From Criminal in 1882 to Safe and Legal in 1981

A period of a century shows us 19th and 20th century criminal aboriton deaths, a pre-Roe but legal abortion death, and a post-Roe legal death.

1882: Gussie Ellergood Implicates Physician

On Saturday, July 1, 1882, Gussie Ellergood of Carlisle, Illinois, died in a St. Louis hospital. She had been admitted the previous Wednesday after having taken sick. Her death was due to a botched abortion. She made a deathbed statement to a nurse naming Dr. Robert McWilliams as her abortionist, though McWilliams denied any knowledge of her.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch said that Gussie "had been betrayed by a villain named Harry J. Pate, who, through the medium of slushy love letters, gained her affections and then deserted her." As McWilliams' trial date approached, Pate was in the workhouse due to vagrancy, so even if he had stayed with Gussie her prospects would have been poor. I have been unable so far to determine the outcome of McWilliams' trial.
1896: Hanna Carlson Implicates Two Female Physicians

Dr. Lucy Hagenow

On July 2, 1896, 20-year-old Hanna Carlson died at Chicago's Emergency Hospital at about 5 p.m. Her brother, A. O. Carlson, swore out a complaint against Dr. Lucy Hagenow and Dr. Ida Von Schultz. Both women, who said that they were originally licensed to practice medicine in Switzerland, were charged with murder. A man named Emil Olson, identified as "the man who secured their services," was also arrested.

Hagenow and Von Schultz asserted that Hannah had come to them after a self-induced abortion and that they were merely trying to save her life. The jury evidently found the evidence against the known abortionists to be insufficient, since they acquitted both defendants after deliberating for two hours.

Hagenow, who had already been implicated of the abortion deaths of Louise Derchow, Annie Dorris, Abbia Richards, and Emma Dep in San Francisco, would go on to be linked to over a dozen Chicago abortion deaths: Minnie Deering, Sophia Kuhn, Emily Anderson, Marie Hecht,: May Putnam, Lola Madison, Annie Horvatich,: Lottie Lowy, Nina H. Pierce, Jean Cohen, Bridget Masterson, Elizabeth Welter, and: Mary Moorehead.

1936: Madell Williams and an Unidentified Abortionist

On July 1, 1936, 19-year-old Madell Williams died in a Rocky Mount, North Carolina hospital, from peritonitis caused by a perforation of her uterus during a criminal abortion.

Madell had left her mother's home in Nash County at about noon on Sunday. She went off in a car with Melton Baker, a man Madell had been associating with for about 18 months. Baker brought Madell back to her mother's home early Monday morning. Madell was very sick and immediately took to her bed, where she remained for about a week. A doctor examined her, and on his advice Madell was admitted to the hospital.

Baker denied that he had arranged or even recommended an abortion for Madell. He even went so far as to insist that he had neither picked her up at her mother's house nor had he brought her back; he had, he insisted, not seen her at all during the time in question. However, he admitted to Madell's uncle that he had gotten her pregnant.

Baker was found guilty of arranging the fatal abortion, and was sentenced to 3 - 5 years in prison. His conviction was upheld on appeal.

1971: Safe and Legal in New York

"Audrey" is one of the women Life Dynamics identifies on their "Blackmun Wall" as having been killed by a safe and legal abortion. Audrey was 44 years old when she underwent a first-trimester abortion in New York on July 1, 1971, now legal under New York's liberalized abortion law. During the abortion she went into cardiac arrest. Attempts to revive her failed; she died that day, leaving three children motherless.

The 1970 liberalization of abortion had made New York an abortion mecca until the Roe vs. Wade Supreme Court ruling that abortionists could legally set up shop in any state of the union. In addition to "Audrey," these are the women I know of who had the dubious benefit of dying from the newfangled safe-and-legal kind of abortion in pre-Roe New York (Thrugh June of 1972):

• 1970: "Judy" Roe, Carmen Rodriguez, Barbara Riley, "Amanda" Roe, Maria Ortega, and "Kimberly" Roe
• 1971: "Amy" Roe, "Andrea" Roe, "Sandra" Roe, "Anita" Roe, Margaret Smith, "Annie" Roe, "Vicki" Roe, "April" Roe, "Barbara" Roe, "Tammy" Roe, Carole Schaner, "Beth" Roe, and "Roseann" Roe
• 1972: "Connie" Roe, "Julie" Roe, "Robin" Roe, "Roxanne" Roe, and "Danielle" Roe

1981: Safe and Legal in Iowa

Sheryl Cottone was 23 years old when she underwent a first trimester abortion in June of 1981. She was rushed to Veteran's Memorial Hospital in Waukon, Iowa, on July 1. She was pronounced dead on arrival. An autopsy found that she had died from an embolism that lodged in her heart.

Deadly Abortions in Different Circumstances and Centuries

Chicago, 1899: Perpetrator's Profession Unknown

On April 25, 1899, Sarah Messinger, age 30, died in St. Luke's Hospital in Chicago from an abortion performed by Marie Kampfer. Sarah died on the day the abortion was performed. Kampfer, whose profession is not listed, was held for $5,000 bond by Coroner's Jury. Most Chicago abortionists of that era were physicians or midwives.

