February 12, 1974: Was Bonnie's Death Actually Due to an Abortion?

Bonnie Fix, a 38-year-old mother of four, was admitted to Fresno Community Hospital on February 7, 1974. Doctors there performed an abortion via abdominal hysterectomy on Bonnie. Codes used at the state registrar's office indicate that an abortion had been induced on Bonnie for medical reasons. 

Several days after her hysterectomy, Bonnie began to suffer bowel and lung problems. She suffered cardiac arrest and was pronounced dead on February 12.

In the post-Dobbs era, it's important to look at the surgery that resulted in Bonnie's death to determine if it actually was an abortion. The answer to this goes to the intent of the surgery.

If the intent was to end the life of Bonnie's unborn baby, and they chose a hysterectomy because it would also benefit her in other ways, then surgery was an abortion. This would not have been a legal option in states with abortion restrictions because the death of the baby was the goal of the surgery.

If the intent was to save Bonnie's life, perhaps because of uterine cancer that would have been treated with a hysterectomy even if Bonnie had not been pregnant, then this was not an abortion but was obstetric care that, sadly, also resulted in the death of the baby.

Watch Abortion or Emergency Obstetric Care? on YouTube.

Sources: California Certificate of Death, 74-016613; Fresno County (CA) Superior Court, Case 168185

February 12, 1987: Dead After Planned Parenthood Botches CPR

On February 10, 1987, an ambulance arrived at an outpatient surgical facility to care for an unresponsive patient. The woman had begun having asthma symptoms after her surgery. Staff had twice helped her to use her inhaler, but she had more and more trouble breathing. She had begun to turn blue and staff had administered oxygen. Finally, she had stopped breathing entirely.

The ambulance crew found the patient, 22-year-old Elise Kalat, lying on the floor. One facility employee was doing the CPR compressions on Elise's abdomen rather than on her chest. Another employee was using the bag-valve mask improperly, inflating Elise's cheeks rather than her lungs. 

The doctor at the facility was under the impression that the CPR was effective because he was checking for a pulse in the patient's femoral artery, which was pulsing because the nurse was pressing so hard on Elise's abdomen and not because blood was actually circulating.

Nobody had initiated professional level resuscitation procedures such as intubating the patient, defibrillating her, monitoring her cardiac signs on EKG, or administering cardiac medications.

The ambulance crew loaded Elise onto a stretcher. One EMT noted, "As my partner and I attempted to strap the patient onto the stretcher, the personnel [of the facility] began to run with the stretcher down the corridor. There appeared to me to be much confusion with no organization among the staff.... "

Medics took over Elsie's care. She was finally successfully resuscitated at the hospital, but due to the improperly performed CPR she had suffered devastating brain injury. Her condition continued to deteriorate and she died on February 12.

The outpatient surgical facility was Planned Parenthood Clinic of Central Massachusetts. The procedure in question had been an 8-week abortion. When Elise's mother sued she learned that neither of the two nurses who had been botching the CPR had kept their certifications current. 

According to documents submitted in the case, Elise was unemployed and living with her mother. This was her third pregnancy and her third abortion.

AbortionDocs has an incident report form, redacted, indicating another patient death at this Planned Parenthood in 2008. I have no information about this case.

You don't have to oppose abortion to recognize -- and be appalled by -- incompetence that costs a young woman her life.

The other Planned Parenthood deaths I have in my records are Diana Lopez in 2002, Holly Patterson and Vivian Tran in 2003, Edrica Goode in 2007, Bonnie Hunt in 2008, Roselle Owens in 2009, Tonya Reaves in 2012, Cree Erwin-Shephard in 2016, and Alyona Dixon in 2022. 

Watch Clueless CPR = Dead Patient on YouTube.

Sources:

• Lawsuit documents, including expert reviews, incident reports by EMTs, and Elise's death certificate.

February 12, 1907: Doctor Named in Dying Declaration

On February 11, 1907, housemaid Nellie Walsh, a 28-year-old Irish immigrant, was brought to National Emergency Hospital in Chicago in grave condition from complications of a criminal abortion. She had been admitted to the hospital by Dr. Michael Nelson, who had been called to her home and had been alarmed by her condition. A curettage was performed at around 4:00 that afternoon to try to save her life, but her condition continued to deteriorate.

The next day, February 12, the doctor told Nellie that there was nothing more that could be done for her, and that she was dying. Head nurse Cora Bachino asked Nellie if she'd like a priest to administer last rites. Nellie answered yes, and a priest was brought to her.

Shortly after receiving last rites, Nellie made her dying declaration. She named the baby's father as Patrick O'Connell of Wilcox Avenue. She named Dr. Adolph Buettner of 679 Lincoln Avenue as her abortionist. She said that Buettner had perpetrated the abortion at her request on Wednesday, February 6, after assuring her that "there would be no danger."

After the abortion, Nellie said, she had returned home and become ill. That was when Dr. Nelson had been called in to care for her and had decided to admit her to the hospital.

A stenographer, in the presence of nurse Bachino and another witness, typed up the statement. After both copies -- the handwritten one by the stenographer and the typed one, were read to her, Nellie confirmed that she understood them.

Less than an hour later, she died.

Both O'Connell and Buettner were arrested. Though O'Connell admitted that he'd taken Nellie to Buettner's office, and Buettner admitted to having attended to her, both denied any involvement in an abortion. 

