May 4, 1960: Dead After Abortion by Nursing Home Employee

On May 11, 1960, an all-black coroner's jury stated: "Daisy Mae Bates* came to her death as the result of illegal treatment administered by Mozelle Peggy Jean Jordan, causing massive hemorrhage and shock." They recommended that she be held over for grand jury action in the abortion death.  Both Jordan and Bates were also black.

Daisy, age 29, had died from hemorrhage in her home at 4707 Jones Street, Columbia, SC on Wednesday, May 4 after an abortion perpetrated on May 2. I've been unable to determine if her husband, Sidney, had known about the abortion.

Minnie Scott, who lived on Katy Street, said that Daisy had used her phone book to look up the phone number of Jordan, though she didn't say why. Jordan was described by The (Columbia, S.C.) State as "an employee at a local Negro nursing home." Thus she might have had some medical training and/or access to medical equipment or medicines.

Ester Lawrence, who had known Daisy for a short time, said that on May 3 Daisy had told her that she was three months pregnant and that she felt ill. On two occasions, Ester admitted, she had taken Daisy to Mozelle Jordan's home at 5973 Farrow Rd, Columbia, SC. The first time, Jordan had given Daisy a pill and a prescription. On the second visit Jordan had come out to Ester's car and told Daisy to say that if she went to the hospital she should say that she'd had a miscarriage.

Ester said that Daisy had paid Jordan $25 for the abortion.

Jordan, age 41, originally admitted that she had seen Daisy but denied that she had ever laid hands on her. She later pleaded guilty to having performed the abortion on May 2. She was sentenced to five years but it was suspended to 18 months and three years of probation.

*Daisy's middle name is given as Mae in all news coverage but is listed as Lee on her death certificate.

• Death certificate No. 60 008117
• "Doubleheader Inquest Set For Wednesday," The (Columbia, S.C.) State, May 10, 1960
• "Inquest Holds Woman After Abortion Case," The (Columbia, S.C.) State, May 12, 1960
• “Two Abortion Indictments Are Slated,” The (Columbia, S.C.) State, June 8, 1960
• "Woman Pleads Guilty Here in Abortion Death," The (Columbia, S.C.) State, September 2, 1960

May 1, 1992: Happy Birthday, Brandon

 John Roe 263 performed an abortion on "Christine" on December 20, 1991. He eyeballed the tissue himself and concluded that he'd gotten a single entire fetus and sent Christine home. When she came for a follow-up visit on January 2, 1992, Roe did not notice that Christine was still pregnant, possibly with a twin that Roe had missed. It wasn't until Christine went to a different doctor for a kidney check-up on April 6 that she learned that she was still pregnant. She decided to keep her baby. Doctors detected fetal distress on May 1, so infant Brandon was delivered by C-section on May 1 at approximately 29 weeks of gestation. Brandon suffered brain damage and was expected to require around-the-clock hospital care for the rest of his life. (Maryland Health Claims Arbitration Board Claim No. HCA-93-154)

Murder Over an Abortion Ring

Daniel Moriarity, a policeman suspended from the state's attorney's staff, was a "confessed fixer for an abortion ring." On April 29, 1941, he shot 24-year-old Ada Jane "Jennie" Martin dead in her home at 4367 Lake Park Avenue in Chicago. Moriarity admitted to having shot Jennie, indicating that it was a case of mistaken identity. He had intended to shoot her mother, Ada Martin, who was under indictment as head of an abortion ring. Moriarity said he feared that Mrs. Martin would expose his illegal activities.

