“Rhoda” has a memorial on the Blackmun Wall stating the information given by the New York State Department Of Health, Bureau of Biometrics.
Kevin Sherlock’s work in The Scarlet Survey later found a match and gave more specific information. Rhoda was 36, single and lived in Queens, NYC. She died on July 25, 1980.
The Scarlet Survey by Kevin Sherlock, Page 204
Blackmun Wall
New York State Department Of Health, Bureau of Biometrics, Data run on July 19, 1995, Abortion Related Deaths, Resident Data
Tillie Hartel, aged 19, lived with her parents in La Salle, Illinois and worked as a stenographer at the downtown Hoefferie clothing store.
On July 2, 1928, she told her parents that she was leaving for Springfield to vacation for a week. This struck her father, Michael Hartel, as odd, since they had no relatives in the state capital and Tillie had never gone there before. She didn't write home at all during her absence.
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| Dr. Joseph P. Moran |
What Tillie's parents hadn't known was that she hadn't left La Salle. Instead, she had gone to the home 45-year-old nurse named Mae Bowers shared with her husband, Herman, to undergo an abortion at the hands of 32-year-old Dr. Joseph P. Moran. Tillie's brother, 19-year-old taxi driver Edward Hartel, found out where his sister was when he encountered Mrs. Bowers on the street. He later said that Mrs. Bowers had told him that his sister "is a bad little girl and is ailing with a disease."
Their sister Julia had also known that Tillie was at Mrs. Bowers'. Edward said he visited Tillie but didn't discuss her illness with her. "I thought it was best to leave her alone and avoid a lot of worry on her part." He also thought that the situation was "funny" and that it was best not to tell their parents to avoid worrying them.
About three weeks later Coroner Dr. L. D. Howe received an anonymous letter saying that Tillie had actually died from a criminal abortion. He got a court order to have her body exhumed. Dr. W.D. McNally and Dr. George B. Springer of Cook County Coroner's office did autopsy in morgue of La Salle undertaking establishment and confirmed that abortion had indeed been the cause of death.
Mrs. Bowers and Moran signed confessions pleading guilty to abortion in order to get the murder charges dismissed. Each was sentenced to Joliet for 1 - 10 years.
According to the Streator, Illinois Daily Times-Press, "Mrs. Bowers freely admitted having assisted Dr. Moran in the performance of at least 75 operations in her luxurious furnished apartment in LaSalle. She also expressed the belief that the physician was a dope addict, and professed having seen him take both tablets and hypodermic injections while in her presence." Mrs. Bowers also indicated that she assisted Moran with abortions perpetrated at Moran's office in the Penney building in LaSalle.
Bowers said that Tillie's aborted baby was burned in her stove.
Moran made a good impression in prison, got out on good behavior, and went right back to committing abortions. He was sent back to Joliet to complete his sentence and when released the second time took up a life immersed in the criminal underworld. He vanished and was presumed killed in a mob hit.
Watch "The Abortionist Who Became a Mob Doc" on YouTube.
Sources:
On August 1, Psota was booked for murder by abortion even though the coroner's verdict was "undetermined." Psota was indicted, and held on $10,000 bond by Judge Lyle.
On December 10, he was acquitted of the murder charge for reasons I've been unable to determine.
Watch Why Was Dr. Psota Acquitted? on YouTube.
Sources:
According to the Homicide in Chicago Interactive Database, Katherine Collins, 23 years old, died on July 25, 1911 at Chicago's Lake Side Hospital from an abortion committed by an unidentified perpetrator. There were so many physicians and midwives practicing abortion in Chicago at the time that it is likely she availed herself of one of them.
Watch An Unknown Perp in Chicago on YouTube.
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| Carolina Hotel |
On July 16, 1931, B. Marby Hart, a wealthy businessman staying at the Carolina Hotel in Raleigh, North Carolina, had a get-together of some sort in his room involving a number of young women. After his companions left in the early morning hours of the 17th, Hart evidently collapsed into his bed with a lit cigarette. When he awoke to find the bed on fire, he stumbled through the smoke into the bathroom rather than into the hallway. He fell into the bathtub, striking his head. After firefighters extinguished the flames, they found him dead of smoke inhalation.
One of the people evacuated from the hotel during the fire was 20-year-old Celia Olga Roberts of Creedmoor, North Carolina.
