March 19, 1867: A Fatal Doctor in New York

SUMMARY: Mary Noble, age 38, died March 19, 1867 after an abortion perpetrated in New York by Dr. William F. J. Thiers.

Mrs. Mary E. Noble, age 38, died at her home at No. 54 Dominick Street in New York's 28th Precinct on March 19, 1867.

She had been separated from her husband, Ayers Noble of Tarrytown, for a year or two. He testified that the split had been due to her being "too intimate with [George Wait] Carson (the seducer)." 

Carson testified that he'd known Mary for about three years. He had met her when she was still living in Jersey City with son and daughter, since her husband was at that time away in the war.

Mary had moved to New York after discovering she was pregnant, to keep the pregnancy a secret. She took her son, W. D. Noble, with her. It was not clear if her daughter also accompanied her to New York.

Mary had, Carson said, spoken with him prior to the move "about getting rid of the effects of their criminality." Carson had arranged with a doctor, who he knew as Dubois, to make a $10 down payment and pay another $15 after the abortion.

Carson said that Mary reported that the first abortion attempt, done by attaching a battery to her body with leads, and using some sort of instrument internally, had no effect. A second attempt was made using some sort of internal injection of water. Carson saw Mary for the last time on February 21, when she was suffering chills. Carson fetched the doctor, who looked in on her for about five minutes.

On February 24, Mary expelled the fetus, which Carson put in a jar. He kept the fetus for about a week before he "boxed it up and threw it in the water-closet."

Mary had chest pain on the 29th. Carson again went looking for the doctor, but couldn't find him. He left a note indicating that Mrs. Noble needed him. "Dr. Dubois" attended to Mary several more times, but after a while refused any further care. It was at that point that Mary summoned Dr. McClelland, who was given all the facts and who in turn summoned Dr. Wood. Their efforts, of course, were to no avail; Mary died at 2:20 p.m.

W. D. testified that he'd not known about the pregnancy until his mother took ill. His mother had asked him not to tell any relatives she was sick. It's not clear then, who told his father and uncle of Mary's illness. W.D. testified that he first learned of the abortion when he read about it in the newspaper.

Ayers was notified that she was sick with neuralgia -- which she was prone to -- and that he'd headed to the city to see to her, only to arrive too late. He said he learned of the real cause of her death -- an abortion -- from the coroner.

Leander See, who was married to Mary's sister Emma, had received a telegram on Thursday that Mary was ill. He went to her, and she "told him she could not live, and that she had had an abortion produced."

Police Captain John F. Dickson learned of the death on Sunday, and arrested the guilty parties. He went to 627 Third-avenue with the coroner and found abortion instruments in a bureau drawer there.

Dr. John McClelland testified that he'd been called to care for Mary in her final sickness. Her pulse had been 130-140. He testified that Mary told him "that a miscarriage had been brought on by an eclectic physician, and that he had used instruments."

Listing in 1867 City Directory

The coroner's jury concluded that Mary had died from pyemia, "resulting from an abortion produced by the prisoner, Wm. F.J. Thiers, alias Dr. Dubois. They further hold Amelia Armstrong, alias Madame Dubois, as accessory before the fact." Carson was tracked to New Jersey and arrested as well.

When the police went to arrest Thiers, they found his home "sumptuously and comfortably fitted up." There were four women there who admitted that they were there for abortions.

"An examination of the premises resulted in the discovery of an immense collection of letters ... in relation to malpractices." Thiers also kept a receipt book indicating his patients, all of which police hoped would prove criminal intent in performing the abortion on Mary.

For more on this era, see Abortion Deaths in the 19th Century.

For more on pre-legalization abortion, see The Bad Old Days of Abortion

Watch A Doctor's Fatal Work in 1867 on YouTube.
Watch A Doctor's Fatal Work in 1867 on Rumble.

Sources:

• "The Noble Malpractice Case", The New York Times, Apr. 1, 1867
• "Another Malpractice Case", The New York Times, Mar. 26, 1867
• "Another Death from Malpractice -- A Married Woman the Victim," New York World, Mar. 26, 1867
• "War Among the Health Officers," New York Herald, Mar. 27, 1867
• "The Noble Abortion Case -- Testimony of One of the Victims," New York Herald Tribune, Mar. 29, 1867

March 19, 1907: Death at a Chicago Doctor's Office

At about 4:00 p.m. on March 19, 1907, homemaker Bessie F. Simmons, age 30, died at her Chicago home from infection caused by a criminal abortion perpetrated on February 22 at the office of Dr. Charles D. Hughes, who was arrested in the death.

