Some stories from the early 20th century read like urban legends, but the records show they were all too real. In 1923, a plumber working in a Mississippi home uncovered what authorities later called one of the most disturbing cases of child cruelty they had ever seen.
Hidden behind a false wall, a ten-year-old girl was found nearly blind, unable to speak, and so neglected that hospital staff doubted she would survive.
The article below, published in The Washington Times on July 7, 1923, details the discovery and the community’s reaction. It’s a stark reminder of what could happen behind closed doors in an era before social services had any real reach — and how many tragedies only came to light by chance.
Baby Blinded in Cellar Prison
An astounding case of parental cruelty was found here when a 10-year-old girl known as Mary Alexia was observed at St. Joseph’s Hospital.
The child is almost blind and is unable to speak. She was confined in a dark cellar by her mother and father, remaining there between the ages of 3 and 7 years.
The parents, whose names are withheld by the authorities, lived in Tupelo, Mississippi. The child was born with a twisted leg. The parents, seeking to conceal their deformed daughter, prepared a dungeon beneath their home. It was only when a plumber, summoned by the owners of the house and unknown to the parents of the child, was repairing pipes that the situation was discovered.
Plumber
The plumber heard unusual noises coming from behind a wall against which he was working. He noticed that the dimensions of the basement, as viewed from where he was laboring, seemed out of proportion to the rest of the house. The strange noises continuing, the workman explored the dark, poorly ventilated cellar and discovered a sort of trap door in back of boxes and rubbish.
By the light of his torch, he was able to peer through a tiny aperture in the door and the sight that met his gaze, he said, caused him to shrink. An emaciated little girl, her face covered with grime and her sunken eyes apparently sightless from disuse, was crouching in a corner. The plumber hastened to notify the authorities.
When released, it is said the girl was hopelessly demented.
Three Years in Hospital
For months she lay near death in the hospital. The authorities kept secret the names of her parents out of pity for the child. Citizens, however, are understood to be demanding that such a terrible act by parents be investigated and the guilty ones punished.
For three years the girl has been at the hospital, unable to move from her cot and seemingly dying. She has not spoken since she entered the hospital, her vocal cords presumably having been paralyzed by lack of use, or, perhaps, wrecked from constant cries of terror in the dark dungeon. She was named after the Sister Superior of the Hospital, Mary Alexia.
Rats Shared Food
How the child was fed is a mystery, but it is supposed that her parents slipped food and water through the opening in the disguised door. There were evidences that rats had shared the child’s repasts.
It was revealed at the hospital that the girl probably never had been spoken to since the day she entered her grim prison. What her terror must have been during the first days and nights of her confinement, and up until her reason mercifully deserted her, can only be imagined.
At the hospital every effort to provide for the child’s comfort to restore her to a normal condition, mentally and physically, has failed. It is accepted as inevitable that the girl must remain there, a charity patient.
Source: The Washington Times. Washington D.C. July 7, 1923.
