Goodbye, My Little Ones: The True Story of a Murderous Mother and Five Innocent Victims

By: Charles Hickey, Todd Lighty, John O'Brien

Narrated by: Kelley Huston

Length: 11 hrs and 57 mins

Publisher's summary

The true story of a murderous mother and five innocent victims. Charles Hickey, Todd Lighty, and John O’Brien bring the story of a mother not fit for the title.

Waneta Hoyt’s first baby died. Then her second. Then her third. Nobody, including her husband, suspected Waneta Hoyt - or stopped her from having more babies. Then her fourth baby died. Then her fifth. And the famed medical expert declared they had died of sudden infant death syndrome and use them to support his theory that SIDS ran in families.

One man, however, did not except the diagnosis. District Attorney Bill Fitzpatrick set out to expose the truth about a crime hard to imagine. To do so meant convicting a woman who had won the hearts of all. And just proving a doctor who had climbed to the top of his field with the help of little corpses.

Brace yourself for a true story of motherhood, medicine, and murder you will remember every time you hear a baby crying.

©2018 Charles Hickey, Todd Lighty, John O'Brien (P)2019 David N. Wilson

Heartbreak At Its Finest

I had not heard of Waneta Hoyt before listening to this book, now the name chills me to the bone. This heartless woman ultimately murdered 5 of her children and blamed it on SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome). As you are reading this, you are probably asking yourself why would anyone kill their own child.....the reason for Waneta is easy, she wanted the attention that she received from their deaths. How pitiful is that???

I do have to share with you that this was a very hard book for me to finish, not because of the narration, but because of the subject matter. As a female, who wanted children so badly and had a difficult time achieving this goal, only to have another woman toss the angels out like they were trash brought tears to my eyes.

The narrator did a fantastic job with such a challenging subject.

This audiobook was provided by the author, narrator, or publisher at no cost in exchange for an unbiased review courtesy of AudiobookBoom

It's Mommy dearest on steroids

I stumbled on this one almost by accident and after reading the synopsis I thought this would be crazy interesting, especially since this is a true story. Well, I was not disappointed. It almost seems like this should be fiction. I also felt that the female narrator did a great job - very easy to listen to and engaging.

Solid story if a bit sad

I had not heard about the Waneta Hoyt case before, and it sounded very interesting, albeit a bit sad. I was excited to get a chance to listen to Goodbye, My Little Ones: The True Story of a Murderous Mother and Five Innocent Victimsand eagerly listened to it every chance I got.

The narration by Kelley Huston was excellent. She has a pleasant voice with little judgement on what must have been a hard subject to delve into. I would be happy to listen to any of her other works and look forward to any books she narrates in the future.

As for the work itself, I found it to be engrossing all the way through. Through this book, I learned more about two similar cases that helped set precedent for the district attorney to go after Waneta Hoyt. I’ve already found a podcast on the Tinning case and hope to find some more about the other one.

I was just a little confused at some points about the names, but with a non-fiction book, that’s a given for me. There were so many legal figures in a case of this magnitude that it’s confusing even when reading print versions of cases, so it’s definitely not the fault of the authors.

The only thing that I didn’t understand was why the district attorney pursued this case so far. He had to relinquish control of the prosecution as many of the cases took place in a different county, but yet he kept pushing it with the appropriate people. I am in no way saying that Hoyt deserved to get away with any harm at all against any child, but it sounds like a lot of money was spent on a woman who was far past child-bearing years and would likely not come in contact with any babies. I think that pursuing justice for one child would have saved time and money, but perhaps they needed all of the children’s deaths to prove that their mother was the cause for their demise.

The tragic mystery of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) is explored in this book. Even all these years later, little is understood about SIDS and parents still worry about this silent killer taking their baby. It was interesting to find out about the research that was conducted by various doctors around the country and how Hoyt’s children’s deaths impacted this research, perhaps negatively. Her actions not only killed her poor children, but I fear that they led others to doubt other parents who lost their children to SIDS.

