Trunk Tragedy in the City of Shoes (episode 169)

In February 1879, Jennie Clarke’s body was found jammed into a leather trunk on the bank of the Saugus river on her 20th birthday. Every detail of the case reveals yet another tragedy in the life of Jennie Clarke, who died after attempting to terminate an unwanted pregnancy, and it reveals the unexpectedly permissive approach of Massachusetts law to abortion in the mid-1800s.  


Trunk Tragedy in the City of Shoes

Boston Book Club

This week’s Boston Book Club pick is a 43 minute long documentary film made in 1957 and narrated by longtime local news anchor Jack Chase.  It introduces us to The MassPike, which was a brand new wonder of technology and transportation planning at the time.  Big thanks to Max Finkel of Jalopnik for sharing the film earlier this month.

Upcoming Event

The Gibson House museum in the Back Bay has long been a fairly obscure museum, but it’s enjoying a moment in the sun after being featured in the recent Little Women movie.  Longtime listeners will recognize it as our featured historic site of the week back in episode 58. The museum is a unique time capsule of Victorian Boston, as it was built in 1860, only very minimally updated since then, and left completely untouched since its last owner died in 1954.  

That last owner was Charles Gibson, Junior, who grew up in the house, and then moved back in after his father’s death in 1916.  He cultivated a persona as the ultimate Boston Brahmin, a throwback to an earlier era. A later profile in the Boston Herald described him as “a Proper Bostonian whose Victorian elegance puts modern manners to shame,” and “a small man…with a nimble, if sometimes cantankerous physique…He strolls around with a sort of swagger stick with a silver tip out of deference to the fact that gold would be too vulgar.”  He affected an English accent and was always quick to mention his ties to the elites of Boston, London, and Paris.   

Charles Junior maintained his eccentric ways right up until the end.  Into the 1950s, he kept up a habit of walking to the Ritz Carlton Hotel every night, where he would take his dinner in a full tuxedo and tails, top hat, and a raccoon coat in cold weather.  His neighbors would call him Mr. Boston.  

At the time that we featured the house, we tiptoed around questions of Charles Junior’s sexuality.  He was a lifelong bachelor, and he wrote a book of love sonnets that never mention a woman, but at the time, museum curators were happy to respect his privacy and deflect those types of inquiries.  That attitude has changed, and the museum is embracing their founder’s personal history with a series of house tours on three upcoming Fridays. Called “Charlie Gibson’s Queer Boston,” here’s how the Gibson House website describes the tour:

Explore the Gibson House and early-twentieth-century Boston through Charlie Gibson’s eyes! The story of the museum’s founder is one of legacy and family history; of the fading grandeur of Victorian-era Boston; and of the role gay men, like Charlie, had in the historic preservation movement. This unique specialty house tour is not to be missed! 

The tour will be held at 4pm on January 31, February 28, and March 27.  Tickets are available at the door for $10, or $8 for students. 

Transcript

Music

Jake:
[0:04] Welcome Toe Hub history, where we go far beyond the Freedom Trail to share our favorite stories from the history of Boston. The Hub of the universe.
This is Episode 1 69 The Trunk Tragedy in the City of Shoes. Hi, I’m Jake.
This week I’m talking about a young woman who died in 18 79 after attempting to terminate an unwanted pregnancy.
Jenny Clark’s body was found jammed into a leather trunk floating in the Saugus River on her 20th birthday.
Every detail we learn about the case reveals yet another tragedy in the life of Jimmy Clark, and it reveals the unexpectedly permissive approach of Massachusetts law toe abortion in the mid 18 hundreds.
But before we talk about this trunk tragedy in the City of Shoes, it’s time for this week’s Boston Book Club selection and our upcoming historical event.

[0:57] My pick for the bust in Book Club This week is a 43 minute long documentary film made in 1957 and narrated by longtime local news anchor Jack Chase.
It introduces us to what was at the time Ah, brand new wonder of technology and transportation planning.

Jack Chase:
[1:15] As straight as safe, as comfortable and convenient as man ingenuity could make it.
The Massachusetts Turnpike stretches across the state like a life giving artery 123 miles of it, with 14 entrances and exits geared to any and all traffic and weather conditions.