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| Brantwood Hospital |
What happened to Celia over the next few days is unclear. She would most likely have been transported to a hospital near the hotel. By July 23, she was in Brantwood Hospital in Oxford under the care of Dr. W. N. Thomas.
Celia's illness had nothing to do with the fire. She was dying of septicemia from a botched abortion. Dr. Thomas testified that Celia told him "a woman in Raleigh" had perpetrated the abortion.
She died on July 24, leaving behind a widowed mother.
What Celia said on her deathbed and the investigation that followed are not revealed in any news coverage I've found of the case. The investigation must have been less than straightforward, because it took three months before the identified abortionist was arrested: Mrs. Sophie E. Layton, a homemaker who lived at 706 Sasser Street in Raleigh with her husband, John, a mechanic.
A Justice of the Peace, I. E. Harris, was arrested "on charges of advising and procuring the operation." He turned state's evidence and identified Layton as the abortionist. Harris's statements corroborated what Celia had said on her deathbed -- that Harris had arranged the abortions and taken her to the hotel, but that he was not the father of her baby. He confessed to paying Layton $14 for the fatal abortion after meeting with her to make the arrangements on July 11. He said that he had done so out of sympathy for Celia's plight.
Eugene Mangum, age 21, also of Granville County, identified Layton as the person who went into Celia's room the night the abortion reportedly had taken place. He also testified that he had visited Celia several times in that room while she was staying at the hotel. Mangum evidently also knew the purpose of the hotel stay because Harris, he said, told him that he'd found a woman in Raleigh to "do the work."
Layton's defense was that she had never seen Celia nor had she ever been at the Carolina Hotel. She brought forth witnesses who said that they were with her on the days the abortion had allegedly been arranged and perpetrated.
Layton was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to five years in prison. The jurors deliberated for five hours before finding her guilty and recommending mercy in sentencing. Layton appealed but her conviction was upheld.
She didn't stay incarcerated long. She was paroled in December of 1934 after serving roughly two years of her sentence.
Watch "Celia's Fatal Journey" on YouTube.
Sources:
According to the Homicide in Chicago Interactive Database, on July 16, 1929, 75-year-old Dr. Sven Windrow reportedly performed an abortion on 19-year-old Emmy Anderson at a Chicago location.
Emmy died on July 24. Dr. Windrow was held by the coroner on July 25. Jacque Lagrave, age 67, was held as an accessory. Windrow was indicted February 6, 1930 for felony murder.
Emmy, a native of Colic, Sweden, worked as a maid. Her abortion was typical of illegal abortions in that it was performed by a physician.
Windrow had previously been implicated in the 1920 abortion death of Ruth Burns.
Watch A Doctor in Chicago on YouTube.
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 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:
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| Grok AI illustration |
On July 22, 1974, 22-year-old Carole Yvonne Wingo's sister-in-law drove her to Mercy General Hospital for an abortion.
Despite the name, Mercy was not a general hospital. It was an abortion hospital. It was also a hospital in big trouble even before Carole's death.
The Michigan Public Department of Health had cited Mercy for 43 violations of nursing standards and 12 violations of physical plant standards in October of 1973, and had withheld their license. Among the violations were that the operating room lacked a cardiac monitor, a resuscitator, and a defibrillator. The facility was allowed to stay open until their license expired at the end of June. The owners then bought some time by appealing the health department order. Thus the place was still in operation when Carole decided on abortion.
Staff told Carole's sister-in-law to return in two hours. When she did, staff told her that Carole was still sleeping and that it was against hospital policy to awaken a patient. She called at one-hour intervals, and each time was told that Carole was still asleep.
When she called at 4:30, staff told her that the doctor was talking to Carole in her room. When she called at 5:30 they told her to come to the hospital and speak to the doctor. When she arrived, they told her that Carole was dead.
Carole's mother, Mabel Wright, filed suit against the facility and doctors David Northcross, Chuk Nwokedi, and Robert Wolf on behalf of the family, including Carole's four-year-old daughter.
Watch Grace Period Allows Woman's Death on YouTube.
Sources:
Mrs. Margaret Shott Hibbins, age 25, lived in White Plains, New York. On July 29, 1925, she was indicted for first degree manslaughter for the death of 17-year-old Gertrude H. Wynants of Ossining.
