Ida Craddock turns on the gas

1902 USA: Activist Ida Craddock (‘Sexual Mystic and Martyr for Freedom’; b. August 1, 1857) slashed her wrists and turned on the gas, killing herself rather than returning to court for sentencing. She had been found guilty of obscenity; the judge said her sex education pamphlet ‘The Wedding Night’ was too obscene to show to the jury, when in fact its real crime was its misinformation, particularly in its ‘spiritual’ sexual advice to men ...