This is a sad book, because even though justice is served, the babies cannot be brought back to life. I feel that Waneta received a fair sentence and hope that she is able to face up to what she did at some point.

If you’re also into true crime but can bear the sadness of this book, then check out Goodbye, My Little Ones: The True Story of a Murderous Mother and Five Innocent Victims from Audible.com.

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

Excellent performance

I was extremely taken with the narrative of this story and impressed that the reader performed with a non-biased tone. While not my favorite genre, the story captured me and the pace was perfect to keep my attention. The reader made this book especially enjoyable.

An interesting view into sudden infant death syndrome.

I found this book extremely interesting and I learned quite a bit about the phenomenon of sudden infant death syndrome. It’s scary to think how many infant murders have been covered up using this diagnosis.

The performance was good however the readers tone is a bit nasal and takes a minute to get used to.

This audiobook was provided to me in return for my honest review. I would recommend it to anybody that loves true crime stories.

Gripping story of a mother not fit for the title

After watching The Act on Hulu, I became interested in the topic of mothers who hurt their children so that they can get attention and sympathy. I came upon Waneta Hoyt's story and purchased this audiobook so I could learn more. As a mother, I found this book difficult to listen to and also hard to put down. The story was heartbreaking and frustrating. How could so many people have turned a blind eye to her abuse? How could a doctor actually amplify his career by manipulating facts to support his research? Overall, I really enjoyed this book. It may not be a good fit for those that aren't interested in medicine or court litigation, because there is a lot of that in this story. The narrator did a great job bringing the story to life and was easy to listen to.

Good book.

Very interesting story of Munchausen by Proxy. Highly recommended. Excellent narration.

It takes a few turns that almost made me lose interest, but keep listening. It’s all fascinating and necessary to the story.

True crime at it's best

Goodbye, My Little Ones: The True Story of a Murderous Mother and Five Innocent Victims..
A poignant tale of the murder of 5 children, Well written and with in depth research this book follows the death of 4 infants & one toddler thru the investigation into their deaths , and eventually the trial.
Kelley Hustons narration is sympathetic to all parties and makes it possible to listen to a traumatic tale.
I was given a free copy of this audio book at my own request, and voluntarily leave this review.

Sad Story

I’ve listened to quite a few true crime books, so I had some expectations going into this book. It was okay, but I like when true crime books focus on the event that’s mentioned in the title. There was a long history in this book of babies dying from what appeared to be SIDS on a farm and then a few hours of medical discussion about this diagnosis.

The discussion of the other cases sort of took away from the idea of the book. I wanted to learn more about Waneta Hoyt’s life and why she was eventually driven to kill all five of her children. I understand it was all important background information in setting the grounds for Hoyt’s arrest, but it was hard for me to get into this book. I had to listen in little sections which is unusual for me for a book of this genre.

Narration saved it for me.

This book was given to me for free at my request and I provided this voluntary review.

Well-researched, worthwhile story.

A horrifying true crime story that, like so many others, will have you wondering "how could nobody have suspected or intervened?"

Introducing other cases similar to Hoyt's set the stage nicely, as did explaining SIDS research and the studies of Dr. Alfred Steinschneider. And exploring the activities of the lobbyists who made it so controversial to accuse ANY parent who had suffered a suspicious child death was valuable exposition.

I think that the author lingered too long on the medical and legal details, however. As numerous other reviewers have mentioned, the medical explanations are SUPER dry and repetitive, and had my attention wandering. (And I'm a nurse. Interested in pediatrics.)

Great portions of the book feel redundant; a re-treading of the same ground, with no additional insights yielded. For example- once the criminal trial started, was there any reason to repeatedly bring up the activities of the lobbyists who protected the parents of SIDS victims? Did they influence the outcome at ALL?

And also (and this is just a personal peeve), why did Bill Fitzpatrick get ALL the credit for being the dogged DA who sniffed out Waneta Hoyt? It was Dr. Linda Norton who dropped the case into his lap. The author never mentions her again after the Vandersluis trial, even though Hoyt wouldn't even be on Fitzpatrick's radar without her.

Just saying. Rude.