Evening star., 1958-07-06
Interstate Abortion Rings Linked
As Police Solve Their Secret Code

protection.
Veteran police classed the
abortion racket with gambling
and narcotics in the size Of the
take. the extent Of the organ
ization and the possibilities Of
corruption.
Unless infection sets in-and
frequently when 1t does-the
victims usually make unwilling
witnesses. When a case is ready
for trial, they often either
change their story or fail to
show up.
Because of the money in
volved in the racket, members
Of the rings can be bought of
not to talk, paid or frightened
into silence.
Arlington Witness Vanishes
Joyce Broderson, ~, a key
witness in one Of the Arling-
ton cases, is now missing.
The first break in the cur
rent investigation came when
. 22-year-old District girl
faced an $500 hospital bill be-
cause Of abortion complications
and was willing to talk.
The girls testimony led to
Mrs. Grimes first conviction,
but it also put investigators on
the trail that led to Mrs.
Grimes record book.
The book was in code but
once that code was broken by
Vice Squad Detective Leonard
j. Burnett and Pvt. B. G. Cox,
who handled the Arlington
phase of the investigation, and
Mr.. Hassan, the investigators
had a field day.
"The Grimes book" said Mr..
Hassan, lied us into four or
five rings besides Mrs. Grimes"
Book Identifies ID. c. Doctors
Another record book figures
In the story. District police.
months later, located District
abortionist Martini's book. At
least half dozen names-in-
eluding doctors and contacts"
in the Martini book also were
found in the Grimes book.
Nearly 30 Washington area
doctors, five Baltimore doctors
and two New York doctors with
Park Avenue addresses are
listed in the Grimes book.
Mr.. Hassan said he had no.
titled both the District Medical
Society and the Virginia Medi-
cal Society that the names
existed. Both groups had agreed
to hold of their Investigations
until he has completed his
cases.
so Contacts Disclosed
When all his cases have been
tried, he said, he will send to
the medical societies the names
Of the doctors appearing in the
Grimes book, the names of the
girls who have told police they
went to these doctors, tran
scripts of testimony relating to
doctors and the results of any
other Investigations.
Nearly so other names are
listed in the Grimes book as
contacts" Included among
them are dentists, druggists,
laboratory technicians, beauti-
clans, mattresses, several law
yers, hotel cigarette girls,
nurses, taxicab drivers and tel
ephone company employees.
Also in the book are the
names of hundreds of girls.
Many of the names are false,
but the telephone numbers are
correct.
Police Figure Out Code
The full name of one girl
victim was known to police
when they got the book. When
they spotted that name in the
book, they concentrated on fig
, uring out tthe code as it ap-
piled to her. Here's how it
worked:
On a line across the loose
leaf notebook sheet there ap-
peared 3-2-54-2 in the first col
umn. The second column had
a single number. The third
column bore the girls name.
The fourth column had four
numbers. The fifth column had
the word Jarvis" The sixth
column had the word James. "
On a hunch, police took ia
from Jarvis" followed it with
the single number in the Sec
ond column and followed that
with the four numbers in the
fourth column.
They traced the telephone
number that resulted and got
the girl. She admitted to hav-
ing had an abortion on March
2, 1856.
Name of Contact Barred
When she disclosed who hao
referred her to the ring, police
knew that the name of the con-
tact appeared in the sixth
column.
Usually the names of three
or four girls appeared under
each date. Sometimes there
were six. Police chose one gir
from each date to call.
They found that members o.
the rings were also calling thu
girls, urging them not to talk
They also found that although
the names appeared in th'
Grimes book, Mrs. Grimes haC
not handled all the cases, no
had all the abortions been per
formed in Virginia.
That's when the investigation
of the racket began to uncove
other rings.
Maryland Police Alerted
That was also when Mary