James Hegney's West Side Drug Store
557 West Second South, SLC Utah
Jim Hegney had built a business complex on the northeast portion of his property on Second South containing four addresses. All were wooden one-story businesses except the 559 West address which was an attached wooden two-story building. The complex was about 90 feet long, fronting Second South and 26 feet deep and built probably in 1894. A notice of the “dissolution of partnership” between James Hegney and S. H. Willard “in the business known as the West Side Drug Co.” was published in January 1895.
In July 1896 a wanted advertisement was placed for a “Druggist At West Side Drug Store 557 West Second So. Must be a single man.” It was placed in local papers by Jim Hegney after a scandal occurred in late February at his drug store.
A Blotched Abortion
Dr. William B McCoy, [1863-1905] had an office on the second floor of the West Side Drug Store. In October 1896 he was tried and convicted on a charge of performing an abortion on a young unmarried woman named Eveline Bonnett who later died from the procedure.
Dr. McCoy was a 33-year-old married man who came to Utah in 1891 from California. His residence was at 528 West Second South on the northside of the street in Block 64. He had just passed his medical examination in 1894 but was convicted in of performing an abortion, solely on the testimony of a young man named Francis J Collins “a drug store clerk at Hegney’s Drug Store”.
Francis “Frank” Collins was born in San Francisco, California about 1875. He had his own checkered past. In 1891, at either 16 or 17 years old, he eloped to San Rafael, California although he was “not of legal age and told a little fib in order to get the license.” In January 1895, Collins was sued by his wife on grounds of “infidelity and cruelty.” She demanded $50 a month in alimony and “swore that her husband was the sole proprietor of a drug store at 215 Mason Street [San Francisco] from which he derived an income of not less than $150 a month. Young Collins denied that he owned the drug store but insisted that it was the property of his father by who he was employed as a clerk.”
At a court hearing, “young Collins in order to evade responsibility for his wife’s support made an affidavit that he is not 21 years of age. [1874]. Counsel for his wife however showed that Collins had registered to vote in Alameda County in the last election in 1894 and had “declared himself over 21 years of age.” When confronted with the evidence by his wife’s attorney, Collins “turned red” but still “insisted that he was underage which amounted to a confession that in making his affidavit of registration, he committed perjury.”
In the divorce court Collins was ordered to pay his wife $25 a month in alimony but having failed to do so, he found himself back in court in April 1895. “F. J. Collins, a young man who was recently divorced from his wife was ordered a month ago to pay. He has not paid anything. In Department 3 of the Superior Court yesterday, he testified that he is working for his father and that he is clothed, fed, and boarded as his compensation but received no salary.”
The Superior Court ruled that “This young man has the ability to earn money sufficient to pay alimony and must either do it or go to jail.”
Collins most likely left California for Salt Lake City to avoid paying alimony. A month after he came to Utah, he was joined by “Lottie Stanfield”, who also came from San Francisco and that they lived to together as man and wife. Lottie Stanfield died in August 1895 and “was buried under the name Lottie Collin although they were never legally wed.” Interestingly, Collins, in court later, refused to answer how Stanfield died “on the grounds it might incriminate himself.” She was buried in a pauper grave.
After arriving in Salt Lake City Frank Collins soon found employment at Jim Hegney’s West Side Drug Store and claimed while he worked there he was “well acquainted with Dr. McCoy who usually was in the store several times every day.”
Eveline Bonnett [1876-1896] “a beautiful and charming maiden of Provo City, not yet reached twenty,” took the train to Salt Lake City accompanied by two men, “her lover” Frank J Carter, and saloon keeper Sim M Duggins. On February 17, she was said to have been “in the bloom of health, and to all outward appearances happy and content in the knowledge of a true and devoted love, soon to be joined in holy wedlock to that love,” when she left Provo.
When Eveline Bonnett went to Salt Lake with Duggins and Carter in February 1896, the Bonnett family believed it was to “make arrangements” for her wedding to Frank Carter, and “in fact that impression” was given to them. Evidence suggests however the trio went to Salt Lake City to seek a physician willing to do an abortion after an attempt to find one in Provo failed.
A Dr. Simmons of Provo, Utah testified that “Frank Carter on the 15th of February” came to his office “to see him in behalf of a third party.” Carter explained to Dr. Simmons “there was a young lady in Springville who was in a delicate way” and Carter wanted Dr. Simmons to “perform an operation on her. Carter said the pay would be all right” When asked if he had any further conversations with Carter, Dr. Simmons said, “No; only I refused to do it.” When asked “what was the operation referred to? Dr. Simmons answered “I understood that it was to be an abortion.”
