Between 1877 and 1883 Maine judges sentenced five women to the State Prison for life for infanticide. In every one of these infanticide cases, the evidence suggests, the women turned to infanticide out of economic desperation. Although every child murdered was born out of wedlock, in every case but one it was a month old or older and a number of people had involved themselves in caring for it. In every case but one as well, the mother did not kill the child on her own. She was assisted either by her relatives or her boyfriend. Four out of the five women came from small Maine towns. The fifth, an Irish immigrant living in Portland, was the anomaly in every case.

These convictions, an unparalleled event in the history of the state prison. In the previous fifty years only one woman had been committed for a life sentence. When he opened the first infanticide trial Supreme Court Justice William G. Barrows called for strict punishment:

The local newspaper agreed. Commenting on the ‘atmospheric wave of immorality around – exerting its baleful influence on our community’, the Oxford Democrat called for the people of Oxford to mend their ways and to be vigilant.