Friday, May 05, 2023

May 5, 1938: Freed to Kill

The Abortionist’s Plea

On May 5, 1938, Mrs. Genevieve Horton, a 38-year-old practical nurse, was being tried in an abortion case in Westchester County, New York. Breaking down, she changed her plea to guilty, admitting that she had performed the abortion on an unmarried young woman from Yonkers, charging her $25. Weeping, Horton asked the judge to grant her time before sentencing to arrange care for her children. The judge granted her request, releasing her on $1,500 bail pending sentencing.

Back to her Grisly Work

At about 10:30 that very evening, Joseph LaRosa arrived at his home on Waverly Place in Yonkers, NY. He found his wife, 30-year-old Asunta, in the kitchen with Horton. His wife suggested that he go to bed since he had to go to work early in the morning. Joseph went into the living room and settled down on the sofa to sleep.

About ten minutes later, Joseph later told police, Horton ran into the living room, calling his name. He went to the kitchen and found his wife lying unconscious on a blanket on the kitchen table. Horton started to run out of the house and Joseph tried to grab her to stop her, but she got away, carrying a rubber tube in her hand but leaving behind her purse.

An ambulance crew arrived and declared Asunta dead on the scene.

Joseph was left widowed to care for three children, ages 10, 8, and 2.

Horton Quickly Arrested

Police arrested Horton in her home at 6:30 the following morning. Her children, 17-year-old John Horton, and 22-year-old Annette Fitzgerald were held as material witnesses, along with a 36-year-old electrician named Neal Vetrana.

I haven't been able to determine if she had young children at home who really did need to have care arranged or if John and Annette, certainly able to make arrangements for themselves as siblings at that age, were the children Horton had been freed to see after.

Horton admitted to performing the abortion, and even signed a statement confessing to the crime, but said that she'd only performed it after Asunta kept pleading for her to do it.

Nurse Horton pleaded guilty to manslaughter in Asunta's death. On October 21, 1938, she was sentenced to 10 to 20 years in prison. She collapsed upon hearing the sentence and had to be caught and revived by courtroom employees. Horton was sentenced to an additional one to two years on the previous abortion case. 

Releasing Abortionists = Repeat Tragedy

Genevieve Horton’s evident inability to stop perpetrating abortions after being released by the judicial system is hardly unique. These repeat offenders have cost women their lives.

  • A poor-quality picture of a middle-aged white woman wearing a sailor-style dark hat and blouse. She has small facial features and is wearing small wire-rimmed eyeglasses.
    Dr. Lucy Hagenow
    Over a period stretching from 1888 to 1926, Dr. Lucy Hagenow was repeatedly released, usually while pending new trials or prior to completing prison sentences, enabling her to have a total of 18 women’s abortion deaths laid on her doorstep.

  • In 1929, while out on bail pending a new trial for the abortion death of Loretta Enders, Dr. Amante Rongetti perpetrated a fatal abortion on Elizabeth Palumbo.

  • In 1942, Dr. Joseph Nisonoff was out on bail pending trial for abortion charges when he perpetrated a fatal abortion on Madlyon McGeehan.

  • Black and white headshot of a middle-aged white man with brushed-back dark hair
    Dr. Jesse Ketchum
    In 1970, criminal abortionist Dr. Jesse Ketchum was released in Michigan. He headed straight to New York, which had just legalized outpatient abortion on demand, and in a six-month period he perpetrated lethal abortions on Margaret Louise Smith and Carole Schaner.

  • In 1984, while out on bail pending a new trial for strangling a live-born infant after an abortion, Dr. Raymond Showery performed a fatal abortion on Mickey Apodaca.

Sources:

at 1:00 AM

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