Doris Silver Ostreicher, a 1950 graduate of Cheltenham High School, made local news in June 1955 when she eloped with Earl Ostreicher, a Miami Beach police officer, in Georgia.
According to local historian Chuck Langerman, the marriage quickly soured and Ostreicher returned to her parents’ mansion on Melrose Avenue, then discovered she was pregnant. Her mother, Gertrude Silver, arranged an illegal abortion in a North Philadelphia apartment to be performed by Milton Schwartz, a bartender, and his wife Rosalie, a hairdresser.
On August 24, 1955, Ostreicher died inside the apartment after taking a mixture of what the district attorney described as “oils, ground-up cinchona and slippery-elm bark.” Contemporary reporting suggests her family attempted to cover up the cause of death. Eventually the real cause of death reached the press, which unleashed a barrage of front-page stories about the case.
The story became a national media sensation, highlighting the dangers of illegal abortion and fueling public discourse around the topic in the years leading up to the legalization of abortion through Roe v. Wade in 1973.
Time Magazine covered the incident on September 26, 1955. An excerpt:
But when Reporter Brunt tried to dig further into the case, he ran into a political stone wall. No official of the police or medical examiner’s office would talk. Angrily, Brunt hustled to the office of Mayor Joseph Clark, charged that covering up the scandal “would cost the Democrats the election.” Then Brunt went after District Attorney Samuel Dash, convinced him also that the cover-up would be a hot political issue. Two days later, Dash finally made it official: Doris Oestreicher died from an “illegal operation.”
“Do Something.” Next day, the coroner’s inquest was held, and the sordid story came out. Only two days before Doris had died, her family physician examined her and said she appeared to be six weeks pregnant. The mother “wasn’t very happy,” pleaded with him to “do something about it,” apparently so it would not block the divorce she hoped Doris would get. Doris’ husband, the son of a well-heeled Chicago fuel dealer, later explained: “Doris’ mother thought she was too good for any boy, including me.”
After the family physician failed to “do something,” Mrs. Silver accompanied her daughter to the two-bedroom, $40-a-month slum apartment of a bartender, Milton Schwartz and his wife, Rosalie, a hairdresser. There, the District Attorney charged, Doris was given a compound of oils, ground-up cinchona and slippery-elm bark to induce an abortion. Bits of irritating bark had reached her bloodstream and lungs, killing her.
According to Time, the Schwartzes were arrested on an abortion charge and Mrs. Silver was taken into custody as an accomplice before she was temporarily committed to a mental institution. The District Attorney subpoenaed 19 witnesses to find out who had tried to cover up the death.
According to a 2023 Billy Penn article, a 2018 art installation at Eastern State Penitentiary retold the story.
Of Note: Ostreicher’s uncle, Samuel Friedland, was the founder of Food Fair Stores Inc., a large grocery store chain, and her father, Herman Silver, was a vice president at the company.
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Photos: Newspapers.com, Eastern State Penitentiary