Sunday, February 02, 2025

February 2, 1916: Denver Doc's First Known Death

On February 2, 1916, Ruth Camp (follow link for more sources) died in Mercy Hospital in Denver from complications of an illegal abortion that had been perpetrated in the Panama Hotel on January 27. 

It's a mystery as to why Ruth was in Denver. She and her husband, Louis, lived in Medicine Bow, Wyoming, where Louis worked as a stockman.

Dr. Bennett Graff was arrested and charged with murder.

While out on bail awaiting trial in Ruth's death, another woman, Beulah Hatch, also died at Mercy Hospital, and blame was placed on Graff for that death as well. 

Graff was found guilty of murder in Ruth's death on June 16. It took the jury little time to deliberate. They were sent off to deliberate at 6 pm, when to supper, returned to deliberate, and returned the verdict in less than an hour. He was sentenced to 11 - 13 years in prison. At his sentencing he indicated that "other physicians caused the death and ... he was paying the penalty of their bunglesome work." 

Graff won a new trial when a witness came forward and placed the responsibility for the abortion on a lay practitioner, rather than another doctor, and asserted that Graff was merely attempting life-saving aftercare for Ruth.

I haven't been able to find out if he was prosecuted for Beulah's death, but he did lose his license. It was reinstated in February of 1919 due to the shortage of physicians during the Spanish flu outbreak. While practicing in De Beque, Colorado, that year he sued a woman named Lucile Myers and accused Judge Black of the district court of accepting a bribe for assessing a fine against him. Mrs. Myers had made statements that Graff was an abortionist, would willingly perpetrate abortions on unmarried women, and had "killed" her father. 

Sources:

at 12:00 AM

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