The story started slowly enough. On Aug. 26, 1907, a single headline: “Looking Into Death of Young Girl. A mysterious affair has just been brought to the attention of county authorities.” Local physician, George Tolman, who often acted or assisted as medical examiner, was notified. “It is said that the girl has been rooming here at a house for the past three weeks and that she passed away in her room.”

The following day, the location of the death was identified as the home (and office) of Harry Stackpole, also a local physician, but the identity of the deceased remained unknown. According to the newspaper, “hundreds of people” visited a local funeral parlor, “to see if they could identify her.”

On the 28th, there was a report of an identification. A young woman who was a resident of Lowell, Mass., where she had been employed and lived with an aunt, who reported that she had left three weeks prior, supposedly for a vacation with friends in Littleton, New Hampshire.

Behind the scenes, on this same day, Strafford County Solicitor, Dwight Hall, signed a criminal complaint charging Dr. Stackpole with causing the death of one Katherine Ryan of Lowell, in that he “willfully did administer to her… certain medicines, drugs, substances and certain other things to your Grand Jurors unknown, certain instruments and other means…with intent thereby to procure the miscarriage… the premature birth of a child and thereafter by means of and in consequence of all of the aforesaid…the said Katherine Ryan on the 22nd of August until the 23rd and…she did die…and of such case made and provided did feloniously, willfully, and of his malice aforethought did kill and murder”.

There was a second charge, amounting to second-degree murder, charging that he did administer a “noxious, pernicious, and destructive substance”, and “by means of forcing, thrusting and striking the instrument aforesaid upon and into the womb and body…”.
In short, an illegal abortion.

Stackpole was served with the charges and initially was allowed to remain in his home under the supervision of the sheriff’s department. Upon further consideration, and in view of the seriousness of the claims, County Solicitor Hall ordered that Stackpole be taken into custody and he spent the night in jail. He appeared before the police court on the morning of the 29th. Bail was set at $5000, and a full hearing was scheduled for Sept. 12.

On the 29th the story took up the entire front page of Foster’s above the fold, with headlines: “Dr. Stackpole arraigned this morning”, “Statement of Father of Dead Woman”, “Accused Doctor is Cool and Collected, Although Showing Somewhat the Severe Mental Strain”, “His Housekeeper, Miss Heyer, in a Serious Condition”. The articles reported that from 11 in the morning until they left for Lowell at 5:01, Michael J. Ryan “the almost distracted father of the dead girl”, Mrs. Katherine Graffam, her aunt, Miss Loretta M. Rabbit, “one of her most intimate friends”, were in town to identify her and “were so closely guarded by authorities” that none of the “half a score” of reporters could get any interviews “except for one from Foster’s (who was also a stringer for the Boston Herald) who discussed the case “with the aggrieved father” for nearly a half-hour.

Emily Heyer, the housekeeper, was the one who was said to have discovered Miss Ryan’s body. The newspaper reported her to be “in a serious condition from the strain which she has passed through the past few days and is under the almost constant care of a physician…broken in spirit, physically prostrated, and on the verge of mental breakdown”. This is followed by a brief biography: Emily Heyer is from Malden, Mass., the eldest of five children, her father no longer living, having been fatally injured in a runaway accident while driving a bakery cart. “Her mother is said to be a most highly respected woman.” She has been Stackpole’s housekeeper for some four or five years, and as such a question initially arose as to the extent of her knowledge of, or even perhaps participation, in the activity that led to Katherine Ryan’s death. County Solicitor Hall stated that there was insufficient evidence to bring charges at this time, but that the investigation was ongoing. The local Medical Examiner, Dr. George Tolman, paid “an official visit” to Miss Heyer on the morning of the 29th.

A further report confirmed that Katherine Ryan had been in Littleton earlier in the month, where, on the 13th, she went to the local telephone office and called an Elmer Ryan in Lowell. That call was returned on the 14th, at which time she made arrangements to leave and to meet with Ryan in Manchester, New Hampshire. At this point in the investigation, little was known about Elmer Ryan, the deceased’s father, having told authorities that, to his knowledge, all of his daughter’s friends and acquaintances were women.

(to be continued)