RealChoice: June 26, 1942: Mortician Arranges Fatal Abortion

Friday, June 26, 2026

June 26, 1942: Mortician Arranges Fatal Abortion

Summary: 18-year-old Inez McGraw died in Spartanburg, South Carolina after an abortion perpetrated by midwife Henrietta Henderson. Interestingly enough, the man who arranged the abortion was sentenced to more than double the sentence faced by the abortionist.

In the summer of 1942, Inez McGraw was an 18-year-old stenographer working at a mortuary in Spartanburg County, South Carolina. She was white, unmarried, and pregnant.

On June 23, her employer, 51-year-old William E. Evans—a married father of three and proprietor of the mortuary—arranged for her to have an abortion. He had gotten the name of a willing midwife from another black man, John Nix and had arranged that he would pay $15 for her services.

That afternoon, one of Evans’s Black employees, Robert Lee Bobo, picked Inez up in a truck owned by Evans and drove her to the Greenville highway. There she transferred into Evans’s private car. They went to the home of Henrietta Henderson, a 43-year-old Black midwife who lived on the old Greenville highway near Travelers Rest Church, just outside Spartanburg.

Inez went into a room in Henderson’s house while Evans waited on a cot.

Grok AI illustration

Henderson performed the abortion using an instrument she later described as resembling “a little spoon.” When the procedure was finished, Inez and Henderson returned to the room where Evans sat. Evans handed Inez a ten-dollar bill, which she passed to Henderson. Henderson accepted being shorted a third of the promised payment.

Two days later, on June 25, died at Spartanburg General Hospital. The cause was generalized gas gangrene, necrosis of the uterine wall, acute peritonitis, and septicemia. The physician who signed her death certificate noted the death as occurring “after miscarriage.”

Henrietta Henderson and William Evans were arrested separately on June 30. Both were initially held on $5,000 bond, but only Evans was able to post it. Later, Evans paid $30 to two bondsmen, J. L. Kimbrell and Ab Kimbrell, to help secure Henderson’s release from jail. Prosecutors would later argue Evans obtained the midwife's release because she would flee and be unable to testify against him.

The racial dynamics of the case drew significant attention; victim and the accused procurer were white; the abortionist and most of the key witnesses were black. The case also stood out for one striking fact: the man who arranged the fatal abortion received more than double the prison time given to the woman who performed it.

On the second and final day of the trial, which opened on July 27, 1942, Henderson changed her plea to guilty and turned state’s evidence against Evans. She testified that Evans had told her, “You don’t know me and I don’t know you… I want you to help me out… I want you to see after this girl for me… I done it.”

Henderson described the procedure in detail and confirmed Evans’s presence and payment. Her husband, Jesse Henderson, testified that he had been in the yard during the abortion. Other witnesses, including a woman named Eva Dixon who had approached Evans on Inez’s behalf, added to the case against him.

Evans denied being the father of the child and denied arranging the abortion. He claimed he had spoken with Henderson after her arrest and told her he “wasn’t the man who came out there.” He said he helped get her out on bond because she had been pressured by police—allegedly threatened with a “sweatbox,” a gun, and a billy club—and he wanted to know what she planned to say in court. He also expected to present an alibi for the afternoon of June 23.

After brief deliberation—just 19 minutes—the jury returned a guilty verdict against Evans. Circuit Judge T. S. Sease sentenced him to 12 years in prison, telling him, “Your sins have overtaken you—12 years.” Henrietta Henderson, who had pleaded guilty, received a five-year sentence.

Evans’s attorney announced an immediate appeal. Because his sentence exceeded ten years, any bond pending appeal would have to be set by the state supreme court. In a curious detail, the court’s written decision on Evans’s appeal referred to the victim as Inez Crawford rather than Inez McGraw.

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