Eleanor Rush
Eleanor Rush was 18 years old, and her mother, Geneva Winchester Gould, remembered her as her 'baby and last child'. In August 1954, Rush was held at the state women's prison in Raleigh, North Carolina, where officers put her in restraints and gagged her in an isolation cell, and she died there on August 21. The autopsy by Rex Hospital pathologist Rene Hardre found that her neck had been dislocated during the gagging, while the death certificate listed the death as an accident. A jury later blamed Rush herself, but the state later paid her mother a settlement after finding officials negligent.
Cause of death, as reported: Killed by staff (disputed). Staff restrained and gagged her in an isolation cell, and the autopsy by pathologist Rene Hardre says her neck was dislocated during the gagging, while the death certificate listed an accident; her family later received a state settlement.
Reported by: Rex Hospital pathologist Rene Hardre (medical examiner or coroner); death certificate; jury; her mother's settlement claim (family or their lawyers).
Lawsuit: Her mother sued the state, and the state later settled the case after a jury had placed blame on Rush herself.