Buettner, who had been practicing in Chicago for a number of years, had been indicted for another abortion case seven or eight years before Nellie's death. Found guilty of manslaughter for Nellie's death, was sentenced to Joliet. O'Connell was acquitted.

Sources:

• "Girl Dies After Operation," Chicago Tribune, February 13, 1907
• "Dying Girl Implicates Two," The Inter-Ocean, February 13, 1907
• "Girl Dead; Physician Held," Chicago Tribune, March 2, 1907
• "Two Held as Girl's Murders," The Inter-Ocean, March 2, 1907
• "Found Guilty of Girl's Death," The Inter-Ocean, August 2, 1907
• "Physician is Found Guilty," Chicago Tribune, August 2, 1907

February 12, 1916: Little Information on Queens Abortion Death

On February 12, 1916, 28-year-old homemaker Anna Farrell Nicholls of Sanford Street, Ravenswood, NY, died at St. John's Hospital in Queens, New York, from suppurative peritonitis after an abortion. The case was turned over to the coroner for investigation.

According to available records, Anna was a native of New York.

Source: New York death record

February 11, 1992: High Risk Abortion in an Outpatient Setting

Danette Adele Perguson, a 19-year-old medical assistant, submitted to a safe, legal abortion on February 11, 1992, at the hands of Dr. Robert H. Tamis of Phoenix, Arizona. 

As far as I can tell, the facility, Abortion Services of Phoenix, was jointly owned by Tamis and his wife, Beverlee.

Danette had a rare condition called Pyruvate Kinase Deficiency , a hereditary blood disorder that made her a very high-risk patient for an abortion. Dr. Thomas Murphy Goodwin, a high-risk OB/GYN, pointed out in later court proceedings that any abortion on a woman with PKD should have been done in a hospital, and special steps should have been taken to prevent possible fatal clots from forming in the blood stream.

During the abortion, Danette stopped breathing, and paramedics were summoned.

The Maricopa County deputy medical examiner determined that Danette died from a pulmonary embolism, which is when blood flow in the lungs is blocked by material such as a clot.

Tamis later made the news in 1981 when he and his partners, Robert Weschsler and Mark Gross, performed a saline abortion at Doctor's Hospital in Phoenix, resulting in the March 20 birth of a 2 lb 9 oz baby girl. Tamis and his partners said that they had been "fooled" when examining the patient and had believed her to be only 19 weeks pregnant. The baby, however, proved to have been about 32 weeks of gestation.

Tamis actually seemed to believe in total reproductive choice for women, at least when he could make money from it. He also ran a sperm bank and an IVF clinic. 

Watch High-Risk Abortion in Clinic Proves Fatal on YouTube.
Watch High-Risk Abortion in Clinic Proves Fatal on Rumble.

• Perguson v. Tamis, 937 P.2d 347 (Ariz. Ct. App. 1996)

February 11, 1879: "I Was Almost Paralyzed With Horror"

The Shocking News

On February 11, 1879, 65-year-old Henry Sammis of Northport, Long Island, got a dispatch from Inspector Murray of the Brooklyn police to go to Brooklyn immediately. His daughter, 21-year-old Cora Sammis, a Sunday School teacher from Northport, Long Island, was deathly ill.

Grok AI illustration

Mr. Sammis, a coal and lumber dealer, boarded the next train with his wife. About halfway to New York, he got a copy of the morning paper. There he read that his daughter had already died from the results of a botched abortion.

"I was almost paralyzed with horror, and count not believe the story to be true," he told the New York Herald. Fearful of upsetting his wife, Mr. Sammis kept his composure. Pretending to be adjusting the window on the car, he let the newspaper fly.

Once they got to the home of Mr. Sammis's sister, he broke the news to his wife. Leaving her in the care of friends, he went to the police station and was given the address where his daughter had died: 161 East 27th Street. It was the elegantly appointed premises of "Mme. Bertha Burger, doctress and midwife."

"The old man's eyes were red with weeping" as he left the police station. He was escorted to the dingy, unventilated upstairs front room where Cora, "clad in a blue merino wrapper, lay on the bed on which she had died."

Cora had been a lovely girl, with "luxuriant dark brown hair." But when her father saw her body, "Her features had become so shrunken and emaciated that he hardly knew her. He stooped and kissed her forehead, and, controlling himself, arose and looked at her for a long time in silence.

The Police Have Questions

The police asked him about 27-year-old Frank Cosgrove. Mr. Sammis said that the family knew him well. He had been courting Cora for about two years, and the couple had become engaged and had planned to marry before the spring. Cosgrove, who worked in the shipping business, had seemed to have honorable intentions, and Cora had seemed to be of a chaste disposition. A resident of Newport said, "She was the last girl in the village that I could have suppose could be tempted."

However, in November of 1878, Cora had gone to Brooklyn to visit her aunt, and Cosgrove spent a lot of time in her company. Her parents believed that it was during this time that the liaison took place which had resulted in Cora's pregnancy.

Cora's body was taken to the coroner's office, where an autopsy was performed "which showed conclusively that death had resulted from malpractice."

Frank Pushes the Abortion

Cora's aunt, Mary D. Betts, testified that Cora and her "alleged seducer," Frank Cosgrove, had met at her house on February 4. The couple had left, saying that they were going to visit friends. Cora and Frank instead went to the home of 35-year-old Bertha Berger.

