Saturday, March 30, 2024

March 30 and 31, 1930: One Doctor, Two Days, Two Deaths

Yearbook photo of a smiling young white woman with bobbed hair, wearing a print dress
Gladys Anderson
During an inquest into the March 30, 1930 death of Gladys Anderson, an 18-year-old freshman at the University of Illinois, word came that Cleo Hinton, a 24-year-old stenographer from Champaign, Illinois, had also died from a botched abortion. Both deaths were linked to Dr. Thomas Eade.

Cleo died in a Champaign hospital on March 31 due to peritonitis caused by an abortion. Eade was charged with murder in her death but was acquitted. Nevertheless the medical board was not satisfied and investigated to see if the evidence of his complicity was enough to revoke his license. 

Eade told the state medical board that when Cleo had come to him on March 23, he believed that she was suffering from intestinal influenza which could not have been caused by an abortion.


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