Saturday, February 14, 2026

February 14, 1942: The Socialite's Brutal Death

A newspaper photo of a young, plump-faced white woman with late 1930s style makeup and hair
Florence Nimick Schnoor

Florence Nimick, 24-year-old grand-niece of Andrew Carnegie and heiress to a Pittsburgh steel fortune, was educated in Paris and Switzerland. She was multilingual and trained in music and art. Her father, Alexander K. Nimick, was heir to Coleman Steel Foundry in Pittsburgh. He and his most recent wife, Lucille, lived in Monte Carlo. His second wife, Beatrice Arnold Nimick, was Florence's mother and died when Florence was five years old. 


Alexander was living on an income of $40,000 (about $770,000 in 2025 dollars) a year from the steel foundry from which he provided Florence an allowance. 

Florence eloped with 28-year-old Richard H. Schnoor, sergeant-at-arms of the New York State Assembly, on February 7, 1942. Schnoor had been divorced for several months from his first wife, with whom he had a three-year-old daughter.

Florence and Richard had met the previous September 1 at The Beagle, "a fashionable Greenwich tavern." After their elopement, they'd moved into Florence's rooms at The Maples Hotel in Greenwich, Connecticut. The couple chose to keep the marriage a secret.

Their marriage would end tragically by 4:00 pm on February 14.

Richard Schnoor
Her husband reported that he had taken her to White Plains, New York, so she could catch the 8:30 a.m. train to New York City for a day's shopping. She had planned to call him that afternoon to pick her up at the same station. "She was in good health and good spirits," Richard later said.

She never made it back to the White Plains station. She called Richard at 11:30 am asking him to pick her up at the Woodlawn New York subway station. She was with a companion, but no details are available about this person.

"She told me she was ill and wanted to see a doctor," Richard said. "I could see she was very sick, so I drove her at once to the hospital. I didn't know what was ailing her and she didn't tell me."

Doctors reported that Florence refused to discuss her case at all, much less implicate the abortionist, despite pleas from her husband. Dr. Amos O. Squire, the Westchester County Medical Examiner, said that Florence refused to tell anybody who had perpetrated the abortion. "She just gritted her teeth and remained silent."

She died just a few hours after arrival at the hospital.

The autopsy revealed that Florence had been two or three months into her pregnancy. The damage done was catastrophic. "It was one of the most atrociously brutal and clumsy operations I have ever seen. Her stomach had been punctured. I doubt if she had a chance of survival from the moment she left the operating table." Given the severity of the injuries, Dr. Squire estimated that the abortion had been perpetrated just a few hours before Florence had arrived at the hospital.

Investigators contacted all 200 people whose names were in Florence's address book, but were unable to gain any clues as to who performed the fatal abortion. All they were able to piece together is that Florence evidently paid $40 for the abortion, since her husband reported that she had left for New York with $50 in her purse and there had been $3 in her purse when she was hospitalized..

Florence's husband was not implicated in her death; police believed that he had not even known Florence was pregnant until he was informed of the results of the autopsy.

Watch Heiress Bride's Secret Abortion on Rumble.


Sources:
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February 14, 2007: Set Up For Fatal Infection at Planned Parenthood

Portrait of a smiling young Black woman with long, straightened hair coiffed casually
Edrica Karla Goode

Edrica Karla Goode was a student at Riverside Community College.  She went to a Planned Parenthood in Riverside, California, on January 31, 2007, for a safe, legal second-trimester abortion. She was a little over 14 weeks pregnant.

A nurse examined Edrica and noticed that she had "odiferous creamy-colored discharge", indicative of a vaginal infection, at the time. The nurse decided to go ahead and insert laminaria to dilate Edrica's cervix.  Laminaria are sticks of seaweed that absorb moisture and expand, so they would wick any bacteria or viruses from the vagina into the uterus. The manufacturer specifies that they are not to be inserted if the patient has a vaginal infection. After establishing a clear path for the vaginal infection to enter Edrica's uterus, the nurse discharged her patient.