About two hours after they arrived at the house, Berger perpetrated the abortion. Cora was to convalesce there but instead grew increasingly ill. Cosgrove, who sat up with Cora every night, grew more and more worried. He found an ad for Dr. Whitehead, who advertised that he practiced midwifery. Frank went to him on February 10 and offered him $100 (around $2,600 in 2021) to take over Cora's care. Frank was open with Dr. Whitehead about why Cora was ill. Whitehead insisted that they stop at his attorney's practice first. The lawyer told Whitehead that he had a duty to attend to the young woman because her life was in danger.

Upon examining Cora, Whitehead found that she had a raging fever from a uterine infection. He declared that the case was hopeless. He provided what care he could to the young woman and promised to return the following day. Berger offered him $50 to provide a death certificate but on the advice of his attorney Whitehead refused, instead notifying the authorities.

Grok AI illustration

The following day, police went to Berger's house to question Cora, who was told that she was dying. With frequent rests and occasional sips of iced brandy she was able to give a deathbed statement, occasionally stopping "to lament her unhappy fate." As the detective bent close to hear her, Cora clasped him and asked him to pray for her and to "Spare my Frank." Her primary concern was that no harm would come to her fiancé.

Cora said that she and Frank had rented the room for the express purpose of having Berger perpetrate the abortion. When Berger was brought into the room Cora positively identified her as the abortionist.

In fact, the Berger house was an abortion house. All but one of the other occupants of the house were arrested along with Berger. Those arrested included Berger's 17-year-old married daughter, and two 18-year-old young women who had been briefly boarding at the house. Police also learned that a young woman named either Margaret or Mary Steele had undergone an abortion at the Berger house and had been moved to "a wretched hovel" where Mrs. Berger's mother, Mrs. Riesler, was supposed to be caring for her but evidently hadn't even been giving her food. 

Cora's Death

Cora was so sick that she was not troubled with a pointless transfer to a hospital. Instead, her aunt Mary was brought to her to stay with her. By then, around 9:00 p.m., Cora had slipped into unconsciousness. She died later that night.

When police searched the premises they found instruments consistent with an abortion practice.

Berger was held on $10,000 bond and Cosgrove on $5,000. He confessed shortly after his arrest, admitting to having both arranged and witnessed the fatal abortion. He was bailed out by his father and uncle. 

Berger and Cosgrove were granted separate trials. Berger's trial was a media circus played to crowds of gawking onlookers. Berger's attorney asserted that it had actually been Dr. Whitehead who had perpetrated the fatal abortion. He had, in fact, been convicted himself for abortion several times in the past, a point that Bertha Berger's attorney harped on extensively, calling him a convict, a coward, an "experienced malpractitioner," and "the prince of butchers." Cora's deathbed statement, along with the testimony of the other denizens of Mrs. Berger's abortion house, was sufficient. The jury retired at 5:00 p.m. to deliberate and returned at 11:10 with a verdict of guilty. They did, however, make a request for mercy in sentencing the woman. This last had been a concession to the two holdout jurors to get to an agreement. Berger's attorney immediately asked that sentencing be postponed until he could file motion for a new trial, and the judge agreed. Berger was eventually sentenced to 12 or 14 years -- sources aren't consistent. She then was granted the right to a new trial but instead just entered a guilty plea and was sentenced to five years in March of 1880.

After Berger's trial, Frank Cosgrove pleaded guilty as an accessory, which could potentially carry as severe a sentence as being the principle. His case sat in limbo, and Cosgrove in a prison cell, as his well-connected friends tried to get him released. In July of 1879 he finally ended up in Sing Sing, sentenced to four years. He requested time off for good behavior. His sentenced was reduced and he was released on time served in July of 1881.

Whitehead was sentenced to two years in prison and a $1,000 fine. 

Sources:

• "Briefs by Wire," Scranton Republican, February 12, 1879
• "Victims of Malpractice," New York Herald, February 12, 1879
• "Betrayed and Murdered," Cincinnati Daily Star, February 12, 1879
• "Infamy," Brooklyn Daily Eagle, February 13, 1879
• "Arrest for Malpractice," The Boston Globe, February 13, 1879
• "A Father's Great Grief," Selinsgrove (PA) Times Tribune, February 19, 1879
• "The Destroyers of Cora Sammis," Brooklyn Daily Eagle, February 20, 1879
• "Cora Sammis' Death," New York Herald, March 29, 1879
• "The Sammis Malpractice Case," The New York Times, March 29, 1879
• untitled entry, The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, April 2, 1879
• "Bertha Berger Convicted," The New-York Times, April 3, 1879
• untitled entry, The Brooklyn Daily Times, June 26, 1879
• "The Murderers of Cora Sammis," New Orleans Daily Democrat, July 8, 1879
• "Jailed for Malpractice," Record of the Times, March 23, 1880
• Sing Sing prison intake record for Frank Cosgrove
• Frank Cosgrove's name on Sing Sing's prison roster, 1879
• Frank Cosgrove commutation request
• Frank Cosgrove pardon request
• Frank Cosgrove's commutation record
• Bertha Berger request for pardon

February 11, 1905: Man Blows His Brains Out Over Fatal bortion

On February 11, 1905, 17-year-old Leona Pearl Loveless died in the Ischua, New York home of 58-year-old Dayton M. Hibner, where she had been working as a domestic for two years. She had gotten the job with the assistance of her grandmother, who thought that working on the Wolcott, NY farm with her widowed father, Abram, would be too difficult for the girl. Abram objected but allowed his daughter to take the job.

