Monday, February 26, 2024

February 26, 1943: Woman's Death Gets One Sentence of News Coverage

Dr. Henry Gross, age 56, had a reputable medical practice at 843 Belmont Avenue in Chicago in the 1940s. However, after a Dr. Ira Willits died, Gross purchased the dead man's office and set up an abortion practice there under Willits's name.

On January 28, 1943, 22-year-old Lavern Perez died in her Chicago home. Gross was convicted in her death but won a new trial.

Buried in the coverage of Lavern's death is a mention of the February 26, 1943 abortion death of 20-year-old waitress Dorothy Weber.

After Gross was granted a new trial, he and both the women vanish from the records.

Watch One-Sentence Coverage of Abortion Death on YouTube.

Sources:


Saturday, February 17, 2024

February 17, 1995: First of Biskind's Two Dead Patients

Lisa Bardsley was 26 years old and at least 20 weeks pregnant when she had a safe and legal abortion done by Dr. John Biskind (pictured) at A to Z Women's Clinic in Phoenix, Arizona on February 16, 1995. She was discharged an hour later.

On the way home to Flagstaff, Arizona, she took ill, so she and her boyfriend, who had accompanied her, stopped at a motel at Camp Verde. Lisa hoped that if she rested a while she'd feel better. However, her pain worsened and she began suffering shortness of breath. Her boyfriend called 911. 

Lisa was taken to a hospital in Cottonwood, where she died of blood loss from a uterine laceration on February 17. 

Biskind went on to get into further trouble for delivering a live, nearly term infant during an abortion performed on a teenager, and for the abortion death of Lou Ann Herron, for which he was convicted of manslaughter. The clinic where Lisa was fatally injured was owned by abortionist Moshe Hachamovitch, who was implicated in the abortion deaths of Christina Goesswein, Tanya Williamson, Luz Rodriguez, and Jammie Garcia.

Thursday, February 01, 2024

February Stella Lickerman needs rewrite

Stella: born Chicago to Charles and Celia Stifter. Family moved to Detroit between 1910 and 1920. Married Abner Lickerman in Detroit. Everybody returned to Chicago some time between 1920 and 1930.  Abner had been born in Poland and lived in Chicago but married stella in Detroit on 31 May 1925. 

Dr. William Eugene Shelton, who went by his first initial and middle name, was charged with murder in the February 6, 1927 abortion death of 23-year-old homemaker Stella Stifter Lickerman and five other women whose names I've been unable to determine.

Shelton wasn't arrested until October of 1928.

Shelton ran two "hospital flats" in Chicago, one on 6343 Halsted St. and one at 6341 Halsted St.

Two nurses were also arrested and charged with conspiracy. Nurse Sylvia Atcherly was arrested at the 6343 address while nurse Ophelia Roper Griffith worked at the 6341 address.

Two other women were arrested and released after three days of questioning: Mrs. Gertrude Vollert, who was a cook at one of the flats, and Pearl Hawkins, a maid. Mrs. Vollert had been arrested because, clad in her white cook's uniform, she had been mistaken at first for another nurse. She indicated that she was only a substitute cook, filling in for the regular cook on occasion. 

The raid took place based on a lead provided by a barber named Elmer Duval. Duval had married Sylvia Atcherly, the nurse, in 1924 and lived with her at the hospital until the couple split up. His evident motive for spilling the beans was that he hated Shelton.

Duval said that Shelton had fired one of his nurses, Helen Goode, blaming her for Stella's death and saying that it would cost him $5,000 to "square that case."

Police found indications that Shelton would perpetrate the abortions, and if the women suffered complications he would transport them in his car to a hospital on Chicago's west side. 

Based on Duval's statements, police began an investigation that led to the raid. They found two young women in hospital beds in a front room of the flat. Both had recently undergone abortions. After giving statements they were transferred to the county hospital for care. Shelton had charged each woman $200.

Duval said that the first woman to die at Shelton's hands had died in December of 1926.

Duval  said that Stella Lickerman was the second abortion patient to die. He provided information that led police to her family. They indicated that she had been treated by Shelton, and that another doctor who examined her later found evidence of an abortion.

The only other information I've been able to obtain is that Duval said that one of the victims was 18 years old. Strangely enough, all mention of Shelton seems to vanish from the records after his indictment.