Gertrude had died in the Ossining hospital on July 19 from the effects of a criminal abortion.
The prosecutors were planning to ask that Hibbins's bail be set at $5,000, an amount that Hibbens would be able to meet.
According to census records, Gertrude was the daughter of Legrand Wynants, a carpenter, and his wife, Eva.
Sources:
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| Grok AI illustration |
Nobody performed an ultrasound to determine gestational age prior to the abortion.
Dr. Alan Beer ruptured the amniotic sac. He evidently realized that Lynette was further along in the pregnancy than he'd believed, so he referred Lynette to University of Michigan Medical Center.
Five days later she gave birth to a 2 lb. 3 1/2 oz. premature infant boy of approximately 25-29 weeks gestation. The infant, named Bryan, suffered developmental delay, intracranial bleeding, hydrocephalus, and disfigurement.
Source: Washtenaw County Circuit Court Case No. 85-30344 NM
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| Alma Deery |
Alma Fay Deery's parents did not approve of her boyfriend, 21-year-old musician and ex-paratrooper James Souch. They had ordered Souch to stay away from their daughter, a 16-year-old student at Phoenixville (PA) High School.
In their efforts to break off the romance, they sent Alma to stay with her grandmother, Bertha Deery, in Sheeder, PA, on July 18, 1949. (One source says that Alma was staying with her aunt and uncle, Mr. and Mrs. Charles Ogden.)
The plan didn't work. At around 9:20 on the evening of July 22, James, who had tracked Alma to her grandmother's house, managed to meet with her secretly. He later told police that he had begged her to run away with him to Elkton, Maryland, to get married. She had agreed, James said. They planned to elope the following day.
They never got a chance. At 10:40 p.m., Alma was found unresponsive on the floor of her bedroom.
An unidentified person called the Phoenixville Hospital and asked for an ambulance to be sent to the home. It was too late. Alma was dead.
Coroner Cooper T. Bishop said that the death "didn't look natural." An autopsy determined that she was about a few months pregnant. It did not, however, reveal a cause of death, but did find "traces of chemical poisoning in the girl's body." He ordered the burial postponed pending an investigation. Alma's vital organs were sent to a laboratory for analysis.
A coroner's jury found that "Alma Fay Deery came to her death July 22, 1949, at 10:45 p.m., at Sheeder, Chester county, P., as the result of drugs administered by her parents, Gladys and Earl K. Deery."
Alma's father Earl K. Deery, a 44-year-old store clerk, was arrested on July 29 along with his wife, Mary Gladys Deery, age 37, and Mary's sister, Myrtle Lahr, age 31. The trio had voluntarily turned themselves in.
Earl and Mary were charge with attempted abortion causing death, aiding and abetting an abortion, and conspiracy to do an unlawful act by giving their daughter the fatal abortifacients. Myrtle was charge with aiding and abetting an abortion, conspiracy to do an unlawful act, and accessory before and after the fact. Each was held on $3,000 bail
Souch was arrested for aiding and abetting an attempt to commit an abortion but the charge was dropped and he signed out on a $500 bond as a material witness.
On December 5, Alma's mother and aunt pleaded guilty to administering drugs for an illegal purpose. They admitted that Mary had given Alma pills procured by Myrtle to cause an abortion. The last dose had been given to her around July 17, right about when Alma had been relocated to her grandmother's home to keep her away from the baby's father. Each woman was sentenced to serve between 1 and 12 months in prison.
They were not charged for Alma's death because it was impossible to prove that the drugs were the cause of her death.
About 30 - 40 Phoenixville residents had signed a petition asking for leniency based on the women's good reputations, but the judge said, "Much as the circumstances surrounding the case have aroused sympathy, I do not see that the offense of abortion may be minimized." Evidently, then the light sentence could have been, at his discretion, even lighter.
Sources:
Tonya Reaves, age 24, was engaged to be married and had a toddler son at home when she went to Planned Parenthood at 18 S. Michigan Avenue in Chicago on Friday, July 21, 2012.
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| A few of Planned Parenthood's dead patients |
Barbara Riley was 27 years old when, under guidance of doctors, she agreed to undergo a safe and legal abortion and tubal ligation. She had given birth to three living children, but her last pregnancy had ended in the delivery of a stillborn child.
