December 1, 1928: The Fourth of Six for Dr. Lou E. Davis

On December 1, 1928, 23-year-old Esther V. Wahlstrom died in Chicago from complications of a criminal abortion. Dr. Lou E. Davis was held by the coroner for murder by abortion on December 12. She was indicted for felony murder on December 15. 

Davis had ben implicated in the abortion death of Anna Borndal only a month earlier. She'd also been implicated in the deaths of Anna Adler in 1913 and Mary Whitney in 1924. She went on to be implicated in the 1932 abortion death of Irene Kirschner and the 1934 abortion death of  Gertrude Gaesswitz.

I don't have enough information about Esther's death to make a judgment about the quality of care she received. I don't know if she died because Dr. Davis (pictured, right) did something appalling (assuming, of course, that killing Esther's unborn baby wasn't appalling enough on its own), or if Esther was simply a victim of the quality of medical care in the age before antibiotics and blood transfusions.

Watch the video about Lou E. Davis at YouTube.