Innocence Lost: The Buried Babes of Eastern Kentucky

By Joe Clark

Innocence Lost: The Buried Babes of Eastern Kentucky

Between 1915 and 1936, three child murders shattered the quiet hollers of Eastern Kentucky-cases that shocked their communities and then faded from national memory.

In 1915, seventeen-year-old Stella Kinney was murdered by her uncle, a crime that exposed the dangers hidden inside trusted kin. In 1927, three-year-old Mary Magdalene Pitts was killed by her father and his housekeeper, a case that tested the limits of local law and conscience. And in 1936, four-year-old Mildred Sparks was murdered by her father and step-mother, a tragedy that still haunts Carter County lore.

Drawing on newspaper archives, court records, genealogical research, and oral histories, Joe Clark reconstructs each case with precision and care-following the investigations, the courtrooms, the verdicts, and the public outcry, while honoring the brief lives at their center. Innocence Lost is not sensational true crime; it is a meticulously documented remembrance of three children and a stark portrait of early twentieth-century Appalachian justice, poverty, faith, and silence.

For readers of Appalachian history and narrative true crime, this book restores names, dates, and hard truths to the record-and refuses to let these little ones be forgotten.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0FNWXRXCW
• ISBN13: 9798262409198
• Release Date: August 2025
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 92 Pages
• Weight: 0.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.2" x 6.0" x 9.0"