The Disquieting Death of Emma Gill

October 15, 2023
In 1898, a group of boys found dismembered body parts near a pond in Bridgeport, Connecticut. The body was identified as Emma Gill, a young, working-class woman who sought an abortion from Dr. Nancy Guilford. In her latest book on little-known American women, journalist Marcia Biederman (Scan Artist, 2019) chronicles the life and work of Guilford, a slippery practitioner with suspect credentials who was repeatedly imprisoned for providing surgical abortions during a time when such procedures were "gaining popularity and drawing legal scrutiny." Guilford and her husband, another dubious doctor, preyed on the desperation of women like Gill, charging high fees for operations that often went wrong. Biederman, who is prone to using anachronistic language, takes readers through every dramatic twist and turn of the Guilfords' many schemes and legal troubles, often focusing on reporters' breathless descriptions of the lady abortionist to the exclusion of the women whose lives were at stake. Nevertheless, this timely, detailed work contributes to the history of women's reproductive rights. It is sure to find an enthusiastic audience.

COPYRIGHT(2023) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Two 19th-century abortionists run from the law and the repercussions of a patient's death in this nonfiction work. In the wake of Roe v. Wade's reversal, Biederman's latest book focuses on the death and subsequent investigation of the murder of Emma Gill, a young unmarried woman from Connecticut who secretly sought an abortion in 1898; her body was found dismembered under a bridge. This historical account follows Henry and Nancy Guilford, a couple of unlicensed "doctors" who'd become some of the most notorious abortion providers across New England. Neither properly studied medicine, but they were ambitious and duplicitous enough to convince many desperate women to seek their services. Emma is thinly sketched, but her story reveals the ways communities, law enforcement, and the media perceived and stigmatized abortion. The author draws on an exhaustive collage of newspaper accounts, historical records, and archival research to not only animate the era, but to provide specifics about the extensive harm caused by regulating women's bodies. Nancy's eventual conviction for manslaughter for Emma's death (Henry, who wasn't involved with Emma Gill's abortion, wasn't charged) reveals how far abortion and sex education discourse has come (and recently regressed). Biederman's economic prose avoids sentimentality ("A saloonkeeper's wife, presumably with access to cash, would have received a warm welcome, particularly at that time. Nancy's financial pressures were mounting"), and the narrative unfolds like a high-stakes crime novel. An afterword explains that the Guilfords' trials and imprisonments did not dissuade them from continuing to give abortions. A multifaceted, revealing historical account of one woman's abortion.

COPYRIGHT(2023) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. (Online Review)

March 8, 2024

Journalist Biederman (A Mighty Force) reconstructs the 1898 murder of Emma Gill in Connecticut. Young and single, she sought an abortion. New England in the late 19th century was rife with medical quackery, and board certification for practicing medicine would not become commonplace for another few decades. So, abortions were commonly performed by introducing an instrument or "irritant," and two enterprising purveyors, Henry and Nancy Guilford, sensed a lucrative market in providing them. Since many women needed as much as a week to recover, they rented out rooms as well, further padding their pocketbooks. Gill sought out their services and ultimately succumbed to septicemia during the procedure. Biederman's book shows that Nancy was the only one of the duo was was suspected of carving Gill's body and leaving her dismembered remains under a bridge. Nancy ultimately served prison time for manslaughter but continued providing abortions after her release. VERDICT This highly researched and detailed book serves as a stark reminder of the sometimes fatal consequences women face when denied the right to safe, legal abortions.--Barrie Olmstead

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