This is a serial killer, a true crime podcast.

I'm Anne McElheney, an investigative journalist.

This is the story of an almost 40 year killing spree by a medical doctor and how he was allowed to get away with it.

Episode 4, what happened to the babies? In the last episode we looked at the death of Kowna Manger at the hands of Dr. Kermot

Gosnell. But of course the investigators also had witnesses saying that Gosnell didn't just kill and mutilate adults.

The grand jury and law enforcement was also investigating him

for illegal late-term abortions and the deaths of hundreds of babies born alive and allegedly

killed at his clinic. Be warned, the following details can be distressing and are not suitable for all years.

To get the case to court, the work fell to the team of two assistant district attorneys,

Joanne Pescetore and Christine Wexler.

We had lots by way of testimony and evidence in the form of firsthand observations from people

who were there that said this baby was born alive and this baby cried

and this baby kicked and he took scissors and plunged them into the neck of that baby and snipped the cord and you know discarded it.

And it's like how to prove what's going on.

It was not going to be easy to prove criminality at Gosnell's clinic. They were dealing

with witnesses who had also been part of the criminality. This made them

unreliable witnesses who could be challenged in court.

And in trying to prove murder, prosecutors were confronted with the bodies of babies who it was difficult to prove had ever lived.

Christine was also trying to make sense of chaotic and missing files

that had been compiled by barely literate and unqualified staff. I've seen them and

the files are flimsy records often consisting of just a few badly filled in forms.

Christine started by tackling this paper trail.

...