New York City, 1902: Most Likely a Physician

In January of 1902, Abraham Conheim promised marriage to 19-year-old Harriet "Hattie" Larocque, originally of Canton, New York.  According to Hattie's father, Leon, Hattie was the seventh of his nine children, and was "previously chaste and of good reputation." With the promise of marriage, Hattie became sexually involved with Conheim, who had hired her to work for him as a cloak model. 

In April of 1902, about 18 months after moving to New York City, Hattie discovered that she was pregnant. Conheim reneged on his promise of marriage. Instead he and his friend, traveling salesman Leo Asher. There they arranged a criminal abortion for her.

At some point, Hattie was attended by Dr. Mary J. McCleery in the McCleery home. Martha Collier, who was a boarder at the McCleery home, said that Harriet had arrived there on April 9. Dr. McCleery said that she had only given Hattie simple medications.

Hattie took ill after the abortion and was admitted to New York Hospital as "Hattie Bailey," a name she was using while in New York. She was visited at the hospital by the coroner, and again gave her name as Hattie Bailey. She told the coroner conflicting stories. First she said that she was secretly married to Abraham, but later she denied that she was married to anybody. Of Conheim and Asher, Hattie said that "both had wronged her" and that Asher had promised her marriage but had instead sent her to "Dr. McCleery." 

Hattie's mental state deteriorated and she began speaking to Asher as though he was present in the room. She died at the hospital of peritonitis on April 25. 

Hattie's father sued Conheim for seducing and debauching his daughter, impregnating her, and causing her death. There were never any arrests to hold anybody else accountable, largely because Hattie's statements at the hospital were never formally taken down as an ante-mortem statement.

Chicago, 1908: A Midwife's Fatal Work

On Thursday, April 23, 1908, 32-year-old homemaker Annie Johnson was taken by private ambulance to Wesley Hospital in Chicago, suffering form complications of a criminal abortion. She died on Saturday night, April 25. Albert Stevens, age 39, was arrested as an accomplice to the fatal abortion. Mrs. Laura R. Flinn, one of Annie's friends, was held as a witness. Laura, who said that the abortion had been performed over her protests, identified midwife Augusta Heiderich as the abortionist. Heiderich was arrested and held by the grand jury.

Oklahoma City, 1932: A String of Deaths by an Osteopathic Physician

Dr. Richard Thacker

Dr. Richard E. Thacker, an osteopath, maintained an office and operating rooms in the Terminal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. He fled the state but was eventually captured and put on trial for the April 25, 1932 death of 17-year-old co-ed Nancy Joe Seay Lee, who had recently entered into a secret marriage with University of Oklahoma football player Frank Lee.

Thacker met Frank some time about noon Saturday, April 23, 1932. Frank brought his wife to the office about 2 o'clock that afternoon. Thacker had asked for $75, but Frank had bargained down to $30. Thacker did not examine Nancy prior to the abortion, and did not ask Frank to leave the room while it was perpetrated.

After the abortion, Frank went back to classes. He was notified that Nancy had taken ill and been taken to Oklahoma City General Hospital. Frank rushed to her side, but she was already dead. She had implicated Thacker before her death.

Nancy was one of a string of abortion deaths attributed to just Thacker and one additional Oklahoma City osteopath, John Eisiminger in the spring of 1932. The others were Geraldine Easley, Ethel Hestland, Isobabell Ferguson, Ruth Hall, Robbie Lou Thompson, Virginia Lee Wyckoff and Lennis May Roach.

Missouri, 1997: A Doctor's Third Patient Death

Robert Crist

Twenty-two-year-old Nichole Williams was the third patient known to have died of safe and legal abortioncomplications under the dubious care of Dr. Robert Crist. The others were Latachie Veal and Diane Boyd. Nichole, a mother of three (ages 7, 3, and 1), lived with her boyfriend and after an abortion at Reproductive Health Services, run by Planned parenthood, in St. Louis, MO. Some of the cost of Nichole's $550 abortion came from a national foundation which Planned Parenthood refused to name.

Crist started the first-trimester abortion at 2:00 on Friday, April 25, 1997, administering lidocaine and vasopressin for a procedure expected to last about five minutes. "Seconds" before finishing the abortion, he noticed that Nichole had breathing problems, finished the abortion, and instructed staff to call 911. RHS staff began resuscitation, but Nichole was in full cardiac arrest when medics arrived fifteen minutes later. Efforts to revive her continued in the ambulance and at Barnes-Jewish Hospital, to no avail, and she was pronounced dead at 3:12 p.m. Nichole's death was officially attributed to disseminated intravascular coagulopathy (DIC), a clotting disorder that can be triggered by trauma, illness, or foreign material in the blood stream. 

Reproductive Health Services, a National Abortion Federation member facility, is operated by Planned Parenthood of St. Louis. The National Abortion Federation (NAF) is an organization of abortion facilities and practitioners, and promises that its members adhere to the highest standards of care. This claim seems remarkable when one considers that Dr. Abu "The Butcher of Avenue A" Hayat was an active NAF member when he performed the abortions that killed Sophie McCoy and maimed Ana Rodriguez. Other dubious NAF members include Family Planning Associates Medical Group, a clinic chain with at least sixteen dead abortion patients to its discredit, and Abraham Alberto Hodari, whose Detroit clinic is responsible for at least three abortion deaths including an illegal third-trimester abortion on an underage girl at the behest of her abuser's sister. 

A Hundred-Year Span of Abortion Deaths

St. Louis, 1878

A St. Louis grand jury indicted Charles P. Emerich in the 1878 abortion death of 19-year-old Maggie Gibbons.  Maggie was living at Emerich's home. He owned the laundry where Maggie work and was the father of Maggie's baby.  When she told him she was pregnant in December of 1877, Emerich went to Dr. Thomas F. Smith, who provided abortifacient powders which failed to produce the desired effect.  It is unclear whether Smith perpetrated the fatal abortion on Maggie or if he just provided the instruments. The abortion in question was performed on December 30.

Maggie took sick afterward and was relocated to her mother's house. Dr. W. D. Hinckley was called in to care for her. It was then that Maggie's mother learned about the abortion, though Maggie refused to name the father. Dr. Hinckley called in Dr. J. O'Reilly for a second opinion. Both doctors agreed that she was suffering from a servere case of peritonitis and that there was no hope for her.  Maggie languished, finally dying on January 2 of 1878.  Emerich was found guilty of first-degree manslaughter in Maggie's death, and was sentenced to five years in prison.

Chicago, 1918

Margaret Crowe, age 25, died from Dr. Anna Sorenson's dubious care at Chicago's Norwegian Deaconess Hospital, purportedly on January 2, 1918. Sorenson had already managed to kill Emelia Gorman on August 10, 1917, and Margaret Linstrom on November 12 of that year. Sorenson's fatal spree was put to an end with her death in prison on November 17, 1917 while awaiting her trials.  I've been unable to determine if Margaret languished for so long that she outlived her abortionist, or if the Homicide in Chicago Database is mistaken about the date of her death. Since the database is incorrect about the date that Sorenson died, giving it as January 2, 1918 rather than November 17, 1917, this is likely.

New York, 1970

"Amy" was 35 years old when she had a legal abortion somewhere in the state of New York on December 24, 1970, taking advantage of the state's new law granting outpatient abortion-on-demand up to 24 weeks of gestation. Amy was 14 weeks pregnant. During the abortion, Amy suffered from a massive pulmonary embolism. Efforts to save her life finally failed, and she died on January 2, 1971, leaving behind two children.

Though Amy was the first woman identified as an abortion victim in 1971 as states experimented with legalization, she wasn't the last. Other women to die from purportedly safe legal abortions that year include Cassandra Bleavins, Janet Forster, Doris Grant, Betty Hines, "Annie" Roe, "Andrea" Roe, "Anita" Roe, "April" Roe, "Audrey" Roe, "Barbara" Roe,  Beth" Roe, "Monica" Roe, "Roseann" Roe, "Sandra" Roe, "Tammy" Roe, "Vicki" Roe, LaSandra Russ, Carole Schaner, Margaret Smith, and Kathryn Strong.

Chicago, 1978

Sherry Emry

On December 28, 1977, 26-year-old leather shop owner Sherry Emry went to Water Tower Reproductive Center in Chicago for a safe and legal abortion. Arnold Bickham,(pictured below) who owned the facility, did not have his staff do pathology exams on abortion tissues; instead they threw them away.

After her abortion, Sherry returned to her home in Hammond, Indiana. She was in pain on New Years Eve. She consulted with the clinic instruction sheet and concluded that her pain was normal. By January 1, Sherry was quite ill and unable to arise from her bed. Her worried friends urged her to seek medical care, but Sherry thought that she just had the flu, so she kept to her bed. She slept fitfully, with chills and sweating. When her friends came to check on her the morning of January 2, they found her dead in her bed and called the police.

Sherry's fetus had been implanted in her fallopian tube, which ruptured. She bled to death. The coroner blamed Sherry's death on the fact that Water Tower threw fetal remains away without a pathology analysis. However, the police found that Sherry had a receipt from Water Tower indicating a $50 discount. They hypothesized that staff might have noted the lack of a fetus in the aspirator, concluded that Sherry hadn't been pregnant, and given her a partial refund.

Arnold Bickham

A CDC report about Sherry's death says, "At this clinic the physicians did not routinely examine the products of conception except through the wall of the transparent suction tubing as tissue was aspirated.... The tissue was neither weighed nor examined.... The aspirated material from all patients was collected together in a single bottle." "Autopsy revealed 4,000 ml of blood in the peritoneal cavity and a ruptured ectopic pregnancy.... fetal size was consistent with a 10 weeks gestation."

When Sherry's survivors filed suit against Bickham, he refused to turn over her medical records, first saying that they were privileged, then by claiming that they were his personal property and that Sherry's family had no right to them. Bickham was held in contempt of court for his refusal to cooperate with the courts in the matter.

Sherry wasn't the only woman to die after abortion in a Bickham facility. Sylvia Moore, age 18, died after Bickham shoved her out the door of his clinic New Years Eve of 1986.