New York, 1871: A Prosperous Lay Abortionist
On Wednesday, August 23, 1871, 22-year-old
Mary Russell, who worked at an envelope factory, went to the home of her brother-in-law, William Albright, "a highly respectable gentleman, who is foreman in a printing office." Mary confessed to her family that she was pregnant and sick, and "threw herself upon the mercy of her relatives. They did not cast her off, but instead summoned Dr. Warren A. James and treated her with every possible kindness."
When Dr. James first saw her, Mary admitted to an abortion, saying that she'd taken an abortifacient a Dr. Tully had provided to her on August 23. Dr. James had to leave the city for some reason, and turned the care over to Dr. Jeremiah P. Bliven, a former police surgeon. Bliven quickly became suspicious, and succeeded in urging Mary's family to ask her to come clean.
In the mean time, Mary's health took a turn for the worse. On Sunday, August 27, Bliven went to the police and reported his reasons to suspect an abortion. A coroner's detective was dispatched to the house. He questioned Mary. As she was too weak to write, Detective Walker wrote a dying declaration for her based on the information he'd gotten.
Mary had been pregnant for about two months. Two weeks before the interview with Detective Walker, she'd gone to a Mrs. Burns for an abortion. While a housekeeper held her up against a wall, Mrs. Burns had used instruments on Mary, without producing any immediate effect. Burns told Mary that if anybody questioned her, she was to blame the abortion on a Dr. Tully. She then sent Mary home.
Mary took ill immediately "with severe pain in my head, accompanied by vomiting." She expelled her dead baby three or four days later. Then she grew sicker and went to her family for care.
Mary reported that the baby's father was Harry Pullen, who had given her $10 to pay for the abortion and then evidently vanished from her life.
In the early morning hours of Monday, September 4, Mary died.
The police quickly went to Mrs. Burns' house and arrested Ann Brice, the housekeeper, and found out from her that Mrs. Burns had gone to her other home in Long Island. Before going after her, the police arrested Mary's lover, Harry Pullen, and Mary's roommate, Nellie Ryan, who had gone with her for the abortion.
Off to Long Island the police went. "They found the abortionist living in an elegant mansion, furnished throughout in the most splendid manner, of which she was the owner, as also of one hundred acres of fine land adjacent to it, all of which was in a high state of cultivation."
Mrs. Burns didn't seem at all alarmed to see the police, and had no evident thought of Mary Russell. Instead, Burns seemed to be operating under the assumption that she was wanted in connection with "the trunk tragedy" (almost certainly the abortion death of Alice Bowlsby), which she'd not been involved in. The police allowed Mrs. Burns to operate under this assumption until they had her at the station, at which point they informed her that she was actually being arrested for Mary Russell's death. "Without giving any explanation of her deed, or almost without taking the trouble to deny it, she was taken away to a cell and locked up."
The coroner performed the autopsy on Mary, and confirmed that she'd died of an infection caused by the abortion.
Chicago, 1903: Physician Implicated
On September 4, 1903, 23-year-old Mrs.
Florence Groewski died in St. Mary's Hospital in Chicago from an abortion performed about a week earlier. Her death was attributed to blood poisoning.
Her husband of four years, Edward, testified to the coroner that Florence told him on August 26 that she had gone to Dr. Slominski and paid him $25 (over $700 in 2020 dollars). Slominski performed an operation and gave her some different medicines. On August 31, when Florence went to the hospital, Slominski came to the Groweski home and took away all of the medicine bottles.
"She told me all before she died," Edward said. "I was at the hospital before she passed away. She said to me, 'I am going to die and leave you alone with the children. Oh, my heart is torn at the thought of leaving those poor little ones. But do not forgive Dr. Slominski.' Then she died. No, I shall not forgive nor forget Dr. Slominski."
Edward was comforted by friends as he tried to attend to his two orphaned children, a 3-year-old boy and a 7-month-old girl. Their mother lay in a casket in the little parlor.
Dr. Ladislaw Slominski was arrested the day of Florence's death. His wife, "fashionably attired, and wearing gold-bowed eyeglasses, wept bitterly" as her husband was booked. Slominski asserted that the charge was based on a lie. Slominski was held by Coroner's Jury September 8, and indicted for felony murder, but discharged by a Grand Jury. ("Doctor is Charged With a Murder,"
The Inter Ocean, September 5, 1903)