Simmons sated that Carter came to him and asked him to commit an abortion on a young lady at Springville, and he declined. Carter did not offer him any money, but said the pay would be all right. Thus about the middle of February. The interview lasted but a few moments. The witness wife was in an adjoining room, and like most women, she was curious an peered through a partially open door and listened to the conversation.
Dr. Simmons stated that he had been the Carter family physician for years and had known Frank Carter since the time he was a very small child. He had treated the young man for heart trouble. About a year ago he was carried into his office having fallen in the street in a helpless condition on account of the weakness of that organ.
Sim Duggins went with Frank Carter and Eveline Bonnett to Salt Lake City, not only because he was their friend, he also may have been the one to have impregnated Bonnett. It was speculated that Carter and Duggins went to Salt Lake with Bonnett to arranged for an abortion as that Carter wouldn’t marry her if she was carrying Duggin’s child. A Salt Lake Deputy Sheriff Thomas Fowler testified in court that when he went to see Frank Carter after Eveline Carter had died, Fowler suggested that Carter be prepared for bonds “as a complaint had been filed against him.” Fowler claimed that on that occasion, Carter said to him regarding Bonnett’s pregnancy, “The fact is, I would have married the girl, but I knew I was no more to blame than some others,”
Frank J Carter [1871-1946] who was “supposed to have been the cause of Eveline Bonnet’s condition,” worked as a bartender at the Diamond Saloon in Provo for Sim Duggins. Carter and Duggins were partners of sorts as that in June 1895 Carter had purchased Duggins Saloon according to a Provo Newspaper.
“Mr. Frank Carter, popular bartender for S.M. Duggins heretofore proprietor of the Diamond Saloon, has now purchased Mr. Duggins’ business . Frank is well liked by all the boys and will for a surety corral their trade and increase the business of the saloon.”
However, the real reason for the transaction between Carter and Duggins was that Duggins had been convicted of adultery and sentenced to nine months in the state penitentiary in Sugar House.
Sims Duggins [1861-1927], “the big burly saloon-keeper of Provo”, had numerous arrests for allowing “faro card” gambling at his Diamond Saloon and had even been arrested for “cohabitation” and “adultery”. An article from the Wasatch Wave claimed that “it was during the prohibition days of Provo that Sim Duggins amassed the greatest portion of his wealth running a drug store. When Provo threw off her prohibition robe then Duggins threw off his mask under which he had been accumulating the needful – drug store- and went into the saloon business in its true light. People will have liquor, prohibition or no prohibition.”
“S.M. Duggins, proprietor of the Diamond Saloon of Provo, was arrested on a charge of unlawful cohabitation by Deputy Monihan at the White House [hotel] in Salt Lake City and was taken before Commissioner Hills at Provo, yesterday. The defendant waived preliminary examination and bonds were fixed at $1000.The woman with whom the crime is alleged to have been committed is Miss Oldfield of American Fork, where Mr. Duggins has been noticed to pay periodical visits for some time past. She is now at the Roberts House.”
Duggins was indicted in February 1891 by a Provo Grand Jury on the charge of adultery as that he was a married man. “The offense is alleged to have been committed two months since at the White House, Salt Lake City with Miss Jane D. Oldfield of American Fork.”
About the same time, Duggins was also convicted on the gambling charge. “The Court said he had been informed that the defendant had been in court before on a similar charge. It is a terrible crime, one of the wickedest acts and most demoralizing to society, that enticing young men into gambling houses. The sentence of the court was that he would pay a fine of $200 and be imprisoned in the county jail for one month and pay the costs of the prosecution.”
In June 1895 Frank Carter purchased Duggins’ Saloon according to a Provo Newspaper. “Mr. Frank Carter, popular bartender for S.M. Duggins heretofore proprietor of the Diamond Saloon, has now purchased Mr. Duggins’ business . Frank is well liked by all the boys and will for a surety corral their trade and increase the business of the saloon.”
The reason for the transaction was that Duggins’ appeal of his conviction of adultery failed that June. The Utah Supreme Court has “handed down its decision in the appeal of S.M. Duggins of this city, convicted of adultery. Sim must spend nine months in the penitentiary.”
On the strength of a “large petition, signed by many prominent citizens, including the mayor and prosecuting attorney, and other officials, he was pardoned. And there are those who say but for that petition Eveline Bonnett would today be a happy, virtuous girl, alive and well, instead of the murdered victim of lustful crime, lying in an untimely grave.”