Recently added sources:


February 1, 1977: Happy Birthday, Cecelia's Baby

Suction abortion performed after misdiagnosed fetal age, baby born partially scalped but survived: Dr. Joseph Rucker reportedly examined 14-year-old Cecelia G., estimated her pregnancy as 14 weeks, and tried to perform a suction abortion on her on January 26, 1977. Cecelia began to hemorrhage, and was transported to a hospital by car. There, a doctor examined her, and discovered she was 7 months pregnant. She was released, but returned days later. Her infant girl was born February 1, with a 2-inch piece of her scalp missing.

Sunday, January 21, 2024

January 21, 1982: Scant Information on Georgia Death

I put out a call for information on the following abortion death:

Mary Tennyson, age 20, Black, Richmond County, Georgia; January 21, 1982

My research arm, Keely, found some additional information -- she was born on October 15, 1961. Her death certificate number is 005646. She is buried next to a baby's gravestone with no name on it. This enabled me to look up genealogy records and find that she lived in Roberta, Georgia.

This gave me a lead to her obituary, which indicated that she died in a hospital in Augusta, Georgia and was a graduate of Crawford County High School and had attended Macon Vocational Technical School. 

How Mary came to her death remains unknown to me.

Tuesday, December 26, 2023

December 26, 1989: Happy Brithday, Taranda's Baby

 First-trimester abortion after misdiagnosed fetal age, infant survived: "Taranda," age 17, went to Family Planning Clinic for Reproductive Health for an abortion on December 22, 1989. Dr. Karen J. Smiley estimated the pregnancy at 6 weeks and performed an abortion. Four days later, Taranda gave birth to a one pound, critically ill infant girl in a hospital corridor. Taranda's lawyer said, "She's devastated, obviously. She would never have dreamed of having an abortion had she known it was 26 weeks old." Taranda needed psychiatric care after her ordeal.

Sunday, December 17, 2023

December 17, 1985: The Attempted Murder of Ximenia Renaerts

On December 16, 1985, 22-year-old Nadine Bourne arrived at the emergency room of Vancouver General Hospital, seeking care for complications of an abortion she'd undergone four days earlier at a Bellingham, Washington Planned Parenthood. She had fever and a rapid pulse. She said that she'd been 14 to 16 weeks pregnant.

Dr. Jaroudi, a resident, was summoned by the ER physian. He examined Nadine but failed to notice that she was still pregnant. Nadine was admitted to the hospital.

At 3:20 a.m. the next morning, December 17, Nadine gave birth to her baby while seatedon the toilet. The little girl weighed about three pounds -- more consistent with an infant much closer to term, well into the third trimester.

A nurse, Vera Wood, did not call a resuscitation team or an infant transport team to take the shivering, whimpering, gasping infant to Children's hospital. Instead, according to court records, "She took the baby into the service room where dead fetuses are stored, and left it there [in a bedpan] for 40 minutes."

Thomas Berger, an attorney representing the child and her adoptive family noted, "We could prove that Vera Wood and other nurses did nothing to suction the baby or to provide warmth or oxygen for the child. Our case was that the baby suffered severe [trauma] as a result of these acts or omissions by VGH and its employees, resulting in brain damage in the form of mental retardation and cerebral palsy." After 40 minutes, nurse Wood called the night nursing supervisor, Joyce Hatherall, who cleared the baby's air passages, provided warmth and called for oxygen.

Mr. Berger also said, "We also had evidence that Dr. Jaroudi, called up to the ward, realized the baby had been delivered by Nadine Bourne, and realized it was viable, but nevertheless told the nurses not to resuscitate the baby ('...let it go'). He was ignored by Joyce Hatherall."

But even after Hatherall's intervention, the baby was placed on a metal counter, where she likely suffered further hyperthermia. And when Jaroudi finally contacted the transport team for Children's Hospital, he gave them insufficient information, causing an additional half-hour delay in providing care to the baby.

Ximenia

That neglected baby, left to die, has since been adopted. And she has a name: Ximenia Renearts. But thanks to the attempts on her life both before and after her birth, she suffered permanent brain damage. She is quadriplegic and has the mental capacity of a three-year-old.

BC police made two abortive (how appropriate!) investigations of the case, with spokesman Sergeant Bob Cooper calling the case "bullshit", comparing it to cases where children die when being delivered by midwives. Which leaves me wondering if BC midwives routinely leave premature infants in metal bedpans in the closet for over half an hour at a time before somebody else comes along and provides care over the midwives' objections.

