Monday, June 01, 2026

June 1, 1936: Illegal Abortion Death in Vermont

According to a Vermont death record, 25-year-old shoemaker Thelma Bourdeau died at Rockingham Hospital in Bellows Falls, Vermont. 

Her principal cause of death was listed at tetanus, with contributory causes "history of an illegal operation and an abortion." 

This would indicate that Thelma had likely contracted tetanus through a dirty abortion instrument.

I can't find any news coverage of the death.

Watch A Single Index Card on YouTube.

Sources:

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June 1, 1938: The First Death Wasn't Enough to Stop Him

Otto C. Lucy

Mary Ellen Legg, a 24-year-old department store clerk, died June 1, 1938, from a criminal abortion perpetrated on May 21. The abortionist was identified as 37-year-old Otto Castro Lucy, former dean at Central State College of Edmond, OK, erstwhile speech teacher, and psychologist.

Lucy was arrested and heard without bail on a charge of murder.

Lucy had been raising eyebrows in his neighborhood. Those living nearby complained of patients arriving at Lucy's home day and night and sometimes being carried out on stretchers. This would mean that Lucy was running a clinic, in violation of zoning ordinances. Lucy insisted that he was living in the dwelling, not conducting any sort of business out of it. Strangely, new coverage of this dispute doesn't mention the death of Mary Ellen Legge less than a month earlier. In fact, Lucy wasn't even arrested until July 22 of 1940.

A practical nurse, 49-year-old Ella Hartin, admitted to helping Lucy perform the abortion. She said that Lucy had frequently brought his abortion patients to her home. She, too, was arrested.

While he was out on $9,000 bail pending disposition of this case, roughly a year after Mary Ellen's death, Lucy performed a fatal abortion on Goldie Crow. He had perpetrated another abortion, on a stenographer who lived, between his arrest and his first trial in the Mary Ellen Legge case. 

Though he was not a licensed physician, he is listed in the phone book as "Dr. Otto C. Lucy."

Otto was sentenced to sentenced to 25 years for manslaughter in the death of Goldie Crowe. He then pleaded guilty to first degree manslaughter in Mary Ellen's death after being told that the plea would mean both his sentences would be served concurrently. Lucy also pleaded guilty to a separate abortion charge and was given a three year sentence, to be served concurrently with the manslaughter sentences. 

 He had charged Mary Ellen $75 for the fatal abortion. 

Although he balked at first, Governor Robert S. Kerr finally granted Lucy parole in May of 1945. Prior to his parole he was granted an extended leave from prison due to poor health and the need for medical care.

Watch "The First Death Wasn't Enough" on YouTube.

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June 1, 1926: One of Three Deaths Attributed to Dr. Thomas Ney

Headshot from news clipping showing middle-aged white man with brown or dark-blond hair parted on the left
Thomas Ney

On June 1, 1926, Willie Pearl Walker, an 18-year-old Black homemaker born in Eaton, Georgia, died at her Chicago home from complications of a criminal abortion performed that day. A white doctor, Thomas J. New, (most likely transcription error for Dr. Thomas J. Ney) was held by the coroner in Willie Pearl's death.

A little over two years later Ney was implicated in the November 14, 1928, death of 21-year-old Eunice McElroy. 

He was later implicated in the April 25, 1931 abortion death of Alma Bromps. 

There was abundant press coverage of the deaths of these two white women, but I have been unable to find any news coverage at all of Willie's death.


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June 1, 1970: Psychiatrist Provides Fatal Abortion Drugs

Mary Ellen

From Mary Ellen's wedding announcement

Mary Ellen Cann probably anticipated getting a fresh start in life when was granted an uncontested divorce from her husband, Ralph McCrillis on March 3, 1970 on the grounds of "treatment as seriously to injure health." 

Mary Ellen was a graduate of the University of New Hampshire and a former English and remedial reading teacher at Dover High School. According to public records, Mary Ellen had been 23 years old and already working as a teacher when she married the 21-year-old machine operator in October of 1966. She was a graduate of the University of New Hampshire. 

Just as Mary Ellen had no way of knowing on that October day of 1966 that her dreams of a happy marriage would fail, she had no way of knowing when she secured that divorce just over three years later that she'd have less than three months left to live.

The End Came Quickly

Mary Ellen learned that she was pregnant in May of 1970. She had conceived the baby about two weeks prior to her divorce.

Mary Ellen turned to two other women for help: a 27-year-old former art teacher named Martha Murphy, and a 48-year-old psychiatrist named Joyce E. Milllette.

According to a later charge, Dr. Millette "knowingly and willfully for the purpose of facilitating the commission of an offense, the procurement of an illegal miscarriage, gave knowledge and instruments to [Miss Cann] and a third person."

On Saturday, May 30, Mary Ellen New Hampshire, evidently took Millette's advice and used the provided drugs and instruments with the support of her former colleague.

The next evening Dr. Millette called Tri-County Osteopathic Hospital and spoke to the night supervisor. She said that she had a patient at her office who was suffering a miscarriage and needed treatment. She was told that the hospital lacked facilities to handle obstetric cases and would not be able to handle such a case on a weekend. 

Mary Ellen ended up being admitted to Maine Medical Center at roughly 10 pm. She died there shortly after midnight on June 1, 1970. Her death was attributed to a uterine rupture and was referred to the state police.

The Reckoning 

Dr. Joyce Millette
As a result of that investigation, both Murphy and Millette were charged with second-degree murder. The indictment said that each of the women "did commit murder in the second degree in that on May 30, 1970, she did willfully administer to a pregnant woman, one Mary Ellen Cann, without legal excuse, a substance, with intent to procure the miscarriage of said woman, therein causing the death of Mary Ellen Cann."

Millette pleaded no contest to the charge but when her attorney told the judge that she was only entering that plea because she couldn't afford to go to court, he changed the plea to not guilty.

Legal Issues

The New Hampshire Supreme Court quashed the second-degree murder indictment against Millette. According to the December 29, 1972 Battleboro Reformer, "Acting under New Hampshire Antiabortion Law, Dr. Millette was charged with second-degree murder, since the law says if a pregnant woman dies during the abortion of a live fetus (a felony) or of an unformed fetus (a misdemeanor,) 'he shall be deemed guilty of murder in the second degree and shall be punished accordingly.'" However the court said that the state would have to prove malice on Dr. Millette's part in order to warrant a murder charge.

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