According to her obituary, Bessie was the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Emerson J. Ruby. She had married Lambert G. Simmons in October of 1896, when she was 21 and Lambert was 23. The couple had lost a child, Dorothy. Lambert, a railroad engineer, was left to raise their two surviving children.

Bessie's abortion was typical in that it was performed by a physician.

Note, please, that with general public health issues such as doctors not using proper aseptic techniques, lack of access to blood transfusions and antibiotics, and overall poor health to begin with, there was likely little difference between the performance of a legal abortion and illegal practice, and the aftercare for either type of abortion was probably equally unlikely to do the woman much, if any, good.

Source: Death Certificate

March 19, 1916: Fatal Abortion by Chicago Midwife

On March 19, 1916, 30-year-old Carolina Petritz died at the Chicago office of midwife Paulina Erlomus, who had perpetrated the fatal abortion there that day. Erlomus was held by the Coroner but the case never went to trial.

Note, please, that with overall public health issues such as doctors not using proper aseptic techniques, lack of access to blood transfusions and antibiotics, and overall poor health to begin with, there was likely little difference between the performance of a legal abortion and illegal practice, and the aftercare for either type of abortion was probably equally unlikely to do the woman much, if any, good. 

Source: Homicide in Chicago Interactive Database

March 19, 1932: One of a String of Oklahoma Abortion Death

Dr. J. W. Eisiminger

Geraldine Easley, age 19, admitted before her death on March 19, 1932, that she had undergone a criminal abortion. Since Dr. James W. Eisiminger and Dr. Richard E. Thacker had been responsible for a string of other criminal abortion deaths in the Oklahoma City area, suspicion in Geraldine's death naturally leaned toward the two known quack abortionists.[1] However, to my knowledge the specific perpetrator was not identified.

Geraldine was the second in a sudden string of criminal abortion deaths to Oklahoma City, attributed to Thacker and Eisiminger either singly or as a pair:

• 

  Dr. Richard Thacker

  March 18: Margaret Ann Kuenkel  (Thacker)
• March 19: Geraldine Easley (undetermined)
• April 3:  Ethel Hestand (Thacker)
• April 14:  Isobel Ferguson (Eisiminger and Thacker)
• April 15: Ruth Hall (Eisiminger and Thacker)
• April 20:  Robbie Lou Thompson (Thacker)
• April 23: Virginia Lee Wyckoff  (Eisiminger)
• April 23: Lennis May Roach (Eisiminger and Thacker)
• April 24: Nancy Joe Lee (Thacker)

Sources:

• "Investigation of Many Suspected Cases Under Way," Oshkosh Daily Northwestern, Apr. 29, 1932
• "Investigate Epidemic Of Illegal Operations," Sheboygan (WI) Press, April 29, 1932

March 19, 1972: Mystery Abortion in Alabama

To my knowledge, this is a death where the family never went public, so I will call this woman "Marjel Holloway." She was a 21-year-old married Alabama native, 15 weeks pregnant, when she arranged an abortion in March of 1972. 

The only information I have is from her death certificate, which indicates that she had undergone an abortion at 15 weeks into her pregnancy. No autopsy was performed, and she had the same doctor attending her from March 15 until her death.  

The date and the location of the abortion are not noted, but there is a timeline of her final illness.

Marjel developed hyponatremia, which is pathologically low sodium levels in the blood, some time on March 17. This caused swelling of the brain, noticed about 18 hours after she was diagnosed with hyponatremia. From this, she suffered a hemorrhage under the membrane surrounding her brain, resulting in her death at shortly after 9 pm on March 19.

According to the Montgomery Advertiser, abortion in Alabama had been reduced from a felony to a misdemeanor in September of 1951, with fines ranging from $100 to $1,000 and a maximum prison sentence of one year. By 1971, The University of Alabama Medical Center was performing abortions on unmarried teenagers, divorcees, widows with other children, and women who had contracted rubella, and evidently doing so openly. No additional health issues were noted on her death certificate, so Marjel likely had not suffered any health problem that would have justified a "therapeutic" abortion on medical grounds. 

