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Monday, July 25, 2022

July 25, 1928: Doctor Sent to Joliette

Tillie Hartel, aged 19, lived with her parents in La Salle, Illinois and worked as a stenographer at the downtown Hoefferie clothing store. 

On July 2, 1928, she told her parents that she was leaving for Springfield to vacation for a week. This struck her father, Michael Hartel, as odd, since they had no relatives in the state capital and Tillie had never gone there before. She didn't write home at all during her absence. 

Dr. Joseph P. Moran

What Tillie's parents hadn't known was that she hadn't left La Salle. Instead, she had gone to the home 45-year-old nurse named Mae Bowers shared with her husband, Herman, to undergo an abortion at the hands of 32-year-old Dr. Joseph P. Moran. Tillie's brother, 19-year-old taxi driver Edward Hartel, found out where his sister was when he encountered Mrs. Bowers on the street. He later said that Mrs. Bowers had told him that his sister "is a bad little girl and is ailing with a disease." 

Their sister Julia had also known that Tillie was at Mrs. Bowers'.  Edward said he visited Tillie but didn't discuss her illness with her. "I thought it was best to leave her alone and avoid a lot of worry on her part." He also thought that the situation was "funny" and that it was best not to tell their parents to avoid worrying them.

Tillie arrived home around July 9. A few days later she took ill. Her father said that all he knew of the nature of her illness was what his wife told him -- that Tillie frequently had pains in her side which her were relieved with hot water bottles. 

Tillie's health took a turn for the worse around July 21 or 22, and Dr. Moran began coming to the house to tend to her. Mr. Hartel had no idea who had sent for Moran, nor did he know who the woman was Moran sent to attend to Tillie. He would later learn that it had been Edward, at the behest of Julia.

Tillie died at about 6:40 on the morning of July 25 after having ailed for about 14 days. Dr. Moran completed a death certificate attributing her death to acute bronchitis and the distraught family lay her to rest at Saint Vincent Cemetery in La Salle.

About three weeks later Coroner Dr. L. D. Howe received an anonymous letter saying that Tillie had actually died from a criminal abortion. He got a court order to have her body exhumed. Dr. W.D. McNally and Dr. George B. Springer of Cook County Coroner's office did autopsy in morgue of La Salle undertaking establishment and confirmed that abortion had indeed been the cause of death.

Because at the time it was considered first degree murder if a woman died during the commission of an abortion, Moran, Mrs. Bowers, and a midwife named Vera Kubra were indicted on murder charges. I have been unable to determine the outcome of the charges against Kubra, but the nurse and doctor were held without bail while awaiting trial.

Mrs. Bowers and Moran signed confessions pleading guilty to abortion in order to get the murder charges dismissed. Each was sentenced to Joliet for 1 - 10 years. 

According to the Streator, Illinois Daily Times-Press, "Mrs. Bowers freely admitted having assisted Dr. Moran in the performance of at least 75 operations in her luxurious furnished apartment in LaSalle. She also expressed the belief that the physician was a dope addict, and professed having seen him take both tablets and hypodermic injections while in her presence." Mrs. Bowers also indicated that she assisted Moran with abortions perpetrated at Moran's office in the Penney building in LaSalle.

Bowers said that Tillie's aborted baby was burned in her stove.

Moran made a good impression in prison, got out on good behavior, and went right back to committing abortions. He was sent back to Joliet to complete his sentence and when released the second time took up a life immersed in the criminal underworld. He vanished and was presumed killed in a mob hit.

Watch "The Abortionist Who Became a Mob Doc" on YouTube.

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