Helene Auguste Geisen-Volk

She was the operator of an infant farm in New York City at 235 East Eighty-sixth St from 1918 to 1925. She was the widow of a Prussian army officer and a former Red Cross nurse. In May 1925 an investigation by police was opened after multiple complaints from infants relatives, and one gentleman who said she had returned a baby that was not his. In early 1925, it's estimated that up to forty-four babies died while at Geisen-Volk's two "baby farms".[1][2] Up to twelve babies in one month were buried, most of which had died from malnutrition. During the investigation and autopsy, one infant was found to have a fractured skull. A nurse who worked with Geisen-Volk stated that one infant of 18 months was held by the heels and dashed against a wall. One woman purchased a baby from the infantorium for $100, and was paid $10 by Geisen-Volk to sign the birth certificate paperwork.[3] Mrs. Geisen-Volk was sentenced to three and a half to seven years in prison for baby substitution in which she pleaded guilty.

In total she was charged with the murder of fifty-three babies. The probation officer's report characterized her as "a woman without conscience who strangled and froze to death infants left in her care."[4] The judge described her as "cruel, bestial, and a revolting anomaly in humankind".[5]