A newspaper announcement stated, “Utah Offender Pardon. Washington Oct. 29- The President has pardoned S.M. Duggins, sentenced in Utah to nine months imprisonment for adultery.” Why he was pardoned was not explained but he was released immediately. “A pardon for S.M. Duggins reached Salt Lake yesterday and he was at once liberated from the penitentiary. The first train brought Mr. Duggins to Provo, and he is now busy looking up his business affairs.”
A Provo newspaper suggested that his pardon “was part of a well laid scheme of politicians, which scheme was successful, and secured the services of Duggins for the help of the Democratic ticket.”
In January 1896, Eveline Bonnett was seen at the Diamond Saloon late at night by a witness who testified later that he saw Sim Duggins and Bonnett together dressed only in their underwear. William O’Neil referred to as “a colored man who keeps a restaurant next to Duggins saloon,” reported that Duggins came into his place “about 1 a.m. and ordered two suppers, directing him to bring the refreshments to Duggins door and leave them.”
This he did this “but afterwards looked through the window and saw Duggins and Miss Bonnett both partially undressed.”
“William O’Neil, colored, proprietor of a Provo Restaurant, was next called. O’Neil stated about six weeks ago he saw Duggins and Eveline Bonnett in the Duggins saloon in Provo. O’Neil received an order of two suppers, which he fixed and took them to the saloon. He rapped on the door and Duggins appeared and took the waiter. O’Neil looked through the door and saw some girl washing at a sink behind the bar, and she dodged back when she saw him. O’Neil being curious went to a window and looked in and saw Eveline Bonnett behind the bar washing. Duggins walked up and stood beside her.”
When asked “How were they dressed? O’Neil replied, “She was either in her night gown or chemise, while Duggins was in his underclothes.”
A clerk of the White House hotel also testified that he saw Carter, Duggins, and Bonnett together on several occasions registered at the hotel. On February 6, Duggins and Carter registered at the hotel, and a week later on February 13, Duggins, Carter and Bonnett came and stayed overnight, “the men occupied one room and Miss Bonnett another, the door between them being locked.”
Upon arriving in Salt Lake, Carter and Duggins placed Bonnett in a “dingy looking little room in one side of a double house, the residence of Mrs. Mary Massie [1861-1919] Mrs. Massie was the widow of Abraham Massie and lived at 276 South First West with her young daughter, Maude. Mrs. Massie testified later that Bonnett told her that her name was “Mrs. Condon” and that her “husband was a miner in Mercur.”
Maude Massie the daughter of Mrs. Massie stated that upon returning from school on February 18, she found “Duggins, Carter and Miss Bonnett there waiting for her mother. The men left soon after Mrs. Massie arrived and Bonnett remained.” She said she did not see Carter and Duggins after the first visit. The men had left her there while they went to inquire where they might find a physician willing to do the procedure.
Carter and Duggins evidently met with a physician named Dr. Harry Seymour Hicks [1863-1896] who was also acquainted with Dr. McCoy. Dr. Hicks had consumption and may have been too ill to perform the operation himself and recommended Dr. McCoy.
Dr. Hicks introduced Dr. McCoy to Sim Duggins and Frank Carter at the Onyx bank saloon where the men arranged to have McCoy “perform the abortion for $50.”
Eveline Bonnett went to the West Side Drug Store to meet with Dr. McCoy who said that when she came to his office, she “said her name was Mrs. Condon, her husband being a miner at work in Mercur.” This was the pseudonym she used with Mrs. Massie also. Bonnett came to Dr. McCoy’s office according to witnesses on three consecutive days in late February. McCoy said she “complained of great pain” and believed that she may have already tried a blotched abortion either self induced or with the help of a doctor named McCurtain.
On the third visit, Dr. McCoy said, “he used a spectrum to make an investigation, but the instrument was so painful that she made several outcries and was unable to receive treatment.”
Frank Collins, the “drug clerk at Hegney’s drug store,” stated on the “last day that Bonnett visited, he heard noises from the office as of persons struggling and rolling on the floor and also heard the screams of the woman. When she left, she looked pale and appeared to be suffering great pain. McCoy came down in a very excited state, his hair was disheveled, he had a scratch on his face, and his collar and necktie disarranged. He looked like he had been having a scrap.”