Grok AI illustration
She was in her first trimester of pregnancy when she underwent the abortion on July 11, 1970 at Harlem Hospital. The abortion had been recommended by hospital staff because Barbara had a history of sickle cell disease. Barbara's abortion would have been completely and unambiguously legal under New York's old, restrictive abortion law because it was intended to save Barbara's life.
After the abortion, though, instead of improving, Barbara's health deteriorated. Her blood started to break down. Nine days after the abortion, July 20, Barbara died of sickle cell crisis triggered by the abortion.
The other women I've identified as dying from sickle cell crisis triggered by an abortion are Margaret Davis and Betty Hines.
In addition to Barbara, these are the women I know of who had the dubious benefit of dying from the newfangled safe-and-legal kind of abortion in pre-Roe New York:
Watch "Fatal 'Life of the Mother' Abortion" on YouTube.
Sources:
On July 20, 1913, Mrs. Emma Chandler, age 20, died suddenly from complications of a criminal abortion perpetrated the previous day. In a deathbed statement, she named Dr. J.A. Richmond as her abortionist.
Her husband, Ora, a Denver grocery clerk, notified the police immediately after Emma's death. An investigation revealed that a friend had accompanied Emma to Richmond's practice after finishing work at the offices of a lumber company. After the abortion she was driven home.
Her husband returned from work and found Emma very weak. Overnight she became more and more ill. Around noon she realized that she was dying and sent for a neighbor, who she begged to pray for her. The neighbor remained by Emma's bedside, knitting and praying.
Some time in the afternoon Emma confessed about the abortion to her husband because she didn't want another child, feeling that her 3-year-old son was enough. Mr. Chandler sent for a doctor who lived across the street, but there was nothing he could do for her.
When Mr. Chandler spoke to police, he told them that several months earlier Emma had also undergone a criminal abortion and taken desperately ill. "At that time he had threatened to leave her if she ever dared undergo another such operation, and she had promised him never to risk her life again.
Richmond was arrested in Denver for her death. During the inquest he said that he hadn't known that Emma was pregnant, but was operating on her, at her request, to relieve gynecological pain that he'd unsuccessfully treated with medications.
Note, please, that with 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. For more information about early 20th Century abortion mortality, see Abortion Deaths 1910-1919.
For more on pre-legalization abortion, see The Bad Old Days of Abortion
Sources:
Carmen Rodriguez* was 31 years old when she underwent a 14-week saline abortion at Lincoln Hospital in New York City. A saline abortion was performed by injecting a strong, sterile salt solution into the amniotic fluid. The fetus would then swallow and inhale the fluid, causing internal bleeding. After the fetus died, the woman would go into labor.
Choice of a Dangerous Procedure.
Saline abortions are dangerous even for healthy women. became very popular in Japan following WWII. Within the Japanese medical community, however, word quickly spread: this method was unsatisfactory. Too many women were being injured and killed. Over 70 papers were published in the Japanese medical community reporting hazards of saline abortions, including at least 60 maternal deaths. The Japanese Obstetrical and Gynecological Society condemned the technique, and it was quickly abandoned. But the Japanese abortionists kept news of the trouble among themselves -- until Western nations discovered instillation abortions and embraced them with great enthusiasm.
Two Japanese doctors, Takashi Wagatsuma and Yukio Manabe, broke the silence. Wagatsuma wrote, "It is, I think, worthwhile to report its rather disastrous consequences which we experienced in Japan." Manabe wrote, "It is now known that any solution placed within the uterus can be absorbed rather rapidly into the general circulation through the vascular system of the uterus and placenta. Thus any solution used in the uterus for abortion must be absolutely safe even if given by direct intravenous injection. ... A solution deadly to the fetus may be equally toxic and dangerous to the mother. ... In spite of the accumulating undesirable reports, the use of hypertonic saline for abortion is still advocated and used ... in the United States and Great Britain. I would like to call attention to the danger of the method and would predict the further occurrence of deaths until this method is entirely forgotten in these countries."
As western abortionists gained experience with saline abortions, other grim reports arose. A British study published in 1966 found that the saline would enter the mother's bloodstream and cause brain damage. Swedish researchers noticed an unacceptably high rate of complications and deaths. Sweden and the Soviet Union abandoned saline abortion as too dangerous for women in the late 1960s.