Leona reportedly had been in good health until about 5:15 p.m., when she was found in her room in great pain. She died about fifteen minutes later, and the coroner was notified. He had Leona's body taken from the Hibner home to the parlor at a village hotel. There, an autopsy conducted in anticipation of an inquest. While the coroner had been at the house arranging to move Leona's body, Hibner quipped that he was going to blow his brains out and end the matter.

Whether because of this comment or because of other suspicious happenings or rumors, law enforcement sent a guard home with Hibner to stay with him pending the completion of the coroner's inquest.

Grok AI illustration

Saying he was going to feed his horses, Hibner left the guard at his house and went into the barn and got out a double-barreled shotgun. His first shot, to the chest, took a downward trajectory that wasn't fatal. He finished himself off with a second blast that took off the top of his head.

Hibner's 52-year-old wife, Eliza, was left devastated. Dayton Hibner had been her second husband. Her first husband, Mr. Beebe, had died by hanging himself.

"The coroner made discoveries after the girl's death, which, if proved, would have made the lynching of the suicide among the possibilities had he not taken his own life," the Lake Shore News noted. Leona, it turns out, had died from an attempted abortion.

Even getting Leona's body to the family home in Wolcott proved difficult. Her grandmother, Mrs. Sherman, and her cousin, Maude Legg, only made the journey from Ischua as far as Niagara Falls before being stopped by winter storms. A relative of Maude's, who had worked for the railroad, managed to arrange a special train for the journey to be completed.

The coroner's jury must have decided that Hibner himself had perpetrated the fatal abortion, since there is no follow up on the case.

Recently Added Sources:

• "D. N. Hibner of Ischua Commits Suicide," Buffalo Evening News, February 13, 1905
• "Did Blow His Head Off," The Buffalo Commercial, February 14, 1905
• "Miss Leona Loveless," Democrat and Chronicle, February 16, 1905
• "Blew His Head Off," Journal and Herald, February 16, 1905

February 11, 1913: Very Little Information on Self-Induced Abortion

As I went through New York death records I learned of the self-induced abortion death of 27-year-old Polish immigrant Carmelia Marfiski Carnechi. Carmelia had come to the United States when she was about fourteen years old. "

The daughter of Frank and Josephine Marfiski, Carmelia was listed on death records as a "housewife" who lived on Leant Avenue in Flushing, Long Island. 

Carmelia died of septicemia on February 11, 1913.

I've been unable to learn anything else about her death.

February 11, 1985: "This is All a Bad Dream"

  "They told me I had to get down to St. Luke's right away, that Dawn was at that hospital fighting for her life."

It's the call every parent dreads. Ruth was no exception. Her 13-year-old daughter, Dawn, was active in the church where both her parents were ministers. The family sang Gospel songs together. Dawn was a dream child -- the kid who did her homework without being told, who liked to surprise her mother by cleaning the house. She was what's known in the vernacular as "a good girl." Her parents never expected any trouble about Dawn.

What Ruth didn't know was that Dawn had slipped off her pedestal, had engaged in a dalliance with a 15-year-old Romeo. And when she learned that she was pregnant, she knew her parents would be crushed. She went to a teacher for advice. The teacher and a counselor arranged to take care of the whole mess so that Dawn's parents would never have to know. The boyfriend borrowed a credit card from a relative to pay for the risky, expensive, 21-week abortion.

The counselor at Eastern Women's Center (a National Abortion Federation member) had seen how frightened Dawn was, and had marked on her chart that she should be treated with "tender loving care." But abortionist Allen Kline had his own ideas about what constituted "tender loving care." According to the suit filed by Dawn's parents, anesthetist Robert Augente didn't administer enough anesthesia to get the frightened child through the entire procedure. About halfway through, she began to cough, vomit, and choke. Abortionist Kline put a breathing tube in Dawn's throat, put her aside, and left her unattended to lapse into a coma. Dawn was eventually rushed to the hospital, where it finally occurred to somebody to do the obvious: call Dawn's mother.

"They told me I had to get down to St. Luke's right away, that Dawn was at that hospital fighting for her life," Ruth Ravenell later said. "I was going, 'How can she be fighting for her life? She left for school this morning, looking healthy, never been sick.' While I was there at the hospital -- they were doing tests -- I had to keep my hand pressed over my mouth to keep from screaming in horror. I kept going, 'This is all a bad dream. I am going to wake up and this will not have happened.'"

Day after day Dawn's family gathered at her bedside, talking to her, playing tapes of the family singing together, trying to lure her back from the brink of death -- all to no avail. Dawn died three weeks after her abortion, on February 11, 1985, without ever having regained consciousness.

The family sued and won. The amount the jury granted Dawn's family was the largest believed to have been awarded to date for an abortion death. But as a New York Post headline pointed out, "$1.2M Won't Bring Her Back." The story featured a photo of Dawn at her junior high graduation, in cap and gown, gazing out smiling at a future she would never have.

Venus Ortiz and Dawn Mack also died from botched anesthesia at Eastern.