Bonnett returned Mrs. Mary Massie where she suffered in great pain for several days. Mrs. Massie “gave no satisfactory explanation of why the girl was brought to her house and spoke as if only she was slightly acquainted with her. The widow testified that before the young woman died “her temperature very high and I fear blood poisoning. She sent her daughter to fetch Dr. McCoy to attend her.
Frank Carter called Bonnett’s brother James to come up from Provo to be with Eveline on Saturday February 29th. He was met by Carter who said that “Eveline was very ill. Just before reaching the place, he said she’s in a pretty hard place and I want you to look over it.”
He said a half an hour after arriving at the “hovel” he met with Dr. McCoy and Dr. Frank Noyes who had been called in from Provo.
Dr. Frank Noyes said he hurriedly came to Salt Lake on “summons from Mr. Carter” on February 29, the day before Bonnett’s death, but “did not know her before he saw her at Mrs. Massie’s, when then he recognized her as a Provo girl.”
On the evening of his arrival in Salt Lake, he said he met with Dr. McCoy at the White House Hotel and “had a consultation regarding Bonnett” and after found her as Dr. McCoy had described. Dr. Noyes said that Dr. McCoy told him that when the girl had called on him first, she stated that she was a married woman. Dr. McCoy said he found her suffering from an attempt at abortion made by herself.
At Mrs. Massie’s home, Dr. Noyes “found Miss Bonnett dying, plainly with peritonitis, which means inflammation of the bowls. This might be cause by forty different things, the doctor says, including abortion.”
Frank Carter also called Eveline Bonnett’s brother David Bonnett to come to Salt Lake to attend to his sister. Upon arriving at Mrs. Massie’s place, Dr. McCoy told Bonnett that other physicians could be called in, but Dr. Noyes advised him that his sister was dying and “it would be no use.”
Dr. Noyes did what he could to alleviate Eveline Bonnet’s suffering “but was satisfied she could not recover.”
David Bonnett was later asked what the sister said to him on her death bed, and he said it was “I have done wrong Dave. Ask father to forgive me.” He also stated that his sister “was very weak, and it was difficult for hold her attention.” Then she said, “I believe I am going to die. If I do due promise to take me to your place.”
While Dr. Noyes administered an injection of morphine, David Bonnett and Frank Carter left “to find her another place because she didn’t even have a pauper’s bed.” While together, Frank Carter told David Bonnett that his sister and he had come up to Salt Lake to arrange for getting married and Bonnett remarked later “I had such confidence in that boy that I believed him.”
Eveline Bonnett died on 1 March 1896, saying “I have done wrong and want to be forgiven.” She died. Eveline Bonnet’s hands “were clasped in death, her face shrunken, and the body gave every evidence that death had been horrible and painful agony.”
Dr. Noyes testified that Dr. McCoy, the physician in attendance, and he “consulted on the case as to treatment” and when death occurred Dr. McCoy made out the death certificate specifying the cause of death as “peritonitis induced by Entri Metrites which latter in plain English means inflammation of the womb and intestines.” Dr. Noyes said he refused to sign the death certificate as he “not having been connected with the case early enough to know positively without an autopsy what induced the peritonitis.”
Dr. McCoy and Dr. Hicks came to the drug store arm in arm and I said “You had better be fixing up a defense for yourselves. That is just what we are doing
Eveline Bonnett’s funeral was held days after her death but it was suspicious due to rumors in Utah County. “The family had suspicions from the first which, in their great grief, they hardly dared whisper even to each other.”
Utah County Investigators went to Salt Lake City and interviewed those who were associated with her death. Mrs. Massie was questioned as was Dr. McCoy.
Dr. McCoy when questioned said he had attended Eveline Bonnett and that she died at Mrs. Massie’s from peritonitis. “The doctor also said that the girl called Mrs. Massie ‘Auntie’ and he inferred that they were relatives. He never had patients at Mrs. Massie’s before . A little girl called him to attend the patient. The day before she died Dr. Noyes of Provo had been in consultation with him and visited the girl. He also consulted with Dr. Hicks about the case.”
He told investigators that Bonnett’s “was a very complicated case and that no autopsy was performed” at the time as that the undertaker had “suggested the family wouldn’t permit one.”
He was asked “Was there any evidence that would lead you to believe than an abortion had been attempted.” Dr. McCoy replied, “From what the girl told me, I inferred that she had attempted one upon herself. There was no evidence of the violent use of instruments nor arsenic poisoning.”
“Dr. McCoy spoke with great hesitancy and evident reluctant, although he said he would probably be more explicit if he were on the witness stand, and he did not wish to say anything that might reflect upon the dead girl or her relatives.”
