RealChoice: July 7, 1941: Death at the Doctor's Office

Sunday, July 07, 2024

July 7, 1941: Death at the Doctor's Office

Preparing for Her Final Day

On the morning of July 7, 1941, 27-year-old Emma Laisure awoke as usual and prepared breakfast for her taxi-driver husband, Earl, and their two daughters, four-year-old Patsy and 6-year-old Betty.

At around 3:30 pm, Emma went to the office of 53-year-old Dr. Nathaniel H. Schaffner in Chicago. She was accompanied by Earl and little Patsy.

This was her third visit.

The First Visit

She and Earl had first gone to Schaffner's office on June 27 after getting the doctor's name and address provided by Earl's co-worker Joseph Lamping when Earl had asked for help finding an abortionist. (Another co-worker, William Garnet, would later testify that he had witnessed the exchange between Earl and Joseph. Lamping would later assert that he had only been providing the name of a maternity doctor who was fair and reasonable.)

During the first visit, Earl said, Dr. Schaffner had examined Emma, verified that she was pregnant, and quoted a fee of $65 (roughly $1,300 in 2022) for an abortion. Earl said that he and Schaffner had dickered the price down to $40.

It's unclear when the money changed hands.

The Second Visit

Emma went to Schaffner's office alone the second time on July 2. According to Schaffner, he had merely warned Emma not to go through with a planned abortion.

The Fatal Day

When the Laisures arrived on July 7, Earl said, Schaffner asked Emma if she was ready and she replied, "Yes." Schaffner then asked Earl for permission "to go ahead with this." Earl said no, he didn't want the abortion performed but Emma was insisting.

Earl waited in the outer office with the little girl while Schaffner brought Emma into the inner office. Dr. Schaffner positioned Emma on an exam table with her feet in stirrups.

Something Went Wrong

About five minutes later, Earl said that he heard Emma cry out "I thought you said this wasn't going to hurt!" Earl said he heard Schaffner's voice but couldn't make out what he was saying. Emma then called out, "I can't breathe! I can't breathe!

Earl rushed into the room to find Schaffner at the foot of the table, removing one of Emma's feet from the stirrup. Emma tried to sit up but collapsed. Schaffner half-carried, half-dragged Emma from the exam room into another room and lay her on a couch.

Earl said that Emma's color was pasty. Dr. Schaffner injected something into Emma's arm and listened to her chest with a stethoscope. lifting Emma from the operating table to place her on a couch. Schaffner administered an injection and attempted artificial respiration, but to no avail. Earl told police that Emma died "practically in my arms."

To compound the tragedy, Emma died on the couple's seventh wedding anniversary.

"Don't Get Excited."

Earl said that Schaffner told him, "Now don't get excited. I will take care of everything. I will pay for all the funeral aggangements and everything else. Just be quiet. Don't tell anybody about it. My career is at stake."

Schaffner, Earl said, then went into the exam room and came out with an instrument in his hand. It was chrome metal, about 13 inches long, with a handle on one end and a tubular extension with a little pea-sized bulb at the end. "I don't know why she should die," Earl said Schaffner told him. "This is all I used on her."

Earl filled out a blue paper at Dr. Schaffner's request then took his daughter home.

Meanwhile Schaffner put Emma back on the exam table and closed the door. He left her body there while he continued to treat other patients in his practice until about 8:30 pm.

Instructions to the Family

After treating his last patient of the day, Schaffner went to the Laisure home and spoke to Earl and his sister-in-law, Theresa Gross. According to Theresa and Earl, Schaffner gave the grieving husband a card with a funeral director's name on it, telling him, "This is a friend of mine. He will take care of the arrangements." Schaffner offered $500 to cover the costs. He explained that the undertaker would not come to his office to collect Emma's body, so he would bring the body to the Laisure home between 1:00 and 3:00 in the morning.

