Word: melton
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...Melton will admit that a lot of people live here; he would like you to believe they lived better than the dog. His sister Maxine rented the apartment less than a year ago. Soon after, a fire burned another sister and her children out of their home. More misfortunes followed, and eventually the two- bedroom apartment with its broken windows housed six women, 20 children, Melton and at least one other man. The love he refers to is familial: "I consider it to be a good idea for us all to be together in these times of struggling." He points...
...what does Melton regard as his own calling? He smiles, knowing his credibility will drop. "I'm a con man," he says...
...away from their parents." Others agreed about the nightmare part. One expert called it the biggest single instance of child neglect in Chicago's past quarter-century. Seven adults were arrested: six for child negligence, a misdemeanor, and one for cruelty, a felony. Neighbors seemed to agree that Maxine Melton meant well and kept faith as the family's de facto matriarch. But not all her housemates were as strong: a sixth woman was out at the time of the raid because she was giving birth; the child was born with a coke addiction...
...depressing as life at 219 North Keystone was, equally alarming was the response from officials who sounded no less hapless than Melton. "You wonder first of all about their parents," said Mayor Richard Daley, who apparently had no trouble casting the first stone. "But how about their neighbors . . . Where are they? Why didn't they come forward?" the Illinois department of children and family services (dcfs) confirmed that it had received complaints on behalf of the children at 219 three times starting on Nov. 20 but had allowed its field workers to be turned away at the door...
Back at 219, Johnny Melton offers a cordial handshake of goodbye. As a reporter picks her way out through the icy backyard, something catches her eye. It is a black doll, lying facedown, abandoned in the snow...