I have been unable to find any abortion technique known to cause hyponatremia as a complication. Saline abortions, popular in the late second and into the third trimester, are associated with too much sodium, rather than too little, in the blood. According to Grok, a prostaglandin instillation abortion could cause this complication, as id did in a 1973 case. Prostaglandin instillation abortions were common in hospitals in the United States at that time. 

1996: Endocarditis, infarcts, bacteremia and coronary artery embolism

In 1996, a report was submitted to a medical journal on a maternal abortion death. The unidentified woman referred to here as “Anne Roe” was 32 and pregnant with her sixth baby. She had already had two births with no noted complications and three abortions. There were no significant conditions in her medical history.

A few weeks before her own death, Anne underwent her fourth and final abortion. No complications were noted at the time, but Anne soon went to her usual doctor because of a fever, chills, yellow discharge and other symptoms. She hadn’t told the doctor about her recent abortion, possibly believing that she didn’t need to. She was given antibiotics and told to return in a week for follow-up, but she only became worse. Only 2 weeks after the abortion, she was in the emergency room.

At the ER, Anne was still suffering from all of the earlier symptoms and now leg pain. Various tests were performed, but doctors were having trouble finding the location of the infection. After examination and IV treatments, she was admitted to the ward service. At the time she was awake, aware and alert.

Grok AI illustration

Only 2 hours later, Anne’s condition massively deteriorated. She was found in severe respiratory distress. A CPR team rushed to treat her, but by the time they arrived she had no pulse and was unresponsive. She was put on life support and resuscitation was attempted for 67 minutes, but she was declared dead.

Her autopsy identified the cause of death. In an unusual case, Anne had died of bacterial endocarditis from a septic coronary artery embolism. She also had embolic infarcts in her right kidney and her spleen. It was concluded that the abortion resulted in group B streptococcus bacteremia and the subsequent development of endocarditis.

The study noted that after elective abortion, “complications of endocarditis are common.” The only unusual part of Anne’s case was the septic embolism of a coronary artery. Although septic infections, embolisms and endocarditis are common among maternal deaths from abortion, this specific combination of the three was not.

Source: "Fatal Myocardial Infarction Resulting From Coronary Artery Septic Embolism After Abortion: Unusual Cause and Complications of Endocarditis," (page 1, page 2, page 3), Annals of Emergency Medicine, January 1997

March 18, 1946: Fatal Abortion in a Seattle Sanitarium

SUMMARY: Mary Johnston, age 29, died March 18, 1946 after an abortion perpetrated at a sanitarium operated by Marjorie Folsom in Seattle.

"When Abortion was Illegal (and Deadly): Seattle's Maternal Death Toll," Seattle Civil Rights & Labor History Project, has the following summary regarding the abortion death of Mary Johnson:

Margaret Folsum

One month after her husband, Roy, was discharged from the military, Mary Johnson told him she wanted to end their four year marriage. A week later he returned to the couple's Capitol Hill apartment to find her gravely ill. She told him had had an abortion at a north Seattle sanitarium run by Margaret Folsom. She died that night in the hospital. The husband may have tried to blackmail Folsom. He was later charged with extortion. Three days later Folsom and nurse Ada Wrench were arrested and charged with manslaughter and abortion. Police claimed that the sanitarium, located in a four bedroom house at was "part of a widespread abortion racket." Folsom and Wrench soon faced charges in a second fatality (Irene Timmons). Sentenced to twenty years in prison, their convictions were overturned by the State Supreme Court in 1947. In a second trial Folsom was convicted only on an abortion charge and sentenced to ten months in County jail.

The Project cites articles from the Seattle Times dated Mar. 21 and 22, Apr. 2 & 22, May 17, Sept. 17, and Nov. 11, 1946, Jul. 17, 1947, and Jun. 19, 1948 and includes a clipping, "Women, Held in Operation Case, Free on $10,000 Bail," from the Mar. 22, 1946 Seattle Times.

