Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1878-04-04
rs SHE DEAD !?
OR DID SIZE HIRE A CORPSE FOR
THE FUNER.4L.
A Sad Conundrum Relative to the Exist
ence of Madame Restelle-If Her Cold
Corpse Didn't Float in the Bath Tub She
Has Conc to Europe-Anthony Comstock
Beaten by the Abortionist at Last.

EUTOp0-AntnOUy
Beaten by the Abortionist at Last.
New YORK, April 3.-This afternoon it was
positively asserted at police headquarters that
Madame Restelle, the abortionist, had sailed
for Europe, and that q body from the morgue
had been purchased and passed off as hers.
A New York correspondent writing April LIST,
gives the following account of the alleged
suicide:
Nine. Restell, the noted abortionist, ended
her strange life this morning by cutting her
throat in the bath room of her luxurious home
at Fifty-second street and Fifth avenue. Since
Anthony Comstock arrested her, two months
ago, she has spent some days and nights in the
toombs, and has been q prisoner in her own
house under the charge Of the deputy sheriffs,
has seen her long and shameful life unfolded in
the columns of the press, and been execrated
by the public, and has been tormen ted every
hour by the fear that she would end her days
in prison. This constant terror and long agony
was too great for her endurance. and she sought
relief in suicide. Her case was to be called up
in court to-day, for argument on q motion to
quash the Indictment On yesterday she was
IN GREAT DISTRESS OF MIND.
Her counsel, Mr.. Orlando Stewart, told her in
vain that she need not appear in court, that
the proceedings would only be preliminary,
would be assigned. She paced the floor of her
room, talking in broken sentences, wholly pre-
occupied with her legal troubles. Last night
she retired about two hours before her usual
bedtime. Mr.. Shannon, the husband of
Nine. Restelrs granddaughter, passed
fHr0t 1rvn hn~
half later, and found her sleeping TRANQUILITY,
apparently overcome by nervous exhaustion.
EARLY this morning, Maggie McGraw, the cham
bermaid, while passing down stairs, noticed
that the bath room door was open, and saw
night garments lying upon the chair. AS it
was the madames custom to take an early
morning bath, she thought nothing of this cir
cumstance. At 1880 NJ she went up stairs
again, and, seeing no change in the appearance
of the bath room, she entered it. Opening the
doors that inclosed the bath-tub, she saw
THE NUDE FORM OF NINE. REsTELL
submerged in the water, which filled the tub
and was Overfowing ut the waste pipe. The
faucets of both cold and hot water were open,
but the hot water boiler had become exhausted.
and the water in the tub was cold The blood
had washed through the waste-pipe, leaving
the throat and body wholly unstained. The
servant at once ran and awakened Mr.. Charles
Il. Purdy, the madames grandson, and Mr..
shannon. The latter, who is a medical stu
dent, says that he knew at once by the appear
ance of the corpse that she had been dead some
hours. The fact of the suicide was at once tel
egraphed TO the district attorney, and soon af-
ter the news was posted on every bulletin board
In the city, creating the greatest establishment.
BY many it was regarded as q CHASTITY LIST of
April joke.
MIR. ANTHONY coMsTocK,
in company with two deputies, went to the
tn hot u;o%i hol
capped him. He protested to discredit the re-
port until visit to the house left no room for
doubt. The coroner was summoned and took
charge of the body, which had not been dis
turbed. Her hands were folded across her
breast, and below them, across her body, lay an
lvory-handled carving knife, Owing to the
position of her head, the cash in her throat was
closed and hardly perceptible on casual inspec-
ton. Her face bore no trace of pain.
THE DEATH WOUND
was found to be cash across the throat, ONLY
deep enough to sever an artery on the right
side, where it joined the jugular vein. It is
believed that Nine. Restell prepared her bath
when she made the incision with the knife
The coroner ut once held
THE INQUEST.
Mr.. Shannon testified that in her fits Of mem
tai agony on yesterday she frequently exclaim-
ed, as she wrung her hands, II never did any
harm to anybody. Why should they bring
this terrible trouble upon me? Several
times since her arrest she has cried
out, IF I could only. get sick and die! Q, I
wish was dead, as it would end all" At 9
o'clock on the evening previous he and his
wife sat in her room and talked with her after
she had retired. She said she felt calmer but
could not go to the court in the morning. Sew
eral times she exclaimed II dread 2 o clock
so," but did not tell what she referred to.
Later he found her quietly sleeping, and knew
nothing more of her until informed of her
death. Nine. Restell was to be tried on the
charges of
PRODUCING ABoRTIoNs
! and of selling medicines to prevent conception.
Counselor Stewart says that when she first
came to him for legal advice she repeatedly
declared her innocence of these crimes and
said she had not engaged in criminal service Of
this sort for twelve years. The madame could
not be induced to believe that her enemies
would not bring her to trial for some of the
old oHenses that have many years been pigeon
holed in the courts of this city. She was con-
stantly pursued by the idea that she would
END HER DAYS IN PRISON,
and this narrowing thought, in the opinion of
Mr.. Stewart unsettled her mind and impelled
her to commit suicide. Last week Nine. Res
tell placed her will for safe keeping in the
iron safe Of the surrogates Office. 1t is believed
that she leaves property worth about $4O0, 600.
Her estate includes her elegant residence,
which is one of the finest brown stone struc-
lures on Fifth avenue. She spared no expense
| in furnishing her home in the most luxurious
manner. She also owned the Osborne block,
handsome French fat building adjoining her
| home. She had large amount of United States
bonds, and when arrested took $4,000
in bonds to the court, and offered them as secu-
slxty-eight years ago. in a small manufactur-
| ing town in England, grew up in comparative
ignorance, spent her early years at service. and
| when of age, married Henry Somers, journey
man tailor, and came to this country. Her
husband died of intemperance, leaving his
| young widow with daughter. She earned
bread for herself and child as seamstress, and
while thus employed, married Charles r. Lob
man, quack doctor. Soon after, in 1886, she
began advertising as female physician, and
under this name she followed the trade of
PROFESSIONAL ABoRT1oN1sT
In 1841 she was arrested and indicted, but
not tried. Even then she drove in a snowy
equipage on Fifth avenue with her daughters.
| In 1874 three indictments were found against
/ her, which were not pressed to trial. In 1847,
after trial lasting eighteen days, in which she
was defended by James T. Brady and David
Graham, Jr., she was convicted of procuring an
abortion, and sentenced to one year in the
penitentiary. She was left in the Tombs fol
eight months while the lawyers were fighting
over appeals and errors, but was compelled
after all, to go to Blackwell's island where she
served out her term, her husband visiting hel
daily. The next year she
RESUMED her CRIMINAL PRACTICE,
advertising in several papers, serving crowds
of patrons, and adding daily to her bank &C
count. That year her house in Greenwich
street was mobbed, and the madame narrowly
escaped injury at the hands of her infuriatt
neighbors, No prosecutions could drive he
from her business All of her patrons moyef
in upper-tendom, and she exacted enormou
fees. She finally moved to the magnifcen
} residence she has occupied now for many years
and there abe has aerved her customers nndis