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Ah, the sounds of back to school time. There's plenty to uh about this time of year. So let Cane's take something off your plate by putting something on it. Like the most craveable hand-battered cooked order chicken fingers and cane sauce. It's going to be a great school year. Raising Cane's chicken fingers. One love.
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Protect your reputation with exterior products by James Hardy. Hi guys, my name is Bailey Sarian and today is Monday, which means it's Murder, Mystery, and Makeup Monday. San-a-san, san-a-san, san-a-san-san-san-san-san-san-san.
If you are new here, hi. Every Monday I sit down and talk about a true crime story that's been heavy on my noggin and I do my makeup at the same time. If you're interested in true crime and you like makeup, I would highly suggest you hit that subscribe button and let's jump into today's story.
So today we're gonna talk about the Butterbox babies. Have you heard of them? Well, let me tell you something. I was watching Amazon, just going down the Prime movies, especially thrillers, I love thrillers. I think it was called Butterbox babies, it might've been called something else, whatever. In the beginning it said, "Based on true events."
And that's how you get me. Like I'm that easy. You could wear a t-shirt that says based on true events and I would be like, oh yeah, give it to me. Awesome. Oh, you know what? I don't know why I'm joking 'cause that's not, this is not a funny story. The movie, I would give it like a B minus. It wasn't that great.
But the overall story was interesting and it had me curious. I was like, I need to do some research on this. Is this really real? Warning. The following presentation is intended for mature audiences. It contains graphic descriptions of crime scenes, adult dialogue, and strong language. Viewer discretion is advised.
So in the spring of 1935, Eva Neforth of Nova Scotia was in a relationship with a man named Walter. Her and Walter were dating for a little bit of time and then she found out that she was pregnant.
Now they had to keep this pregnancy a secret because this is during a time when having a baby out of wedlock was a big no-no. You know, it was just a scandal, okay? You just didn't do that. I mean, people still kind of feel that way now, but whatever, it was bigger. It was a bigger deal then.
And during this time, there just weren't many options as far as what you could do. So Eva, when she found out she was pregnant, she did some research, okay? And she came across this place called the Ideal Maternity Home. And Eva decided that this is where she would have her baby without judgment.
a safe place for women and nobody would know. Just before Christmas, Eva headed out to the maternity home and she was welcomed with open arms by the owners whose names were William and Lila Young. And they gladly took an Eva and her unborn baby. I mean, this was their job, their...
their passion. About a week went by when poor Eva had contracted an abdominal infection. She was bedridden until the end of January when she went into labor. The labor was rough and Eva almost died while giving birth.
Sadly though, Eva's baby did end up passing away shortly after being born and Eva was struggling to fight for her own life. William, one of the maternity home owners, wrote a letter to Eva's boyfriend, his name was Walter, and he was letting him know about the situation, that the baby had passed and that Eva was struggling to hang on to her life. Walter didn't think, he didn't think Eva would have much time left
So then Walter came out to the maternity home to visit Eva. And that's when he had learned that Eva had not been given any type of antibiotics for her infection. And the maternity home didn't even have any antibiotics available. I mean, hello?
"What are you guys doing?" For obvious reason, this made Walter upset. He started asking around like, "Have you guys called a doctor? "Where's a doctor? "We need a doctor." He's asking Lila and William, the owners, like, "Why haven't you guys called a doctor?" And of course, William Young, the owner, he was just,
"offended, outraged, how dare you?" Walter said, "I am a doctor, "and there's no need to involve anyone else, you fool." Well, I don't know if he said you fool, but I imagine. I wasn't there.
But he got offended and he said, "I am a doctor. We don't need anyone else." Damn ego, you know? It's like the worst thing in the world, the ego. So they didn't end up calling a doctor. Awesome, amazing. So then Lila pulls Walter aside and she gave him an invoice for $25 for the burial of their baby. She billed him. She's like, "Yeah, so she's got an infection and we're not gonna call a doctor, but here's a bill, thank you."
Walter did end up paying the cost for the burial and when he tried to return to Eva, he was told that visiting hours were over and that he needed to go. So Walter ended up leaving and then two days later, Eva Neforth was dead. Get back to the story.
Let's go back to the beginning, Lila. Let's start with Lila. Lila was born in Fox Point, Nova Scotia in 1908, around that time. When Lila graduated from high school, she decided to study and become a teacher. So she did just that. And at the age of 26 is when she met 27-year-old William Bates.
