William Ter "Ter" Marsch

- 1890

• Name	William Ter "Ter" Marsch
  Gender	Male
  Died	CA 1890
  Crime	1933	Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada   [1]
  	performed illegal abortions
  Name	Ter Marsch
  Eby ID Number	Waterloo-126492
  Person ID	I126492	Generations
  Last Modified	25 Apr 2024

  
  

• Notes

  Kitchener's reputable Mayfair Hotel had a scandalous secret KITCHENER - It was just past noon when William Ter Marsch heard a knock at his hotel room door. It was the police. They'd heard about the strange operations he'd been performing, and now there would be questions. Officers pushed their way inside and found an assortment of tools needed for Ter Marsh's secret work - bottles of glycerin, mysterious vials, droppers, syringes and needles. It was Nov. 1, 1933. More than three and a half decades before abortions were legal in Ontario, Kitchener's now-demolished Mayfair Hotel was known as a place where women "in trouble" could find a solution to their "problem." And Ter Marsch was the unlikely man to offer his help, for a fee. An accountant with no formal medical training, he'd stumbled on a lucrative, and illegal, side business in the middle of the Great Depression. As a former book keeper to A. E. Dunlop, Ontario's provincial treasurer, he was well-connected, impeccably dressed, and trusted by the women who came to him. Then it all fell apart. A young woman, Lois Hughes, had died at St. Mary's General Hospital. She was victim of what the coroner called septicemia, or blood poisoning, from a botched abortion. The evidence pointed straight at Ter Marsh. On her death bed, Hughes told her story, and detectives were dispatched to the Mayfair Hotel looking for Ter Marsh. The details of Hughes' tragic end would be repeated in court and in the pages of The Record over the following months... Waterloo Region Record 22 Aug 2015

  
  

• Sources

  [S602] News - ON, Waterloo, Kitchener - The Waterloo Region Record (March 2008- ), Kitchener's reputable Mayfair Hotel had a scandalous secret - 22 Aug 2015.

  
  

• Event Map

  Crime - performed illegal abortions - 1933 - Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada  = Link to Google Earth