For whatever reasons, American abortionists were deaf to these warnings. When New York had completely repealed its abortion law, doctors had tremendous leeway in abortion practice. In New York City in particular, it became popular to inject the woman with the saline in the office, then send her home with instructions to report to a hospital when she went into labor. This was, to say the least, a highly irresponsible way to use an abortion technique that was risky even when performed in a hospital under close medical supervision. Women started dying from these reckless saline abortions.
Even Riskier for Carmen
Carmen had a history of rheumatic heart disease and two previous live births. After the saline was injected, it got into Carmen's blood stream. This caused acute pulmonary edema -- fluid accumulation in the lungs -- and Carmen went into a coma from which she never recovered. She died on July 19, 1970, leaving behind a husband along with her children.
Defending Women vs. Defending Abortion
After Carmen's death, a militant Puerto Rican group, The Young Lords, swung into action. They pointed out that doctors at Lincoln Hospital knew that Carmen had heart problems and failed to take proper precautions -- a very valid claim. After all, saline abortions had long been known to be risky to the woman's heart. They demanded the resignation of Dr. Joseph J. Smith, the hospital chief of obstetrics and went so far as to physically remove him from the hospital and create such a disturbance that 27 doctors staged a walkout until the protests could be brought under control.
Merle Goldman, spokeswoman of an abortion advocacy organization, did not share The Young Lords' outrage. Ms. Goldman said she hoped that Carmen's death wouldn't deter other women from undergoing abortions. She touted abortion's reputed safety and stressed that her group was lobbying against proposed health department regulation of abortion practice. This "access über alles" attitude has never died in abortion-rights circles, in spite of appalling practices of the abortionists:
Detractors Proven Right
New York City Chief Medical Examiner Milton Helpern, on the other hand, expressed concern that ill-equipped and poorly-staffed freestanding legal abortion facilities were posing a danger to women. New York City health officials noted that just within the city's hospitals there were three maternal deaths during the first 20 days of abortion-on-demand.
The 1970 liberalization of abortion had made New York an abortion mecca until the Roe vs. Wade Supreme Court ruling that abortionists could legally set up shop in any state of the union. In addition to Carmen, these are the women I know of who had the dubious benefit of dying from the newfangled safe-and-legal kind of abortion in pre-Roe New York:
1970: Pearl Schwier, cardiac arrest during abortion; Barbara Riley, sickle-cell crisis triggered by abortion recommended by doctor due to her sickle cell disease; "Amanda" Roe, sent back to her home in Indiana with an untreated hole poked in her uterus; Maria Ortega, fetus shoved through her uterus into her pelvic cavity then left there; "Kimberly" Roe, cardiac arrest during abortion
1971: "Amy" Roe, massive pulmonary embolism; "Andrea" Roe, overwhelming infection; "Sandra" Roe, committed suicide due to post-abortion remorse; "Anita" Roe, bled to death in her home during process of outpatient saline abortion; Margaret Smith, hemorrhage from multiple lacerations during outpatient hysterotomy abortion; "Annie" Roe, cardiac arrest during anesthesia; "Annie" Roe, cardiac arrest during abortion; "Vicki" Roe, post-abortion infection; "April" Roe, injected with saline for outpatient abortion, went into shock and died; "Barbara" Roe, cardiac arrest after saline injection for abortion; "Tammy" Roe, massive post-abortion infection; Carole Schaner, hemorrhage from multiple lacerations during outpatient hysterotomy abortion; "Beth" Roe, saline injection meant to kill fetus accidentally injected into her bloodstream; "Roseanne" Roe, vomiting with seizures causing pneumonia after saline abortion
1972: "Connie" Roe, cardiac arrest during abortion; "Julie" Roe, holes torn in her uterus and bowel; "Robin" Roe, lingering abortion complications; "Roxanne" Roe, given overdose of abortion sedatives; Pamela Modugno, air in her bloodstream
The bulk of these deaths were published in a report by the New York Health Department covering the period from June of 1970 through June of 1972.
Watch "Risky Procedure + High Risk Patient = Dead Woman" on YouTube.
* Carmen is "Alice" Roe on the Life Dynamics Blackmun Wall
Sources:
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