Peach Young, great name. William Peach, I love that. William Peach, sorry, he's a bad guy here. Anyways, but he had graduated from medical college in 1923. Now, William would care for the sick along the south coast of Nova Scotia. And William and Lila, they would end up marrying in 1924.
And soon after the wedding, Lila, she found herself pregnant with their first child. And the two of them would go on to have five children in total. Lila and William are the ones who own this maternity home that I mentioned in the beginning. Normally I don't do like a beginning story,
but I thought I would try it, so. Lila would go on to train as a midwife and William decided to become a licensed chiropractor. Now, during this time in 1927, chiropractors were seen as quacks by the American Medical Association. In the first 30 years of chiropractic
professions, there were more than 15,000 prosecutions and about 20% of them resulted in incarceration. It was just seen as like not a real practice, not a real thing. So people were like being chiropractors underground, which is so interesting, right? Because it's almost normal now. But you know what? This is a side note. I kind of went down a rabbit hole about chiropractors and how people truly believe to this day that it's all just like mumbo jumbo. And it was really interesting
because I've never thought to question any... Well, here we are, okay. Anyhow, the couple stayed in Chicago for two months before deciding to move to Nova Scotia. They didn't have a lot of money, okay? But they were able to purchase a small four-bedroom cottage in East Chester. I just love older stories like this. It's like, we were poor, but we bought a four-bedroom house.
Oh, if only we could do that now, huh? So yes, they got their own four bedroom cottage in East Chester. The Youngs had a vision. A vision? Visions are always in these stories. Visions. But they had a vision. They wanted to open their home to people in need of medical care, which sounds great, right? That's like so nice.
So they decided to start a life and health facility with the slogan, quote, where the sick get well, end quote. I mean, to us, that's kind of like a okay quote, but at the time it was like, oh my God, where the sick get well? That's so clever. You know, it's like the first time people are hearing this. Lila's midwife qualification came in handy and the couple soon realized there was a big demand for maternity care in that area, especially for young mothers or unmarried women who fell pregnant.
You see, there was like no support programs in place for unmarried mothers in Nova Scotia. This was a time when having children out of wedlock was still very much taboo. Even families would turn their backs on their unmarried pregnant daughters, kick them out of the house to fend for themselves. I mean, people still kind of do that to this day. But you know, this was like more intense because it was like really frowned upon. I've mentioned this before in another video, like everything was frowned upon back then. Like it was just...
Shame, he brought shame to the family. Anywho, but there was no place for these women to go. They had nowhere. So many unwed mothers came through the doors of the home of the Youngs, Lila and William. Their last name is Young. I'm going to refer to them as the Youngs. So the two of them decided to rebrand and change the name of the facility to Ideal Maternity Home. They promised to be discreet and protect
expectant mothers from social judgment. They put ads in the newspaper that said, quote, "Ideal maternity mothers refuge for girls, no publicity," end quote. They put out another ad that said, quote, "Dame gossip has ruined many young lives and ruined them socially. They might have been bright stars in society and a power in the world of usefulness had they been shielded from gossip when they made a mistake."
End quote. And like, that sounds nice, right? Because it's true. You know, they also had like a little brochure or a pamphlet. And inside that brochure, they made it sound like a safe and welcoming place for mothers. And they were promised entertainment and recreation in modern facilities.
while the babies would have a fantastic start in life. Yeah, I mean, they were making it sound like it's amazing. The ideal maternity home also offered complete adoption services. Abortions were also performed, which were completely illegal at the time. In Canada before 1969, the maximum penalty for a doctor or anyone else who conducted an abortion was life imprisonment. This was obviously not something advertised through their ads at all,
but word of mouth would let others know that this was a safe place for women to go. Cue the angry comments, yada, yada, yada, okay. If women chose to end their pregnancies, they had the option to do so at the ideal maternity home. But for the most part, the home was a maternity business and it didn't come cheap. So the woman would have to pay between 100 to $500 to have the baby delivered.
And then also that would cover stay or a couple of days for recovery. Mothers were required to pay on arrival. So they had to pay beforehand. During this time, the weekly wage was about $8 a week. So people were making $8 a week.
and they were asking for anywhere from 100 to $500. So who's affording that, you know? Seriously. So mothers had a really hard time paying for this. And unfortunately they weren't like given a heads up of how much it costs or they probably wouldn't have gone in the first place, but they were already there and they had no other place to go. So it was like, this was really their only option.
So if mothers were unable to pay, the Youngs would blackmail the women's families or even the boyfriend to make sure that they got their money. And if these women really didn't pay at all and they had no other resort, they would allow them to work as cleaners, cooks, or nannies inside of the home to pay off their debt, which a lot of them did because they couldn't afford it.
