A Picture That Sparked Questions
On August 5 1948 readers of The Vidette Messenger in Indiana opened their newspaper and saw a photograph that drew national attention. The image showed four small children sitting on the steps of a Chicago apartment building. Their mother Lucille Chalifoux sat above them with her face in her hand.
In front of them was a sign that read 4 children for sale. Many suspected that the scene had been posed for the camera. The sign had neat lettering and the posture of the mother looked arranged. Yet reporters soon confirmed that the children in the picture were real and that all of them were later given away to new families.
A Family Driven Into Poverty
Lucille and Ray Chalifoux had lived in Chicago after the Second World War. Ray worked as a coal truck driver, but lost his job. The family had very little money and faced eviction from their apartment. They already had four children named Lana, RaeAnn, Milton and Sue Ellen.
Lucille was also expecting a fifth child. During this time Ray was accused of a criminal act and left the city. Lucille remained alone with no income and no support. She began to arrange for others to take the children.
Two Dollars for Each Child
The first to leave were RaeAnn and Milton. They went to John and Ruth Zoeteman in Jasper County, Indiana. The couple paid two dollars for each child. RaeAnn later said that the money was used by her mother for bingo. On the Zoeteman farm the two children worked as field labor and slept in the barn.
They were struck and locked away at night. Reports from later years stated that RaeAnn suffered anxiety and nightmares. Milton struggled with anger as a teenager and was sent to a psychiatric hospital where he received a diagnosis of schizophrenia.
Lana was taken in by a family in the same neighborhood and adopted. Sue Ellen went to a family named Johnson. The fifth child Bedford was born in 1949. For a short time he remained with Lucille. In 1950 he went to Harry and Luella McDaniell in Indiana. His name was changed to David. He joined the United States Army when he grew older and served for twenty years.
Brothers and Sisters Reunited
In the years after 2000 RaeAnn, Milton and David learned that they had been living only a few miles apart in Indiana. They located Sue Ellen and made contact with her. Lana had died of cancer in 1998. People continued to argue about the origin of the photograph, yet records confirm that within two years of its publication every child in the picture had been separated from Lucille and raised in a different home.
On August 5 1948 The Vidette Messenger printed a photo of four children on the steps of a Chicago building.
Their mother Lucille Chalifoux hid her face.
A sign in front read 4 children for sale.
The scene looked staged but the real story was harsher…🧵👇 pic.twitter.com/Frh5weNSHv
— Fascinating True Stories (@FascinatingTrue) November 10, 2025