The Horror at Slaughter
A man named Spafford is arrested for the gruesome killing of his wife in a small village near the White River after he attempted to perform an illegal abortion.
Sheriff Cochrane and J. T. Ronald were called to Slaughter, a village in the White River Valley about 25 miles from Seattle, to investigate an alleged crime. We learned the following revolting story: For some time there has resided at Slaughter a man named I. E. Spafford. He had a wife, but no children. He was very much averse to rearing a family, and in attempting to perform an abortion on his wife, caused her death under the most revolting circumstances. He made her swallow large quantities of gravel stones, and dosed her on carbolic acid and ammonia, until the inner lining of the stomach was all eaten away. When asked why he had dosed his wife with carbolic acid, he replied: 'Oh, her breath was so bad I wanted to purify it.'
As soon as the wife was dead, Spafford went out and commenced digging a grave for her. He went to a neighbor's soon after her burial for dinner, and while at the table remarked: 'Well, now that my wife is dead, guess I will subscribe for the Intelligencer and see if I can't get another wife. I have had two already.' He was arrested and taken before Justice Portway. He waived examination and was placed under $5,000 bonds to appear before the Grand Jury; failing to furnish bonds, he was brought to Seattle, and placed in the King County Jail. When the warrant was read to him, he said, 'I thought so, he is trying to get even with me for a piece of poetry I wrote about him one time.'
“When asked why he had dosed his wife with carbolic acid, he replied: 'Oh, her breath was so bad I wanted to purify it.'”
The village of 'Slaughter' mentioned in this 1887 report was renamed Auburn in 1893, likely due to the public relations nightmare of its original name. This story serves as a dark reminder of the pre-Roe era, where medical desperation and lack of bodily autonomy frequently resulted in horrific, unchecked violence against women.
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