On the evening of September 11, 1918, 35-year-old homemaker Gertrude Mathieson Harrington died in Chicago's Wesley Hospital. She had been admitted by Dr. John J. Gill, who noted evidence of an abortion when treating her.
According to public records, Gertrude had been born in Kansas to Charles and Sarah Jane Snowden Mathieson in 1883. She was a homemaker, and there is no record that she and her husband had children.
Dr. Helen Dugdale, an obstetrician, was arrested.
Dugdale, an obstetrician who advertised as a midwife (which was common for female obstetricians at that time), was born Helen Wolschlager on June 24, 1873 in Germany. Irony of ironies, this reputed abortionist's husband was a butcher, according to the 1920 census.
She went on trial in June of 1920 but I haven't been able to determine if this was for Gertrude's death or for the death of another woman.
Helen Dugdale eventually divorced George Dugdale, owner of Chicago's infamous "Bucket of Blood" saloon -- allegedly a combination brothel and drug den. She died January 10, 1938 in Chicago at the age of 64.
Dugdale had been implicated the previous year in the abortion death of Marie Benzing.
Sources:
- "Suspect Illegal Operation Caused Death of Woman," Chicago Tribune, September 12, 1918
- "Sixteen More Face Trial as Slayers Today," Chicago Tribune, June 1, 1920
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