I have found court documents regarding the case, along with Mary's death certificate, which provide additional information. I also found Folsom's criminal record, which indicates that her first name was Marjorie, not Margaret. 

Mary's surname was Johnston, rather than Johnson. She told her husband she wanted a divorce because she had fallen in love with another man.

Folsom and Wrench evidently made repeated abortion attempts from March 11th through 15th. Mary and the man who had gotten her pregnant went to Folsom's sanitarium, referred to in court documents as a "hospital," where the man paid $350 to Wrench.

Mary was reportedly in good health when she arrived, but was very sick the following day. Her condition continued to grow worse. On March 17, Mary's lover took her from the sanitarium and settled her in her Seattle apartment.

Ada Pearl Wrench

On March 18, Mary's husband took her back to the sanitarium. From there she was taken to Columbus Hospital, where she died during emergency surgery.

Mary's brother took her body home to Yakima for burial.

Folsom argued that Mary's abortion had been perpetrated elsewhere by a man in the office of a Dr. Patee before she'd come to the sanitarium. There was some weighing of evidence regarding how long Mary had been pregnant and how long before her death she had suffered the injuries that ultimately took her life. The prosecution asserted that Folsom rented Patee's office and committed abortions there.

Mary's husband was arrested on a charge of extorting $10,000 from Folsum in exchange for his silence about the abortion. The evidence was two $5,000 cashier's checks. The March 21, 1946 Seattle Star said that the usual price for an abortion was $350, which is roughly $5700 in 2025. 

Folsom was sentenced to 20 years in prison. Wrench, as her accomplice, was sentenced to a fine and a jail sentence. Folsom was able to successfully appeal her conviction. 

Watch Abortion Advocates Provided Sources on YouTube. 
Watch Abortion Advocates Provided Sources on Rumble. 

Additional sources: 

• "Ex-resident In Death Case," The (Vancouver, WA) Columbian, March 21, 1946
• "Illegal Surgery Probe Spurred," The Seattle Star, March 21, 1946
• "Arrest Nurse For Abortion," The Bremerton (WA) Sun, March 21, 1946
• "2 Charged in Woman's Death," The Seattle Star, March 22, 1946
• "Seattle Pair Posts Abortion Case Bond," The Daily Olympian, March 22, 1946
• "Women, Held in Operation Case, Free on $10,000 Bail," Seattle Times, March 22, 1946
• "Extortion-Case Evidence Found," Seattle Star, March 30, 1946
• "Extortion Laid to Husband in Alleged Illegal-Surgery Death," Seattle Star, March 29, 1946
• "Woman Posts Bail In Abortion Charge," The Bremerton (WA) Sun, May 18, 1946
• "2 Deny Accusation Of Illegal Surgery," Seattle Star, May 21, 1946
• "Illegal Surgery Brings 20 Years," Seattle Star, November 30, 1946
• "Sentence Passed on Two Women," Spokane Daily Chronicle, November 30, 1946
• "Conviction in Abortion Ordered Reversed," The  (Vancouver, WA) Columbian, July 17, 1947

March 18, 1914: Another Unknown Chicago Perp

On March 18, 1914, 28-year-old dressmaker Irene Ridgeway died at Garfield Park Hospital in Chicago from an abortion performed by an unknown perpetrator.

Note, please, that with overall public health issues such as doctors not using proper aseptic techniques, lack of access to blood transfusions and antibiotics, and overall poor health to begin with, there was likely little difference between the performance of a legal abortion and illegal practice, and the aftercare for either type of abortion was probably equally unlikely to do the woman much, if any, good.

In fact, due to improvements in addressing these problems, maternal mortality in general (and abortion mortality with it) fell dramatically in the 20th Century, decades before Roe vs. Wade legalized abortion across America.

For more on pre-legalization abortion, see The Bad Old Days of Abortion
Source: Homicide in Chicago Interactive Database

March 18, 1888: Doctor Implicated in Norwich

Miss Hattie Myers of Wichita, Kansas, died March 18, 1888 after an abortion she attributed to Dr. J. W. Pollard of Norwich.

