Martha Woods

Case record: Martha Woods

Background

Martha Woods was described as a dutiful Army wife who followed her husband to every military base he was stationed at. She suffered from Munchausen’s Syndrome by Proxy, a rare condition typically affecting women that drove its victims to seek attention or sympathy by fabricating illnesses or causing deliberate harm to loved ones.

The offence

From 1946 to 1969, Woods accumulated victims that included three of her own children, a nephew and niece, a neighbor’s child, and an adopted son. Her pattern involved rushing to the hospital with an unconscious baby that had “curiously stopped breathing” while the baby was alone in her care. After the children were revived and sent home, they suffered more attacks after being returned.

The children’s symptoms were described as consistent with deliberate strangulation/suffocation. Due to the frequency with which the family relocated, authorities did not connect the attacks across the different locations. In total, police calculated that nine children had suffered twenty-seven severe respiratory attacks, with seven resulting in death.

Six of the seven deaths were listed as natural. The frequency of the respiratory attacks and the deaths of the children were later linked into a connected pattern.

Other details (family, disputed allegations, and staged circumstances)

Woods also made allegations connected to her adopted daughter Judy. She complained of threats from the biological parents of the adopted daughter, claiming they threatened her life when she refused to release custody of Judy. The allegations included claims that faceless strangers were circling her home in a car at odd hours, and that someone had tried to burn the house.

Army CID agents found flammable liquid splashed on a wall of Woods’ home. They suspected Woods of staging the scene herself. Judy’s biological parents were said to be in another state, and officers dismissed the allegations as an elaborate hoax.

Investigation

Intensive psychiatric testing was conducted after authorities found suspicious evidence following the death of Woods’ seven month old adopted son in Baltimore, Maryland. The testing found her sane and fit for a trial.

A chief medical examiner described the autopsy of Paul as showing “no signs of injury,” which was used to support murder by suffocation. The examiner also stated that when a child is smothered, there is “virtually no evidence,” which he described as “evidence in itself.” He reported that medical file review showed that since the 1940s six other children had died in Woods’s care and that there was no hint in the records that any had died of natural causes.

“When a child is smothered, there is virtually no evidence,” he says, “which is evidence in itself.”

Arrest / charges

No charges were brought forth against the parents who were found to be living in a different state after police officers dismissed Woods’ allegations as a hoax.

Trial

After five months of testimony, including evidence surrounding the previous deaths, Woods was convicted of first degree murder. The judge allowed evidence from other deaths to prove the case on Paul.

“It became a rule of thumb,” says DiMaio, a married father of two. “One dead baby could be SIDS, two dead babies is suspicious—and three dead babies is homicide”.

Sentencing

Woods was sentenced to life imprisonment on one count of first-degree murder.

Timeline

• 1946 to 1969 — Woods accumulated victims described as including three of her own children, a nephew and niece, a neighbor’s child, and an adopted son, with a pattern involving rushed hospital visits for an unconscious baby in her care.
• 1946 — The case description placed the earliest other deaths in Woods’s care in the 1940s, before the Baltimore investigation.
• 1969 — Authorities in Baltimore linked the pattern after suspicious evidence in the death of Woods’ seven month old adopted son.
• (trial length) — After five months of testimony, Woods was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment.

Outcome

Woods’ conviction in Paul’s death resulted in a life sentence. The trial also set a precedent for infanticide cases by allowing prior deaths as evidence.

Aftermath

A chief medical examiner stated that the case stood out while training in Baltimore in ’69 and described the investigation as based largely on his testimony leading to the conviction in Paul’s death and the life sentence. He described how medical practitioners might treat the first deaths as SIDS, with later patterns becoming suspicious and supporting homicide when multiple children died.