War. With her father deployed and her mother working, the children were often cared for by family members, one of whom had told Marybeth she was an unwanted child. In 1965 she married Joseph Tinning and that same year their first child, Barbara, was born, followed five years later in January 1970 by Joseph Jr.
A year later, in December 1971 Jennifer was born, but she died a week later due to multiple brain abscesses that had developed in utero. Her death could have been the catalyst to the murders of her siblings. Perhaps Marybeth received much attention in hospital as the bereaved mother of a dead infant, for scarcely two weeks after Jennifer’s death in January 1972 she brought two-year-old Joseph junior to hospital claiming he had a seizure and had choked in his own vomit. The doctors found nothing wrong with him and sent him home. A few hours later Marybeth brough her son back to the emergency room – he was pronounced dead on arrival due to cardiac arrest.
One can only imagine Marybeth wallowing in the shadow of doubt cast upon the doctors who had sent him home and once again she stepped into the lead role of Melpomene, the Greek Muse of Tragedy, a mother grieving for her dead child.
Marybeth still had a remaining child, five-year old Barbara, but not for long. On March 1 1972, , three months after Joseph junior’s death, Marybeth rushed Barbara to hospital for convulsions. The next day, Barbara died and her death was attributed to Reye syndrome.
Marybeth ran out of children. A year and a half later, on November 22, 1973, Marybeth gave birth to Timothy, who did not even live a month for on December 10, Marybeth found him dead in his crib and his death was ascribed to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). A year and four months after Timothy’s death, in March 1975, the fifth child, Nathan, was born. A few months later he died in the car while out with his mother.
Three years after the death of Nathan in August 1978, Marybeth and Joseph decided to adopt a newborn baby boy, and named him Michael. By now Marybeth was already pregnant and in October she gave birth to Mary Frances, her sixth child. Three months later in January 1979, Marybeth rushed Mary to the hospital across the street. The doctors were able to revive her, reporting “aborted SIDS”.
It is noteworthy that Marybeth and Joseph lived right across a hospital! A month later, Marybeth ran across the street again with little Mary in her arms, this time in full cardiac arrest. Little Mary was revived but had irreversible brain damage and she died two days later after being taken off life support. A few months later in the fall of 1979 Jonathan was born but he died in March 1980, after being kept on life support in Albany for four weeks.
In February 1981, three-year-old Michael fell down the stairs and had concussion. On March 2, Marybeth took him to hospital and he was dead on arrival. For the first time, after eight children had already died, Michael’s death raised suspicion, since he was adopted and could not have had a ‘genetic default’ as the other children. Incredibly Tamy Lynne was born on August 22, 1985 and died on December 20, from asphyxia.
Marybeth and Joseph Tinning were separately taken to the Schenectady Police Department for questioning about Tami Lynne’s death. During the police interrogation, Marybeth signed a confession that she had murdered Tami Lynne, Timothy, and Nathan. By now autopsies had been performed on six of the children, but they were inconclusive.
Marybeth was put on trial in June 1987. She was acquitted by the seven-man, five-woman jury of the count of “deliberately” causing the infant’s death, but was convicted of murder by “depraved-indifference to human life” count. Her husband Joseph believed she was innocent, despite her telling him that she had killed Tamy Lynne. Dr. Robert L. Sullivan, Schenectady County’s Chief Medical Examiner said: “If anyone is negligent, I suppose I am. I probably should have said, ‘There must be more to it than this.’ But we all think, and don’t do.”
In one of her parole hearings Marybeth was supported by people from Georgetown University Law Center and people she worked with in prison, who described her as the “most loving, most generous, caring person that they had ever met. At the age of 76 in 2018 she was finally paroled. Nine innocent children had to die because people did not believe a mother could kill her children.
In a turn of events, 48-year-old Clauddine “Dee Dee” Blanchard was found stabbed to death in her Springfield, Missouri, house in June 2015. This time the victim, her daughter Gypsy-Rose Blanchard, had retaliated and with the help of her boyfriend Nicholas Godejohn, killed her mother who had been subjecting her to Munchausen by Proxy.
For decades Dee Dee had her daughter Gypsy Rose, believe that she was disabled after she had incurred a minor knee abrasion in a car accident with her grandfather. Gypsy Rose’s life became a living hell to the point of shaving her head, making her use a wheelchair in public, and subjecting her to unnecessary medication and surgery. Gypsy had no outstanding illnesses and knew she could walk but the kept up the charade out of fear for her mother. Gypsy Rose pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and received a ten-year sentence and her boyfriend Nicholas was convicted of first-degree murder and was sentenced to life in prison without parole.
While in prison, Gypsy Rose got engaged to a pen pal Ken Urker. They subsequently ended their relationship. In July 2022, she married Ryan Anderson in a prison ceremony with no guests present. Gypsy Rose was paroled in December 2023. She divorced Ryan Anderson, rekindled her relationship with Ken and their daughter was born last year on December 28, 2024.
Kelly Turner
In 2012 Kelly Renee Turner-Gant of Denver, Colorado, brought her two-year-old daughter Olivia Gant to hospital with a complaint of constipation. By the time Olivia was seven years old she had been subjected to severe Munchausen by Proxy, including several surgeries, a five-year diet of narcotic drugs and over one thousand documented hospital visits, ending in hospitalization with intravenous tubes feeding nutrients directly into her veins.
Kelly Turner pleaded guilty in January 2022 to a felony charge of child abuse that negligently caused her daughter Olivia’s death. She was sentenced to 16 years in prison. Not only did she bask in the social media attention, she managed to scam various organizations and individuals out of over $500,000.
It is alarming that since the identification of Munchausen by Proxy, with clear behavioural descriptions, children still die by the hands of their mothers, without medical practitioners voicing their suspicions. What are we doing to our children?
Top image: Sleep and his brother death, by John William Waterhouse (1874) (Public Domain)