Mrs. Alta Vail told the deputy coroner, "Elizabeth roomed at 658 Roscoe street. A week ago she came to me and said she was very sick. I told her to stay at my home until she was better. Little by little she told me her story. She had obtained a position as a clerk in a store. Some months ago she began going out with a man. This man, she said, was responsible for her condition. She did not even know his name, she told me."
Lawrence Vail -- who according to 1930 census records was Alta's husband -- was identified by the coroner as responsible for the pregnancy, and the coroner recommended his arrest, along with the arrest of known abortionist Dr. Lucy Hagenow.
Hagenow was held to the grand jury on $20,000 bond (nearly $150,000 in 2020 dollars). However, because Vail refused to give a statement, police were unable to gather enough evidence to prosecute.
Elizabeth was the 17th of 18 abortion deaths that have been connected to Hagenow. She had been connected to four abortion deaths in San Francisco --Annie Dorris, Abbia Richards, Louise Derchow, and Emma Dep. Prosecutors were not giving up on prosecuting Hagenow in spite of one hung jury after the other, so she relocated to Chicago, which was a far more congenial atmosphere for abortionists. She started piling up bodies there as well, including Minnie Deering, Sophia Kuhn , Emily Anderson, Hannah Carlson, Marie Hecht, May Putnam, Lola Madison, Annie Horvatich, Lottie Lowy, Nina Pierce, Jean Cohen, Bridget Masterson, and Mary Moorehead.
Sources:
- "Girl's Brief Fling With City Night Life," Mattoon (IL) Journal Gazette, September 14, 1925
- "Woman Surgeon Sought Following Girl's Death," Chicago Tribune, September 15, 1925
- "Lucy Hagenow, Midwife, Held in Death of Girl," Chicago Tribune, September 16, 1925
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