RealChoice: July 22, 1949: Mom and Aunt Give Fatal Abortifacients

Saturday, July 22, 2023

July 22, 1949: Mom and Aunt Give Fatal Abortifacients

Alma Deery

Alma Fay Deery's parents did not approve of her boyfriend, 21-year-old musician and ex-paratrooper James Souch. They had ordered Souch to stay away from their daughter, a 16-year-old student at Phoenixville (PA) High School.

In their efforts to break off the romance, they sent Alma to stay with her grandmother, Bertha Deery, in Sheeder, PA, on July 18, 1949. (One source says that Alma was staying with her aunt and uncle, Mr. and Mrs. Charles Ogden.)

The plan didn't work. At around 9:20 on the evening of July 22, James, who had tracked Alma to her grandmother's house, managed to meet with her secretly. He later told police that he had begged her to run away with him to Elkton, Maryland, to get married. She had agreed, James said. They planned to elope the following day.

They never got a chance. At 10:40 p.m., Alma was found unresponsive on the floor of her bedroom.

An unidentified person called the Phoenixville Hospital and asked for an ambulance to be sent to the home. It was too late. Alma was dead.

Coroner Cooper T. Bishop said that the death "didn't look natural." An autopsy determined that she was about a few months pregnant. It did not, however, reveal a cause of death, but did find "traces of chemical poisoning in the girl's body." He ordered the burial postponed pending an investigation. Alma's vital organs were sent to a laboratory for analysis.

A coroner's jury found that "Alma Fay Deery came to her death July 22, 1949, at 10:45 p.m., at Sheeder, Chester county, P., as the result of drugs administered by her parents, Gladys and Earl K. Deery."

Alma's father Earl K. Deery, a 44-year-old store clerk, was arrested on July 29 along with his wife, Mary Gladys Deery, age 37, and Mary's sister, Myrtle Lahr, age 31. The trio had voluntarily turned themselves in.

Earl and Mary were charge with attempted abortion causing death, aiding and abetting an abortion, and conspiracy to do an unlawful act by giving their daughter the fatal abortifacients. Myrtle was charge with aiding and abetting an abortion, conspiracy to do an unlawful act, and accessory before and after the fact. Each was held on $3,000 bail

Souch was arrested for aiding and abetting an attempt to commit an abortion but the charge was dropped and he signed out on a $500 bond as a material witness.

On December 5, Alma's mother and aunt pleaded guilty to administering drugs for an illegal purpose. They admitted that Mary had given Alma pills procured by Myrtle to cause an abortion. The last dose had been given to her around July 17, right about when Alma had been relocated to her grandmother's home to keep her away from the baby's father. Each woman was sentenced to serve between 1 and 12 months in prison.

They were not charged for Alma's death because it was impossible to prove that the drugs were the cause of her death.

About 30 - 40 Phoenixville residents had signed a petition asking for leniency based on the women's good reputations, but the judge said, "Much as the circumstances surrounding the case have aroused sympathy, I do not see that the offense of abortion may be minimized." Evidently, then the light sentence could have been, at his discretion, even lighter.

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