Sources:

• untitled snippet, Daily Commonwealth, Mar. 21, 1888

March 18, 1970: An Actual Coat Hanger Abortion

The coat hanger is a symbol of what abortion advocates say will become the norm when there are abortion restrictions, but in all my years of documenting abortion deaths, it wasn't until this year that my researcher found an actual coat hanger abortion. 

The woman's family never went public with her story, so I will call her Mavis Gleason. I've put together her story from public records.

Mavis had married her first husband, "Robert," in Ohio in 1954 when Mavis was 18 and Robert was 21. The couple had three children. 

I've been unable to determine where or when she married her second husband, "George." Together they had two children and lived in Spokane, Washington. 

Mavis's obituary indicates that one of the three children she'd had with Robert was living in Ohio, which I take as evidence that the marriage had ended in divorce rather than widowhood.

Mavis, then a 34-year-old homemaker, was in her home when she reached for a coat hanger to dislodge her unborn baby on March 14, 1970. She took ill with peritonitis the next day because she had poked a hole in her uterus. The peritonitis progressed to septicemia, from which she died at Spokane's Holy Family Hospital on March 18.

Source: Death certificate

March 17, 1976: Delayed Care Kills Woman in Florida

SUMMARY: Cycloria Vangates, a 32-year-old Black woman, died March 17, 1976 after an abortion performed by Paul Glassman in Miami, FL.

Cycloria Irene Watts Vangates, age 32, underwent an abortion on March 13, 1976, performed by Dr. Paul Glassman. She suffered a cervical laceration and began bleeding internally. 

The Florida Board of Osteopathic Medicine found that Glassman failed to adequately treat Cycloria's injury and should have intervened to ensure that blood would be available for her when she arrived at the hospital. As a result of the delay, she suffered organ damage. She died on March 17.

Dr. Paul Glassman

Glassman's license was finally revoked for three years beginning in 1981. He later recovered his license on the condition that he undergo close supervision and not perform any more abortions. Glassman moved to Missouri, but his attorney revealed to the Florida Board of Osteopathic medical Examiners that Glassman performed 17 abortions while visiting in Fort Lauderdale, in an effort to prove that the ban against Glassman performing abortions was unnecessary. 

Glassman complained about the damage to his income when he was unable to continue as a Florida abortionist, recalling the days when a streamlined business could gross the abortionist $750,000 a year (nearly $3 million in 2025). 

Glassman also faced a 1978 Florida conviction for felony grand larceny involving filing insurance claims for a faked automobile accident. 

Glassman paid out $386,875 to Cycloria's survivors, according to a malpractice liability search.

As you can see from the graph below, abortion deaths were falling dramatically before legalization. This steep fall had been in place for decades. To argue that legalization lowered abortion mortality simply isn't supported by the data.

Watch Another Woman Needlessly Bleeds to Death on YouTube.
Watch Another Woman Needlessly Bleeds to Death on YouTube.

---

Sources:

• "Doctor's Ex-Lover Wins Malpractice Award," Miami Herald, June 13, 1980
• "Miami Troubles Send Doctor To Rural Missouri" St. Louis Post-Gazette, June 22, 1980
• "Lawyer Says Former Miami Osteopath Ignored Ban On Performing Abortions," The Miami Herald, June 16, 1985
• State of Florida, Division of Administrative Hearings, Case # 78-1665

March 17, 1915: Another Unidentified Chicago Perp

Callie L. Sullivan Stewart, a 35-year-old homemaker, died in Chicago on March 17, 1915 after an abortion performed by an unidentified perpetrator.

Sources:

• "Just Five Month's Abortion Toll," Chicago Daily Tribune, May 29, 1915
• Cook County Deaths Index, 1878-1922

March 17, 1907: Doctor Implicated in Peoria

On March 17, 1907, Paulina Schneider died at St. Francis Hospital in Peoria, Illinois, from complications of a criminal abortion. 

Paulina gave a deathbed statement implicating Dr. Robert Emery in her abortion. Her mother had also fingered Emery. 

For reasons not given in the source document, Emery -- identified as "Old Doctor Robert Emery" -- was found not guilty.

Though the verdict might have indeed been a case of exonerating an innocent man, it might also reflect loopholes in the abortion law that made conviction difficult, such as a requirement that the prosecution prove that the woman was pregnant or had felt the baby move.

