October 31, 1921: Was Dr. Klinetop to Blame?

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During the inquest into Dr. Charles Klinetop's role in the 1923 abortion death of Lydia Nelson, Emma Sales of South Morgan Street, Chicago, jumped to her feet and struck Klinetop in the face. 

Mrs. Sales said that the death of her daughter, Harriet Grimm, was due to an abortion Klinetop had perpetrated. Klinetop had already been implicated in the 1912 death of Minnie Miller and the 1917 death of Edna Lamb.

According to Illinois death records, Harriet had died October 31, 1921 at the age of 20. I've never seen any evidence that Klinetop was prosecuted for Harriet's death.

Klinetop was evidently making bank as an abortionist -- in October of 1923 his wife, Venus, was the victim of a purse snatcher who got away with $12,000 worth of jewels (over a quarter of a million in 2025). According to the American Medical Association, Klinetop graduated from Hering Medical College in Chicago in 1894.

According to public records, Klinetop was born in Iowa in 1864 to Edwin and Emmah Bassett Klinetop. His father was a farmer and his mother was a homemaker. He had one older brother, two younger brothers, a younger sister, and a younger half-brother. He married Vienna "Venus" Waite in Chicago in April of 1903. Klinetop relocated to Pasadena, California after Lydia's death. He died of myocarditis in 1938 at the age of 74, five months after the death of his wife.

Watch Drama at the Inquest on YouTube.
Watch Drama at the Inquest on Rumble.

• "Woman Attacks Doctor Accused of Operations," Chicago Daily Tribune, November 1, 1923