Wednesday, March 20, 2013

A Doctor, a Husband, and a Lover

On March 20, 1926, 19-year-old Alice Annalora died at the County Hospital in Chicago from complications of an abortion performed that day. Dr. Wilford Vine was booked for Alice's death, as was her husband, Joseph Annalora. Vine was indicted for felony murder. Ultimately, the coroner was unable to determine the legal status of the abortion that killed Alice, so Dr. Vine and Mr. Annalora were released.

The March 20, 1907 death of Anna Gosch was similar to the death of "Daisy" Roe, a systems analyst who died in 1990 after allowing her boyfriend to attempt to perform an abortion on her with a piece of aquarium tubing. Anna allowed her lover, a man only identified by the surname Edwards, to insert a rubber catheter tube into her uterus to cause an abortion. Anna developed an infection, and although a doctor provided her with care, attending to her twice daily, she developed an infection and died. Her lover was convicted of homicide.

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