The Fatal Work of Three Doctors and a Midwife

Edith McIntyre, age 26, died April 1, 1904 at Dr. Charles Eastman's sanitarium in Maine from a botched abortion. Eastman quietly shipped Edith's body home for burial, but suspicions were raised and she was exhumed for the autopsy that confirmed her cause of death. He was convicted of manslaughter.

On April 1, 1911, 23-year-old Chicago homemaker Annie Murphy died from an abortion perpetrated by a midwife (or possibly obstetrician) named Carolina Adams. Adams was held by the Coroner's Jury but the case never went to trial

On March 29, 1921, Dr. Simeon B. Minden performed an abortion in his office on 32-year-old Catherine Riga. Catherine died three days later at Lincoln Hospital. It took only two days for his trial, which ended in a conviction. Minden collapsed upon hearing the verdict. A New York Times note card on Ancestry.com indicates that Minden was granted a new trial on May 18, 1922, and was pardoned by the governor after serving one year and four months of a 2.5 to 10-year sentence on December 12, 1924.

Dr. Guy Brewer

Ruby Ford is the third of six women whose abortion deaths were attributed to Dr. Guy E. Brewer, a beloved philanthropist in the small town of Graber, Oklahoma. Ruby, a homemaker, died on April 1, 1934, 11 days after an abortion committed on March 20 "at the combination bachelor dwelling and office of Dr. Brewer in Garber." Ruby, a resident of Ponca City, Oklahoma, was married to Vernon Ford. She was about 27 years old. The other victims were Mrs. Wanda Lee Gray, 20, of Enid; Mrs. Myrtle Rose, 21, of Ponca City; Mrs. Elizabeth Shaw, 23, of Roxanna, and Doris Jones. Brewer was sentenced to six four-year sentences, to run concurrently, for the six abortion deaths.