Ida Craddock

Released

Full name:Ida Celanire 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

Time Imprisoned:

3 Months

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Biography

Ida Craddock was an American sex educator and women's rights activist who wrote instructional sex ed pamphlets for newly wed couples as part of a campaign to decrease marital rape. She was repeatedly prosecuted for obscenity for her writings. 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: Mailing The Wedding Night in violation of the federal Comstock Act.

Arrested: June 1902

Sentence: No sentence imposed

Judge: Edward B. Thomas

Convicted: Yes

Workhouse, Blackwell's Island

Charges: Distributing and selling The Wedding Night under New York obscenity law.

Arrested: Mar 5, 1902

Sentenced: Mar 18, 1902

Incarcerated: Mar 18, 1902

Released: June 1902

Sentence: Three months in the New York City workhouse. Craddock served the term largely at the Women's Workhouse on Blackwell's Island and was released in June 1902; the exact release day is not documented.

Convicted: Yes

Institution State: New York

Charges: Mailing allegedly obscene literature, including Advice to a Bridegroom.

Arrested: 1898

Sentence: Arrested in Philadelphia in 1898 and released with a warning. No reliable source gives the length of any brief custody, and no jail term is counted.

Convicted: No

Charges: Mailing Right Marital Living and three other allegedly obscene pamphlets.

Arrested: 1899

Sentence: Federally prosecuted in Chicago in 1899. Clarence Darrow posted $500 bail; Craddock pleaded guilty and received a suspended sentence. No completed jail term is documented or counted.

Convicted: Yes

Plead: Guilty

Charges: Distributing allegedly obscene marriage and sex-education literature.

Arrested: 1901

Sentence: Arrested or brought before a police judge in Washington, D.C., in 1901. The matter ended in a compromise under which she left the city. No reliable source gives the length of any brief custody, and no jail term is counted.

Ida Craddock

Biography

Cases

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