Watch "This Is All a Bad Dream" on YouTube.

Recently Added Sources:

• "$1.225M award," NY Daily News, December 11, 1990
• "Family awarded $1.2M in abortion death," The Journal News, December 12, 1990
• "Fatal heart attack after abort," NY Daily News, August 6, 1991

February 11, 1861: "While you're here...."

Grok AI illustration

During early 1861, a German physician by the name of John H. Joecken was caring for Mr. Malinken, who was ailing in his Brooklyn home.

On one of his visits, Malinken's 35-year-old wife, Caroline, approached Joecken privately and told him "she did not want to have so many children, and wished to know if it was possible to get rid of her present burthen. The doctor replied that it was the easiest thing imaginable, and that in eight days all would be over."

Joecken set to work on Caroline, "and by the use of drugs as well as instruments succeeded in making her very sick." Over the course of several days her condition deteriorated. She died late Monday night, February 11.

The coroner's jury concluded that Caroline had died from "pyemia, supervening upon metritis, consequent of an abortion produced at the hands of Dr. Joecken." Joecken was arrested but I've been unable to determine the outcome of the case.

Source: "Death of a Married Woman From the Effects of an Abortion," Brooklyn Eagle, February 13, 1861

February 10, 1941: Scanty Information on Self-Induced Abortion

Grok AI illustration

I'm always looking for more cases of abortion mortality that I can learn from. New York death records cite the February 10, 1941 death of Anita Luhs, nee Mavaro, She worked as an operator in a dress factory -- though it's not clear if she operated a switchboard of a machine. 

Anita was 40 years old and lived with her husband, Walter, on Linden Street in New York. Anita had come to the US from Italy 28 years earlier. She had been living with her parents on East 149th Street at the time of the 1940 census, along with her three children, ages 11, 9, and 4.

Her death at Kings County Hospital in Brooklyn was attributed to "septic endometritis following self-induced abortion."

That's all I've been able to learn.

Watch Self-Induced in Brooklyn in 1941 on YouTube.
Watch Self-Induced in Brooklyn in 1941 on Rumble.

February 10, 1933: Another Death Attributed to Dr. Emil Gleitsmann

Dr. Emil Gleitsmann

Dr. Emil Gleitsmann had a long criminal history of abortion. As I was looking for addition information about an anniversary, I discovered yet another death linked to Gleitsmann: 23-year-old Rosalie Lewis. This young Arlington Heights woman died in Presbyterian Hospital in Chicago on February 10, 1933.

Rosalie's husband, Archer, told police that his wife had told him  that Gleitsmann had perpetrated an abortion on her in January. Gleitsmann, of course, denied the allegation.

The string of deaths attributed to Gleitsmann started in 1927 when he was implicated in the November 30 abortion death of 22-year-old homemaker Lucille van Iderstine. Gleitsman was indicted for felony murder in Lucille's death but for reasons I do not yet know why the case never came to fruition. 

He was prosecuted but acquitted in the December 12, 1930 death of Jeanette Reder.

After his acquittal for Jeanette's death he was indicted for the February 16, 1931 death of 25-year-old Mathilda Cornelius. 

This is where, in the timeline, Rosalie died. 

Gleitsmann was convicted three times on a single charge of manslaughter by abortion for the March 25, 1933 death of Mary Colbert, but each time his lawyer got a reversal and eventually the prosecutors gave up.

He was implicated again in the June 8, 1934 death of 26-year-old Elsie Quall.

Gleitsman got in trouble again in 1937 for the death of 16-year-old Phyllis Brown. However, that death was eventually attributed to Dr. C. Harold Edmunds. I have no idea how Gleitsmann was implicated.

At last he was held accountable for his crimes and sentenced to 14 years for the December 10, 1941 death of Marie O'Malley.

Watch Another Death Attributed to Dr. Gleitsmann on YouTube.

Watch Another Death Attributed to Dr. Gleitsmann on Rumble.

Source: "Physician Seized After Woman Dies in Hospital," Chicago Tribune, February 11, 1933

February 9, 1911: A Chicago Midwife's Fatal Work

On February 9, 1911, 37-year-old homemaker Elizabeth Margaret Martin died at German American Hospital in Chicago from sepsis caused by of an abortion perpetrated at 1310 Eddy Street. A midwife identified only as Mrs. Schutner, age 33, was held by the Coroner's Jury and indicted, but the case never went to trial.

According to genealogy records, Elizabeth, nee Stuart, had married George Frederick Martin in 1896 and they had three children who were approximately ages 13, 9, and 5. 

Census records indicate that the midwife's first name was Mary and she was an immigrant from Austria. 

Watch Midwife Charged With Murder in 1911 on YouTube.
Watch Midwife Charged With Murder in 1911 on Rumble.

Sources: 

• "Midwife Is Charged with Murder," Chicago Tribune, February 11, 1977
• Homicide in Chicago Interactive Database

February 8, 1968: Retroactively Safe and Legal

Nancy Ward

In November of 1967, Nancy Ward, a student at the University of Oklahoma, told her boyfriend, Fred Landreth, that she was pregnant and wanted an abortion. Fred contacted his father for help. On January 30, 1968, Fred's father contacted osteopath Dr. Richard Mucie at his ear, nose, and throat clinic in Kansas City to consult with him about an abortion.

