RealChoice: February 14, 1942: The Socialite's Brutal Death

Friday, February 14, 2025

February 14, 1942: The Socialite's Brutal Death

A newspaper photo of a young, plump-faced white woman with late 1930s style makeup and hair

Florence Nimick Schnoor

Florence Nimick, 24-year-old grand-niece of Andrew Carnegie and heiress to a Pittsburgh steel fortune, was educated in Paris and Switzerland. She was multilingual and trained in music and art. Her father, Alexander K. Nimick, was heir to Coleman Steel Foundry in Pittsburgh. He and his most recent wife, Lucille, lived in Monte Carlo. His second wife, Beatrice Arnold Nimick, was Florence's mother and died when Florence was five years old.

Alexander was living on an income of $40,000 (about $770,000 in 2025 dollars) a year from the steel foundry from which he provided Florence an allowance.

Florence eloped with 28-year-old Richard H. Schnoor, sergeant-at-arms of the New York State Assembly, on February 7, 1942. Schnoor had been divorced for several months from his first wife, with whom he had a three-year-old daughter.

Florence and Richard had met the previous September 1 at The Beagle, "a fashionable Greenwich tavern." After their elopement, they'd moved into Florence's rooms at The Maples Hotel in Greenwich, Connecticut. The couple chose to keep the marriage a secret.

Their marriage would end tragically by 4:00 pm on February 14.

Richard Schnoor

Her husband reported that he had taken her to White Plains, New York, so she could catch the 8:30 a.m. train to New York City for a day's shopping. She had planned to call him that afternoon to pick her up at the same station. "She was in good health and good spirits," Richard later said.

She never made it back to the White Plains station. She called Richard at 11:30 am asking him to pick her up at the Woodlawn New York subway station. She was with a companion, but no details are available about this person.

"She told me she was ill and wanted to see a doctor," Richard said. "I could see she was very sick, so I drove her at once to the hospital. I didn't know what was ailing her and she didn't tell me."

Doctors reported that Florence refused to discuss her case at all, much less implicate the abortionist, despite pleas from her husband. Dr. Amos O. Squire, the Westchester County Medical Examiner, said that Florence refused to tell anybody who had perpetrated the abortion. "She just gritted her teeth and remained silent."

She died just a few hours after arrival at the hospital.

The autopsy revealed that Florence had been two or three months into her pregnancy. The damage done was catastrophic. "It was one of the most atrociously brutal and clumsy operations I have ever seen. Her stomach had been punctured. I doubt if she had a chance of survival from the moment she left the operating table." Given the severity of the injuries, Dr. Squire estimated that the abortion had been perpetrated just a few hours before Florence had arrived at the hospital.

Investigators contacted all 200 people whose names were in Florence's address book, but were unable to gain any clues as to who performed the fatal abortion. All they were able to piece together is that Florence evidently paid $40 for the abortion, since her husband reported that she had left for New York with $50 in her purse and there had been $3 in her purse when she was hospitalized..

Florence's husband was not implicated in her death; police believed that he had not even known Florence was pregnant until he was informed of the results of the autopsy.

Watch Heiress Bride's Secret Abortion on YouTube.

Watch Heiress Bride's Secret Abortion on Rumble.