November 29: Two Early Chicago Deaths

An Unknown Perp in Chicago, 1930

Seventeen-year-old Dorothy Jasinski was brought to St. Mary's Hospital in Chicago by two unidentified women on November 17, 1930. Dorothy was treated there until her death on November 29. The coroner determined that Dorothy had died from an abortion performed in Michigan City, Indiana, the day she'd been brought to the hospital. The coroner recommended identification of the person or persons responsible, and his or their arrest on charges of murder.

The Last Know Victim of Dr. Lucy Hagenow, 1926

Dr. Lucy Hagenow had only just been released from jail on October 27, 1926. Police had been unable to prove a charge that Hagenow had performed an abortion that Anna Jacques survived. 

"Every time I hear the name Lucy Hagenow I think of something unclean," said Judge Henry M. Walker. "I believe that you are guilty, but I am forced to discharge you for lack of evidence."

Hagenow went back to business, perpetrating an abortion on 25-year-old stenographer Mary Moorehead in her office. Mary died on November 29. The abortion had likely been performed on November 13.

Hagenow was arrested December 13. She was sentenced to 14 years at Joliet Penitentiary, but was able to get her conviction overturned by the Illinois Supreme Court, which ordered a new trial in 1929.
 
The judge, noting that there was no new evidence, dismissed the case, telling Hagenow, "You had better make your peace with God, Lucy Hagenow. I do not think your months on earth are many."  

Lucy Hagenow

Hagenow, who also went by the name of Louise or Louisa Hagenow, had a long and unsavory history of being involved in women's abortion deaths. The first were in San Francisco before Hagenow relocated to Chicago around 1890. The abortion deaths Hagenow was linked to include:

• 1886: Louise Derchow
• 1888: Annie Dories, Abbie Richards., and Emma Dep
• 1892: Sophia Kuhn and Emily Anderson
• 1896: Hannah Carlson
• 1899: Marie Hecht
• 1905: May Putnam
• 1906: Lola Madison
• 1907: Annie Horvatich
• 1925: Lottie Lowy, Nina H. Pierce, Jean Cohen, Bridget Masterson, and Elizabeth Welter