Returning to Provo, the investigators determined, “enough was learned at Salt Lake to warrant the uncovering of the body” and Bonnett’s body was exhumed. A “postmortem” autopsy then “disclosed ample evidence of a criminal operation” and that Bonnett “had died as the result of an unsuccessful attempt at abortion.”
Dr. Samuel.H Allen a “member of the state board of mecical examiner” of Utah Coounty examined Evelien Bonnett’s body held at the Berg Mortuary. When later asked “Were there conditions of which you speak evidence of an abortion?” He answered “I would say that an abortion had been committed. The cause of death was pelvic peritonitis or septicemia.” He stated the pelvis peritonitis was “due to poisoning after the decomposing of the after birth.” Agreed that it was blood poisoning
Allen made a reference to a puncture found in a private part of the deceased body and Allen sai it might possibly be self inflicted, though such a proceeding would be very painful.
Dr. W. Fred Taylor who had assisted Dr. Allen with the autopsy stated there were unquestionable evidence of approaching motherhood and of an abortion having been committed> There were just two ways in which the wound previously referred go could have been inflicted, in the ordinary way and by the undertaker while embalming.
The womb had been lascerated with instuemnts and part of the placneta was left to fester and decay and to cause te poor victim of fiendish lust to die a most agonizing , most tortuous death.”
Eveline Bonnett’s father, James Bonnett, swore out a complaint charging Sim M. Duggins, Frank Carter, William McCoy, Dr. Noyes, and Mrs, Massie “on or about February 27, unlawfully did and upon the person of one Eveline Bonnett, feloniously and of their malice aforethought, force, threat, and strike a certain instrument which they, the said Duggins, Carter, McCoy, Noyes and Massie then and there held in their right hand, into the person and body of said Eveline Bonnett, who was then and there enceinte [pregnant], with the criminal thereby to cause and produce, without legal justification, upon the said Eveline Bonnett certain mortal bruises, wounds and lacerations and creating in the said E. Bonnett a mortal sickness and feebleness of body she, the said E. Bonnett did then and there languish and thence continued to languish until on or about the 1st day of March 1896, when the E. Bonnett did there and then die, and so the said Duggins, Carter, McCoy, Noyes and Massie did in manner and form aforesaid feloniously , unlawfully and of their deliberate premediated malice and aforethought kill and murder the said E. Bonnett.”
The girl’s father was said to have been “heartbroken and when making the complaint could not control his feelings but wept like a child.” A newspaper account wrote that “the Bonnetts are Italian, and the three brothers of the deceased girl were eager for vengeance. They openly stated the Bonnett family would be extinct before the responsible ones should escape the fate they deserve.”
Dr. McCoy and Mrs. Massie were arrested in Salt Lake and charged with first degree murder. Carter, Duggins, and Dr. Noyes were arrested in Provo and brought to Salt Lake to be held in jail until a hearing.
“Of the Provo parties, for whose arrest warrants were issued, Frank Carter is the man who is alleged to have been responsible for the Bonnett girl’s condition, and Dr, Noyes is the physician who was in consultation with Dr. McCoy in the case a day or two before the girl died. The part of S.M. Duggins plays in the matter is not yet apparent. He is a saloonkeeper at Provo and does not bear the best kind of a reputation. In fact, he has served a term on the penitentiary. It is suspected that the criminal operation, if one was procured, was attempted at Provo before the girl came to Salt Lake. The complaints against all five are the same, and charged them with attempting to procure an abortion upon the girl by means of instruments, thereby causing her death.”
On 11 March 1896 “The case of William McCoy, S.M. Duggins, Frank Carter and Mrs. Mary Massie, charged with the murder of Eveline Bonnett came before Justice Harvey . The Little court room was filled with curious people leaving barely room for those interested in the case. At the preliminary hearing Dr. Noyes, whose “reputation was so high that no blemish had ever attached it”, was discharged from the complaint.
At the preliminary hearing charges against Mrs. Massie of her involvement with the death of Eveline Bonnett were discharged. The attorney for Dr. McCoy, Frank Carter, and Sim Duggins asked for the charges against them be dismissed also. Counsel claimed that “in the first place that it had not been proved that a crime has been committed as was alleged.” He did not dispute that an abortion had been performed but he said that “it was not proven who did it and it was not shown that it was not done in order to save the life of Eveline Bonnett in which case it was no crime.”