Many of the women really had no other choice and remained at the home for years until their debt was paid off. I was reading anywhere from like five to 10 years, which is insane, but they couldn't tell people that about what they were doing because then people would find out about this home and they couldn't say anything.
It wasn't worth the risk of their families finding out about this pregnancy or if they got an abortion or something, you know, like, fuck no. So they just shut up and worked inside the home. I couldn't exactly figure out like how some of the women could afford that.
The Youngs would trap a lot of their clients with every add-on came an additional cost. So if women who are staying there needed diapers for the babies, that would be $12, which was like an inflated price. Obviously $12 was a lot to them. Oh, you need baby products? Yeah, that's going to be $2.
So they were constantly upcharging for items and then adding on just this fat bill of items that these people were using inside the home. They would charge for babysitting per week. And if the baby sadly passed away, that would be $20 for the funeral, the burial. And at first, when I was reading this, I was like, oh my God, how could they?
But then when I thought about it, I was like, that's exactly how our healthcare system still works to this day. But to some people, this is very shocking. It's like, oh yeah, you need a tissue? Yeah, that's $10. I just went to the doctors the other day and like the bill was atrocious. And if mothers could not care for their babies, Lila told them if they paid the home $300, they would find an adoptive family for them.
the mother could leave and the official document for this agreement was called an adoption transfer agreement. This was considered odd because mothers would typically pay for their stay at a maternity home, but never would they have to pay for adoption services. Occasionally women would have their babies elsewhere and then they would decide, you know what, maybe I can't take care of this
this baby would be best if I put it up for adoption. So they could actually bring it to their maternity home and Lila would gladly accept any kind of baby. Well, she would accept the babies because these kinds of transactions were great because they wouldn't have to go through the birthing services, which was a nightmare, but they were still able to get money from them. It was just pure profit and they had to do little to no work. I mean, at the end of the day, this was a money-making business.
It started as the couple wanting to help families, wanting to help young women, and then all of a sudden greed kicked in and it was no longer about helping the women. It was all about making money and how much money can we make? And so they needed to amp up the selling of these kids because that was bringing in the most profit for them. Kept secret and beauty. Today's story.
So the Youngs took it into their own hands to get rid of babies that they were unable to sell.
Yes, you heard that right. They got rid of them. Babies who had visible imperfections like birthmarks, deformities, who were sickly, who were mixed race, who were darker skin toned, were considered unmarketable. They fed those children molasses and water as a way to starve them. The poor baby would be dead within weeks.
Usually it would take no longer than two weeks. So it was honestly like, I feel like it was a slow, slow death. Like these poor kids. The bodies would be placed in wooden delivery boxes from the local creamery. And the wooden boxes had a label on the outside of them that said butter boxes. They ended up just using these boxes as coffins to bury the bodies of these children in.
Now they weren't telling the women who gave birth to these children, they weren't telling them what they were doing with the children. So they had no idea. And then on top of that, they would still ask the mothers to pay for the funeral costs. And if the mothers could not pay for the funeral costs, babies were discarded by burning the bodies in the incinerator. And if they couldn't do that, like if the incinerator was full, which yeah, whatever, whatever.
Other bodies that could not be paid for were given to the local fishermen who threw them into the sea. And I did read they may have used them as like fish food, but I cannot confirm or deny that. And I wasn't there, so I really don't know. Either way, it's still awful. All of it's awful. There was a handyman who worked at the maternity home and his name was Glenn. And Glenn claimed that he helped the Youngs bury between
100 to 125 babies in a field near Fox Point. The field was owned by the parents of Lila and Glen claimed that they would bury the boxes of babies in just rows. Glen also said that sometimes babies would just lay dead in a tool shed for up to five days under a box before Glen was able to transport them to the field.
Yeah, pretty awful. It was said that inside of the home, Lila was the one who actually would be like the main person who delivered the babies. And she was known to be pretty rough with the mothers during labor and pretty mean as well.
One woman would later recall her experience saying that while in labor, her baby was choking on the umbilical cord and that Lila didn't know what to do. So she fell to the ground and started praying. And then William stepped in and managed to deliver the baby who was breached. So the baby came out bottom first,
butt first, legs first, feet first, which was very dangerous and also extremely painful to the mother. And they didn't have any medication for them. They didn't have anything to help ease the pain and also just make the delivery go smoother.