Jake:
[1:32] Actually first stumbled across this film through a post on the car enthusiast blogged Jalopnik.
Earlier this month, Philip Nick writer Max Finkel introduced the topic by saying, back before 1957 getting from Boston to points West and south by car was a real challenge.
Only narrow Route nine and Route 20 stretched between the city and the bulk of the Commonwealth of the West.
But his road traffic grew. Something new was needed.
Enter May 15th 1957. On that day, the Massachusetts Turnpike, stretching from the western border of the state with New York to Route 1 28 was finally opened,
granting motorists a new route to the west of the Commonwealth and truck drivers, a new high speed route between the cities in the Midwest and even farther with the Port of Boston.
Along with simply learning how the Mass Pike was built in a mere 18 months, the film’s notable for pointing out how 19 fifties America was in love with the automobile, despite what a nightmare road safety was at the time.

Jack Chase:
[2:34] For the past 20 years, each Massachusetts state public Works commissioner and each public safety commissioner was plagued by Route nine. Accident problem.
This was the main highway to Wester Springfield in New York when it was built way back in the days of the old Boston and Western high speed trolley line, this double barreled road between Route 20 and Shrewsbury and Chestnut here with the showpiece of the Commonwealth.
But it is not allowed for the amazing mushrooming of auto traffic.
State police patrols toward the highway around the clock, but Death also rode the highway 24 hours a day.
Engineers installed traffic lights, eliminated crossovers and striped Route nine with luminous white paint crashing, delineate er’s rim, the roadway fences and trees and thousands of traffic signs warn mortars That danger looked at every turn an intersection,
that the safety devices did not check the death toll nor decrease the number of collisions.

Jake:
[3:26] You’ll also notice a striking difference in attitudes toward historical preservation and environmental protection than what we’re used to today.

Jack Chase:
[3:35] Buildings that could be self reject up and moved elsewhere. Structures not worth saving were demolished or burned on the spot.
Some of the farm buildings were so hold that moving them was out of the question.
Other buildings were on back roads or instruct too inaccessible that it was more efficient to demolish them to move them.

[3:54] Along with the elimination of buildings. Along the right of way, went the big job of clearing out trees.
More than 4000 acres of land were cleared in laying out the right of way in some remote sections of the Commonwealth, the new highway cut through Virgin Boys.
In other places, the road was hacked two acres of brush and scrub growth, none of which offered any possibilities for robbery.
When the trees were felled, they were burned for the most part somewhere. Salvage, Remember? But mostly they had little value.

Jake:
[4:22] The full film is available on YouTube and embedded into the gel up Nick Post, both of which will link to in the show notes.

Jack Chase:
[4:29] So there it is, the great new Massachusetts Turnpike in every sense, an artery,
hearing, the very lifeblood of commerce from the industrial heart of New England to the breadbasket of the nation and bringing to our historic state enough surge of products, tourist dollars and investment.
Massachusetts has taken another important step forward.
And do those responsible for the turnpike’s building. We say hats.

Jake:
[4:57] And for upcoming event this week, I have a limited series of specialty tours at the Gibson House Museum in the Back Bay.
The Gibson house has long been a fairly obscure museum, but it’s enjoying a moment in the sun. After being featured in the recent Little Women movie, longtime listeners will recognize it as our featured historic site of the week. Back in Episode 58.
The museum is a unique time capsule of Victorian Boston, as it was built in 18 60 Onley, very minimally updated since then and left completely untouched since its last owner died in 1954.

[5:34] That last owner was Charles Gibson Junior, who grew up in the house and then moved back in after his father’s death In 1960 he cultivated a persona as the ultimate Boston Brahmin, a throwback to an earlier era.
Ah, later profile in The Boston Herald described him as a proper Bostonian who’s Victorian elegance, puts modern manners to shame, and a small man with a nimble if sometimes cantankerous physique.
He strolls around with a sort of swagger stick with a silver tip out of deference to the fact that gold would be too vulgar.
He affected an English accent and was always quick to mention his ties to the elites of Boston, London and Paris.
Charles Jr maintained is eccentric ways, right up until the end into the 19 fifties, he kept up a habit of walking to the Ritz Carlton Hotel every night, where you take his dinner in a full tuxedo entails a top hat and a raccoon coat in cold weather.
His neighbors called him Mr Boston.

[6:38] At the time we featured the house, we tiptoed around questions of Charles Jr sexuality.
He was a lifelong bachelor, and he wrote a book of love sonnets that never mentions a woman.
But at the time museum curator is were happy to respect his privacy and deflect those types of enquiries.
That attitude has changed. The museum is embracing their founder’s personal history with a series of house tours on three upcoming Fridays called Charlie Gibson’s Queer Boston.
Here’s how the Gibson House website describes the tour.
The story of the museum’s founder is one of legacy and family history, of the fading grandeur of Victorian era Boston and of the role that gay men like Charlie had in the historic preservation movement.
This unique specialty house tour is not to be missed.

