Sunday, January 22, 2023

January 22, 1900: A Habitually Deadly Doctor

 On January 22, 1900, Mrs. Barbara Shelgren, age 25, died at Augustana Hospital in Chicago of an abortion performed that day. Dr. Paulina Bechtel, identified as a midwife in the Homicide in Chicago Interactive Database, was arrested and held by Coroner's Jury and indicted of homicide by a grand jury, but the case was thrown out by Judge Holdom. Bechtel had already been tried in the October 3, 1895 abortion death of Mrs. Kittie Bassett. She had only just been implicated in the abortion death of Ida Henry earlier in January of 1900. She was later implicated in the abortion death of Mary Thorning in 1911.

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