Alice Bowlsby: The Trunk Murder Victim

A striking contrast to modern attitude toward abortion deaths is the story of Alice Bowlsby -- the Trunk Murder Victim, whose pitiful corpse was found 138 years ago today.

In contrast to most criminal abortion deaths, where I was lucky if I could find a name and an approximate date of death, I found an embarrassment of riches when researching Alice's death, including pictures of Alice, the abortionist, and the discovery of her body. Evidently Alice was the Natalee Holloway of her day -- the pretty, young, white, blonde, blue-eyed crime victim whose story was the relentless lead in every media outlet. Her death roused such outrage that abortion laws were toughened all over the country -- including, ironically, a change in New York law that the abortionist's attorney cleverly used to get his conviction overturned on a technicality, freeing him one year into his seven-year sentence.

With our propensity for naming legislation after the victim whose tragic tale prompted their passage, most of the abortion laws that were struck down by Roe vs. Wade could be called "Alice's Law". And by striking them down, the Supreme Court abolished not only Alice's Laws, but any public outrage over abortion butchery. Only prolifers are outraged anymore. The Guardians of Women's Lives no longer jeer at the abortionist who kills his patient. They no longer demand his head on a pike and cry out in solidarity with his victim. They ignore the dead woman and rally to the defense of the man who killed her.

How times have changed!