[7:31] The tour will be held at 4 p.m. On January 31st February 28th and March 27th.
Tickets are available at the door for $10 or $8 for students.
We’ll have a link to the event page as well as more about the Mass Pike documentary and this week’s show notes at hub history dot com slash 169.

[7:52] Before I get on with the show, I just want to say thank you to everyone who sponsors Hub history on patriotic.
Your support of $2.5 dollars or even $10 a month allows this podcast to be a self sustaining enterprise.
Your contributions pay for our Web hosting, security, audio processing and media hosting fees.
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We appreciate each and every one of you.
If you’re not supporting the show yet and you’d like to start, just go to patriot dot com slash hub history or visit hub history dot com and click on the support link.
And now it’s time for this week’s main topic.

[8:38] The headline on the front page of The Boston Globe screamed Murder and mutilation in the city of shoes.
The year was 18 79 in the city of Lin was in the middle of an industrial boom that earned it the nickname City of Shoes.
Shoemaking had been a cottage industry since the city’s founding, and by the early 19th century, 10 footer shops abounded in back yards and alleys around Lynn.
Ah, single artisan could hand make about five shoes per day in one of these 10 foot by 10 foot shops, as immortalized by Henry Wilson, the shoemaker from Natick who went on to be Ulysses S. Grant’s vice president.
A replica of his 10 footer is a familiar landmark along the Boston Marathon course just before Mile nine.
Later, in the 18 hundreds, backyard shops gave way to factory floors as industrialisation allowed the mass production of punched in shape leather uppers, stamped souls and stacked heels, thanks to machines largely developed in Lynn.
In 18 79 workers still hand stretched the uppers over a wooden form called the last, then nailed them to the souls and heels.
A few years later, however, another Lynn innovator immigrant Yon Met slinger would develop a machine to automate. That step is well for about a century lens title, as the city of shoes would be unchallenged.

[10:03] It was along the banks of the river dividing Lynn from its neighbor Saugus, along today Salem Turnpike, near the Romney marsh, where evidence of a terrible tragedy washed up on February 27th 18 79.
The next day’s Boston Globe described the scene.

[10:20] Shortly before six o’clock this afternoon, a man named Michael Daly, who’s employed as a coal screener on William Newell’s Cole Worf near the Saugus in Lin Line,
discovered an object lying on the marshes, about 20 rods to the south of Fox Hill Bridge and within a few rods in the place where he was at work.
At first Daily thought it was a block of wood, and he started to get it for firewood.
But upon closer examination, he found it was an old fashioned leather trunk, and upon still closer examination, he found to his horror that it contained the dead body of a young lady.
One into the trunk was broken in, evidently by the floating ice and through the aperture protruded one of the woman’s arms shocked daily called Lynn Police, who began an investigation,
the article continues.
The trunk measured two feet four and 3/8 inches in length, 15 and 1/4 inches in depth and 18 and 7/8 inches in width, and when it was opened, the woman was found doubled up,
the right leg was drawn up under the body and the left drawn up over the breast, the head inclined to one side and the position of the body gave unmistakable evidence that the brutal murderers were in great haste when they packed the body.

[11:43] Imagine the horror you would feel if you discovered a grown woman’s disfigured body stuffed into a box just two feet long and a foot and 1/2 wide.
There was no thought that this might be an accident, however, discovering who the woman Waas and what had happened to her turned out to be surprisingly challenging.
The medical examiner later published an article in the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal about the case, and it describes the efforts that have been expended to disguise and dispose of the body.

[12:14] The truck had been weighted with several bricks and three old porter bottles, one of which, by a curious miscalculation as it appeared, was empty in court, thus acting as a buoy the nose.
The victim had been severed by a clean cut extending from the bridge downwards through bones and cartilage, with the obvious purpose of preventing the recognition of the body in case it should be discovered,
that this mutilation was accomplished after death, I assured myself from the fact that there was no injection of the edges of the wound, no retraction of the skin and no traces whatsoever of the copious bleeding, which must inevitably have occurred if it had been affected during life.
The hair had been cut recently and hastily, as it appeared, and as much as the INS were irregular and some loose masses adhered to the person of the deceased in their efforts to prevent the identification of the body.
The criminals in this case manifested considerable shrewdness, and coming off the nose for the effect of depriving the face of this important feature is very largely to destroy its characteristic expression.

[13:18] This is an element of the case that I found surprising when I read it.
You wouldn’t think that a missing nose would make a familiar face completely unrecognizable. But that seems to have been the case.
In fact, over the three weeks it took to identify the victim, there were several cases of false identification.
The Emmy describes the process.

