Friday, August 23, 2024

August 23, 1870: A Fatal Abortifacient

Mary Ann Lafavor, the 15-year-old wife of Frank Lafavor, was "the victim of ... inhuman outrage".  

Frank had married his young bride over the objections of her family in March of 1870. The couple had settled as tenants on the farm of Thomas McIntyre in Pilot Mound Township, Minnesota. 

On August 15, Mary Ann went missing from her home. "The neighbors became alarmed at her absence from home and made search for her in every direction without success" until about midnight, "when she was discovered dragging herself around the corner of her dwelling more dead than alive." 

Two doctors came to her aid and found her to be in critical condition. She admitted that she had taken some sort of abortifacient that day, but refused to say who she had gotten it from. 

"Everything possible was done to restore her, but after suffering intensely for a whole week and died on Tuesday morning last [August 23] at about eight o'clock." 

Mary Ann's mother testified that her daughter was raised up in bed five minutes before her death to make her dying declaration, but all she was able to say was, "Tommy gave it to me! Tommy gave it to me!" Thus the young bride's landlord, Thomas McIntyre, was charged with her death. 

Watch Teen Bride's Untimely Death on YouTube.

Sources: 
  • "A Case of Abortion Resulting in Death", Winona (MN) Daily Republican, August 29, 1870
  • Untitled clippingThe St. Cloud Journal, September 1, 1870
  • "Minnesota," Chicago Tribune, September 2, 1870



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