Sunday, November 02, 2025

July 23, 1965: Socialite's Abortion Later Declared Retroactively Legal

Killed by Choice tells the story of 24-year-old Sara Mongague Carr, whose fatal abortion under the care of 50-year-old Dr. Jesse Williams Jr. was retroactively declared legal after Roe vs. Wade struck down the state's law. She is described in the newspapers as a tall, attractive blue-eyed blond, but I've been unable to find a photograph.

News of the time focused on the racial angle that Sara, a white socialite from Long Island, went to a black doctor for her abortion. Williams, however, lived with his wife at 382 Central Park West. Sara did not seek out a doctor in the slums. 

Sara was from a wealthy family. Her mother and stepfather, John McMaster, lived in Sharon, Connecticut and kept a second home at 470 Park Avenue in New York. Sara and her close friend, 22-year-old Martha Pietrewicz, spent their summers living in a small cottage on the beach at Wainscott. Sara lived the rest of the year with another friend, Sandra White, in an apartment at 340 E. 80th Street and sometimes made extended visits at her mother's Park Avenue apartment.

Sarah was a graduate of Miss Porter's School in Farmington, Connecticut, a posh academy also attended by Jacqueline Bouvier before her marriage to John F. Kennedy, and in which the Kennedys had enrolled their daughter, Caroline. Other alumni include Gloria Vanderbilt, Princess Anastasia of Greece, and Denmark, and Gene Tierney.

Sara was 9 weeks pregnant on Tuesday, July 20, 1965 when when she went to Williams at his New York City practice, 104 Lenox Avenue. She requested an abortion, and Williams quoted her a price of $500. Sara dickered the price down to $450 and made an appointment to return on the evening of Thursday, July 22.

When she came back for the appointment, she had a male companion with her. Williams sent the man away. Sara spent the night in a small hospital-like room that Williams had for his surgical practice.

Williams expertly performed the abortion the next morning, assisted by his nurse-anesthetist, 35-year-old divorcee Dolores Douglas, who lived at 32 W. 141st Street. Sara went into convulsions and died at around 11:30 that morning. 

He must have pondered his predicament for a long time about what to do with the dead woman in his office, because he didn't notify officials about the death until shortly after midnight on Saturday. He was arrested at his home later that day. 

Sara's father was identified at the morgue by her stepfather.

Williams, a native of French Lick, Indiana, had already been awaiting trial on indictments for non-fatal abortion. Both he and Douglas had been arrested on February 4, 1964 on an abortion charge, and were arrested twice more for abortions while out on bail. The July 26, 1965 Daily News notes that William's attorney, Nichola Atlas, said that his client would also be facing trial in the fall for another abortion homicide. At the time of his trial in Sara's death he was free on $7,000 bail for his other abortion charges.

At autopsy, the medical examiner could find no fault with Williams's technique, but did fault him for the failure to call an ambulance or to report Sara's death for several hours.

Williams was tried twice for Sara's death. The first trial ended on May 20, 1966 because of a hung jury.

In the second trial, Martha testified that she was the one who had made the original call to Dr. Williams. Twenty-nine-year-old Richard Danzig testified that he had driven Sara to Williams's Lennox Avenue office. A woman named Pricilla Hypps testified that she had gotten Williams's phone number from an unidentified man.

William's defense was that Sara had already been in critical condition when she arrived and he had treated her for convulsions that night. He asserted that she had died in his office without having had an abortion perpetrated there.

Williams was convicted of first-degree manslaughter on October 24, 1966. He faced a possible prison term of 20 years, but was given a sentence of 5 to 10 years. His efforts to get the conviction overturned failed until Roe was handed down and his attorneys successfully argued that the decision should be applied retroactively.

The state had not pursued any other charges related to the abortion, such as criminal negligence for the delay in getting care for his patient, so Williams was freed. 

Sources:

at 1:25 AM

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