New York, 1871: A Prosperous Lay Abortionist
On Wednesday, August 23, 1871, 22-year-old Mary Russell, who worked at
an envelope factory, went to the home of her brother-in-law, William
Albright, "a highly respectable gentleman, who is foreman in a printing
office." Mary confessed to her family that she was pregnant and sick,
and "threw herself upon the mercy of her relatives. They did not cast
her off, but instead summoned Dr. Warren A. James and treated her with
every possible kindness."
When Dr. James first saw her, Mary admitted to an abortion, saying that she'd taken an
abortifacient a Dr. Tully had provided to her on August 23. Dr. James had to leave the city for some reason, and turned the care
over to Dr. Jeremiah P. Bliven, a former police surgeon. Bliven quickly
became suspicious, and succeeded in urging Mary's family to ask her to
come clean.
In the mean time, Mary's health took a turn for the worse. On Sunday,
August 27, Bliven went to the police and reported his reasons to suspect
an abortion. A coroner's detective was dispatched to the house. He
questioned Mary. As she was too week to write, Detective Walker wrote a
dying declaration for her based on the information he'd gotten.
Mary had been pregnant for about two months. Two weeks before the
interview with Detective Walker, she'd gone to a Mrs. Burns for an
abortion. While a housekeeper held her up against a wall, Mrs. Burns had
used instruments on Mary, without producing any immediate effect. Burns
told Mary that if anybody questioned her, she was to blame the abortion
on a Dr. Tully. She then sent Mary home.
Mary took ill immediately "with severe pain in my head, accompanied by
vomiting." She expelled her dead baby three or four days later. But she
grew sicker and went to her family for care.
Mary reported that the baby's father was Harry Pullen, who had given her
$10 to pay for the abortion and then evidently vanished from her life.
In the early morning hours of Monday, September 4, Mary died.
The police quickly went to Mrs. Burns' house and arrested Ann Brice, the
housekeeper, and found out from her that Mrs. Burns had gone to her
other home in Long Island. Before going after her, the police arrested
Mary's lover, Harry Pullen, and Mary's roommate, Nellie Ryan, who had
gone with her for the abortion.
Off to Long Island the police went. "They found the abortionist living
in an elegant mansion, furnished throughout in the most splendid manner,
of which she was the owner, as also of one hundred acres of fine land
adjacent to it, all of which was in a high state of cultivation."
Mrs. Burns didn't seem at all alarmed to see the police, and had no
evident thought of Mary Russell. Instead, Burns seemed to be operating
under the assumption that she was wanted in connection with "the trunk
tragedy" (almost certainly the abortion death of Alice Bowlsby), which she'd not been involved in. The police allowed Mrs.
Burns to operate under this assumption until they had her at the
station, at which point they informed her that she was actually being
arrested for Mary Russell's death. "Without giving any explanation of
her deed, or almost without taking the trouble to deny it, she was taken
away to a cell and locked up."
The coroner performed the autopsy on Mary, and confirmed that she'd died of an infection caused by the abortion.
Chicago, 1903: Most Likely a Physician
On September 4, 1903, 23-year-old Mrs. Florence Gaiewski died in St.
Mary's Hospital in Chicago from an abortion performed the previous day. Dr. Ladislaw Slominski was arrested September 4, held by Coroner's Jury
September 8, and indicted for felony murder, but discharged by a Grand
Jury. Florence's abortion was typical of pre-legalization abortions in that it was evidently performed by a physician.
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