RealChoice: February 14, 1943: Extortion Complaint Uncovers Abortion Death

Saturday, February 14, 2026

February 14, 1943: Extortion Complaint Uncovers Abortion Death

On February 14, 1943, Amelia Cardito, 34-year-old mother of 4, died at International Medical Center in New York. She had been under the care of Dr. Anthony Renda, who had admitted her on February 5 and had attributed her death to miscarriage and pneumonia. Her family laid her to rest, and it seemed like everybody was going to just move on.

But that wasn't how it played out.

Dr. Anthony Renda

Renda was a 54-year-old Italian immigrant who had come to the United States in 1931. A Catholic, he had married in 1915 and been widowed in 1940. He had been a physician for 30 years and was the author of three books on obstetrics.

Renda might have been a smart doctor, but he was a stupid criminal. He also lacked the compassion one might expect one widower to have for amother. He and his brother, Attillio, sent a former judge, Francis X. Mancuso, to the police to complain that Amelia's widower, James, was shaking him down for $2,500.

Police went to Renda's office and hid as James and his brother arrived. When Renda handed over $1,000 to James, Lieutenant Martin Owens stepped forward and announced to the Carditos, "I will have to arrest you for blackmail."

That's when James told the police officer that Renda had perpetrated an abortion on Amelia in late January or early February, and had admitted her to the hospital when she suffered complications.

After Amelia's death, James said, Renda offered to pay the $800 medical expenses along with a total of $2,500 in installments for the motherless children.

"This is the first payment," James Cardito said, gesturing towards the money he was still holding.

That was when Anthony Renda was charged with homicide and his brother with compounding a felony.

Medical Examiner Dr. Thomas A. Gonzales ordered Amelia's body exhumed for an autopsy to find out why. And that's when it was discovered that she had died from an abortion.

James Cardito didn't face any extortion charges, and the charges against Attillio were dropped, but Renda was prosecuted. An all-male jury deliberated for a little under two hours to find him guilty of first degree manslaughter. He was sentenced to 3 1/2 to 7 years in Sing-Sing for Amelia's death.

His attorney, the same man who had gone to the police to complain about blackmail, argued for leniency because Renda had suffered a lot during the case. The judge responded, "He didn't suffer half as much as the woman he tortured. He can blame his predicament on himself and on his own stupidity."

Renda died on Christmas Eve of 1948 in New York's Columbus Hospital.

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