James R. StrubleabortionistsmaleAt the end of March, 1914, 24-year-old Frances Fergus died at Chicago’s Norwegian Deaconess Hospital from peritonitis caused by an abortion. Struble was implicated but released after the coroner’s jury inquest.

In early March of 1916, 43-year-old Augusta Bloom, a native of Sweden, died at Chicago’s Norwegian Deaconess Hospital from complications of an abortion perpetrated that day by Dr. James R. Struble at his office. He was indicted by a Grand Jury, but the case never went to trial.

Strubble was born in Pennsylvania on February 14, 1850, the son of Henry and Eliza Elmira (Fritchman) Struble. His family moved to the Chicago area when he was a child. His personal life was evidently rocky, since his first wife divorced him and then sat in on the second wife’s unsuccessful bid to divorce him. He died on January 11, 1925 in Chicago at the age of 74.