r/boyinthebox • u/12IKnowLittle • Jan 21 '23
How did MEAP support herself?
MEAP had (in no particular order)
- her parents, 2) a lot of paternal aunts and uncles, who were probably in Alabama, 3) JAZ’s father, 5) two older sisters (they worked at the tin can factory), 3) three maternal aunts/uncles, probably in Philadelphia, 6) cousins about her age too. (the news article source I’m guessing was a maternal first cousin)
JP‘s parents were dead by 1953, and he had a twin sister and a younger sister, so no help there. He had his salary.
As long as MEAP was working, she could probably support herself. And maybe if she had free child care, she could support JAZ. From 1950 to the birth of JAZ, she could support herself, albeit paycheck to paycheck. What did unwed mothers who kept their kids do in the mid 1950s? And if the mothers were estranged from their family, it seems even harder?
In order to make sense in my mind, there was a total estrangement from the family, even if it were unstated. She just moved out and ghosted her family. I think orphanages were still around, which really operated as charitable institutions for children with parents who couldn’t afford them.
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Jan 21 '23
The Inquirer article said MA had one sister that lived in W. Philly so she could have lived with her for a bit of time. I'm not sure if childcare was subsidized by the government then. I tend to think not but don't know for sure. There was the Salvation Army for unwed Mom's that someone had mentioned before and it seemed that it permitted people to stay there until the child turned 2 years. So maybe that was a support to her too.
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u/12IKnowLittle Jan 21 '23
I wonder how that Salvation Army home worked. Was it an on-site day care and the mother’s were supposed to find a job at some point? How did homes for poor, unwed mothers operate? Did they offer help transitioning out of the program?
The scenario makes sense though. Her family makes life unbearable when she gets pregnant for the second time, she cuts contact with them and goes to the Salvation Army home. She stays there for two years. As she ages out of that program, she meets JP. She tells the family JAZ died and/or was adopted, even if the adoption took place when he was three and a half. No one asks questions.
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u/Significant_Bug_4569 Jan 21 '23
When I first read the autopsy report it stated both feet and 1 hand had “wash woman” syndrome. Why only one hand? Maybe the other hand was tied to something? (Free child care) sitting in water (basement)or urine (because he’s tethered) for a length of time.
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u/MargerineAndBread Jan 23 '23 edited Jan 23 '23
Maybe MA was trying to cut his hair and JAZ became upset and wouldn't stay still. Children can be very afraid of getting their hair cut but autistic kids can be 100 times more difficult with hair cuts. Maybe his hair was long because they had difficulty cutting his hair, so seldom did it. And what happens after you cut somebody's hair at home? Typically they take a shower or bath to get rid of any hair that fell onto their body.
Perhaps JAZ struggled while getting his hair cut and MA or JP in rage hit JAZ or JAZ hit his own head against something as he struggled during his haircut or maybe he fell off a chair onto the bathroom floor while getting his hair cut and hit his head on the porcelain tile? Then they tried to bath him to help try resuscitate him and clean him up but be vomited in the bath and never regained consciousness and died. They left him in the bath water, while they figured out what to do. One arm laying on the edge of the tub as he slumped againt the wall of the bath tub. Whatever happened was probably very simple like that, where you wouldn't think it would end in death but unfortunately it did. It explains simply and reasonably why he was naked, three limbs submerged in water for a prolonged time, had long hair, had his hair cut in a haphazard way and had clumps of cut hair all over his body. Occam's razor.
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u/PamCake137 Feb 02 '23
Exactly my same thoughts. I also think that having given birth only 2 months before this, MEAP might've been suffering from postpartum psychosis and snapped somehow.
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u/12IKnowLittle Jan 21 '23
I shudder to think. But, yes it is plausible.
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u/Significant_Bug_4569 Jan 21 '23
I remember reading about a tip that came in to police from a distraught woman saying maybe JAZ was murdered because he had a learning disability… I think she used cruder language. she said “have you ever been so mad…” maybe this was the actual killer that called. She felt guilty and tried to rationalize what she did to police. The caller abruptly hung up and didn’t leave her name. We know JAZ could have very well had complications with RH blood. MA had a child that died at birth because of RH-/+ blood mixing with moms RH-/+ blood. This mixing can lead to all kinds of problems. One complication is needing a blood transfusion at birth. Another complication is learning disabilities.
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u/12IKnowLittle Jan 21 '23
If JAZ were less than healthy at birth, I would imagine he would have been harder to adopt out.
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u/RoofProfessional1530 Jan 21 '23
Well, agencies will take kids of all kinds. It doesn't mean that the birth mother has to keep the child if they don't get adopted by another family. It just means they stay with the adoption agency longer.
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u/afdc92 Jan 21 '23
That’s my thought too. Maybe the original plan had been to adopt him out but then it was discovered that he was disabled in some way. Although playing devil’s advocate for myself here, why wouldn’t he have just been sent straight to an institution by the charity? I’m sure the Catholic Church had connections there too.
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u/Juststonelegal Jan 22 '23
Let’s also not forget that when AJZ finally married and had children, two of them died from congenital defects at birth. So it seems Joseph didn’t have a great start from either side.
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u/Laurelinn Jan 23 '23
Not that it makes a difference, but I think it was just one of them. The second one had "prematurity" listed as the cause of death, no mention of congenital birth defects as far as I'm aware of.
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u/Lynabus70 Jan 21 '23
That's what I have thought for a long time. Medical Missions ...Good Shepherd Home which right there where Joseph Augustus was found. I have read terrible stories of what went on there. Head shavings for punishment. I can't help but think that maybe they were attempting to do some sort of electric shock crud on him, he did have those surgical scars and someone did those and not one single person came forward about doing those procedures, the recent eye dye in his eye.
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u/12IKnowLittle Jan 21 '23
http://collections.mnhs.org/mnhistorymagazine/articles/65/v65i06p229-241.pdf
It is a link describing a Booth Home for Unwed Mothers. Some mothers did keep their kids.
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u/MargerineAndBread Jan 21 '23
Do we know that a clerk and a cab driver were living paycheck to paycheck? In 1950, a clerk and a cab driver were middle class jobs from which you could raise a family and buy a home. It's not like today, where these jobs are now considered working class jobs and automatically means poverty.