Edrica, who had not told her family about the abortion, did not return to the facility to have the laminaria removed and the abortion completed because her mental state had deteriorated overnight. She had became feverish, her mother said. She became mentally "confused and disoriented," not knowing what day it was, and started acting aggressively. She also began vomiting.

Planned Parenthood's patient profile for Edrica said that they mailed Edrica two letters telling her that she had to return and have the laminaria removed, but Edrica's mother said that the letters never arrived. She does indicate that Planned Parenthood called, but that Edrica was too sick to take the calls.

Edrica's family took her to Riverside County Regional Medical Center on February 4. A blood test there revealed the pregnancy to the physicians, but the hospital did not perform a pelvic exam because at the time Edrica was unable to consent to the examination due to confusion and inappropriate speech.

Edrica was treated in the medical ward for five days, then transferred to a psychiatric unit, which promptly sent her back to the medical unit to have them check her for possible sepsis. There, her condition continued to deteriorate. After Edrica's boyfriend told her family about the visit to Planned Parenthood, staff at the hospital performed a pelvic examination and discovered the laminaria, along with some gauze. Edrica miscarried that day, and died the next day, Valentine's Day, just two days short of her 22nd birthday.

The coroner's report attributes Edrica's death to toxic shock syndrome, prolonged retention of laminaria, and pregnancy. Which means that her death will likely be counted as a pregnancy death by health statisticians, but not as an abortion death because no abortion actually took place.

Her mother, Aletheia Meloncon, commented, "My daughter made a choice, but she didn't choose to die." She added, "A lost dog gets more attention than my daughter did. This has really torn at my family."

Edrica is the third known death among Planned Parenthood patients in California in a four year period. Holly Patterson, 18, died of an infection after an RU-486 abortion in 2003. Diana Lopez, 25, bled to death in 2002 after her cervix was punctured during the procedure. Edrica's mother's lawyer indicates that Planned Parenthood did not report any of these deaths to the state, as required by law.

Other women whose lives ended because they trusted include
State records indicate that the clinic in question was last inspected in July of 2003. The inspection found 12 deficiencies, most involving record keeping and documentation problems that were to be corrected by Sept. 20, 2003. The file doesn't show if the corrections were made or not.

Watch Pathway for Death on YouTube.

Source: "Lawsuit blames death on abortion," Los Angeles Times, June 21, 2007

Muted, pink tinted, blurred image of cemetery with text overlaid: When you stand with Planned Parenthood, you're standing on her grave. Edrica Karla Goode, February 16, 1985 - February 14, 2004

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February 14, 1943: Extortion Complaint Uncovers Abortion Death

On February 14, 1943, Amelia Cardito, 34-year-old mother of 4, died at International Medical Center in New York. She had been under the care of Dr. Anthony Renda, who had admitted her on February 5 and had attributed her death to miscarriage and pneumonia. Her family laid her to rest, and it seemed like everybody was going to just move on.

But that wasn't how it played out.

Dr. Anthony Renda
Renda was a 54-year-old Italian immigrant who had come to the United States in 1931. A Catholic, he had married in 1915 and been widowed in 1940. He had been a physician for 30 years and was the  author of three books on obstetrics.

Renda might have been a smart doctor, but he was a stupid criminal. He also lacked the compassion one might expect one widower to have for amother. He and his brother, Attillio, sent a former judge, Francis X. Mancuso, to the police to complain that Amelia's widower, James, was shaking him down for $2,500. 

Police went to Renda's office and hid as James and his brother arrived. When Renda handed over $1,000 to James, Lieutenant Martin Owens stepped forward and announced to the Carditos, "I will have to arrest you for blackmail."

That's when James told the police officer that Renda had perpetrated an abortion on Amelia in late January or early February, and had admitted her to the hospital when she suffered complications.

After Amelia's death, James said, Renda offered to pay the $800 medical expenses along with a total of $2,500 in installments for the motherless children.

"This is the first payment," James Cardito said, gesturing towards the money he was still holding.

