Sunday, December 02, 2012

Three Deaths Over Nearly a Century

On December 2, 1901, the body of Rose Lefebre was found in the Chicago apartment of Mary Volberding. It appeared that Rose had died from internal hemorrhage caused by an abortion. Volberding was arrested, but she was later exonerated by a Coroner's Jury. However, the coroner's jury recommended that the Board of Health investigate Mrs. Volberding for advertising as a midwife without a license.

On December 5, 1948, Dr. Cyril B. Babb pleaded guilty to performing a fatal abortion on Doris Becker the previous Wednesday in his office. Doris died 20 hours later at the apartment of a friend, Anne Martin. Anne and a bartender, George Kutrones, were held as material witnesses. Babb also admitted to performing 30 other abortions. He was sentenced to 6 1/2 to 12 years in prison for manslaughter and abortion.

Rudy Alston, stage name Floss, got the page as he sat in the waiting room of Brooklyn Women's Medical Pavilion on December 1, 1998. Tommy Boy Records had just signed the young rapper to a contract. Alston never got to share the news with his fiance, 22-year-old Tamika Dowdy. But he would never have a chance. Alston told the New York Post that a doctor had kept walking in and out of the waiting room, "sweating real fierce and pacing. He did that several times, and then he finally came up to me and said that her heart had stopped. Alston rode by her side to the hospital, where she was pronounced dead the following day. According to the NAF web site, Brooklyn Women's Medical Pavilion was a member facility at the time of Tamika's death.

No comments: