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

February 7, 2013: Emergency Equestrian Supplies

Jennifer McKenna-Morbelli, a 29-year-old kindergarten teacher, and her husband, Timothy James "TJ" Morbelli, had eagerly anticipated the birth of their baby, named Madison Leigh. However, because of a prenatal diagnosis, Jennifer, accompanied by her parents, husband, and sister traveled from New Rochelle, New York to a late-term abortion facility in Germantown, Maryland on Sunday, February 3, 2013. Madison was 33 weeks gestational age.

Germantown Reproductive Health Services is a National Abortion Federation member facility, which means that it supposedly provides only the best and safest care. However, it is operated by Dr. Leroy Carhart, who had already had a less than savory history and whose late term abortion clinic in Belleview, Nebraska, looks like a muffler shop and had employees coming forward reporting illegal and dangerous practices.

The prolifers who gather outside when Carhart is perpetrating abortions report seeing the woman arriving for her appointments on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, appearing "pale and weak." Jennifer spent over nine hours at the facility on Wednesday. After she was discharged, Carhart and his wife left the state to work at another abortion facility.

According to Operation Rescue's anonymous source, Jennifer started suffering chest pain early on Thursday morning. She was unsuccessful in her attempts to reach Carhart, per instructions that in the event of complications she was to call clinic staff rather than go to the emergency room. In fact, an emergency number Carhart provided actually rang to the answering machine for his wife's equestrian supply business. Finally, at about 5:00 a.m. her family took her from the hotel to the emergency room. Hospital staff were unable to get in touch with Carhart either, though he eventually did return their calls.

Jennifer was suffering from massive internal bleeding and coded six times as staff struggled to stabilize her. She finally died at around 9:30 a.m.

Christin Gilbert

The medical examiner indicated that Jennifer died from disseminated intravascular coagulopathy (DIC) caused by an amniotic fluid embolism (AFE) -- in other words, amniotic fluid and fetal tissue got into her blood stream and caused a cascading series of catastrophic problems including the inability of her blood to clot.

AFE and DIC are rare and difficult to predict, but are also a known complication that abortion doctors should be alert for and ready to quickly diagnose and treat.

This is the second third-trimester abortion patient to die under Carhart's care. The first was Christin Gilbert, who was being treated by Carhart at George Tiller's Wichita abortion facility in 2004.

Watch Emergency Equestrian Supplies on YouTube.

Additional source: Death certificate

February 6, 1952: An Airman's Grief

Elizabeth Barbara "Betty" Helman was the 35-year-old wife of Air Force Major Carl Helman Jr., who had been stationed in Tokyo for over a year. Evidently Betty found the separation lonely, for she became pregnant while he was away.

On January 28, 1952, Betty was admitted to the Tinker Air Force Base hospital in critical condition, suffering from pain and low blood pressure. Her red blood count was very low, and her white count very high, indicating infection. She admitted to having undergone an abortion on January 25.

When questioned by investigators on January 31, Betty said that friends had referred her to a woman named Jane. She was shown a photo and identified the woman in it, 43-year-old Mrs. Jane McDaniel White, age 43, as her abortionist. She gave White's address as the place she had gone for the abortion. Betty put her statement in writing and signed it. 

Betty said that White had put her off for several days while she got over her fear of undergoing the abortion. She promised White $100, but only paid her $50. White initiated the abortion with some kind of packing and sent Betty home.

Betty became very ill, and called White who with her daughter came to Betty's home and "scraped her out".

After Betty gave her statement, police raided White's home. White and her daughter, Mrs. S. B. Anderson, Jr., were nowhere to be found. It took eight days for police to track the pair down and arrest them for murder and procuring an abortion.

Betty died on February 6 from peritonitis, leaving her three children without a mother. Her husband had managed to rush home from Tokyo in time to see his wife before she died. An autopsy verified that an abortion had been performed and had caused Betty's death.

White was at first denied bail, then finally released on a $20,000 bond. 

When questioned White said, "She called me on the phone the latter part of January. She asked for Jane and gave her name as Betty. I was called several times. Then on a Saturday she came to my house and said she wanted to talk to me."

White said that Betty had told her that she thought she was pregnant. She told White that she had been vomiting. "She also said she had been taking white capsules and shots."