That was when Anthony Renda was charged with homicide and his brother with compounding a felony.

Medical Examiner Dr. Thomas A. Gonzales ordered Amelia's body exhumed for an autopsy to find out why. And that's when it was discovered that she had died from an abortion.

James Cardito didn't face any extortion charges, and the charges against Attillio were dropped, but Renda was prosecuted. An all-male jury deliberated for a little under two hours to find him guilty of first degree manslaughter. He was sentenced to 3 1/2 to 7 years in Sing-Sing for Amelia's death. 

His attorney, the same man who had gone to the police to complain about blackmail, argued for leniency because Renda had suffered a lot during the case. The judge responded, "He didn't suffer half as much as the woman he tortured. He can blame his predicament on himself and on his own stupidity."

Renda died on Christmas Eve of 1948 in New York's Columbus Hospital.

Sources:



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Friday, February 13, 2026

February 13, 1929: A Chicago Midwife's Fatal Efforts

Anna Pearl Fazio, nee Kirby, had lived with her sister, Ethel Colby, in her Chicago home for about a year pending her divorce as the winter of 1928-29 drew to a close. 

Genealogical records showed that Anna, only 20 years of age, had lived a difficult life. When she was just a toddler, her 2-year-old brother died. When Anna was 6 years old, her 4-year-old sister died. When she was 7, her 10-year-old brother died. When she was 15 years old she lost her 27-year-old sister and then less than a year later her mother. 

So what was happening that February of 1929?

Ethel said that Anna had been perfectly healthy on February 4, 1929 when she left her sister's home and went to the Chicago home of midwife Marie Zwienczak for an abortion.

Elmer Kagel had been keeping company with Anna, intending to marry her after her divorce. He visited her daily at Zwienczak's house beginning on February 4, when she had appeared healthy. She started to seem seriously ill on the 6th. 

Ethel visited Anna at Zwienczak's home on February 11 and found her to be very ill. Elmer also visited at the house that day and saw how sick Anna was.

Dr. Marion Swiont also went to Zwienczak's home on February 11 and saw Anna. He found her to be severely ill, almost lifeless, due to peritonitis. He spoke to Zwienczak about how sick her patient was. He said that Zwienczak admitted to having done an abortion and that four days later -- which would have been February 8 -- either she or another midwife did a D&C to address the complications. She requested that he prescribe medication for Anna, but he told her that she was too sick to be treated in the home; she needed to go to a hospital.

Edward Conrath, who said that he frequently served of a chauffeur for Zwienczak, testified that he was the one who drove Anna to the hospital that day, accompanied by Elmer. He said that Anna lamented causing so much trouble for the midwife, because she had been so kind. 

Dr. Swiont saw Anna again on the evening of February 12.

Anna died on February 13. 

Zwienczak was arrested March 1, as recommended by the coroner. Stephanie Paczkiewicz was booked on February 23 as an accessory, but was not mentioned in the verdict. Zwienczak was indicted for homicide by a grand jury and went on trial. 

Zwienczak insisted that Anna had already been weak and hemorrhaging when she had arrived at her home. She denied perpetrating an abortion but said that she had only given her food and used a syringe to douche the patient. She insisted that there was no evidence that there was no actual evidence that Anna had been pregnant, much less that she had undergone a fatal abortion.

She was convicted, and was sentenced on June 20 to 14 years at Joliet Penitentiary. She appealed her conviction but it was upheld.

Watch Fatal Trip to a Chicago Midwife on YouTube.
Watch Fatal Trip to a Chicago Midwife on Rumble.

People v. Zwienczak

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Thursday, February 12, 2026

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
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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.
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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:

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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





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Wednesday, February 11, 2026

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.

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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:

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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:



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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.

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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."

A headshot of a young, smiling Black girl wearing a graduation capIt'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.

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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



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Tuesday, February 10, 2026

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.

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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.

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


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Monday, February 09, 2026

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. 

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Sunday, February 08, 2026

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.

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