Note, please, that with overall public health issues such as doctors not using proper aseptic techniques, lack of access to blood transfusions and antibiotics, and overall poor health to begin with, there was likely little difference between the performance of a legal abortion and illegal practice, and the aftercare for either type of abortion was probably equally unlikely to do the woman much, if any, good. 

---

Sources: "Aged Peoria Doctor Acquitted of Grave Charge", The Quincy Daily Journal", July 10, 1907

March 16, 1981: Embolism Death in North Carolina

Grok AI illustration

Norma Jean Greene, a 34-year-old divorced secretary, went into cardio-respiratory arrest and died at North Carolina Baptist Hospital in Winston-Salem on March 16, 1981. 

Her death certificate indicates that the arrest was caused by a pulmonary embolism (tissue or air in the lungs) following a recent abortion.

March 16, 1973 Collapses at Home After Safe, Legal Abortion

Dr. T.R. Mason Howard

Reports on death of Evelyn Dudley, age 38, alleged that she was treated at Friendship Medical Center in Chicago on March 16, 1973. Later, at home in Benton Harbor, MI, she collapsed in the driveway. She was taken to a hospital in Chicago, where attempts to save her failed.

Her death was due to shock, hemorrhage from a ruptured cervix and vagina, from "remote abortion." 

Civil rights leader Dr. T.R. Mason Howard (pictured) stated that Evelyn was treated at Friendship for infection sustained in an abortion in Detroit. Evelyn's brother, however, stated that Evelyn had traveled to Chicago specifically to have the abortion.

Julia Rogers and Dorothy Brown also died after abortions at Friendship Medical Center.

Watch One of Three Fatal Abortions at Friendship Medical Center on YouTube. 
Watch One of Three Fatal Abortions at Friendship Medical Center on YouTube

Sources: 

• Death Certificate No. 608195
• "12 dead after abortions in state's walk-in clinics," Chicago Sunday Sun-Times, November 19, 1978

March 16, 1915: One Abortionist, Second Death, Two Days

On March 16, 1915, 19-year-old saleslady Hazel Wilcox, who also worked as a cabaret singer, died at a Chicago home from sepsis caused by an abortion believed to have been perpetrated that day by midwife Julia Patera.

Patera was held by the coroner on March 20 but the case never went to trial, despite the fact that Elinora Cassidy had died only the previous day after identifying Patera as her abortionist.

Note, please, that with overall public health issues such as doctors not using proper aseptic techniques, lack of access to blood transfusions and antibiotics, and overall poor health to begin with, there was likely little difference between the performance of a legal abortion and illegal practice, and the aftercare for either type of abortion was probably equally unlikely to do the woman much, if any, good.

In fact, due to improvements in addressing these problems, maternal mortality in general (and abortion mortality with it) fell dramatically in the 20th Century, decades before Roe vs. Wade legalized abortion across America.



For more on pre-legalization abortion, see The Bad Old Days of Abortion

Sources:

• Homicide in Chicago Interactive Database
• Death certificate
• "Hold Woman for Murder," Chicago Daily Tribune, April 1, 1915
• Chicago Day Book snippets of March 16 and March 17, 1915

March 16, 1915: An Unknown Perp in Chicago

On March 16, 1915, 26-year-old homemaker Hazel E. Carr died in her Chicago home from an abortion performed by an unknown perpetrator.

Note, please, that with overall public health issues such as doctors not using proper aseptic techniques, lack of access to blood transfusions and antibiotics, and overall poor health to begin with, there was likely little difference between the performance of a legal abortion and illegal practice, and the aftercare for either type of abortion was probably equally unlikely to do the woman much, if any, good.

In fact, due to improvements in addressing these problems, maternal mortality in general (and abortion mortality with it) fell dramatically in the 20th Century, decades before Roe vs. Wade legalized abortion across America.



For more on pre-legalization abortion, see The Bad Old Days of Abortion

Sources:

• Homicide in Chicago Interactive Database
• Death certificate
• "Just Five Month's Abortion Toll," Chicago Daily Tribune, May 29, 1915

March 16, 1875: A Bright Talent Snuffed Out

SUMMARY: On March 16, 1875, aspiring opera singer Annie Curtis, age 28, died in New York from an abortion perpetrated by midwife Annie Ihl.

