- Waneta Hoyt
Infobox Serial Killer
name=Waneta Hoyt
image_size=152px
caption=family photo
birthname=Waneta Ethel Hoyt
alias=
birth=May 13, 1946
location=New York
death=
cause=
victims=5
country=USA
states=New York
beginyear=1965
endyear=1971
apprehended=1994
penalty=life sentence Waneta Hoyt was an American
serial killer . Her five biological children died, supposedly ofSudden infant death syndrome (SIDS, or "crib death"). In fact, she and her family were the subject of a classic paper in the "Journal of Pediatrics" in 1972, used as evidence that SIDS runs in families.In 1995 Hoyt confessed to and was convicted of murdering her children. Pediatricians were misled for years, and probably made numerous tragic mistakes, because of this one case.
According to Dr. Jerold Lucey, who was editor of the Journal of Pediatrics in 1972, "Huge amounts of time and money have been wasted over the last 25 years" because of Hoyt and the scientists she misled.
References
*Book: [http://sids-network.org/experts/abusereview.htm The Death of Innocents] by Richard Firstman and Jamie Talan
*Begley S. The nursery's littlest victims. Newsweek. September 22, 1997. Pp. 72-73
*Steinschneider A. Prolonged apnea and the sudden infant death syndrome: clinical and laboratory observations. Pediatrics. 1972;50(4):221-227
*Horizon - Sudden Death, transmitted February 25, 1999, director and producerLiz Tucker [http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/title/618217] [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1270728]
*BBC News Online - Cot Death Error "cost lives" February 25 1999 [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/285765.stm]External links
* [http://www.dcmsonline.org/jax-medicine/1997journals/october97/presidentsmessage.htm Skepticism: An Antidote For Self-Deception]
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