Bertha Baudach (Jail)

Bertha Baudach was convicted of the manslaughter of Adelaide Ellen Noelte 29.

She was a German nurse.

She performed an illegal operation on Adelaide Noelte who died on Sunday 13 December 1903.

The court heard that she had been convicted of a similar offence in 1895 and sentence to five years and had also been charged with a similar offence as recently as the previous year but acquitted.

Adelaide Noelte had lived at 19 Sherwood Street, Soho, and had been the wife of a working tailor and had three children.

The evidence showed that Bertha Baudach had successfully performed an operation on Adelaide Noelte on 21 August 1903 and that after that, between 30 August and 6 September 1903 that Adelaide Noelte had gone away to Hastings and that later on 14 November 1903 that she had found that she had been in a certain condition again and that Bertha Baudach had once again performed an illegal operation on her but that on that occasion complications arose.

It was reported that she became ill, that her temperature rose to 105 and that she ultimately died in terrible agony.

It was heard that a doctor gave a certificate of death from natural causes but that another doctor that had attended Adelaide Noelte earlier in the year became suspicious and an inquest was held.

The inquest heard that there had been two servants at Adelaide Noelte's home along with a German lodger who was described as a 'racing tipster' who had nursed Adelaide Noelte whilst she was ill. 

It was heard that there had been a scene at the house one evening where it was alleged that the racing tipster had been found in Adelaide Noelte's room with the door locked. It was heard then that in order to quiet her husband's suspicions that one of the servants said that Adelaide Noelte wrote her a letter, asking her to copy it and send it back to her, stating that she herself had been in the locked room with the German lodger and not her, Adelaide Noelte. 

Another servant admitted that the German lodger, in the absence of Adelaide Noelte's husband at work, had waited upon Adelaide Noelte in her bedroom with the door locked and that she had also paid the servant's wages and given her money to buy articles for housekeeping.

Adelaide Noelte's husband, who gave evidence in broken English, said that he didn't know the nature of Adelaide Noelte's illness or why Bertha Baudach had called on her. He admitted that it was true that the German lodger had paid the servants and had given them money for food buying and had been in Adelaide Noelte's bedroom all day whilst he was in his workshop.

He also said that the German lodger had been present when Adelaide Noelte had died and that it had been the German lodger that had registered her death, noting that he had been too upset to do it himself.

Adelaide Noelte's husband noted that Adelaide Noelte had private means of her own and that he did not sleep with her. He also related at the inquest to the incident of surprising his wife at night in a locked bedroom with the German lodger.

The doctor that had given the first death certificate said that the German lodger had told him that Adelaide Noelte had had drinking bouts during which she would drink anything she could get hold of and that that had influenced him in giving a certificate that Adelaide Noelte had died from diseased liver and kidney troubles.

However, strong medical evidence was also heard that Adelaide Noelte had died from an illegal operation.

After the findings Bertha Baudach fled the country but later returned and was arrested at 2 Euston Square.

When the police went to 2 Euston Square they found Bertha Baudach in a back room on the ground floor concealed behind some clothing hanging on the door. When the police told her that they were there to arrest her for manslaughter she refused to come out of her hiding place and when she was dragged from beneath the clothes she struggled violently for about ten minutes with three police officers. Other reports stated that she resisted the police violently for over and hour and that it took seven policemen to get her into a four-wheel cab. During the struggle a wig that she was wearing as part of a disguise came off. One report described it as a black wig and that when it had fallen off it had revealed the grey hair of an old woman.

She had been living at 40 Drummond Street off Euston Road at the time with her husband where she had run her business. Her husband, who was also an alien, was a barber and the premises were those of a hair dressers shop.

After getting Bertha Baudach out of the back room, she was then dragged into a cab and driven to Vine Street police station. On the way she exclaimed, 'Kill me! Let me die now! I would rather die than go with you and go through what I have been through before!'.

When the warrant was read she said 'All right. I have been to Bant in Germany, and only came back yesterday'.

She was found guilty of manslaughter at the Old Bailey and sentenced to seven years' penal servitude.