Mary Ellen Legge1930s, 20s, illegaluntrained, oklahoma, illegalparamedicalMary Ellen Legge, a 24-year-old department store clerk, died June 1, 1938, from a criminal abortion.

Otto LucyOtto Lucy, an Oklahoma City psychologist and teacher, was sentenced to 25 years after pleading guilty in her death. He had charged Mary Ellen $75 for the fatal abortion.

A practical nurse, Ella Hartin, admitted to helping Lucy perform the abortion. She said that Lucy had frequently brought his abortion patients to her home.

While he was out on bail pending disposition of this case, he performed the fatal abortion on Goldie Crow. He had perpetrated another abortion, on a stenographer who lived, between his arrest and his first trial in the Mary Ellen Legge case.

Though he was not a licensed physician, he is listed in the phone book as “Dr. Otto C. Lucy.”

Keep in mind that things that things we take for granted, like antibiotics and blood banks, were still in the future. For more about abortion in this era, see Abortion in the 1930s.
For more on pre-legalization abortion, see The Bad Old Days of Abortion

Sources:

• “Ex-Dean Accused of Murder in Abortion,” Miami (OK) Daily News-Record, Jan. 25, 1940
• “Lucy Murder Trial Set for April 7,” The Oklahoman, Mar. 29, 1941
• “Prosecutor is Set to Open Otto Lucy Death Trial Monday,” The Oklahoman, Apr. 5, 1941
• “Lucy Guildy of Manslaughter; Jury Recommends 25 Years,” The Oklahoman, Apr. 9, 1941
• “Lucy Drops Appeal Plan, Starts to Prison”, The Oklahoman, Apr. 14, 1941

Photo courtesy of Gateway to Oklahoma History

---

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