
NONFICTION
The Wickedest Woman in New York: Madame Restell, the Abortionist

The press called her fiend and murderess, a mob marched on her house, she was tried and convicted twice and imprisoned once, but she persisted in her trade, insisting that it was necessary and beneficial. Far from hiding in the shadows, she paraded openly in a showy carriage, elegantly dressed, and then built an elaborate brownstone mansion on Fifth Avenue that some referred to as a House of Death.
Ann Lohman, alias Madame Restell, was this country’s most notorious abortionist, vilified by doctors, prosecutors, and the press, but sought out by thousands of women for whom pregnancy meant a physical or financial burden, inconvenience, or disgrace. When the puritanical reformer Anthony Comstock ended her long career, she went out with a bang, her exit as melodramatic as her life.
Snob, opportunist, and lawbreaker Ann Lohman certainly was, but the reader will decide whether or not she merited the term “wicked” and the fate imposed upon her.
Hardcover, published as an Archon Book, an imprint of The Shoestring Press, 1988.
Used copies available online at inflated prices.