RealChoice: October 13, 1939: A Lay Abortionist in Boston

Monday, October 13, 2025

October 13, 1939: A Lay Abortionist in Boston

Barbara Hanson

On October 13, 1939, the body of Barbara Hanson, age 21, was found in a Boston motel room.

Barbara, an office worker who had attended Penn State briefly, had recently graduated from a Boston business school and was living in nearby West Roxbury from State College, Pennsylvania with her married sister, Hilda. The two young women had moved to the Boston area in 1936 after the death of their mother.

Barbara had checked into the motel herself under an assumed name the previous day. At about 2:00 a.m., other guests at the motel complained to management about loud noises, described in some accounts as screams, coming from the room.

A hotel employee detective went to the room and found Barbara dead on the bed. She was tentatively identified by the I.D. found in her purse. The identification was verified by her uncle.

Police found fingerprints on four empty cocktail glasses and an open bottle on the bedside table.

James Carter

Four men were in the room with her: I. Bernard Gannon, age 23, James Carter, 27, Raymond Fermino, 26, and George F. Norton, 26. Reports say that one of them admitted on the spot to having perpetrated an abortion on Barbara, but the reports to not specify which one.

An autopsy showed that immediately after the abortion, Barbara had suffered a fatal heart attack. Barbara's father, Frederick S. Hanson, a Penn State building engineer, went to New York to claim her body. When questioned by reporters, he said, "I just received worth that Barbara had passed on. I don't know any of the circumstances."

After their trial started, James Carter and George F. Norton pleaded guilty to performing the abortion that killed Barbara, and each received a 5-7 year sentence. Bernard Gannon, who was the baby's father, and Raymond Fermino each pleaded guilty as accessories and were sentenced to one year.