[13:40] While I was making the autopsy, a member of the police force in Lynn confidently asserted that the body was that of Miss See, who disappeared from among her friends some two weeks previously.
In order to make assurance doubly sure, a brother in law of the young woman was sent for and the autopsy suspended to allow him to look upon the face.
He came in excited and trembling and after some hesitation, declared his belief that the dead body was that of his wife’s sister.
But a few hours later, she was found in a boarding house.
This was only the beginning of a long series of positive identification, Sze all but the last ending, either in finding the person alive or in the development of some other circumstance which disproved the supposed identity.
One man from a neighboring town declared the remains to be those of his daughter, who was missing from home, he being convinced to the contrary only by the discovery of the airing one in a house of ill fame in Boston.

[14:38] Another man was sure that it was his niece, but she, too, was found.
In my opinion, these strange mistakes were the result of the peculiar effect produced by cutting off the nose.
Had the mutilation been carried so far as to destroy all the features, those who are seeking to identify the body would have been obliged to depend on some mark or scar, and in this they would be much less likely to be deceived.
Although such an occurrence would be quite possible in death. Of course, those peculiarities of expression, which result from the play of the facial muscles and from the eyes, are lost entirely.

[15:15] The victim was of medium size had tolerably regular features and brown hair, a description in brief, which applies to a very large number of young women.
Imagine these faces deprived of their living expression and, if they’re most prominent, feature the nose and you can understand to what a condition of uniformity all would be reduced and what a confusion might arise from the attempt to identify.

[15:41] Despite having hastily cut her hair and mutilated her face. Whoever threw the body in the river hadn’t thought to remove the hearing she was wearing.
They’re eventually found a match, a pendant belonging to Jenny P. Clark of Boston Highlands she’d been missing since she left the Dorchester home, where she was employed as a domestic servant on February 12.
Her body was found on February 27th which would have been her 20th birthday.

[16:09] Another careless mistake would eventually lead the police to make a series of arrests.
The Boston newspapers covered the case in great detail, and a neighbor soon reported seeing a truck matching the one in which Jenny Clark’s body was found in his neighbour’s shed.
The neighbor lived and worked at 21 LaGrange Street, just off Tremont steps from the Boston Common.
The tenants, at 21 LaGrange were Caroline See Goodrich and Daniel F. Kimble, who advertise themselves as physicians, with Caroline also moonlighting as a storefront psychic.
It turns out that they also had a different business, as the medical examiner’s report indicated.
An autopsy held a few hours later developed the fact that the woman had died of peritonitis following or accompanying an abortion.

[17:00] The next section is going to be a bit graphic, so those with a weak stomach they want to fast forward by about a minute.

[17:08] The medical examiner’s report further states that his autopsy revealed that an extremely aggressive infection had begun in the pelvic cavity.
Then it has extended, but a short time before death to the parts above the brim.
The proofs that an abortion had occurred may be summarily state of this follows number one.
The vulva was dark colored and open and emitted a bad odor.
The vagina was injected intensely, so in its upper part, number two, the interior of the uterus was covered in a black shredding slide.
On the right side, near the fund ISS was a rough raised, spongy looking portion, obviously the point of a placental attachment.
Number three. The uterus was enlarged. Number four, the ovaries were dark purple, and in the left was what appeared to be a true Corpus Lutetia, MB of pregnancy number five.
The breasts were full and on pressure. Milk exuded in considerable quantity from both breasts,
and view of all these facts, it was to be regarded as certain from a medical point of view that an abortion had occurred and that the inflammation, which was the direct cause of death, was it sequence.

[18:26] In the months after her death, police, prosecutors and reporters put together the details of the final days of Jimmy Clark’s life.
She worked in the home of Roxbury hardware store owner Alan Adams and his wife, whose name isn’t given in the newspapers.
As was customary at the time, their shop was on Blue Hill Avenue and their home was on Dudley Street.
The Adamses would claim that they had no idea that Jenny was in distress or afflicted at the time she disappeared.
Relying on their accounts, the July 17th Globe describes how Jenny made an excuse to be away from work on a certain day in February.

[19:06] Perhaps urged into consenting by her Paramore in order that his name might be saved from dishonor, perhaps desires of so doing in order to conceal her own guilt.
Certain it is that for a day or two prior to the 12th of February, she spoke of her desire to visit her uncle in Milton.
Mrs. Adams made no objection to her being absent from the house, and on February 12th she left the house taking with or not even a change of clothes.
And only such things is good. Be put in a small paper bundle, she wrote in a horse car from her home to the corner of Washington and Neil and Streets, where she alighted and went directly to Number 21 the Grain Street,
where the arrangements have already been made for Mrs Goodrich to perform the operation upon her.

[19:51] The operation that Mrs Goodrich performed on Jennie Clark was the 19th century equivalent of a pre Roe V Wade coat hanger.
Abortion, a long, thin metal implement exactly what she used was never proven, was inserted through the cervix and into the uterus.
The idea behind this was to damage the fetal tissue or uterus enough that the pregnancy would no longer be viable and a miscarriage would soon result.
However, this procedure, like any abortion carried out without proper medical supervision, was incredibly risky.
Dirty instruments are a puncture through the uterine wall into the intestines could very easily produce a fatal infection.

[20:34] Judy Clarke underwent the procedure on February 12th and remained under the care of Goodrich and Kimble overnight.
The next day, she was moved to a private home in Somerville.
They’re a mother and daughter team would act as her nurses through the recovery process.
The duo were identified at first only as Mrs and Miss Smith, and police reports and new stories The July 17th Globe continues.
Arrangements have been made that Jenny should go to the house of a woman in Somerville who followed the vacation of nurse and also practiced baby farming.
Jennie remained at number 21 the Green Street, that night. The operation was performed in the early hours of the evening.
At 9 30 on the following day, she left the house, walked a tree Mont ST and from their road in the horse cars to the house where and she died.

[21:26] Now baby farming was not a familiar term to me.
I’m honestly not sure if it was a really thing in New England or simply an urban legend. A cautionary tale.
Baby farmers were believed to be women who would adopt Children who were born as a result of unwanted pregnancies.
Because they took in many infants for little money, it was widely believed that baby farmers would neglect or even murder their wards.
There’s no evidence that Mrs and Miss Smith acted as baby farmers, and their elsewhere simply referred to his nurses.
Plus, they seem to have had good reputations in their community.
Almost immediately after arriving at this home in Somerville, Judy Clarke began complaining of cold like symptoms.
Soon she was wracked with chills, shivering, and her fever was spiking.
By the 14th she complained of searing pain throughout her body, and on February 18th the procedure produced its intended result. A miscarriage.
In the days before antibiotics, however, there was no recovering from the advanced infection.
Taking over her body after another week of conscious agony, Jennie Clark finally died on February 25th nearly two weeks after she left home for the last time.

[22:44] After Kimble and Goodrich were arrested, Mrs and Miss Smith turned themselves in to the police and agreed to testify in the case.
They were able to confirm that in the evening after Jenny’s death, Daniel Campbell had come to their house.
He cut Jenny’s hair and used a pair of dental forceps to amputate her nose.
Then he contorted her body and forced it into the tiny trunk.

[23:08] That night, Kimble drove a buggy pulled by a team of horses around Summerville than around Saugus, looking for any way to dispose of the body.
The ground was frozen salads. We couldn’t bury it. He couldn’t risk leaving it in the field or wood lot, where a farmer hunter might stumble across it.
His best bet was to sink it in the water, but it bridge after bridge. The river lake below was iced over.
Finally, as he was about to cross into Lynn, he saw open water on the Saugus River below.
He reigned in the team, heave the leather trunk over the rail and watched it disappear, presumably forever into the water below.

[23:47] The next day, Michael Daley found it with physical evidence and testimony from the Smiths prosecutors felt confident in pressing charges against Campbell and Goodrich.
They also made one more somewhat surprising arrest. Allen Adams, the hardware store owner who employed Jennie Clark, was arrested as an accomplice.
The Globe reported on the death bed statement by Jenny that the Smiths had relate to the police.
She said that until our acquaintance with Alan in Adam’s, she had been a pure, virtuous girl.
She was interested in the church, her Sabbath school class and had many friends there.
But to no one save her mother. Had she ever confessed her fall to her mother, she had confessed that she had yielded to her employer and promised to do so no more.
Adams himself had counseled the procuring of the abortion and had himself attended to the preliminary arrangements, such as treating with Mrs Goodrich and Dr Kimble.
She declared that he was the father of her child on that she had send with him alone.

[24:55] Now Kimble and Goodrich stood as the perpetrators. Adams was an accomplice, and the Smiths were cooperating witnesses who might otherwise be charged as accessories after the fact.
But what was the cry?
You might imagine that before our modern supposedly wildly permissive era abortion was strictly outlawed in Puritan descended Boston, and that perhaps it only became accessible after Roe v. Wade.
As it turns out, nothing could be further from the truth and trying to understand the case of Jimmy Clark. I went looking for the earliest regulation of abortion I could find in Massachusetts.
As far as I can tell, the first president in Massachusetts jurisprudence was Commonwealth V. Isaiah Bangs.

[25:42] The case was decided by the Mass Supreme Judicial Court in 18 12. Here’s the statement of facts summarizing the case.
The defendant was indicted October term 18 10 for assaulting and beating one Lucy Holman and administering tour A certain dangerous and dill.
It eeriest draft a potion against her will with intent to procure the abortion and premature birth of a bastard child of which she was then pregnant,
in which the defendant had, before that time, begotten of her body at alien in or mea et cetera to the great damage of the set.
Lucy against good morals and good manners in evil example to others in like case to offend contra Peixian, et cetera.

[26:27] Isaiah Bangs sounds like a terrible boyfriend. The solicitor general at the trial entered a newly prissy quick as to the assault and battery charged in the indictment.
A verdict was found at the same term that the defendant was guilty of all the several matters charged in the indictment.
Accepting that the said potion was taken by the said Lucy voluntarily, I’ll just go ahead and apologize for all my Latin pronunciations, attorneys and others, police and corrections.
So the prosecutor in that case had elected not to pursue the assault and battery charge.
Bangs was found guilty of some lesser charges, and testimony showed that Lucy had taken the abort efficient willingly because she had taken it willingly.
The case ended up before the S. J. C. On appeal, and the court’s ruling set an important precedent If an abortion had been alleged and proved to have ensued.
Thehe Vermant that the woman was quick with child at the time is a necessary part of the indictment.

[27:30] Based on that, an indictment for criminal abortion requires affirmation that the woman was quick with child.
So it’s gonna help if we understand what that means.
A case that was decided in 18 45. Both helps define what the law means by quick with child and builds on the precedent set in the 18 12 case, the Mass.
SGC and Chief Justice Lemuel Shaw ruled on an appeal by a woman had been arrested for providing abortions.
In 18 43 Lucy Ba Parker was charged with three counts of abortion and convicted of two,
both of which the S J C overturned the quarter of the opinion that a common law no indictment will lie for attempts to procure abortion with the consent of the mother until she was quick with child.

[28:21] It was only considered by the ancient common law that the child had a separate and independent existence when the embryo had advanced to that degree of maturity designated by the terms quick with child.
Although too many purposes and reference to civil rights, an infant in Vitry said Mare, is regarded as a person in being,
the words quick with child must be taken to be according to the common understanding, which was proved to be this that a woman is not considered to be quick with child till she herself has felt the child alive and quick within her.
The quarter, all of the opinion that although the ACS set forth are in a high degree offensive to good morals and injurious to society, yet they are not punishable a common law and that this indictment cannot be sustained.

[29:11] So in the mid 19th century, Massachusetts law looked the precedent of ancient English common law to determine that any abortion before the mother had felt the fetus move was not a crime.
Soon after that S J C decision, the Legislature passed additional restrictions on abortion.
This was near the beginning of a long nationwide effort in the mid in late 19th century to criminalize abortion.
Starting the 18 fifties, the American Medical Association would push to make abortion a crime, largely because they wanted to delegitimize unlicensed medical practitioners who competed with their members.
At the same time, social reformers of a certain class pushed to make abortion a crime because they believed that it’s widespread availability would lead to the extinction of the Anglo Saxon race,
as it was replaced by the offspring of Irish Catholics and other undesirable immigrants.

[30:08] While these seemingly crackpot approaches would appear in Massachusetts in coming decades, the first round of abortion regulation was focused on the health of the mother.

[30:18] A law passed in 18 45. How does its main goal the survival of the mother?
It allowed for the prosecution of anyone who provided the medical or surgical means of abortion.
But as long as the woman survived, the practitioner could only be charged with a misdemeanor.
If she died. However, a felony was in order.
Here’s the text of the law Whoever maliciously or without lawful justification with intent to cause and procure the miscarriage of a woman then pregnant with child,
shall administer to her prescribed for her or advisor director to take our swallow any poison, drug, medicine or noxious thing,
or shall cause to procure her with, like, intent, to take or swallow any poison drug, medicine or noxious thing,
and whoever maliciously and without lawful justifications shall use any instrument or means whatever with the like intent,
and every person with like intent, knowingly aiding and assisting such offender or offenders shall be deemed guilty of felony if the woman dying consequence thereof and shall be imprisoned not more than 20 years nor less than five years in the state president,
and if the woman does not dying consequence thereof.
Such offender shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and shall be punished by imprisonment not exceeding seven years nor less than one year in the state President, House of Correction or common Jail and by fine, not exceeding $2000.

[31:45] Now I know that by the turn of the 20th century there were more stringent abortion restrictions in place in Massachusetts.
But as far as I can tell, when Jennie Clark died in 18 79 on Lee, the 18 45 law that differentiated between a fatal and nonfatal abortion was on the books.
If we have any experts in 19th century abortion law in the audience, this is a time when I would welcome your corrections.
The only other restriction I could find at the time was an 18 47 law that banned advertising for medical or surgical abortions.

[32:19] Every person who shall knowingly advertise, print, publish, distribute or circulate or knowingly cause to be advertised.
Printed, published, distributed, are circulated.
Any pamphlet, printed paper, book, newspaper notice, advertisement, a reference,
containing words or language giving or conveying any notice hint a reference to any person or to the name of any person, real or fictitious, from whom,
or to any place, house shop.
Our office where any poison drug mixture, preparation, medicine or noxious thing, or any instrument or means whatever or any advice, directions, information or knowledge may be obtained for the purpose of causing or procuring.
The miscarriage of any woman pregnant with child.
Shall be punished by imprisonment in the state prison, House of Corrections or common jail not more than three years, or by fine not exceeding $1000.

[33:17] The laws, passed in 18 45 in 18 47 Would stand is part of the Massachusetts General Code Chapter 2 72 until they were appealed in the year 2018.
Despite the ban on advertising, providers used guarded language to continue advertising aborted patients.
I found ads for female pills of several different brands to the late 18 nineties, for example, The Boston Globe carried this ad in 18 75.
McLellan’s Female Pills, The woman’s Friend. The never failing and safe pills are the most prompt, certain and effectual known.
One box. Sufficient price. $5. Sent by Mail, 45 Legrain Street, Boston, Mass.
Another from 18 89. Advertised both medical and surgical service is for women who found themselves in trouble.

[34:13] Dr. And Mrs Gordon to 28 Tremont Street have invented an improved method of treating female complaints, which excels all others.
Being safe, painless and warranted effectual or money refunded.
Dr and Mrs Gordon, our regular graduates of medicine and the longest established ladies physicians in Boston.
Having no equal in safety and quickly curing all female diseases.
Ladies who are sick or in trouble and require skillful medical or surgical treatment.
We’ll save time and money by consulting one of them before calling elsewhere, being assured of honorable treatment and reliable advice.
Those who have been unsuccessfully treated by other doctors are especially invited to call board and careful nursing during confinement, consultation free and confidential hours. 9 a.m. To 9 p.m. Daily.

[35:06] So when Jenny Clark died in 18 79 abortion was nominally illegal.
Yet like it had been throughout recorded history, it was common, readily available and even publicly advertised.
It was only in cases like hers, when unregulated unlicensed practitioners used unsafe methods that led to the patient’s death, that the criminal statutes were actually enforced.

[35:33] And Jenny Clark’s case that enforcement came in the form of a highly publicized trial.
After months of front page stories about her death, the trial finally got underway in September of 18 79.
Besides reporters from every local paper, the courtroom was packed with at least 50 onlookers.
The defendant’s doctors, Daniel Kimble and Carolyn Goodrich, have been confided. The Charles Street Jail, today’s Charles Hotel since July, and the Globe described their appearances. They arrived in public for the first time in months.
Madam Goodrich was that tired in a black velvet bonnet, cashmere shawl and black silk dress.
She appeared very pale and her eyes were sunken, giving evidence of her confinement.
Kimble appeared quite robust and was very neatly attired in black.
He was cleanly shaved and wore a mustache quite long and waxed and twisted at the ends.

[36:29] Goodrich was charged with a felony count of procuring an abortion, while Kimble was charged with aiding and abetting, as well as with being an accessory before the fact.
As the witnesses were sworn in, The leather trunk where Jenny’s body had been found was wheeled in and propped up in the front corner of the courtroom in full view of the jury, Jenny’s mother testified.
Posthumous photographs of Jenny’s disfigured face and identifying marks were introduced into evidence.

[36:58] Mrs and Miss Smith were revealed to be Mrs Four Safe and Miss Mary Jones.
Jones testified that she had repeatedly taken horse cars from Somerville into Boston to consult with Goodrich as Jenny Clark’s condition got worse and worse, according to the September 24th Globe, she said,
Mrs Goodrich told me to tell Mrs four say to get her own physician, I saw nobody.
But Mrs Goodrich, on the first visit saw Kimble the second time Kim Wilson over nothing by me.
I went over 1/3 time and asked for some brandy for the girl. I got some.
I went over again after the girl died. I went the same day that she died.
Mrs. Goodrich was not in. When I got to her house, I told her that the girl was dead and she said that she would see Dr Simmons in regard to what could be done that she would send Dr Kimble over in the evening.
Mrs. Goodrich told me to keep my mouth shut and they would do nothing to me.
She also told me she would give me all the money I wanted. I saw Kimble at the house every night before the girl died.
He was there also after she died.

[38:04] After both sides concluded their arguments, the judge read that 18 45 abortion statute to the jury and gave them their instructions.
Mrs. Goodrich is charged as the principal in procuring this abortion by some unlawful means.
The question for you to consider in relation to her is whether she is guilty and you will return a general verdict of guilty or not guilty on these counts.
Because it’s evident that a felony, although it may be charged in several different forms, can only be committed once,
as to Kimble, he is charged in the same counts, is being present and aiding and abetting bringing him within the provisions of the statute when I have read to you whoever aids or assists they’re in.
I understand that the attorney does not claim conviction against him upon the count.
Thus the charge against him is left in the second cow, charging with being accessory before the fact in another count, charging with being accessory after the fact.

[39:03] After a long deliberation. That trial ended in a hung jury, with one juror refusing to convict without an eyewitness to the abortion.
The retrial commits in October. There, the charges against Allen Adams, the older man in a position of power who either seduced a rape Jimmy Clark, were dropped.
This time, both Campbell and Goodrich were convicted.
The October 25th issue of The Boston Globe carried a notice about their sentencing.

[39:33] The jury in the Jenny P. Clark trial came in at 10 o’clock yesterday morning after having been out all night.
The verdict was a CE follows Mrs Goodrich guilty on the second count of the indictment and not guilty on the other counts.
Dr Kimble guilty on the fourth count and not guilty on the others.
That Mrs Goodrich performed an abortion on Jennie Clark by some unknown means, and that Kimble was an accessory before and after the fact.
The courtroom was crowded when the verdict was given. The president’s were pale and calm and exhibited no emotion whatever.

[40:10] On October 30th a syndicated wire service story related the sentencing details for both defendants, Dr Daniel F.
Kimble and Mrs Caroline C. Could Rich recently convicted his principles in the Jenny P. Clark murder case, where this afternoon sentenced the former receiving six years in the state president.
The latter 10 years in the House of Correction.
It is stated that Kimble, to avoid the sentence, attempted to cut his throat.

[40:38] A Boston Globe article fills in some of the details that are missing from the wire service story.
Dr. Kimble took the Senate’s very lightly stepping aside in handing Mrs Goodrich out of the dock with the same nonchalance that he would display in handing her out of a carriage.
It appears that before coming to court, Dr Kimble expressed a desire to shave himself, and the implements were given to it.
When the attendants back was turned, Kimble cut a gash on the right side of his neck, evidently intending suicide.
But he was not successful, and the wound was dressed.
When he appeared in court, there was a bandage around his neck to show the result of his word.

[41:15] This wasn’t the first time that people in Massachusetts were prosecuting for attempting to procure provide abortions, and it surely wouldn’t be the last.
While state law would later crackdown on abortion, Roe v. Wade overturned those restrictions.
However, many Massachusetts residents began to worry about row after President Trump’s election.
In an era when the president has already appointed to staunchly any abortion justices and one of the court’s liberal seems to, unfortunately often beyond death store stop women in Massachusetts no longer wanted to rely on Roe.

[41:50] In July of 2018 the state Legislature passed and Governor Baker signed the negating, archaic statutes targeting Young Women Act or Nasty Women act it formally repeal.
The laws have been rendered obsolete by Roe v. Wade in the event that rose someday overturned by the U. S Supreme Court.
This new law explicitly invalidates the 18 47 ban on providing information about abortion and the portions of the 18 45 law regarding drugs and potions, which might be interpreted as limiting access to emergency contraception.
While they were at it, they repealed the state ban on fornication just for good measure toe, learn more about the death of Jimmy Clark an abortion in 19th century Boston.
Check out this week’s show notes at hub history dot com slash 169 We’ll have links to the 18 12 and 18 43 Supreme Judicial Court cases that provided the legal precedent for the Jennie Clark case,
as well as the text of the 18 45 and 18 47 laws restricting access to abortion in Massachusetts.
We’ll also have links to a whole lot of Boston Globe and wire service articles about the case, along with the medical examiner’s report that goes into extreme, horrifying detail about the death of Jimmy Clark.

[43:12] And, of course, we’ll have links to information about our upcoming event and the building of the Mass Pike, this week’s Boston Book Club pick.
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Music

Jake:
[43:51] We’ll be back next week to talk about the Millen gang machine gun murders.