Henry Weber, a tanner who also kept a hotel in Schoharie County, New York, had been married to his 28-year-old wife Amelia for six years. He testified that she'd left home on May 5, ostensibly to visit friends in Brooklyn and do some shopping. He later received letters, written in German, from a Dr. Charles Cobel, summoning him to the city.
"I went to Dr. Cobel's house and asked him how my wife was," Henry related, "and he said she was dead, that I had come too late. I asked him how it happened that I should find my wife in his house. He said that she was inquiring for him, and that she had come to his house on account of being very sick."
"I asked if my wife had been to see her friends and he told me no. I asked him what was the cause of her death, and he told me she came with a heavy cold, that the cold struck to her lungs and then to her brain. He said that she got a little better, and that he had written to me to say that she could come back home next week."I asked him how it was she had got bad again. He said that she went out, that it rained all day, that she got wet through and came back, went to bed, and never stood up again. I asked him why he did not let me know that my wife was so bad, that I might come and have a conversation with her. He answered that she would not have him write to me to let me know she was so bad.
Cobel claimed that Amelia was an old acquaintance and had come to him on May 8 seeking treatment for influenza and pulmonary problems. However, Cobel claimed, Amelia subsequently went out in inclement weather and caught a cold, which caused the lung inflammation that led to her death.
An undertaker testified that Cobel, a 58-year-old German immigrant, had engaged him to perform a funeral for Amelia, and that he had collected her body from Cobel's garret. Cobel attributed Amelia's death to paralysis. The funeral was held and Amelia was buried in Greenwood Cemetery.
"[F]rom the privacy of the burial and other mysterious circumstances surrounding the case, the body, six days after interment, was ordered by the Coroner to be exhumed for medical examination."
The inquest findings included:
"Dr. Cobel received an application from Mrs. Weber, who had left home for that purpose with her husband's consent, on the 8th instant, to produce an abortion upon her person, he did so, and violent inflammation supervened, which baffled his skill. He then called Dr. Kertachmann, pretending that the lungs were the seat of disease, but it was to no purpose."
The autopsy revealed noting at all wrong with Amelia other than an abdominal infection caused by the abortion and bringing about her death.
Cobel was indicted for manslaughter in Amelia's death on November 30, 1861. On January 23, 1862 he was tried and found not guilty of manslaughter in the second degree, but guilty of the misdemeanor charge of using instruments on a pregnant woman with intent to cause abortion.
Cobel successfully appealed the misdemeanor conviction on the grounds that he couldn't simultaneously be guilty of performing the abortion yet not guilty of causing Amelia's death by performing the abortion. Cobel, a known abortionist, was also implicated in the deaths of Antoinette Fennor, Catharine DeBreuxal, and Emma Wolfer.
Sources:
- Sing Sing prison admission record, Oct. 26, 1865
- Untitled, New York Herald, May 30, 1858
- "The Late Death From Abortion," New York Tribune, May 31, 1858
- "Death by Abortion," New York Times, May 31, 1858
- "Death by Abortion," Brooklyn Eagle, May 31, 1858
- "Charge of Manslaughter Against a Physician," New York Herald, October 27, 1858
- "The Cobel Abortion Case," New York Times, October 27, 1858
- Sing Sing prison admission record, October 26, 1865
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