Annie Curtis, age 28, had a mixed past behind her but a bright future ahead of her in March of 1875.

Who Was Annie Curtis?

Annie Josephine McKenzie was born in San Francisco to an American father and a mother from the Sandwich Islands. Accounts differ about her family. One said that her father was working as a notary of little financial means. The New York Times cites a San Francisco newspaper in identifying Annie's father as Col. J. W. McKenzie. The Washington DC National Republican says that Annie's father had been a county sheriff and had also been San Francisco chief of police for a while. San Francisco papers of the era and earlier show both a Colonel J. W. McKenzie and a J. W. McKenzie who was very active in musical circles. Given the course Annie's life took, I think that the last is most likely the case, since he arranged music lessons for his talented daughter.

When young, Annie McKenzie married a Mr. Bradshaw who had money. After their daughter's birth Annie sought a divorce on the grounds of cruelty. I have been unable to determine what became of Annie's daughter.

“Mrs. Bradshaw, after her release, resumed her musical studies, and performed several successful operatic engagements on the San Francisco stage.” She might have resumed her maiden name, since she was listed as Annie McKenzie as a headliner in one concert and as a soloist in the Harmonic Society in others in 1872.

It was during her operatic career in San Francisco that she attracted the attention of Tyler Curtis, a widower and father of two daughters. He was wealthy, a politician who had served as a member of the San Francisco Board of Commissioners for several turns and ran an unsuccessful San Francisco mayoral campaign.

Curtis took Annie to Europe so that she could study Italian and music and he could, as one newspaper snidely put it, practice “devoting himself almost exclusively to drinking.”

Dark Times But Bright Prospects

Somehow they went broke while in Europe and returned to New York. Curtis left Annie and his daughters in lodgings in New York and left for San Francisco, saying he'd send for them shortly. At first he wrote regularly and sent sufficient money, but the letters and money slacked off. Annie contacted her father, who tracked down the neglectful husband and found him dissolute. Annie's father recommended that she give up on him.

Max Strakosch

Annie tried to resume work in opera, and managed to attract the attention of prominent New York impresario Max Strakosch, well known for recruiting operatic talent including Emma Thursby, dubbed “the American Nightengale” in homage to "the Swedish Nightengale," Janny Lind.

Strakosch considered Annie to be very promising and arranged lessons for her with noted opera singer and instructor Achille Errani. He discouraged Annie from taking paying engagements with other opera companies, saying that he wanted to manage her career, which he believed would be spectacular.

Achille Errani

Though Strakosch was arranging for Annie's training, he was not, evidently, arranging for her livelihood. Looking for work as a vocalist but off the operatic stage, she answered an ad and auditioned for a position in the choir of the Church of the Atonement. The choir was under the direction of the church organist, Benjamin Gregory. She won the job.

Benjamin Gregory's father, Dudley S. Gregory, had been mayor of Jersey City and a principal stockholder in the New Jersey Railroad. He had died shortly before his son met the aspiring opera singer, leaving an estate of seven million. His son was a patron of the arts.

Learning that Annie was living in substandard lodgings with her two stepdaughters, Benjamin Gregory paid the arrears on her rent and relocated the little family, at his own expense, to better quarters in an upper story in a more reputable neighborhood.

The two became lovers. In early 1875, Annie became pregnant.

Annie's Fatal Choice

Strakosch had scheduled Annie to debut at the Academy of Music in March of 1875. She was to perform Aida under the stage name Anna Cartez. Strakosch had also given Annie a five-year contract, planning to send her to Italy in May for further study. Pregnancy would derail all of this.

“She decided upon infanticide, despite the protest of the partner of her shame.”

She underwent the abortion on March 9, perpetrated by Annie J. Ihl, “a woman long under the surveillance of the Police,” whom Annie had found from a thinly-veiled ad in the New York Herald. Ihl performed several abortion attempts. Annie's friends became alarmed when she suddenly took terribly ill and called in Dr. Barry, who got the truth from her and alerted the authorities.

Convinced that Gregory had nothing to do with the abortion, police allowed him to remain at Annie's bedside as she died, though under police supervision. He was reportedly very attentive of Annie in her illness, staying at her bedside once peritonitis set in, there in the lodgings he had rented for her.

She made deathbed statement given to the coroner the night of March 15, 1875:

“A week ago yesterday I went to see Doctress Ihl. She lived at Third avenue and Forty-ninth street. The woman here present is the woman I went to. I am a bad woman for telling of her. God will punish me. My husband's name is Tyler Curtis. He is in San Francisco. He has been there fifteen months. I went of my own accord to Doctress Ihl. I met Mr. Gregory in the Church of the Atonement. He did not send me to Doctress Ihl. He did no know that I went. I have told the truth. If I were to go before my God this moment I would say the same.”

When asked who her baby's father was, she pointed to Benjamin Gregory. When asked “Who performed the operation of infanticide?” she “pointed to a gross, ugly picture of Sairey Gamp [an unsavory nurse in the novel //Martin Chuzzlewit// by Charles Dickens], who sat in the corner between two policemen.”

Annie died from peritonitis four hours after giving her statement, at 12:15 a.m. On March 16. Benjamin Gregory, overcome with grief, took to his bed.

As for Ihl, the papers had nothing good to say about her. Ihl “is about fifty years old, large, fat and repulsive looking. She is a professional midwife, having lately blossomed into an advertised abortionist, and has long been registered by the police as worth watching.” Ihl admitted that Annie had consulted with her, but says she only provided instruments and Annie did the abortion on herself.

An autopsy found that Annie's organs had been healthy, except for her uterus, which had suffered lacerations which allowed a massive infection to take hold.

The Husband who had Abandoned Annie

The Columbia, South Carolina Daily Phoenix, on April 29, paints Annie's absent husband in a highly sympathetic light:

Tyler Curtis

"Mr. Tyler Curtis, at one time a prominent citizen of San Francisco, Cal, and an early settler there, died at Barnum's Hotel, in New York, on Friday morning. He was the husband of Annie Josephine Curtis, who died a few weeks since from the effects of malpractice. Mr. Curtis had previously been married to a woman of considerable means, by whom he had three children, two of whom were living in New York. On the day of Mrs. Curtis' death, the husband, who was in San Francisco, was informed of the sad event. He hurriedly telegraphed to have the body placed in a receiving vault until his arrival. While packing up his effects, preparatory to leaving San Francisco, he got an evening newspaper, in which he read with grieved amazement the story of his wife's shame. Dazed and heartbroken, he took the train for New York, where he arrived on April 8. The sudden shock to his feelings was too much for him to bear, and he sank rapidly, dying on Friday last from grief and prostration under the blow which he had received."

The World's Loss

“In the untimely taking off of Mrs. Curtis, the operatic stage has lost a promising neophyte. Her voice, in the opinion of excellent judges, was a dramatic soprano of greater compass, strength, and sweetness than that of any performer on the stage. In person she was of medium size, with a gracefully-rounded classic figure. Her face was a study for an artist. It was not a perfect representative of any time of beauty. Neither a blonde nor a brunette, with a Roman nose, large, firm chin, shapely but oversized mouth, blue-gray eyes, and dark hair, shoe could not be assigned to any school. Every emotion was reflected in her countenance, and, backed by a cultivated intellect, made up a rarely attractive woman.” said the March 22,1875 Chicago Tribune.

Sources:

• "The Fennor and Curtis Cases," Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Mar. 17, 1875
• "Death From Malpractice," Washington DC Evening Star, Mar. 17, 1875
• "Criminal Malpractice," New York Times, Mar. 17, 1875
  
• "Deaths From Malpractice," Reading (PA) Times, Mar. 18, 1875
• "The Malpractice Case," New York Times, Mar. 18, 1875
• "A Malpractice Tragedy," Washington DC National Republican, Mar. 19, 1875
• "A Deserted Wife's Death," Rochester (NY) Democrat and Chronicle, Mar. 20, 1875
• "A Sad Story," Chicago Daily Tribune, Mar 21, 1875
• "Antecedents of Mrs. Curtis," New York Times, Mar. 28, 1875
• "Fatal Effects of Grief and Shame," Columbia (SC) Daily Phoenix, Apr.. 28, 1875
• "Madame Ihl," Brooklyn Daily Eagle, May 4, 1875