Mucie wanted to know how far advanced Nancy's pregnancy was. There were some calls back and forth between the elder Landreth, his son, and Mucie. Eventually Fred indicated that Nancy had been examined by a doctor and was about 13 or 14 weeks pregnant.

On February 7, Nancy and Fred flew from Oklahoma to Kansas City and visited Mucie at his clinic. Mucie examined Nancy while Fred waited, then told the couple that he would contact them at their hotel. The two had dinner and went to a show, then went to the hotel. 

At 11 p.m., Mucie called and arranged to pick Nancy and Fred up and drive them to his clinic. He took Nancy back for the back room while Fred waited in the outer office. About 20 to 30 minutes later, Mucie, dressed in a surgeon's gown, returned to the front office and asked Fred for money, $400, before starting the procedure. It wasn't until about 7:30 on the morning of February 8, Mucie came out and asked Fred if he wanted to come back and see Nancy.

Dr. Richard Mucie

Fred went with Mucie into the office and saw Nancy lying on a couch with a cover over her. Fred said, "Hello," to her. She smiled and moved her hand. Mucie told Fred that Nancy was still sedated. Fred went back to the waiting room to nap. He was awakened at about 11:30 that morning by Mucie's porter. Mucie told Fred that Nancy had suffered a heart attack and was in shock and had been taken to the hospital. He told Fred that he would come back for him, then went back into his office. Fred went looking for him and followed the sound of his voice to a back room, where Mucie was lying on a cot, talking on the phone and saying something to the effect of needing to call the coroner and filling out a death certificate.

Stunned, Fred went back to the waiting area. Mucie came out a few minutes later, told him that Nancy had died, and that they needed to stick to the story that the couple had been traveling through Kansas City and had called him because Nancy had started to have chest pains. It was around that time that the ambulance arrived. The driver and attendant found Nancy on a cot. Mucie told them that she still had a pulse, and instructed them to take her to Osteopathic Hospital and administer oxygen on the way. 

The ambulance driver and attendant noticed that Nancy's fingers had blood on the, her arms were stiff, and her hands were in a "clawed" position. They lifted Nancy and found that she was already stiff. The doctor at the hospital concluded that Nancy been dead about four hours. He called Mucie, who told him that he'd been treating Nancy for about two weeks for a heart condition. Nancy's body was taken to the morgue, where a detective observed the autopsy, noting needle marks on her arms, buttocks, and left breast. The detective took custody of the uterus, which had a tear about half an inch long inside. It also contained the skull and upper spine of a fetus of roughly 4 1/2 to 5 months gestation. Most of the remainder of the fetus, consisting of a shoulder blade, upper arm and shoulder joint, and part of a collar bone, was found in the trash at Mucie's clinic.

The autopsy found abundant evidence of the abortion, including stains from antiseptic on Nancy's upper thighs and genital area, a 1/2 inch tear in Nancy's uterus. The condition of her uterus, heart, and other organs indicated that she had gone into shock and died at the clinic at about 9 a.m. February 8, in spite of Mucie's attempts to resuscitate her. She had bled to death.

Mucie took the stand with a story that he hoped the jury would believe. He confirmed the call from Fred's father, the repeated calls back and forth as they tried to figure out the gestational age, and that Fred's father wanted to arrange an abortion. Mucie said that he had merely offered to examine Nancy for a $4 fee. He admitted that Fred and Nancy had come to his office and said that he'd examined Nancy and found her to be 4 1/2 to 5 months pregnant. He said that he told Nancy that she was so far along that nobody would be willing to do an abortion.

Mucie said that Nancy became frantic, saying that it would kill her father to learn of the pregnancy and that she would kill herself if nobody would perform an abortion. He said he gave Nancy some Vistaril to calm her then dropped the young couple back off at their hotel.

Mucie said that he had run some errands and gone to bed when he got a call from Nancy. "She was crying and hysterical" and feeling very ill. He said that he told Nancy to come back to the clinic. When the couple arrived, Mucie said, Nancy told him, "I had to do it. I just had to do it."

He then described at length examining Nancy. "She was in a state of aborting, and at this time immediate medical attention had to be instituted." He described at length the procedure to finish the abortion Nancy had supposedly started and treating her for the complications she suffered. 

Mucie was convicted on June 8, 1968, of performing an abortion "not necessary to preserve the life" of the mother. Illegal abortion at that time carried a penalty of 3-5 years, with the sentence to be increased in cases where the mother died. Mucie was sentenced to ten years, but only served 14 months then was released on parole. Parole was set to expire on July 27, 1977. His medical license was revoked on May 4, 1971. 

After Roe v. Wade overturned Missouri's abortion law, Mucie successfully appealed his conviction and got his license restored under a ruling that made Roe retroactive in Missouri. He was released from probation and his record expunged of the manslaughter-abortion conviction.

Watch Retroactively Safe and Legal on YouTube.