The court overruled the motion of dismissal and fixed bail for Duggins and Carter at $5000 each and $3000 for Dr. McCoy. Carter and Duggins secured bonds to be released from prison as had Dr. McCoy. Jim Hegney was a surety for half of Dr. McCoy’s bond.
When Sim Duggins returned to Provo from his court appearance in Salt Lake he was greeted by angry citizens as “the case has been upon the tongue of all both day and night.. No other matter has been talked of so much in so short a time in Provo for years.”
“The feeling of disdain here seems to be centered and cluster most around about Duggins, probably because of his past career, and the many stories that have been circulating about him for years.”
On 16 March 1896, “reaching Provo on the morning train today with his wife from Salt Lake City, S.M. Duggins found himself face to face with a whole city full of indignant people. Learned that all the has been said in the newspapers of the deep feeling of indignation against him and his place of business.”
Learned also of the petition being signed by many asking the council to refuse a license to the Diamond Saloon of which he is the reported owner and of the indignation meeting of ladies in the First, Third and Fourth ecclesiastical wards to be held this afternoon.”
The Salt Lake Tribune reported “the ladies of Provo are taking an indignant interest in the crusade for purity in that city that has been stirred by the death of Miss Bonnett,”
The “populous” demanded that the building owned by Duggins “not be used as a saloon by anybody for the reason that the interior is so cut up into secret compartments that the officers of the law cannot get into them and put a stop to any immoral or illegal practices that may be carried on or attempted in them.”
The petition by residence of Provo demanded the city close Duggin’s saloon due to the notoriety of the death of Eveline Bonnett. “Whereas the late proprietors S.M. Duggins, et all, of the Diamond Saloon are held to answer for the murder of one of the girls of this city and that it is generally believed that the said proprietor brought this girl to her degradation and ruin at said Diamond Saloon and whereas we believe that an institution such as the above bodes evil and destruction to the home, ruination to our sons and daughters, demoralizes society and spreads desolation over the entire land; Resolved that we, the wives mothers, sisters and daughters of the citizens of the Fourth ward in mass meeting assembled do hereby petition your honorable body, not only to refuse to grant further license to any saloon for the sale of intoxicating liquors as a beverage in Provo City. And further be it resolved that we women of the Fourth Ward pledge ourselves to reuse to sustain by our votes men, who knowingly, grant licenses to immoral and disreputable places.”
Duggins “at once ordered his place of business closed and communicated that he had done so to Provo’s mayor and city council.” The license for the Diamond Saloon had expired on February 24 and an application for a license renewal had been filed by Frank Carter. However, because of the notoriety the Bonnett case had elicited, the name of W.A. Wilson was substituted for Carter’s. Duggins feared a boycott of other his property that “belonged to his wife” claiming those businesses were all she had “to depend upon to support herself and family.
The Diamond Saloon after it was closed was relicensed as the became the Occidental Saloon as that Duggins was to be “connected in any way to the business” although title to the property is in Mrs. Duggins , and that the went will go to her to pay taxes and support herself and family.’
“Duggins himself is not feel, and he realized he could do nothing in his particular line of business in Provo or vicinity with the feeling of the public against ho, as bitetr as it is.
In April 1896 only Dr. McCoy, Frank Carter and Sims Duggins were indicted for the murder of Eveline Bonnett by procuring a miscarriage. Dr. Harry Seymour Hicks [1863-1896] was also indicted in April, but in May 1896 he had passed away from his battle with consumption on the day he was to marry his fiancé .
All charges against those in James Bonnett’s initial complaint were dropped except for Dr. William McCoy, Sim Duggins, and Frank Carter. The three men asked to be tried separately and Dr. McCoy was tried first for contributing to the death of Eveline Bonnett in October 1896. As that a charge of murder could not be proven against Dr. McCoy he was tried for “malpractice” which contributed to the death of Bonnett by assisting in an abortion.
“The prosecution sprung two surprised on the defense by placing Drug Store Clerk, F. J. Collins, who it was supposed had left the state for good, on the stand and in making Sim Duggins, who was indicted with McCoy , their witnesses.”
Charges against Sim Duggins were eventually dismissed by the prosecution as that the state wanted him as a witness against Dr. McCoy. “Sim Duggins turned State’s evidence and the case against him, in which he was implicated with Dr. MCoy, Frank Carter, and Dr. Hicks were dismissed”
Mrs. Massey and Dr. Noyes were also called to testify by the prosecution against the defendant as those charges against them were also dismissed.
It was commented on in newspapers that Duggins made a “very poor witness” for the prosecution as he said that his only involvement in the case was his coming to Salt Lake with Carter and Bonnett.