When Betty had asked her to perform an abortion, White asserted, "I told her I strictly was not in the business." She said that Betty's vomiting made her think that the young woman was suffering from ptomaine poisoning.

White admitted that she had indeed gotten a phone call from Betty and had gone with her daughter to the Helman home. "She asked if I would come by for she needed a laxative. I went by for I felt sorry for her and I suggested she get a doctor immediately."

White admitted under examination that had no medical training. She said that she'd assumed that Betty was suffering from ptomaine poisoning because she'd gone through a bout herself. She'd recommended a laxative for Betty because "I didn't think a little milk of magnesia would hurt her."

The criminal case against her went well until the defense managed to have the Betty's deathbed statement, given on January 31, inadmissible because it couldn't be proved satisfactorily that Betty believed herself to be near death. With the deathbed statement thrown out, the case was dropped.

This had been White's third arrest for abortion charges. She had been convicted in 1947, under the name Jane McDaniel, and sentenced to seven years for an abortion she had performed on a 17-year-old girl, but the conviction was thrown out on a technicality based on how advanced the girl's pregnancy had been. A new trial had been scheduled, but it never took place because the main prosecution witness had left the state or died. White was clearly operating as an abortionist, since an operating table, fashioned from an old restaurant table, and surgical instruments had been sized from her home at the time of her arrest -- "enough instruments and medicine to stock a small hospital." She was charged again in 1951 but the main witness had vanished and the case had been dismissed.

Watch The Atypical Abortionist on YouTube.

Sources:

• "Abortion Fatal To Major's Wife," The Daily Oklahoman, February 7, 1952
• "OKLAHOMA CITY, Feb. 8 (IP)," Seminole Producer, February 8, 1952
• "Pair Sought In Abortion Case Submit," Norman Transcript, February 8, 1952
• "Judge Refused Bond To Mother Held For City Abortion Slaying," The Daily Oklahoman, February 9, 1952
• "OC Woman Is Freed On Abortion Charge," The Seminole Producer, February 12, 1952
• "State Woman Indicted In Death From Abortion," Ponca City News, March 7, 1952
• "Attorneys Seek Release of City Women Now in Jail," Alva Review Courier, February 11, 1952
• "Woman Charged In Abortion Death Is Freed on Bond," The Daily Oklahoman, February 12, 1952

February 6, 1986: Coma and Sudden Death at Family Planning Associates

Grok AI illustration

Seventeen-year-old Laniece Dorsey underwent a safe and legal abortion at a Family Planning Associates Medical Group facility in Orange County, California, on February 6, 1986. FPA is a National Abortion Federation member facility.

Laniece lapsed into a coma, was transferred to a nearby hospital, and died later that day.

The Orange County Sheriff's Department medical examiner blamed the young black woman's death on cardiorespiratory arrest due to the anesthesia, although he also found "a thick adherent layer of fibrinous material containing moderate numbers of inflammatory infiltrates" in Laniece's uterus.

Other deaths at FPA and/or affiliated facilities include:

• Denise Holmes, age 24, who died from fetal bone marrow getting into her lungs in 1970
• Patricia Chacon, age 16, who bled to death in 1984
• Mary Pena, age 43, who also bled to death in1984
• Josefina Garcia, age 37, who bled to death from an undiagnosed ectopic pregnancy in an FPA recovery room in 1985
• Joyce Ortenzio, age 32, 1988
• Tami Suematsu, age 19, 1988
• Susan Levy, age 30, 1992
• Deanna Bell, age 13, 1992
• Christina Mora, age 18, 1994
• Ta Tanisha Wesson, age 24, 1995
• Nakia Jorden, who died of anesthesia complication sin 1998
• Maria Leho, 1999 
• Kimberly Neil, 2000
• Maria Rodriguez, age 22, 2000
• Emmeko Reed, age 29, whose undiagnosed uterine damage caused fatal uterine rupture in a subsequent pregnancy in 2002
• Chanelle Bryant, age 22, 2004
• "Kyla Ellis," age 23, 2014

Sources:

• Orange County Sheriff-Coroner Case No. 86-0682-AK
• Orange County Superior Court Case No. 51-04-15