Sources:

• State of Missouri vs. Richard P. Mucie, No. 54317, Supreme Court of Missouri, Division No. 1, January 12, 1970
• Dr. Richard P. Mucie, Petitioner, v. Missouri State Department of Corrections et. al., Respondents, 543 F.2d 633 (8th Cir. 1976)

February 8, 1967: New Information Adds to the Mystery of Raisa's Death

Born in Russia and brought to America as an infant, [Raisa Trytiak] grew up in Seattle, graduated from Ballard High School and briefly attended the University of Washington. A year before her death she took a job as a key punch operator with Seattle First-National Bank. Why she sought help from Jack Blight, a 61-year-old construction worker and avid fisherman, is not known. He was a neighbor and family friend. She was almost six months pregnant and the abortion attempt caused an an air embolism that killed her. Why there were marks on her neck that led the coroner to suspect that she had been strangled was not explained in any of the news coverage that followed. Nor was the curious fate of Jack Blight who pled guilty to a charge of manslaughter and took responsibility for dumping the body. Blight was sentenced to probation instead of a long prison term typical in such cases. An article in the Everett Herald suggests that the Snohomish County prosecutor accepted Blight's claim that someone else had been primarily responsible for the abortion.
-- "When Abortion was Illegal (and Deadly): Seattle's Maternal Death Toll," Seattle Civil Rights & Labor History Project

Raisa Trytiak

Unlike most abortion-rights sources, the Seattle Civil Rights & Labor History project cites sources for its assertions and thus wins my admiration.  In the case of 24-year-old  Raisa Trytiak, they cite the Seattle Times (February 8 & 9, 1967, Seattle Post-Intelligencer (February 9 & 10, 1967), and the Everett Herald (May 23, 1967). They even include a clipping from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer's February 10, 1967 issue, which noted that Black was held after failing to post $10,000 bail on charges of manslaughter for both Raisa and her unborn child. 

The story fits the narrative: Since abortion was illegal, a young woman had no choice but to seek out a high-risk abortion at the hands of an amateur.

Is This the Real Story?

I received a comment to an older posting of this story that raises some very troubling possibilities and sent me digging for more source materials:

Again this story of Raisa Trytiak is wrong and she did not turn to this man for an abortion, she was excited about having her baby, and my mom has been haunted by identifying her beloved older sister since her parents did not speak English, and my mom was 14, and my mom to this day still get so emotional over memory of seeing the finger marks on her sisters neck, the abortion part was just a cover up, to say she went to this man and wanted kill her baby at 6 months is not true, he was a neighbor hood creep, please remove that, if u care to know more my name is [N] and my email is [redacted], my mother, [V] would like to have her story told. And to make matters worse they even spelled Raisa name wrong on her tombstone but again since they didn't speak English so it was never corrected.

I have reached out to N, and hope to have clarification soon that can explain how this tragedy came to pass. In the mean time, let's look at what source documents have to say and start the story from scratch.

Who was Raisa?

Raisa's death certificate gives her place of birth as Kharkov, Ukraine. During Raisa's entire lifetime, Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union. People in the West often referred to the Soviet Union as "Russia," so this explains why some coverage said that Raisa was born in Russia rather than Ukraine. 

According to immigration records, Raisa's father had become a citizen on July 17, 1958 in Chicago and applied for citizenship for his daughter in Chicago on an unspecified date. Raisa had come into the United States under the surname Waszczenko in New York City on May 18, 1949, when she was six years old. 

The family somehow made their way to Seattle, where Raisa attended Ballard High School.

Raisa found work as a key punch operator at the Eastlake Branch of Seattle First National Bank in March of 1968. 

A Grisly Discovery and a Shifting Story Line

At around 3:00 the next morning the body of a young woman clad in a two-piece blue suit, a yellow coat, and high-heeled shoes was found by someone scavenging in the Snohomish County dump in Bryant, Washington. 

At around 11:00 that morning, Raisa's parents reported her missing. She had last seen alive at around 7:10 on the evening of Monday, February 6, 1967 when she left work, dressed in a two-piece blue suit, a yellow coat, and high-heeled shoes. The authorities brought Raisa's parents to the morgue that evening, where they identified their daughter's body.

By February 8, an autopsy had been done and an arrest had been made. Here is where things start to get weird.

Under "Describe how injury occurred," the Coroner wrote "Attempted abortion which resulted in air embolism followed by strangulation." News coverage the day after Raisa's body was discovered also indicates that she died of "strangulation, blows over the head or a combination of both."

Why would somebody who was only attempting an abortion at a woman's request strangle her as she was dying from complications? It makes no sense.

The news coverage also started shifting. Early stories say that 61-year-old Jack Blight was arrested for manslaughter in the strangulation deaths of both Raisa and her 6-month unborn baby. This alone makes no sense, since strangling somebody is not typically considered mere manslaughter. As days and weeks pass, the story shifts. Raisa's death gets attributed to an attempted abortion, with the strangulation the the death of the baby mentioned tangentially or not at all. There was no change in the autopsy report and none on the death certificate, so why did the news story shift?

Who Was Jack Blight and What Was His Actual Involvement?

Blight, age 61, was identified as a retired construction worker who lived near Raisa's family. A few articles also describe him as a close friend of Raisa's family. But news coverage never reveals how he was connected to the discovery of the dead woman at the dump.

Blight was arrested in his home on Wednesday, February 9. In late May, he entered a guilty plea to aiding and abetting manslaughter. This would mean that he wasn't considered the primary party responsible for killing Raisa. The May 23, 1967 Everett Herald said that at Blight's sentencing hearing, his attorneys said that he would "cooperate with investigating authorities to determine if others were involved in the crime."