Source: "Open Hearings on 3 Abortion Slaying Cases," Chicago Daily Tribune, July 10, 1941

April 12, 1989: Lena's Baby Born

 "Lena" had an abortion performed February 28, 1989 by John Roe 57, at what she had been told was two weeks into her pregnancy, which is odd since at that time pregnancy tests could not detect a pregnancy that early -- when the embryo had only just implanted. When Lena returned for her follow-up visit, staff told her that the abortion had been successful. On April 12, Lena went to the hospital due to severe abdominal pain. Doctors told her that she was five months pregnant. She gave birth to a baby boy on July 10. Sadly, the child died two days later due to respiratory problems caused by the abortion attempt. (Ector County Texas District Court Case No. C-88-212)

April 9, 1935: Newlywed Joins Ranks of Dr. Brewer's Dead

Dr. Guy E. Brewer

On June 7, 1935, Dr. Guy E. Brewer pleaded guilty to six counts of manslaughter for the deaths of six women who died from complications of abortions he had perpetrated. He was sentenced to serve six consecutive four-year terms. He spent his incarceration working in the prison hospital. 

One of those young women was Wanda Lee Gray, age 20, who died April 9, 1935 at the home of her parents, Lewis and Effie May Wickline, in Enid, Oklahoma. She left behind her husband, Robert George Gray, two brothers, and two sisters. She was a 1933 graduate of Enid High School. She and Robert were newlyweds, having only married the 30th of the previous July. They had honeymooned in Chicago to visit the World's Fair, traveled in Michigan and Minnesota, then returned to set up house on a farm southwest of Kremlin, Oklahoma.

Wanda wasn't the first death attributed to Brewer's abortion activities. The first was of 21-year-old Myrtle Helen Rose, of Ponca City, Oklahoma, who died on December 23, 1931. Ruby Ford,  a 26-year-old homemaker, died April 1, 1934 after an abortion perpetrated by Brewer. Hermoine Fowler, a 20-year-old coed, died June 27, 1934. 

Wanda had not even been buried yet when an abortion at Brewer's hands ended the life of Doris Jones, a 20-year-old mother of two, who died April 11, 1935. Elizabeth Shaw, 23, of Roxanna also died in 1935. I have yet to determine if Elizabeth died before or after Wanda.

Brewer had graduated from the University of Louisville in 1906 and had been practicing medicine in Garber for 21 of the 29 years he had been a physician. He supported young men during their university studies, maintaining houses for them to live in. Those he had educated over the years rushed immediately to his defense. Though Brewer had spent many long years helping boys and young men, his impact on women's lives was evidently lightning-fast.

Brewer pleaded guilty to second-degree manslaughter on each case, ostensibly to avoid putting those who cared about him through the embarrassment of a public trial on such distasteful charges. One particular statement by Brewer is very telling:

"I could not stand to have my boys brought into this case and I would not betray the trust so many people have placed in me by having them harassed, and in some instances their lives ruined by the notoriety a trial would bring to them."

This implies that a lot of those abortions were done at the behest of Brewer's "boys," who would themselves face serious charges for arranging the fatal abortions on women they had impregnated. 

Those "boys" offered support to Brewer from all corners of the globe, where they had work they attributed to Brewer's support in getting their educations.

The county attorney who arranged the plea, Holbird, didn't seem to think that Brewer had done much harm. "In accepting Dr. Brewer's plea of guilty in these abortion deaths I do so with the feeling that the law has collected its debt. The matter of the penalty assessed is unimportant. The thing that counts is that these crimes have been exposed to the world, and the people can now realize the serious danger and hazard to life in this kind of operation." 

Thus came Brewer's  six four-year sentences, to run concurrently, for all six abortion deaths. The likely reason that he got such a light sentence was his extreme popularity for his benevolence in putting local young men through college. So beloved was Brewer that one victim's husband was fired in retaliation for reporting his wife's death to the police.

Governor E. W. Marland, however, was not exactly delighted with the wrist-slap administered by local officials. "This is the worst case I ever heard of," the governor said, "He was, in my opinion, guilty of mortal turpitude of character almost as serious as that resulting in the death of these women." Noting that Brewer would be eligible for parole after serving only 28 months, the governor urged an investigation which he was certain would uncover more crimes so that additional charges could be brought so that Brewer would end up serving a sentence commensurate with the harm he had done. 

In the end, Brewer's supporters triumphed. The young men prospered, the young women lay dead in their graves.

