The article alleges that Barrymore was worried about testifying in the Thaw trial because Evelyn Nesbit had secretly had multiple abortions and that Barrymore may have arranged the third one of those. That claim is not supported by the two most recent prominent biographies of Nesbit (Uruburu 2008 and Baatz 2018). The article says Barrymore was worried he might be asked "whether he had arranged" an abortion that had been covered up with an appendicitis story. The appendicitis incident in question was in January 1903, and Baatz says (p. 60) that it was Stanford White who arranged the physician, not Barrymore. Baatz says Barrymore didn't have enough money to go visit Nesbit after she was sent to the boarding school in New Jersey where the appendicitis incident happened. Thaw happened to be present at the time of her onset of acute appendicities, but Baatz is pretty clear that Barrymore was not. Is the alleged abortion story in the Kobler 1977 source? The Wikipedia article also seems to say that Barrymore's involvement with Nesbit began in 1901. That seems incorrect – it appears to have been in 1902. Baatz (p. 53 and repeated on p. 56) says Barrymore was 20 years old at the time of their romance, which would put it between mid-February 1902 and mid-February 1903. He also says Nesbit was 17, which would put it between December 25, 1901 and December 25, 1902 (using the December 25, 1884, birth date that Baatz uses for Nesbit). The intersection of those two date ranges was in 1902 (before November, because Nesbit was shipped off to the boarding school in November, which seems to have been when her involvement with Barrymore ended). — BarrelProof (talk) 23:31, 28 July 2025 (UTC)Reply
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