September 23, 1907: Distraught Widower's Suicide After Abortion Death

On September 23, 1907, 27-year-old homemaker Mabel Brock of Lake Station, Indiana, died in Chicago's John Streeter Hospital. The coroner's jury determined that she had died from an abortion perpetrated by midwife Mrs. Bertha Laube of Hobart, Indiana on September 5. 

According to public records, Mabel was the third of five children of Charles and Victoria Joergler Seydel. She had married her husband, Frank, in 1900 when she was 20 and he was 19.

Laube was originally charged with murder but the indictment was reduced to criminal abortion and she was released on house arrest pending trial.

During the case, there was squabbling before the judge by the defense and the prosecution about what testimony Dr. Clara Faulkner would be allowed to give concerning conversations she'd had with Mabel prior to her death regarding Laube having perpetrated the fatal abortion.

As the closing arguments were made, Laube sat beside her husband, expressionless. 

Mabel's father, Charles Seydel, sat weeping with his face in his hands. Laube's attorney closed his statement by saying, "Convict [Laube] and you accuse Mabel Brock of having abortion committed upon her, a charge that you would not make against one that is dead."

Grok AI illustration

After 24 hours of deliberation the jury was deadlocked 6 to 6. Mabel's father pushed for a new trial.

Distraught over his wife's death and not wanting to face another trial, Mabel's widower, Frank, shot himself on her grave on March 26, 1908. He survived long enough to crawl to the sexton's house but died before help arrived.

I've been unable to determine if the second trial was pursued. 

Sources:

• "Mrs. Laube is Indicted," Lake County Times, September 27, 1907
• "Laube Case Now On," Lake County Times, October 16, 1907
• "Both Sides Fight Hard in Laube Case," Lake County Times, October 17, 1907
• "Laube Trial Nears Close," Lake County Times, October 23, 1907
• "Laube Case Now Rests With Jury," Lake County Times, October 24, 1907
• "Disagreement in Laube Case," Lake County Times, October 25, 1907
• "Laube Case to be Reopened," Lake County Times, October 31, 1907
• "Tries Suicide Over Young Wife's Grave," The Star Press, March 27, 1908
• "Hurries to His Death," South Bend Tribune, March 27, 1908

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Veteran pro-life investigator Kevin Sherlock asks people of good will to help him have Planned Parenthood prosecuted for profiteering from the rapes and incests of underage girls many thousands of times each year.

Sherlock has  pulled the police records of hundreds of cities and has pulled the child protective services records of multiple states to prove Planned Parenthood staffers are violating mandated reporting laws designed to protect girl victims.   But there is more to be done. Sherlock will make sure more and more evidence gets to federal and state prosecutors who care about protecting girls from abusers and profiteers.

If you would like to help, please click the following link:

https://www.givesendgo.com/stop-pp-from-profiteering-from-the-rapes

Sherlock has talked to many girls and young women who trust him. Their stories and the forensic evidence shows most of them undergo pill abortions or humiliating invasive surgical abortions due to fear or ignorance or pressure or coercion. He treats the girls or women carrying children or devastated from their abortions as friends and neighbors in his home town, not afterthoughts.

Thank you for doing what you can to help girls and fight sexual predators and rape profiteers.