"We will call her death heart trouble and mark that on the death certificate," he said, admonishing Emma's widower and sister not to go to the police. "My reputation is at stake. I will have to commit suicide if you go to the police."

Theresa said she had asked Schaffner what he had done to her sister and he'd replied, "All I did was scrape her a little bit."

He then returned to his office and wrapped Emma's body in a gray blanket. "I got the body downstairs myself. Rigor mortis had set in; the body was almost like a board. I lifted it all the way down and rested it on my knees as I was advancing towards the street."

What Happened Next?

What happened next is unclear. Some sources indicate that Dr. Schaffner dropped Emma's body off at the Laisure home shortly after midnight. However, court documents indicate that the next time Earl saw Schaffner was about 1:15 am in front of his home. He and his father-in-law, John Dietrich, were seated outside in a car when Schaffner came to the window and rebuked John for calling the police. "Earl and I have an arrangement. I knew she was going to die before I worked on her."

Schaffner was arrested at about 2:30 am on July 8, in an alley behind his sister's home. He at first insisted that he was not Dr. Schaffner but was somebody named Phillips. He was identified as Nathaniel Schaffner by Emma's brother-in-law, Herbert Gross.

The Cause of Death

A post-mortem examination confirmed that Emma had died from an abortion that had been initiated but not completed. Her three-and-a-half-month unborn son was still in her uterus. Chemical analysis of the fluid in Emma's uterus showed that it contained some ordinary soaps and cresols. There was hemorrhage in the uterine wall. There was no damage to the vagina or cervix, which Dr. Samuel Levinson, chief pathologist to the Cook County Coroner, said indicated that the toxic materials had been deposited directly in the uterus with some form of instrument.

Emma had been healthy, with no injuries or ailments that could account for her death. Dr. Levinson concluded that Emma had died from shock caused by the chemicals.

Not His First Brush With the Law

Dr. Schaffner had previously been in big trouble with the law. He had served terms in Leavenworth federal prison on narcotics convictions -- 19 months starting in 1918 and three years beginning January of 1933. Schaffner's medical license had been revoked when he was arrested for the narcotics charges, but after he served his sentences he successfully petitioned to get his license back. It was granted in March of 1935.

It was undisputable that Schaffner had broken laws. He had failed to report Emma's death and had given police a false name when they arrested him.

Schaffner faced murder charges and a possible death sentence. A jury of three women and nine men heard the case.

The Trial

Schaffner insisted during his trial that he had indeed examined Emma and confirmed her pregnancy. He said that though Earl had offered him $40 to perpetrate the abortion, he had refused on the grounds that it was too risky due to advanced state of pregnancy. "I am sorry," Schaffner said he'd told Earl, "I cannot accept that kind of money for that kind of work. He asserted that Emma had been weak and barely ambulatory when she and Earl had arrived at his office. He said that she was pale, her breathing was rapid and shallow, and she complained of radiating pelvic pain. He said that he placed her on the table to perform an examination. He said that he used forceps and cotton balls to swab out a large amount of cloudy fluid. He said that it was at this point that Emma said that she could not breathe and Earl entered the room.

Dr. Schaffner said that after he had pronounced Emma dead, Earl had cried out, "Why did I do it? Why did I do it?" He said that he responded, "Well, I had warned you not to do anything. I told you that it was really risky and dangerous. It looks like you have ruptured the sac of water." He said that Earl replied, "No we didn't rupture no sac of water. We didn't do anything. The only thing we have done, we have tried every kind of medicine to use."

The Outcome

The jury didn't believe him. Schaffner was convicted of murder and sentenced to 14 years in prison. He appealed his sentence but it was upheld in 1943. He was released in September of 1951 and promptly resumed perpetrating abortions. He got caught when he returned to an 18-year-old abortion patient's home and raped her. The woman's husband and father ambushed him, beat him up, and dumped him by the side of the road. After his arrest Schaffner was committed to a state institution for the criminally insane.