A Lead from a Reader

One of the comments in my blog was asking for information about the death of a woman named Minnie Mitchell. I found her death certificate.

Minnie, a 26-year-old Black woman, was admitted to the general hospital in Spartanburg, South Caroline on or around February 13, 1940. She was treated by Dr. William Hendrix until February 19. She died at 2:35 the morning of February 20.

Minnie had been three months pregnant and underwent a criminal abortion on February 9, 1940. The abortion was incomplete, leading to infection and finally to fatal sepsis.

Minnie's death certificate is disturbingly incomplete. She's noted as married, but there's no information about her spouse and she has the same surname as her father. Dr. Hendrix marked that the death was due to homicide, but did not fill out any of the information in the appropriate section of the death certificate to indicate where, how, and by whom her fatal injuries were inflected.

I also can't find any news coverage of Minnie's death or any other sign that a guilty party was ever identified and held accountable.