Monday, March 31, 2025

March 31, 1930: Two Nearly-Simultaneous Abortion Deaths Linked to Dr. Thomas Eade

SUMMARY: During an inquest into the March 31, 1930 death of Gladys Louise Anderson, word came that 24-year-old Cleo Hinton had also died from a botched abortion. Both deaths were attributed to the work of Dr. Thomas M. Eade. 

Yearbook photo of a smiling young white woman with bobbed hair, wearing a print dress
Gladys Anderson
Gladys Louise Anderson was an 18-year-old freshman at the University of Illinois. She was studying liberal arts and sciences and was a member of the Alpha Omicron Pi sorority as well as Alpha Lambda Delta, a women's honorary freshman scholastic society.

Gladys had been seeing R. C. Catheart for about two years, and the couple had become engaged in the late fall of 1929. Over the weekend of March 8 and 9 of 1930, Gladys traveled to Chicago to tell R. C. that she was pregnant. The couple discussed the situation and decided that they were still too young to marry. They agreed that Gladys should abort the baby.

R. C. said that he had heard of Dr. Thomas M. Eade in Champaign, Illinois, and recommended that Gladys go to him.

Gladys wrote to R. C. to tell him that she underwent the abortion on Monday, March 24 and returned to classes and her sorority house after spending the night at Eade's practice. Her letters to R. C. stopped, so he went to Campaign on Thursday to check on his betrothed.

Dr. Thomas Eade
By Friday night, March 28, Gladys was seriously ill. Somehow word reached Dr. Eade that his patient was ill, and he sent his secretary, Ruth Brown, to the sorority house with medication. Gladys's condition continued to deteriorate. The sorority house mother called Dr. J. R. Powell to check on her at 3:30 on Saturday morning, March 29, and found her to be so ill that he admitted her to Mercy Hospital in Urbana. Somebody contacted her mother, Mrs. LeRoy Anderson, who hurried to her side.

Gladys's condition continued to deteriorate, so at 7:00 on Saturday evening Dr. J. M. Christle came in as a consultant. 

In spite of the best efforts of the doctors, Gladys died of peritonitis at 3:00 on the morning of Monday, March 31, with her mother at her side. An autopsy confirmed that she had died from peritonitis due to an abortion. 

Cleo Hinton
Just an hour before the start of the inquest on the evening that Gladys died, word came to the coroner that 23-year-old stenographer Cleo Hinton had also died at Mercy Hospital on March 31 after giving a statement that Eade had perpetrated an abortion on her. 

Unlike Gladys, Cleo indicated in her deathbed statement that her baby's father had not been involved in the abortion. However, the man in question, J. F. Campbell, testified to the contrary. "I have known Miss Hinton possibly five years, and since November 29 I have been in her company many times, although we did not go together steady, nor were we engaged. Six weeks ago she came to me and told me of her trouble and stated that it was necessary for her to do some thing at once. She told me she was going to see Dr. T. M. Eade and that she would let me know how much it would cost."

"Later, possibly two days later, she called me and told me that the doctor had consented to perform the operation for $40. For several days she took treatments and pills, but two weeks ago she told me at her home ... that the treatments were not benefiting her as they should and that she was to go and stay two days at the doctor's office."

The abortion had been perpetrated at Eade's office on Saturday, March 22, two days prior to Glady's abortion. Cleo remained, ailing, at Eade's practice while J. F. visited her regularly.

Cleo's sister, LaVonne Hinton, indicated that Cleo had said she was going to St. Louis and would return on Monday the 24th. When she didn't return as expected, LaVonne said, "I started an investigation and on Tuesday, March 25, I found her at Dr. Eade's office in bed and very very sick."

"I saw that her condition was bad," LaVonne said, "and ordered her removed to a hospital, but Dr. Eade refused. Later in the day I called him by telephone to tell him I was sending up two doctors to see my sister. Eade said he would not let them in and it was at this time that I went to the state's attorney."

Sheriff Shouf went to Eade's office on March 25 as part of the investigation into Gladys's abortion. Eade told the sheriff that Cleo was ill from intestinal influenza. The sheriff had her transferred to Mercy Hospital, where she died on March 31 at 7:15 pm.

Eade was arrested later that day. However, before police had a chance to seize his records, his secretary reported finding the office ransacked and the records stolen. 

Eade had previously been implicated in two other abortions, one in which the patient died an another in which the patient "went insane." 

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Sources:
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