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After hinting of the horrendous things she could tell if it were not for her desire to protect Ann's reputation, Mother Hewitt revealed "with hesitancy and regret" one of her daughter's delinquencies. At 17, said she, Ann had planned to elope with their chauffeur, written him shocking letters which unfortunately could not be produced in evidence since they were "of a character to justify their immediate destruction." Declared Mother Hewitt: "They contained locks of hair of Ann's and a great many references to things which should not be written about. I paid thousands of dollars in currency to secure these letters and to break up this infatuation. From time to time since that date, I have had to use special means for blocking what seemed to be infatuations on the part of Ann. Mostly these have occurred with men in uniform, regardless of their station." Back across the continent, from San Francisco, Daughter Hewitt snapped : "Mother has always felt that way about men in uniform, so naturally she expected me to. ... I was really forced to leave school because the fast conduct of my mother was open gossip. I could not gain entrance to good or fashionable schools because of her notorious past." Mayhem? In New Jersey it was revealed that Mother Hewitt had received some $9,000 of Daughter Hewitt's own income to pay for her sterilization. What surgical procedure had been used remained publicly in doubt. Commonest techniques of female sterilization are to remove the ovaries or to tie off or cauterize the Fallopian tubes. Ordinarily an abdominal incision is involved, though cauterization may be accomplished dangerously by entrance through the uterus. Drs. Tillman & Boyd stoutly maintained that they had respectively recommended and performed sterilization because Daughter Hewitt was feebleminded, declared their action was an everyday occurrence. "I didn't worry about the legal aspects of the thing," said Surgeon Boyd, "figuring a mother had the right to request such an operation, since the girl then was a minor."
After San Francisco legal authorities had suggested that they might have to show medical grounds for the operation, affidavits by Drs. Tillman & Boyd were discovered in New Jersey which asserted that after they had Daughter Hewitt on the operating table for an appendectomy, they discovered serious disturbances of her other organs which necessitated sterilization. Surgeon Boyd admitted that only a few weeks ago he had inserted in his private record of the case the words "organs infantile." Daughter Hewitt's attorney wanted to know why, if only an appendectomy was anticipated, Surgeon Boyd had made his incision in the centre of her abdomen instead of on the right side.