November 3, 1876: Third Death Attributed to New York Midwife

While I was looking for more information about the May 17, 1876 abortion death of Matilda Beringer, I found that less that six months later her abortionist -- midwife Johanna White -- was implicated in  the abortion death of Mary Heinemann.

White confessed to having perpetrated Matilda's abortion and was held on $2,000 bond. There is no coverage of how White managed to remain free to kill again. But free she clearly was.

Mary Heinemann was admitted to New York's Mount Sinai Hospital on November 2, clearly dying from peritonitis. That evening Coroner Eicbhoff and Dr. Walsh took her deathbed statement:

I believe I will not live, and make this statement. I was a servant for S. Molizner, living at 100 East Sixtieth street. I am not a married woman. After I found I was pregnant, I wanted to get rid of the child. I went to Mrs. White, of 269 Allen Street, to have an operation performed. I went there on the evening of October 23 and she operated upon me. It pained me very much and I went home. On October 26 I went again to Mrs. White, as I had not been relieved. She then applied a rubber instrument and I left. On the evening  of October 27 I went again, as nothing had passed from me. She again used instruments. On Saturday evening hemorrhage took place. On Sunday I had a great deal of pain, and last Tuesday morning Dr. Hirsch came to me and attended me, but I did not tell the doctor what was the matter with me. By his advice I was sent to Mount Sinai Hospital this morning. No one was in the room with me except Mrs. White. No one advised me to go to Mrs. White to be operated upon. I read the advertisement in the newspapers. The father of my child is a steward on board of a steamer, and is not now in New York.

Mary's condition deteriorated and she died on the morning of November 3. To the end she refused to name her baby's father. 

An autopsy confirmed the diagnosis of peritonitis and supported Mary's assertion that the source of the infection had been an abortion performed with instruments.

White was taken to the coroner's office and questioned. She said that a woman fitting Mary's description had come to her about a month earlier requesting an abortion but she had sent the young woman away. 

The Brooklyn Daily Eagle said that Mary, in spite of her Christian name, was Jewish. She was about 19 years old, "of respectable parents in New Haven, Conn." She was working as a caregiver for the children of a Mrs. Weitzner "and was highly esteemed." 

I don't know how to reconcile the deathbed statement that Mary worked for S. Molizner with the investigators' finding that she worked for Mrs. Weitzner other than possible poor penmanship leading one of the names to look like the other to the person reading them.

White had also been tried in 1874 for the abortion death of Christine Seifreid, but just as was the case after Matilda's death, she seemed to have been able to get away with it.

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Source: "Death From Malpractice," Brooklyn Eagle, November 3, 1876.