August 24, 1955: Heiress's Mom Arranges Fatal Abortion

On August 25, 1955, the body of a young woman identified as Shirley Silver lay in the morgue in Philadelphia, where it had been since being brought there the previous day from the North Philadelphia apartment of 49-year-old bartender Milton Schwarts and his 42-year-old beautician wife, Rosalie. The young woman, they said, had suddenly taken ill and collapsed while sitting on a sofa in their living room. 

But when machinations began to try to remove the woman's body from the morgue without an autopsy, Detective Nathan M. Smith stepped in. He wanted to know who this woman was and how she had died.

Her real identity was revealed, and a scandal rocked the city. 

The dead woman was Doris Jean Silver Ostreicher, a 22-year-old heiress. Doris's father, Herman R. Silver, was vice-president of Food Fair Stores. Her uncle, Samuel Friendland of Miami Beach, was founder and chairman of the board of the chain. 

Doris hadn't just collapsed on the sofa for a mysterious reason. Her lung had collapsed when punctured by an instrument used in an attempted abortion. Doris had been about six weeks pregnant and had likely died within minutes of the abortion attempt.

Doris's Family

Herman Silver had been born in New York City. He started out working in factories and stores before he took up the more lucrative career of food distribution. Gertrude was the daughter of a central Pennsylvania merchant. She married Milton and her sister, Hattie Kline, married Samuel Friedland. Both young women thus improved their lot significantly.

Milton and Gertrude settled in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Doris Jean was born there in 1932, and her brother, Benjamin, in 1934.

The couple moved to Philadelphia, and they didn't live ostentatiously. The children attended Cheltenham High School. Doris briefly attended the Bessie V. Hicks School of Dramatic Art, and Benjamin went to work for their father.

It wasn't until the spring of 1955 that the Silver family began to display their wealth, moving into a $70,000 (over $820,000 in 2024) mansion in the Melrose Park neighborhood. Milton owned more than 28,000 shares of stock in Food Fair, with an estimated net worth of nearly $2,000,000 (over $23 million in 2024). 

The Silver family seemed to have a golden life.

Prelude to Tragedy

Doris had made front page news when she eloped in a "fairy tale romance" with Earl M. Ostreicher, a 29-year-old motorcycle cop from Miami Beach. They had met in April of 1955. Doris was staying with her uncle. Earl was patrolling when he saw Doris drive by. He pressed a friend to introduce him to the beautiful young woman.

Earl Ostreicher, a Chicago native, was the son of Charles Oesterreicher (Earl had shortened his surname), president of Chicago Wood and Coal Company, and his wife, Emma. He had attended engineering classes at Roosevelt College but dreamed of becoming a motorcycle cop. In 1953 he went to Miami to fulfil his dream. He was evidently a very personable young man, having been named runner-up as "the most courteous policeman" in Florida in 1954.

Earl held that he'd not known that his beautiful red-haired bride was wealthy. She'd told him, he said, that her father was a butcher and that she was working as a child's nurse at the Friedland home.

The pair met every night after Earl finished his shift at midnight. Doris would tell a desk sergeant where she wanted to meet Earl, and the officer would pass it over the police radio to the young lover.

The couple ran away together to Folkston, Georgia, on June 24, 1955. which was just over the state line, to wed. But fairy tale romances don't always lead to fairy tale marriages. Within a few weeks, Doris evidently was disillusioned, and had separated from her husband, returning to her family's Philadelphia home.

Earl told his father that he expected the separation to be temporary. Doris, he said, had gone to visit her parents because she was homesick.

In the mean time, Doris learned that her short-lived marriage had left her pregnant. She confided in her mother, 49-year-old Gertrude Silver. Gertrude helped her to arrange an abortion. 

Upon learning of his bride's death, Earl boarded a plane to Philadelphia.

The Deadly Couple

Milton Schwartz had served in the merchant marine before becoming a bartender. He married Rosalie Kershner in October of 1934. The couple honeymooned in Atlantic City then returned to Philadelphia, where they settled in the neighborhood of North Franklin Street. Their first-floor, $40-a-month apartment (c. $470 in 2024) was reportedly, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer, "fitted out sumptuously," much to the surprise of their neighbors. "Despite the fact that the Schwartzes have lived at that address for more than 10 years the neighbors purported to know little about them except that they appeared quiet and kept to themselves."

Milton managed and tended bar at the Cat 'n Fiddle Café, owned by a company that was managed by his stepfather, Morris Freedman. Rosalie had been a beautician for more then ten years at Hair Fashion Center. 

Each of them had petty crimes in their past. Milton Schwartz had been arrested in 1944 for stealing two bottles of whiskey and for hitting a man with a club. Rosalie had been arrested in 1940 for falsely stating that Milton was unemployed, thus receiving $143 (a little less than $1,700 in 2024) in public assistance. She pleaded guilty and made restitution. 

It's likely that they got abortion customers from the bar and the beauty shop.

The Fatal Visit

Gertrude and her husband accompanied Doris to the Schwartz's, There, the abortion was perpetrated with some sort of instrument and a "vegetable compound." Doris collapsed with her mother by her side. Dr. A. Samuel Manstein, who had an office across the street, was summoned to the apartment. He administered stimulants and attempted cardiac massage to no avail.

Though Doris was originally brought to the morgue under the false name, her weeping father eventually positively identified her.

Doris Silver Ostreicher

When police searched the apartment, they found abortion instruments there, including syringes, medications, dry mustard, absorbent cotton, mineral oil, and olive oil, along with a metal tube that was believed to be the fatal instrument in Doris' abortion. 

Doris's doctor, Samuel H. Katz, said that he had cared for Doris for about four years. She had been in very good health and had only needed treatment for minor ailments. She saw another doctor for allergy care.

Legal Consequences

It took just a minute for a Philadelphia grand jury to indict the guilty pair for operating an abortion, conspiracy to commit an abortion, abortion resulting in death, and perjury. They had listened to 12 witnesses over a period of a little more than an hour and a half.

The Schwartzes pleaded no contest to a charge of abortion resulting in death for their role. Rosalie got a sentence of indeterminate length, while Milton was sentenced to 3-10 years. Both were paroled after 11 months, based on a "pathetic" letter from their gown son asking that his parents be freed in time for Christmas. 

Doris' mother, who was hospitalized for "bereavement shock" in the early days after her daughter's death, was charged as an accessory. She pleaded no context to a charge of accessory before the fact of abortion. She was fined and given a suspended sentence for her role in her daughter's death. The judge said that he considered the memory of how her daughter had died "substantial punishment." 

Watch The Heiress, the Bartender, and the Beautician on YouTube.

• Doris's death certificate
• "Death of Heiress Probed by Police," Los Angeles Times, AUgust 26, 1955
• "Takes Minute to Indict 2 in Abortion," New York Daily News, October 15, 1955
• "No Defense Pleas Entered By 3 In Death By Abortion," Newport News Daily Press, January 31, 1956
• "Mother, 2 Others Guilty In Heiress Abortion Death," Florence (SC) Morning News, January 31, 1956