Woman’s Mutilated Body Buried in Backyard, 1910

Eva Swan in the San Francisco Call

Sept. 24-Nov. 5, 1910: Newspapers of the era are full of stories about a particularly grotesque case involving San Francisco stenographer Eva Swan, who lingered more than 10 days before dying of an abortion. Her body was buried in the backyard of a vacant home and was discovered by police acting on a tip from a disgruntled employee of Robert Thompson, who called himself Dr. James Grant. On the jump, the confession of the nurse, Marie Messerschmidt, from the San Francisco Call. Thompson was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to 20 years in prison.