Part of the reason for the callous attitude of the police may be that the spokesman for the BC Minister of Health's Office, Michelle Stewart, is dismissive of the issue of infants born live during abortions, commenting, "As you know, this Ministry is very much in favor of giving women choices about their reproductive health." British Columbia's Chief Coroner Larry Campbell included a letter in a report on such live births, and dismissed them as to be expected in abortion and therefore outside the purview of BC coroners, who only get involved if a death is "unexpected". In other words, at least in British Columbia, abortion is 100% about achieving the death of the infant, even if the infant is born alive. Which leaves me to wonder if a perpetrator who shot Ximenia dead tomorrow would face charges at all. Is she still, legally, only an aborted fetus?

The family filed suit against the hospital, the doctor, and the nurse, settling out of court for over $8 million, which will be used to build an accessible hosue for Ximena and to provide her with the care she will need for the rest of her life.

The hospital never conducted an internal review of how a live-born infant was treated like a pathology specimen on their premises, in violation of the law forbidding anyone to abandon or expose a child under the age of ten "so that its life is or is likely to be endangered or its health is or is likely to be permanently injured." Under Canadian law, having been born alive, Ximenia was a living human being entitled to full protection under the law. Prolife activists hold that chareges of attempted murder might be more appropriate, since nurse Wood's intent in putting the child in the bedpan aside in a room for dead fetuses was to allow the baby to die and be sent to the pathology lab with the other results of recent abortions.

Ximena's adoptive mother, Margaret, says, "How can you ever bring justice when all the damage is done? I guess my big hope that what happened to Ximena won't be in vain. It could be you in the hospital and what if they feel that you're not worthy of life. We have to stop somewhere."

Sources: "Did Someone Try to Murder Ximena?", Terry O'Neill, B.C. Report, August 30, 1999; The Attempted Infanticide of XimenaSafe and Legal?, Ted Gerk, The Interim, September 1988; "Canadian babies born alive after abortion", Marnie Ko, reprinted from BC Catholic Newspaper; Ximenia Renaerts

Wednesday, November 29, 2023

November 29, 1926: Dr. Lucy Hagenow's Last Known Victim

 

On November 29, 1926, 25-year-old stenographer Mary Moorehead died from a criminal abortion perpetrated in the Chicago office of Dr. Lucy Hagenow. 

Hagenow (pictured) wasn't arrested until November 13 of the following year. 

Hagenow told the court that Mary had come to her office on November 5, giving her name as Margaret Sullivan. Hagenow said that she examined Mary, who had a foul-smelling vaginal discharge. Hagenow said that she concluded that Mary's unborn baby had died.

Hagenow said that she packed Mary's vagina with an antiseptic-soaked cotton ball and sent her home. She said that she told Mary that she would come by the next day with another doctor. If that doctor concurred that the baby was dead, Hagenow would get yet another doctor to come and perform an operation to remove the dead baby. 

Hagenow said that Mary paid her $50 in advance for the promised care and left, but when she went to the address "Margaret Sullivan" had provided she found only a vacant lot. That was the last she'd known of the woman, she said, until she was arrested for Mary's death.

The prosecution, however, asserted that several police officers had been present when Mary was about to go surgery in an attempt to save her life. With Hagenow present, Mary told the police that Hagenow had used instruments on her to perpetrate an abortion on November 5.

Dr. Charles H. Phifer testified that on November 7 he saw Mary at her home. She was in a lot of pain and told him that she had been to see Hagenow. Dr. Phifer concluded that Mary was in labor, though he could not determine if the unborn child was alive or dead. He said that he told Mary to consult with Dr. Hagenow.

The next time Dr. Phifer saw Mary it was at Illinois Central Hospital on November 12. She was no longer pregnant and was suffering from septicemia. 

Hagenow was convicted of murder by abortion for Mary's death. She was sentenced to 14 years at Joliet Penitentiary, but was able to get her conviction overturned by the Illinois Supreme Court, which ordered a new trial in 1929. The judge, noting that there was no new evidence, dismissed the case, telling Hagenow, "You had better make your peace with God, Lucy Hagenow. I do not think your months on earth are many." 

Hagenow, who also went by the name of Louise or Louisa Hagenow, had a long and unsavory history of being involved in women's abortion deaths. The first were in San Francisco before Hagenow relocated to Chicago around 1890. The abortion deaths Hagenow was linked to include: