Two Anniversaries, Criminal and Legal

On December 12, 1930, 22-year-old Jeanette Reder died from complications of a criminal abortion performed at the Chicago office of Dr. Emil Gleitsman. Gleitsman was indicted by a grand jury for homicide, but was acquitted on June 15, 1931. The source does not clarify why there was enough evidence to indict Gleitsman, but not enough to convict him. Gleitsman, a rather dogged abortionist, was also implicated in the deaths of 22-year-old Lucille van Iderstine and 21-year-old Mary Colbert. Click on Jeanette's name to learn more about her and the man who killed her.

Thirty-year-old Sandra Williams was 11 weeks pregnant when whe underwent an abortion on December 12, 1984. She went home following the abortion. Less than twelve hours later, she was dead. Her death certificate noted that she died from a pulmonary embolism.