Three Criminal Deaths

Rosa Device was taken to Chambers Street Hospital in New York on Friday night, May 3, 1878. She was "in a hopeless condition" when she arrived. "She told the physicians in the hospital that she had been leading an evil life for three months, and had procured and taken drugs to produce an abortion. She died just after midnight on Saturday night, which would have been the early morning hours of Sunday, May 5. 

On May 5, 1914, 21-year-old Hazel Johnson, an office worker, died at a Chicago residence from an illegal abortion performed by an unknown perpetrator.

It was spring of 1939. Martha Anderson was only sixteen years old, but already she was married, and already she was unhappy in her marriage. She was sexually involved with a 26-year-old sailor named William P. Bouldin. She became pregnant with Bouldin's baby. Bouldin made arrangements for an abortion at the San Diego chiropractic office of George Parchen. The first thing Bouldin's $50 bought was a bottle of some sort of liquid provided by the chirropractor's brother, Frank, who was still training to become a chiropractor. Martha was to take the medicine very two hours. The medicine made her very sick, so Martha was taken back to the ciropracric office. Frank took her into the back, and she emerged later very pale, bloody, and so sick she could barely speak. George came to assist his brother in Martha's care, but still she died some time between 5 and 5:30. Efforts to cover up the fatal abortion ultimately failed. Both brothers were convicted of murder and abortion -- Frank for performing it, and George for providing everything Frank needed for his practice and for assisting afterward. They were sentenced to five years to life in San Quentin.