Helene Auguste Geisen-volk

Serial Killer

Helene Auguste Geisen-Volk: The New York Baby-Farm Deaths

Background

Helene Auguste Geisen-Volk was a German-born nurse and child-care operator whose New York City infant homes became the center of a shocking criminal investigation in 1925. Although she is frequently described today as a serial killer, the historical record requires an important qualification: Geisen-Volk was suspected of deliberately causing numerous infant deaths, and she was indicted for manslaughter in the death of one child, but she was never convicted of murder. Her eventual prison sentence was for substituting one baby for another. Contemporary investigators nevertheless uncovered an extraordinary number of deaths, allegations of brutality, severe neglect, unexplained disappearances, and deceptive substitutions of children. Geisen-Volk was the widow of a Prussian army officer and had reportedly served as a German Red Cross nurse. By the 1920s she operated what newspapers called a "baby farm" or "infantorium" at 235 East 86th Street in Manhattan. Such establishments accepted infants from parents or relatives who paid for their care. Geisen-Volk was licensed to keep only seven children at the East 86th Street establishment, but investigators found that she had been caring for far more. Health records examined during the investigation indicated that dozens of infants had died in homes associated with her since 1918.

The Investigation Begins

The case exploded into public view in May 1925 because of William Angerer, a Bronx father who attempted to retrieve his infant son, Stephen Angerer. Instead of returning Stephen, Geisen-Volk presented Angerer with a different baby. Angerer recognized that the child was not his son and went to the authorities. His complaint led police, prosecutors, physicians, and child-protection officials to examine Geisen-Volk's operation more closely. Stephen Angerer's fate became one of the central mysteries of the case. Geisen-Volk gave changing explanations for his disappearance. She eventually claimed that Stephen had died of marasmus between April 12 and April 14, 1925. She said that, because she lacked a death certificate, she put his body into a yellow satchel and abandoned it in the hallway of a Manhattan tenement in the East Seventies so that police would eventually take the body to the morgue. Judge Charles C. Nott Jr.'s court did not accept her story; the sentencing judge openly told her that he believed she was lying. No verified body or death record established the date or circumstances of Stephen's death, so he cannot responsibly be listed as a confirmed death on those dates. ...

Confirmed Victims: (5)

Agnes Toohey Age: (2), Date of Death: 1924-12-15

Helene Auguste Geisen-Volk - Wikipedia