Like the Jacqueline Smith case in the previous decade, the strange events surrounding the death of 19-year-old Barbara Lofrumento have become almost an urban legend. But the tale of Barbara’s tragic death and its aftermath is all too true.

Barbara, a 19-year-old college student, informed her parents that she was pregnant. Mr. and Mrs. Lofrumento cast about for a reputable abortionist and were referred by an acquaintance to Dr. Harvey Norman Lothringer. Lothringer, a Princeton graduate, examined Barbara on June 2, 1962, and assured the parents that although Barbara’s pregnancy was 5 months advanced, there was no danger. He arranged to pick up Barbara and her mother, Rose, and took them to his office, which was in his home in a wealthy section of Queens.

Barbara Lofrumento
After spending time alone with Barbara in his office, Lothringer sent Mrs. Lofrumento home. The next morning Barbara’s parents returned to Lothringer’s home, where they found several patients waiting outside. No one had seen Lothringer. Mr. Lofrumento waited for several hours, then went home, and contacted the police to report Barbara missing. She was found, chopped into pieces, in the stopped-up drains of Lothringer’s home.

Thereas CarilloLothringer, who had already been under surveillance for suspected abortion activities, appeared to have fled the country, accompanied by Theresa Carillo, a Cuban-born former stewardess who was serving as his receptionist. Lothringer was well-to-do, with reports circulating that he kept as much as a million dollars cash in safe deposit boxes. An international manhunt was launched, with Lothringer first being traced to the area of his family’s hunting lodge about 60 miles from Montreal. Eventually he was extradited from Andorra, where he was discovered in 1962.

Lothringer’s wanted posterLothringer told police that Barbara had developed an air embolism. He had tried to dispose of her body, he said, to keep his receptionist from being implicated. He plead guilty to second-degree manslaughter in Barbara’s death and was sentenced to 2 to 8 years. Barbara’s mother reportedly screamed and fainted when she heard of what she considered a light sentence; Barbara’s father called it “discount justice.” But Lothringer’s lawyer reported receiving numerous calls from Lothringer’s woman patients, in support of the doctor.

Lothringer’s medical license was revoked. He served four years in prison, and in 1968 he was released on parole.

Lothringer petitioned the medical board in 1972 to get his license restored, but the request was denied. In 1973, after Roe vs. Wade was handed down, Lothringer tried again, and this time he succeeded. On October 17, 1973, he was put on a five-year probationary status and given his license back. The New York Times said, “State officials said that records explaining why Dr. Lothringer’s license was restored were in archives and not readily available.”

Lothringer practiced psychiatry with no disciplinary actions or trouble until 1996, when he was working as a prison doctor. He ordered that the antidepressant 17-year-old Nancy Blumenthal was taking be discontinued, on the ground that the girl complained that the medication made her violent. Despite pleas by Nancy’s mother, Nancy was not put on any other medication to address her depression. A month later, she hanged herself in her cell.

Lothringer was born February 1, 1921, the son of David and Helen Lothringer. He served in the US Army Medical Corps from May of 1943 to September of 1944, then went into private practice in 1946. His medical practice allowed him to thrive, with an $85,000 a year income, 100 suits, and three cars in addition to his lavish, $75,000 13-room home in a posh neighborhood. His wife, Felice, won separation from him and custody of their two children in a 1957 case; she characterized her husband as a “Jeckyl and Hyde” who was professional at work but violent at home. He died May 22, 2006 in Hastings On Hudson, Westchester County, New York.

In the 1960s, we see the 20th Century downward trend in abortion mortality resumed — until a brief upturn starting in 1968, when some states first started loosening their abortion laws. For more, see Abortion Deaths in the 1960’s.
For more on pre-legalization abortion, see The Bad Old Days of Abortion

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Sources:

• The Sad Juncture of 2 Troubled Lives;For Second Time, Focus Is on a Doctor After a Patient’s Death, New York Times July 18, 1996
• Milton Helpern, Autopsy
• New York Times 6-8-62, 6-11-62, 6-12-62, 9-13-62, 9-14-62, 10-31-62, 12-6-62, 5-22-64, 7-23-64′
• “Body Parts Jam Sewer; Hunt Doctor,” Decatur (IL) Daily Review, June 7, 1962
• “Abortion Death Suspect Traced”, The Oklahoman, June 9, 1962
• “Girl Patient Found Chopped to Pieces,” The Miami News, June 8, 1962
• “Doctor Hunted in Abortion Death,” The (Vancouver) Sun, June 7, 1962
• “Body Parts Jam Sewer; Hunt Doctor,” Decatur (IL) Daily Review, June 7, 1962

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1. 1900s
2. 1910-1919
3. 1920s
4. 1930s
5. 1940s
6. 1950s
7. 1960s
8. 1970s
9. 1980s
10. 1990s
11. 19th century
12. 2000-2009
13. 20s
14. 30s
15. 40s
16. NAF
17. abortifacient
18. abortion
19. abortion mill
20. abortion mortality
21. abortionists
22. abortionists — female
23. abortionists — male
24. alabama
25. anesthesia
26. arizona
27. black women
28. botched abortion
29. california
30. chicago
31. colorado
32. connecticut
33. cover-up
34. death
35. deaths
36. deception
37. delay in transport
38. delay in treatment
39. district of columbia
40. dumped body
41. ectopic
42. embolism
43. falsifying forms
44. fetal indications
45. florida
46. former criminal abortionist
47. george tiller
48. georgia
49. hemorrhage death
50. hospitals
51. illegal – doctor
52. illegal – midwife
53. illegal – nurse
54. illegal – paramedical
55. illegal – post roe
56. illegal – unknown
57. illegal – untrained
58. illegal abortion
59. illinois
60. inadequate documents
61. inadequate equipment
62. inadequate resuscitation
63. incomplete abortion
64. indiana
65. infection
66. kansas
67. legal abortion
68. llinois
69. louisiana
70. maryland
71. massachusetts
72. maternal indications
73. maternal mortality
74. michigan
75. mills
76. missouri
77. mortality
78. national abortion federation
79. new jersey
80. new mexico
81. new york
82. north carolina
83. ohio
84. oklahoma
85. pennsylvania
86. planned parenthood
87. pre-roe legal
88. previous misconduct
89. prostaglandin
90. quackery
91. questionable stories
92. ru-486
93. rupture
94. saline
95. secret abortion
96. self-induced
97. suicide
98. teens
99. texas
100. wisconsin