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Monday, July 24, 2023

July 24, 1931: Hotel Fire Uncovers Fatal Abortion

Carolina Hotel
On July 16, 1931, B. Marby Hart, a wealthy businessman staying at the Carolina Hotel in Raleigh, North Carolina, had a get-together of some sort in his room involving a number of young women. After his companions left in the early morning hours of the 17th, Hart evidently collapsed into his bed with a lit cigarette. When he awoke to find the bed on fire, he stumbled through the smoke into the bathroom rather than into the hallway. He fell into the bathtub, striking his head. After firefighters extinguished the flames, they found him dead of smoke inhalation.

One of the people evacuated from the hotel during the fire was 20-year-old Celia Olga Roberts of Creedmoor, North Carolina.

Brantwood Hospital
What happened to Celia over the next few days is unclear. She would most likely have been transported to a hospital near the hotel. By July 23, she was in Brantwood Hospital in Oxford under the care of Dr. W. N. Thomas. 

Celia's illness had nothing to do with the fire. She was dying of septicemia from a botched abortion. Dr. Thomas testified that Celia told him "a woman in Raleigh" had perpetrated the abortion. 

She died on July 24, leaving behind a widowed mother.

What Celia said on her deathbed and the investigation that followed are not revealed in any news coverage I've found of the case. The investigation must have been less than straightforward, because it took three months before the identified abortionist was arrested: Mrs. Sophie E. Layton, a homemaker who lived at 706 Sasser Street in Raleigh with her husband, John, a mechanic.

A Justice of the Peace, I. E. Harris, was arrested "on charges of advising and procuring the operation." He turned state's evidence and identified Layton as the abortionist. Harris's statements corroborated what Celia had said on her deathbed -- that Harris had arranged the abortions and taken her to the hotel, but that he was not the father of her baby. He confessed to paying Layton $14 for the fatal abortion after meeting with her to make the arrangements on July 11. He said that he had done so out of sympathy for Celia's plight.

Eugene Mangum, age 21, also of Granville County, identified Layton as the person who went into Celia's room the night the abortion reportedly had taken place. He also testified that he had visited Celia several times in that room while she was staying at the hotel. Mangum evidently also knew the purpose of the hotel stay because Harris, he said, told him that he'd found a woman in Raleigh to "do the work."

Layton's defense was that she had never seen Celia nor had she ever been at the Carolina Hotel. She brought forth witnesses who said that they were with her on the days the abortion had allegedly been arranged and perpetrated.

Layton was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to five years in prison. The jurors deliberated for five hours before finding her guilty and recommending mercy in sentencing. Layton appealed but her conviction was upheld.

She didn't stay incarcerated long. She was paroled in December of 1934 after serving roughly two years of her sentence.

Watch "Celia's Fatal Journey" on YouTube.

Sources:

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