The Provo paper commented, “the release of Sim Duggins in the famous Bonnett abortion case , on the plea of State;s evidence, has a queer look to it. He certainly said nothing that would warrant his release, as payment ofr his testimony.”
Mrs. Betty Smith, “a buxom-looking woman”, who lived in the same building where the West Side Drug Store was located. Although she was an “unwilling” witness, she said she saw a young girl going into McCoy’s office several days in February “whom she identified from a photograph as Eveline Bonnett.” She stated, “she heard the girl scream while she was in the doctor’s office.”
Dr. McCoy acted agitated and said to Mrs. Smith, “You have been watching my patient” which she denied just stating she came as she “she heard her scream.” Mrs. Smith claimed that Dr. McCoy had told her that the patient screamed as that he had been “pulling teeth for her.”
It was brought out that Mrs. Smith had approached Dr. McCoy after learning of his arrest and the death of Bonnett. She told Dr. McCoy that if he would pay her expenses, she would leave town. Dr. McCoy said he had no money, emptying his pockets showing her but five cents, and “also told her if she attempted to leave town, he would bring her back.”
When James Hegney, as owner of the West Side Drug Store was called to testify, he said he was present in the West Side drug store when Mrs. Smith demanded money from McCoy. Hegney said “she wanted money to go to St. Louis or she would testify” for the prosecution.
Jim Hegney admitted that he, at one time, was the surety on Dr. McCoy bond and had put up $1500. Hegney said he withdrew from the bond “not because he thought McCoy guilty but that his wife objected to his being a surety in as large an amount.”
When coming downstairs after leaving the courtroom, Hegney claimed he heard Francis J Collins, his former clerk, say referring to Dr. McCoy “I know damn well he is innocent.”
Nevertheless, the most damaging testimony against Dr. McCoy was from Collins the former clerk in the West Side Drug Store. Collins had left Utah but was brought from Denver, Colorado at the state’s expense to relate what he knew of Dr. McCoy’s relation to Eveline Bonnett.
Collins testified that he heard Dr. McCoy say that Duggins and Carter had come to Salt Lake to arranged for an abortion for Bonnett and offered Dr. McCoy $50 for the procedure.
Collins claimed that he “went down to the West Side drug store on the Sunday [1 March] Harry Hynds shot Dinwoodey.” He said he heard Dr. McCoy, referring to his own predicament “I might get into trouble myself before tonight.” Collins said when he asked how Dr. McCoy how his patient was faring, meaning Eveline Bonnett, he stated Dr. McCoy had said “I’m afraid the damn bitch is going to die.”
After Eveline Bonnett died that night, Collins stated that Dr. McCoy and Dr. Hicks came into the drug store “arm in arm” and after learning that Bonnett had died, Collins said to the men, “You had better be fixing up a defense for yourselves.” He said Dr. McCoy replied, “That’s what we are doing.”
Collins related to the jury that he “went to see McCoy after he was in jail,” bringing him “cigars” newspapers as that Dr. McCoy had “held him in close personal regard.” On one such visitations Collins claimed that Dr. McCoy told him “to tell Dr. Hicks to deny the fact that Hicks introduced him to Duggins and Carter at the Onyx Bank Saloon.”
When Detective Edward A Franks testified, he stated that Collin told him that he ought to be able to make some money out of the Bonnett case and that Evelyn Bonnett had told her brother James that a Dr. McCurtin had operated with instruments on her.
When Dr. McCoy testified on his behalf he said, “I was first introduced to Mr. Carter at Mrs. Massie’s house but I did not know that Bonnett was not a married woman at the time. The last words I head Miss Bonnett say were: I have done wrong and want to be forgiven. Her brother heard this statement.”
McCoy declared that Francis Collins had “falsified” when he testified that he swore saying “Damn Bitch”. He asserted, “I never used such language in reference to Miss Bonnett nor any other person at any time of replace. Mr. Collins falsified in all these matters.”
When asked “Did you ever perform an abortion upon the person of Eveline Bonnett, “ Dr. Mc Coy replied, “No sir.” He reiterated that Bonnett died “of peritonitis, inflammation of the bowels and womb.” When asked if there were any evidence of an abortion, the doctor answered Bonnett may have “attempted one on herself” but there were “no evidence of the violent use of instruments nor arsenic poisoning.”
The empaneled Jurists found Dr. McCoy guilty, convicting him “of the crime of procuring an abortion.” At the sentencing, the “wife of the defendant was in court and occupied a seat beside him” while the arguments were big made regarding an appeal. “McCoy was very cool in his bearing and seemed resigned to his fate.”
