Mary Ackerly of White Plains, New York, was the uneducated daughter of a poor family. So it was only natural that she would be won by the charms of Harry Nelson, “a person of considerable wealth and influence” who lived near Sing Sing. When she was “in an advanced state of pregnancy, Mary was taken to New York, where board was provided for her in a house of ill fame”, according to her deathbed statement. There, Nelson brought Dr. Seth Shove to her room at night. Then “one of them blew out the light while the other proceeded against her will, to perform the operation”, which led to the expulsion of a dead baby a day or two later. Mary sickened, and died on the 20th of January, 1846.