Where does the "if" come from? How could Blight be aiding and abetting people who might or might not have actually been involved? The Everett Herald  article does sat that Chief Criminal Deputy Henry S. Chapman said that "investigation has revealed a second party was involved in the death."

So who was this second party? And why did the narrative shift from strangulation and blows to the head to abortion with marks on the neck?

Blight was sentenced to 20 years deferred for five years, during which Blight was to be on probation. He would serve the sentence if he got into further criminal activity during those five years.

Raisa's decision to turn to a lay abortionist -- if indeed that was what she had done -- would have been unusual. Two independent sources -- Nancy Howell Lee and Planned Parenthood -- concluded that prior to legalization, 90% of women found doctors to do their abortions. Lee further found that even when women resorted to non-physicians, they more often than not went to a nurse, midwife, or other person with medical training. More typical of criminal abortions is the one that took the life of 19-year-old Nancy Ward in Kansas City the very same day Raisa Trytiak died.

Other sources:

• "Apparently Slain," Longview (WA) Daily News, February 8, 1967
• "Murder Victim is Identified," The Everett (WA) Herald, February 8, 1967
• "Autopsy Shows Young Woman Was Murdered," The (Olympia, WA) Daily Olympian, February 8, 1967
• "Man Charged in Death of Girl," The Bremerton (WA) Sun, February 9, 1967
• "Body Found; Man, 61, Held," The (Vancouver, WA) Columbian, February 9, 1967
• "Man Arrested in Slaying," Spokane (WA) Daily Chronicle, February 9, 1967
• "Sheriff Says Girl Slain," (Spokane, WA) Spokesman-Review, February 9, 1967
• "Hearing Set in Deaths," The Everett (WA) Herald, February 10, 1967
• "Abortion Death Brings Probation For Seattle Man," Bellingham WA Herald, May 23, 1967
• "Probation 20 Years," Centralia (WA) Daily Chronicle, May 24, 1967
• n, February 9, 1967
• "Man Arrested in Slaying," Spokane (WA) Daily Chronicle, February 9, 1967
• "Sheriff Says Girl Slain," (Spokane, WA) Spokesman-Review, February 9, 1967
• "Hearing Set in Deaths," The Everett (WA) Herald, February 10, 1967
• "Abortion Death Brings Probation For Seattle Man," Bellingham WA Herald, May 23, 1967
• "Blight Sentenced For Manslaughter," The Everett (WA) Herald, May 23, 1967
• "Probation 20 Years," Centralia (WA) Daily Chronicle, May 24, 1967

February 7, 1929: Death in the Home of a Midwife

Serene Mary Baker, age 17, of Venice, Illinois, died February 7, 1929 at the home of Mary Adamson, 4501 West Main St., Belleville, IL.  According to death records, Serene was an Illinois native who worked as a grocery clerk. 

Rolla Carmack, aged 20, of East St. Louis, told police that he was the baby's father and that he'd paid Adamson $25 to perform an abortion. Rolla's older brother, Edward (Irving?) Carmack, told Police Chief Charles W. Arbogast that he and his younger brother accompanied Serene to the Adamson home for the abortion on February 2. Other sources indicate that the fatal abortion took place on February 1.

Adamson was described in the February 9, 1929 Decatur Evening Herald as an "alleged midwife." The December 11, 1930 Belleville Daily News-Democrat identifies her simply as a midwife. Sources are inconsistent about Adamson's age, providing ranges from 80 to 87 years of age. Clearly, though, Adamson was elderly.

Adamson denied having performed the abortion and refused to say anything more.

Adamson was indicted by the Grand Jury in April of 1929 and the trial was set for May 2, but both parties agreed on a postponement. Then Mrs. Adamson's attorney approached the judge asking for her to be released on bond so that she could be hospitalized for "senility." She was released on a $52,000 bond and was instructed to return to jail as soon as she regained her health. In the mean time she was to remain under the supervision of her son, James Adamson, who was described in the Belleville Daily Advocate as "a pensioned former member of the East St. Louis police force." 

Rolla Carmack was charged with murder but the charges were later dropped, likely in exchange for turning state's evidence against Adamson. Edward Carmack was also charged with murder. However, once the defense was ready to proceed -- not until December of 1930 -- he was nowhere to be found and the trial was delayed by the prosecution. He had moved from East St. Louis to Detroit then vanished from the prosecution's radar.

Watch Elderly Midwife Commits Fatal Abortion on YouTube.
Watch Elderly Midwife Commits Fatal Abortion on YouTube.

Sources:

• "Hold Woman, 80, In Girl's Death," Decatur (IL) Evening Herald, February 9, 1929
• "80 Year Old Woman, 2 Youths Held For Death," The (Murphysboro, IL) Daily Independent, February 9, 1929
• "Three Held In Jail Today On Death Charge," (DeKalb, IL) Daily Chronicle, February 9, 1929
• "Court Revokes $25,000 Bonds of Mrs. Adamson," Belleville (IL) Daily News-Democrat, October 9, 1929
• "Trial of Woman, 84, on Murder Charge is Delayed by Illness," Belleville (IL) Daily Advocate, October 9, 1929
• "Mrs. Adamson Murder Case is Continued," Belleville (IL) Daily News-Democrat, December 11, 1930
• "Carmack Held to Grand Jury for Murder of Girl," Belleville (IL) Daily News-Democrat December 18, 1930