Luckily the mother and the baby did make it out okay, but while the mother laid there trying to recover, the baby was being looked after by Lila and like the team of people. A couple of days later, Lila comes back into the room to, you know, see how this woman's doing. Lila instead came in and she tells this woman, "I'm sorry to tell you, but your baby has become very ill and things are just not looking very good for her."
Now this mother, she knew like something was up. She found it very, very strange because she was literally just nursing her baby not that long ago and everything was fine. And you know, mothers know, mothers know. So she just knew something wasn't right. And she's like, what do you mean she's ill? And Lila just said, oh, she's sick. I can't show her to you right now because you know, she's very vulnerable. She needs to rest. She needs to heal.
And then an hour goes by, Lila comes back into the room to let the woman know that her baby had died. Now this woman, of course she's,
She's shocked, she's hurt, she's upset, but she had that gut feeling that Lila was lying. I think she knew Lila was lying. She just saw her baby, her baby was fine. She knew her baby was fine. As time kind of passed throughout the day, this woman had heard rumors that there was a wealthy family coming to the ideal maternity home, wanting to adopt a girl at the time. And this woman's baby was the only girl in the nursery.
So when this woman presses Lila and asks questions about her baby, like what's really going on? What are you doing? She got no answers and got nowhere. Unfortunately, that woman never saw her baby again. She had no proof of even having a child. She had no proof of even where to begin looking for the baby because at this maternity home, they kept little to no records. Yeah, yeah.
So it's like, how do you even know what to look for, you know? So yeah, sadly that woman just never, never saw her baby again. And I guess throughout her adult life, she did constantly try to look and find her. Sad, never found her. The Youngs only kept the best babies for adoption, which meant
healthy Caucasian babies. This is what they were doing. That's not what I'm saying, okay? They would put out newspaper ads, again, looking for future adopted parents saying, quote, lovely babies for adoption, excellent backgrounds and healthy bodies, right for information. And they would charge the adopted families between 800 to 1,000
for babies back in the 1930s. And then as time went on, the prices just kept hiking up because there was a high demand for babies. Yeah, it sounds weird saying that, but there was. According to records, the couple had earned an estimated $3.5 million from adoption sales within 10 years. And that's not including the price they were earning from room and board and delivery from the mothers.
which is insane because think about it, people are making what, $8 a week to be a millionaire at that time, even in 10 years, like that's insane. They had a lot of money. What were they doing with the money is what I was trying to figure out.
I don't know. So anyone who came into the home and wanted to adopt a baby were required to bring references and proof of income. It was, you know, required by law, but they didn't really care. Lila and William, they never really checked the families, okay? If they could pay, if they had the money and especially the cash just showed up with the money, yeah.
Okay, here you go, baby. Like they did not care. They didn't do any type of screening on the families and make sure it was going to a safe place. They didn't care. Must I explain more? No. Sometimes families would choose babies before they were even born just by looking at the mothers. The adoptions were processed
quickly, sometimes within 24 hours in the local county court when the children were as young as two to three days old, people would come in, look at the different mothers and be like, yeah, I want that baby, which is so gross, but that's what they did. The whole thing is just disturbing. In 1945, a
a potential adoptive mother, she was finally, some sense in here, she was completely appalled by what she saw. And she ended up reporting her experience to an adoption worker in New York. She reported that the smell and stench of urine overcame her to such an extent that she was ready to fly from the place.
She went on to say that the Cribs had about three children in each one. No child was getting personal care and all looked undernourished, pale and soiled. This would lead to some concern. Now, if a client changed their mind and maybe they wanted to keep their baby or they wanted their baby back,
Lila would tell them that they had to pay $10,000 and would claim that their adoption was already set up. So they wouldn't give the baby back unless they produced the money. And even if they produced the money, they would take it and they still wouldn't do anything about it because they didn't have to.
Vacationers from New York and New Jersey would head to Nova Scotia, Nova Scotia coast in the summer. Many of these were childish Jewish couples who were finding no Jewish babies to adopt. So Lila and William were like, "Yeah, no problem. Look right here, this is a Jewish baby. Here you go." And then she would just lie and say that they were Jewish babies just so they would adopt them and make some money, you know? So stupid.
Yeah, you want a Jewish baby? Okay, here, look, right here. Buy one, get one. The thing is, nobody at that time knew she was lying. Everyone thought this was just this amazing maternity home and had no reason to question it, you know? So she's just lying her ass off saying she has all these Jewish babies when the reality is, I don't even, who knows? I don't even think she kept a record
but we don't really know. A big source of revenue came from American families because at the time, policies in the US made it difficult for families to adopt outside of religious lines. So people from the US hoping to adopt would seek out this maternity home. Because demand was getting higher and higher, babies were selling. Babies were just popping off to up to $10,000 from people all over.
but mainly prominent wealthy socialites or politicians. People who had money, obviously, I mean, no one, $10,000. I make $8 a week, like where am I getting that? You know, like, mm-hmm. The ideal maternity home had
many supporters and the community would offer and donate items but also just a lot of money as well because from the outside looking in it was like oh the fact that they're giving these unwed mothers a safe haven to have their children and then found suitable homes where they could raise their children all while doing this in the lord's name such wow such wonder here's my money and like i'm not
trying to point the finger at them in any way, shape or form. To them, they thought it was peaches and cream. They were doing great things. So I just, I don't think they're necessarily the bad guys. It does sound like a nice cause from the outside looking in. The Ideal Maternity Home updated their brochure and it had tons of quotes from like their local senator who fully supported what they were doing. And then there were also a picture inside the brochure of the son and daughter-in-law of Nova Scotia's Lieutenant
who had adopted a baby from the ideal maternity home. So, I mean, making them look good. So again, everyone's just thinking this place is doing wonderful, great things. Yippee-ki-yay, yes. But the reality, nay nay, nay nay, they were not doing good things. Many were not.
were not fond of the ideal maternity home. And they saw it as a way to exploit young mothers in need. Nova Scotia's Minister of Public Welfare, his name was Dr. Frank Davis, heard a ton of rumors swirling around about the deaths happening over at the maternity home. So he decided to have some people investigate the situation.
An inspector went to the ideal maternity home in 1945 and reported neglect after seeing babies that weighed half of the average weight of babies their age. Flies were swarming around. There was just dirty conditions that were not suitable for people to live in, and he made reports about it. So after many reports of neglect and concerns over the ideal maternity home, an amendment was added to the Maternity Boarding House Act
adding more requirements in order for licenses to be accepted for maternity boarding houses. So, I mean, at least thanks to them, there was more laws set in place to protect future people falling victim to this. So at least...
It's sad, but like at least some good came from, I don't know. As soon as the amendment went into place, the ideal maternity home was rejected a license and was shut down. But of course that didn't stop Lila. She's convinced that she was just being harassed, okay? She was crying out to the families and stuff like, I'm being harassed, you guys.
I need your donations now more than ever because they're shutting me down. Anywho, so she did try to keep going without a license and she tried to appeal the rejection of a license. Lila and William were convicted of violating the Maternity Boarding House Act and also practicing medicine without a license in 1945. You're thinking, wow, prison time, right? Well, no, they were fined $150. It was nothing to them.
Anyhow, but Lila was still fuming over this whole situation and the court cases and being harassed. So she ended up trying to file a $25,000 lawsuit against a local newspaper that had been ratting her out. She didn't like it. No, you can't do that. So she went after them. The entire case was just one big complete joke, but the trial actually ended up
exposing a lot of Lila's wrongdoing, the mistreatment, the neglect that had happened inside of the home. It just kind of brought these things to light. So her dumb ass, it backfired on her. After that, the ideal maternity home soon closed officially and Lila and William were soon bankrupt. I know, where did all that money go?
I think they probably put it somewhere in a safe place. Maybe the business just went bankrupt, but they were still dirty rich. I don't know. But in 1962, William died of cancer. And in 1967, Lila died of leukemia. Lila was buried in a cemetery next door to where she had been burying the Butterbock
Isn't that kind of sad? Kind of sad, that is sad. The ideal maternity home was abandoned for quite some time, but in 1962, somebody set it on fire and it burned down. It was suspected arson. So that kind of sucks. I mean, well, it'd be interesting to see the pla- It doesn't matter. But yeah, burnt down. Allegedly, I'm not quite sure, but I believe the babies are still buried out there.
But there is a website dedicated to helping survivors of the Butterbox Babies case find their biological families. Anyways, so that is the story about the Butterbox Babies. I would love to hear your thoughts down below. It was a pretty old case and there's not, there's little to no information out there, but what we do know was what I told you. And I feel like that is enough to know that this place was fucking awful, okay?
I feel so bad to all of those poor women who were taken advantage of by this money hungry family.
I'm gonna try and dig around some more because I'm curious to know like where did all their money go? They made so much of it. So where did it go? Thank you so much for hanging out with me today. I love and appreciate you guys so, so much. And I hope that you have a wonderful day today. Please make good choices. Please be safe out there. And I'll be seeing you guys very soon. Bye. Bye.
