Tuesday, February 25, 2025

February 25, 1916: Bride Dies at the Hands of Doctor Husband

Helen Marie Turner
Helen Marie Turner, 25-year-old daughter of Circuit Judge Chester Myers Turner and Emma (Follett) Turner of Cambridge, Illinois, married Wesley Hospital intern Dr. Lester Lemuel Long on December 21, 1915. 

Helen was a 1912 graduate of Knox College with a degree in arts and sciences. Her studies were supplemented with travel abroad. Her yearbook identifies her as "The hope and pride of the Pi Phis." She had been vice president of her sophomore class,  winner of first prize in the D.A.R. essay contest and had president of the Knox chapter of Pi Beta Phi. She worked for two years teaching English in a public high school school in Cambridge. 

Lester was a 1915 graduate of Northwestern Medical College.

The couple moved into an apartment at 6123 South Michigan Avenue in Chicago so Lester could continue his medical studies at the hospital. 

But it wasn't long before Helen was showing a premature baby bump. Neighbors were starting to gossip. The newlyweds decided that the impending baby had to be headed off before it brought too much shame on the pair.

Lester made three attempts to abort the baby. It's not clear if he succeeded in his efforts, but one thing is clear: he caused his bride to fall ill and lapse into delirium.

On Thursday, February 24, Lester summoned Dr. Mark T. Goldstine to help him save his wife. To avoid being blamed for the criminal activity, Goldstine insisted that both Helen and Lester sign documents admitting to what they had done before bringing him into the case.

On the 25th, Goldstein and a colleague, Dr. P. Nusbaum, notified the coroner that they were going to the Long home to treat a woman suffering abortion complications. As they struggled to save the young woman, the bridegroom wandered through the home, sometimes staggering into the bedroom, clutching Goldstine's arm and asking, "Is there a chance? Is there just a little chance?"

Goldstine would just shake his head.

Finally, at 9:00 on the evening of February 26, Goldstine called the Woodlawn police station. "Mrs. Long is dead," he said. "Her husband is waiting for you."

Detective Sergeant Patrick Higgins arrived at the apartment to find Lester Long slumped in a chair in the kitchen. He had tracked blood from the bedroom into the kitchen as he had tried to prepare food for Helen. The young man was so woebegone that it took the sergeant five minutes to bring himself to arrest him. Lester sobbed and cried out questions about Helen as he was walked out of the apartment building into the police car. It hadn't sunk in that his wife was dead.

At the police statement, Lester gave a full statement. News coverage painted a pathetic picture of the young man, distraught at his wife's death, pacing his cell, tearing at his hair, weeping and crying out, "Can she live? Can she live?" 

Lester was held by the Coroner and indicted by a Grand Jury on March 15, but the case never went to trial.

As for Helen's father, he placed no blame. He sent a telegram to Lester's father, a physician in Toulon, Illinois just saying, "Come to Chicago at once. Lester is in trouble."

He then visited his son-in-law in the jail, reaching through the bars to grasp his shoulders and say, "I have nothing but sympathy for you, Lester. You and she thought it was for the best. We all make mistakes. This was a very sad one for both of us."

Sources:

at 12:00 AM

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