Watch One of Six Victims on YouTube.

Source:

• "Wickline-Gray Vows Monday," Enid (OK) Morning News, July 31, 1934
• "Graduate of Enid High School Dies," Enid (OK) Daily Eagle, April 10, 1935
• "Murder Charges Multiply On Philanthropic Doctor," Miami (OK) Daily News-Record, May 5, 1935
• "Fourth Murder Charge Filed Against Physician," Muskogee )OK) Daily Phoenix, May 10, 1945
• "Two More Murder Charges Are Filed Against Physician," Bristow (OK) Daily Record, June 6, 1935
• "Two New Deaths Laid to Garber's 'Sweet Grouch'," Muskogee Times-Democrat, June 6, 1935
• "Link Doctor in 2 New Deaths," Oklahoma News, June 6, 1935
• "Dr. Brewer Accused of Death of Logan Woman," (Guthrie, OK) Leader, June 7, 1935
• "Dr. Brewer Calm To New Charges," Miami (OK) News-Record, June 7, 1935
• "Dr. Brewer Gets Four Years on Plea of Guilty," Okmulgee (OK) Daily Times, June 8, 1935
• "Garber Doctor Given Four Year Sentence For Abortion Deaths," Muskogee Daily Phoenix, June 8, 1035
• "Marland Hints More Charges Against Doctor," The Oklahoma News, June 9, 1935
• "Mild-Mannered County Doctor Pleads Guilty To Six Charges of Manslaughter and Gets 4 Years," Nowata (OK) Daily Star, June 9, 1935

April 7, 1896: A Cry in the Night

 On the evening of Monday, April 6, 1896, Tillie Karcher heard moaning in the flat of seamstress Millie Meyers, just upstairs of her at 415 Bushwick Avenue in Brooklyn. She listened again and heard a young female voice crying out, "Oh, let me go home to my mama!"

Alarmed, Mrs. Karchner sought out a policeman on his rounds, who went to the apartment and found a young woman there, ailing and alone. The girl gave her name as Mrs. Emily Scott and said that her husband, Ollie Scott, was a fireman on a Fulton ferry.

The policeman found prescription bottles in the room, so he copied the information from them and went to the pharmacy that had prepared them. The pharmacist said that the medicines were common ones used in treating fevers.

The policeman considered all these goings-on to be fishy, so he reported the situation to the precinct captain, who began an investigation to identify and round up everybody involved in the young woman's suspicious illness.

Around 5:30 on Tuesday afternoon, April 7, the young woman said that she was going to die soon, told the police that her real name was Emily Binney and gave them her address on Rutledge Street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

Emily's turn for the worse sent the police rushing for the coroner, leaving the ailing girl in the care of Minnie Meyer. The coroner arrived to find that Miss Meyer had abandoned Emily, leaving her to die alone in the intervening half hour.

Meyer was eventually apprehended and admitted that she'd helped 20-year-old Emily to seek out the abortion services of 33-year-old midwife Mary Schott and had herself been engaged to look after the patient.

A police officer went to the Fulton ferry house and managed to identify "Ollie Scott" as Arthur Robbins, who was arrested when he showed up at Meyer's flat to look for Emily at 10:00 that evening.

While the suspects were being questioned, Minnie said that Emily's baby had been born alive on March 21. Upon hearing that, Robbins burst into tears and told police that about four hours after the child's birth he had wrapped the baby in newspapers weighted down with a piece of iron and thrown it out a porthole in the ferry. He couldn't say if the baby had still been alive when it was tossed into the river.

Arthur Robbins then admitted that he had gone with Emily and Minnie to arrange for Mrs. Schott to perform an abortion.

Minnie Meyer was found guilty of manslaughter. I've been unable to determine the outcome of the case against the midwife.

Watch A Cry in the Night on YouTube.

