Lethal Criminal Practitioners: Two Docs and a Midwife

On the morning of April 1, 1904, a body was hastily shipped from Old Orchard Sanitarium, aka Eastman's Women Sanitarium (pictured), and a death certificate was filed in the town clerk's office by Eastman stating that the deceased was 26-year-old Edith S. McIntyre, a schoolteacher from Boothbay Harbor, Maine. The cause of the death was given as gastritis resulting from the taking of oxalic acid salts by the deceased sometime in February. However, an investigation revealed that Edith had died as the result of an abortion perpetrated by the sanitarium's owner, Dr. Charles A Eastman.

On April 1, 1911, 23-year-old Mrs. Anna Murphy died from an abortion perpetrated by a midwife (or possibly obstetrician) named Carolina Adams. Adams was held by the Coroner's Jury but the case never went to trial.

On March 29, 1921, Dr. Simeon B. Minden performed an abortion in his office on 32-year-old Mrs. Catherine Riga. Catherine died three days later at Lincoln Hospital. It took only two days for his trial, which ended in a conviction. Minden collapsed upon hearing the verdict