Ida Craddock

Released
Full name:Ida C. Craddock
Date of birth:01. 08. 1857
Date of death:16. 10. 1902
Age:45† Deceased
Gender:Female
Race:White
Era:1900s
State:New York
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Ida Craddock

Biography

Ida C. Craddock was an American sex educator, freethinker, and advocate of marriage reform who wrote frank instructional pamphlets on sexuality. She was repeatedly prosecuted for "obscenity." In 1902 she was arrested by Anthony Comstock himself for distributing her pamphlet "The Wedding Night" through the mail and sentenced to five years in prison. Rather than return to prison she took her own life on October 16, 1902, leaving a public letter denouncing Comstockery that became a landmark document of the free-speech movement.

Cases

Charges: Distributing "obscene" literature through the mail (Comstock Act).
Sentence: Five years in prison. She committed suicide on October 16, 1902 rather than serve the sentence. Verdict as recorded: Yes — convicted in federal court in 1902. Charges as recorded: Distributing "obscene" literature through the mail (Comstock Act) — her sex-education pamphlet "The Wedding Night." Arrested by Anthony Comstock in person.
Convicted: Yes
Blackwell's Island Penitentiary
Charges: Distributing The Wedding Night
Arrested: Mar 5, 1902
Sentence: She served most of a three-month term at the Blackwell's Island workhouse, then, facing a five-year federal sentence after rearrest, died by suicide on October 16, 1902 before the federal term began.
Institution State: New York

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