April 14, 1932: Lost in the Shuffle

On April 14, 1932, 21-year-old Isabelle Ferguson died of suspected abortion complications. Two physicians in the University of Oklahoma area, J. W. Eisiminger and Richard E. Thacker, were suspected in the case.

Though both doctors were suspected, only Thacker was charged with murder. Isabelle's widower, S. E. Ferguson, sued Thacker for $10,000. Mr. Ferguson held that Thacker, assisted by his wife, Ida, perpetrated the abortion in their office in the Terminal Building in Oklahoma City on March 25. Mr. Ferguson said that after the Thackers had injured Isabelle, they had taken her to their home and "refused her the right to go to a hospital when she became dangerously ill."

Isabelle left behind a six-month-old daughter.

Both Thackers fled the city and were sought by police.

Thacker and Eisiminger were not ordinary doctors who just did abortions on a few patients. They were abortionists, and quack abortionists at that. Singly or as a pair they were implicated in a string of deaths:

February 26, 1929: Marie Epperson
March 19, 1932: Geraldine Easley
April 3, 1932: Ethel Hestland
April 14, 1932: Isabelle Ferguson
April 15, 1932, Ruth Hall
c. April 19, 1932: Robbie Lou Thompson 
April 24, 1932: Virginia Lee Wyckoff (Eisiminger) and Lennis May Roach 
April 25, 1932: Nancy Joe Lee 

Geraldine Easley, age 19, died on March 19, 1932 in Oklahoma City after admitting to an abortion. Thacker and Eisiminger were both suspected, since they had been implicated in so many other abortion deaths. 

Thacker was sentenced to life in prison for Ruth Hall's death. His attorney announced an immediate motion for an appeal, on the grounds that Thacker's other abortions should not have been admitted as testimony.

Sources:

• "Dr. Thacker Defendant In $10,000 Damage Suit," Bartlesville Daily Enterprise, May 5, 1932
• "Mate of Dead Woman Sues Dr. Thacker," The Oklahoma News, May 5, 1932