Sources:

• “Criminal Malpractice,” undated clipping from North Towanda Evening News
• “Criminal Malpractice,” Courtland Standard, Apr.9, 1896
• “Four Arrests,” Bay City Times, Apr. 8, 1896
• “Four Under Arrest,” The New York Herald, Apr. 9, 1896
• "Caused a Rich Girl's Death," Salem (OHO Daily News, April 9, 1896
• “Mrs. Meyer Found Guilty,” New York Herald Tribune, Oct. 16, 1896
• “Died Among Strangers,” New York Herald, Apr. 8, 1896
• “A School Girl’s Fate,” York (PA) Semi-Weekly Gazette, Apr. 11, 1896
• “Robbins Goes Free,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Nov. 27, 1896

April 7, 1940: Self-Induced in Wyoming

According to her death certificate, Inez Stella Smead Harpham, wife of George Harphan, lived in Rowlins, Carbon County, Wyoming and worked as a housekeeper. The daughter of Marion and Nancy Driscal Smead, she was born in Lyons, Colorado in 1906.

On April 4, 1940 she was admitted to Carbon County Memorial Hospital. She was treated there by Dr. Myron L. Crandall until her death shortly after midnight the morning of April 7.

Her death was attributed to self-induced abortion with infection. She had been about 6 weeks pregnant. 

April 6, 1906: Malpractice Prompts Midwife's Suicide Attempt

 SUMMARY: On April 6, 1906, 22-year-old homemaker Bessie Braun died in Chicago from an abortion perpetrated by midwife Julia Gibson.

Michael Reese Hospital

The Wards at Michael Reese Hospital

Were there really wards full of women dying from botched septic abortions in the days before legalization? Dr. Julius Lackner of Michael Reese Hospital in Chicago reflected on what he saw there from 1900 to 1914. Five hundred women were treated at this charity hospital for septic abortions — both criminal abortions and miscarriages — during those fifteen years. Of those 500 women, there were only four deaths.

I have verified that two of them were indeed criminal abortion patients: Lizzie Orenstein and Bessie Braun.

Bessie's Death

Bessie, a 22-year-old homemaker, mother of two, and immigrant from Austria, died at Michael Reese on April 6, 1906. Both verbally and in writing, Bessie named midwife Julia Gibson as the person who had perpetrated the abortion, for a $5 fee, on March 20. It was hardly surprising that Bessie’s abortion had been perpetrated by somebody with medical training, since the majority of Chicago abortions in that era were done by either doctors or midwives, who ran thinly veiled advertisements in the newspapers.

Bessie’s husband, Abraham, testified at the inquest. He said that he had not known anything about an abortion until Bessie became seriously ill on Sunday, though she remained at home until Thursday, when she finally was hospitalized.

He also said that prior to her death, Bessie told him that she had written the guilty midwife’s name and address on a piece of paper which was in the bed at their home. Abraham found the paper and turned it over to authorities during the inquest.

Attempted Suicide

Gibson, who had been at Bessie’s bedside during the declaration, was being escorted out of the hospital by police when she asked to go to the women’s dressing room in the hospital basement. She was permitted to go in while a police officer stood guard outside the door.

The officer soon heard a shot, then forced the door and found Gibson lying on the floor suffering from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the chest. She was admitted to the hospital for treatment and was kept both under arrest and under suicide watch. As she lay near death, Gibson confessed her guilt. She later recovered.

Not Her First Dead Patient

Gibson had previously been indicted for the November, 1905 abortion death of 18-year-old Dorothy Spuhr, who had died at County Hospital.

Watch Midwife Attempts Suicide, Admits Guilt on YouTube.

Sources:

• Homicide in Chicago Interactive Database
• Death certificate
• “Seeks Death to Escape the Law,” Chicago Tribune, Apr. 7, 1906
• “Midwife is Held; Murder Charged,” Chicago Tribune, Apr. 8, 1906
• “Wife Dead; Midwife Dying,” Chicago Inter Ocean, Apr. 8, 1906
• “Attempt at Suicide Fails,” Chicago Inter-Ocean, Apr. 9, 1906

Happy Birthday, Gianna Jessen!

Gianna Jessen