Results: 4 Children for Sale (Part 4 of 6)
This photo was first was published in 1948, with the caption, “A big ‘For Sale’ sign in a Chicago yard mutely tells the tragic story of Mr. and Mrs. Ray Chalifoux, who face eviction from their apartment. With no place to turn, the jobless coal truck driver and his wife decide to sell their four children. Mrs. Lucille Chalifoux turns her head from camera above while her children stare wonderingly. On the top step are Lana, 6, and Rae, 5. Below are Milton, 4, and Sue Ellen, 2.” Actually, Lucille and the kids had been abandoned by her husband who didn't return because of his criminal record. Daughter RaeAnn claimed she was sold so her mother could get money to play Bingo, and because the man Lucille was dating at the time didn't want to have anything to do with children.
1.
1.
Milton, 4, (bottom left in the photo), was sold with his sister RaeAnn to an abusive farming couple who had the children work the fields from the age of 5. His foster father beat him his first day on the farm, telling him, "If you're afraid, you'll listen to me". Told they were "slaves", the children spent a lot of time tied up in the barn, where they fought off rats with a pocket knife. Eventually, a case worker placed Milton in the care of an aunt and uncle. Do you think Lucille, the birth mother, did an adequate job of screening potential parents?
Yes
5%
•
55 votes
No
58%
•
594 votes
N/A
37%
•
383 votes
2.
2.
After an altercation with police, a judge gave teenage Milton the choice of going to a reformatory or a mental hospital. At the hospital he was diagnosed with schizophrenia and said to have fits of rage. Do you think it was odd that a judge allowed him to choose his destination? (Pictured is Milton on the right with his younger brother.)
Yes
39%
•
407 votes
No
22%
•
225 votes
N/A
39%
•
400 votes
3.
3.
Milton stayed with his birth mother for a month when he was 26. Lucille's second husband had a fight with Milton. After the police arrested her spouse, she threw her son out. Milton spent much of his life, marrying and divorcing several times, in Arizona, where he died in 2015. Have you ever been thrown out by a parent?
Yes
6%
•
62 votes
Yes, but only temporarily.
4%
•
45 votes
I never lived with a parent.
1%
•
15 votes
No
60%
•
618 votes
N/A
28%
•
292 votes
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