The court sentenced McCoy “ to be imprisoned for a period of eight years in the state’s prison. The Salt Lake Herald Republican wrote “the case of the Bonnett girl was a very sad one. She seems to have been the victim of about as bad a lot of men as ever went unhung, and it is a matter of great regret that some who were connected with it were allowed to go Scot free. Again, we say the conviction of McCoy is a matter of congratulations.”
The Provo’s Daily Enquirer wrote; “The verdict of guilty in the Dr. McCoy case, wherein he was found guilty of committing abortion on a Provo girl, will have a good effect, we hope, on the community at large. There has been too much malpractice in the past in Utah, and an example made of a doctor or two will clear the quack butchers out of the State.”
Frank Carter was never tried for his part in the Bonnett tragedy. In January 1897, the “murder charges of “William McCoy and Frank Carter was dismissed,” as that Dr. McCoy was already serving a sentence in the state penitentiary.”
“County attorney Van Cott secured an order of court yesterday [25 Jan 1897] in which Dr. William McCoy and Frank Carter were charged with murder, and Frank Carter and others were charged with procuring a criminal operation upon the person of Eyelyn Bonnett, now deceased”
“Dr. McCoy, who performed the operation is now serving an eight-years’ sentence in the State prison and Miss Bonnett’s wrongs have been at least have been avenged to that extent. Having elected to try McCoy for performing the criminal action, and secured a conviction, the prosecution could not now try him for murder, and in the case of Carter, Mr. Van Cott did not believe that the evidence would warrant him in placing that individual on trial.”
As the matter now stands, McCoy, who was the tool of the gang that brought about Miss Bonnett’s destruction, is the only one who will suffer imprisonment for his villainy.”
As that Dr. William McCoy was convicted primarily on the testimony of Francis J Collins, he was paroled in May 1899 when affidavits were presented showing that Collins, before the trial, had stated his belief that “McCoy had had nothing to do with the case” and may have perjured himself. Also petitions that had been signed by “several hundred residents of Piute county were Dr. McCoy lived prior” were presented to the Board “calling for his release.”
In December 1899 Dr. McCoy received a full pardon and he went back to work at the West Side Drug Store where a Robert Heath now was the drug clerk.
The 1900 federal census listed William McCoy as a 37-year-old physician, married and living at 315 West Second South. He and his wife Lizzie had married in 1887 and had one child, who was not living as of 1900. Three other couples roomed at this same address.
By 1901 Dr. McCoy and his wife had moved to a house at 113 South Fifth [Sixth] West located in block 64. A newspaper account stated that while at this home, “Mrs. McCoy was awakened shortly after 1 o’clock by unseemly noise, horrified by the sight of a dark form engaged in trying to reach the doctor’s trousers which reposed on a chair near the window.” The burglar had torn a screen off the window but fled after Dr. McCoy was wakened by his wife. The would-be thief escaped and left only “enormous footprints” as evidence of the attempted burglary.
The following year it was reported that Dr. William B McCoy had an exciting struggle and received a severe knife wound during an encounter with three young holdups on Second South, Salt Lake about 9:30 Sunday night. Nothing more of the encounter was printed.
Dr. McCoy died in Marysvale, Piute County at the age of 42 on 5 June 1905, only 11 days after having left Salt Lake City. His death certificate stated he died of “acute alcoholism.”
An obituary in the Salt Lake Tribune read, “Sudden Death of Salt Laker Occurs at Marysvale. Dr. William B McCoy who lived at 113 South Fifth West died very suddenly yesterday morning at Marysvale, Utah. Only meager details of his unexpected death are obtainable. He had been in very poor heath for some time and about ten days ago he went to Marysvale with the view of re-establishing his practice, having lived there a number of years ago.”
Early yesterday morning his wife received a telegram announcing that he was dying, which was followed by another in a few hours that he was dead. His body will reach the city this evening in charge of Undertaker [Eber W] Hall and so far as now known, the funeral will take place at the undertaker’s parlor at 2 o’clock Thursday.”
Dr. McCoy had been a resident of this city for some years and had a great many friends. He was a son of Mr. Henson McCoy who died in Oregon some two or three years ago. The doctor was born in Oregon and raised in California. He leaves a wife but no children. He was 42 years of age.”
William B McCoy was buried in an unmarked grave in Section “4-4-4-West” of the Salt Lake City Cemetery according to Sexton Records.
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