Monday, June 26, 2023

July 26, 1888: Death at a Maternity Hospital

Death and Deception

On July 26, 1888, 16-year-old Annie Dorris* died at Dr. Louisa Hagenow's "maternity hospital" in San Francisco. She was buried the following day based on a death certificate filed by Dr. Xavier Dodel, who claimed that he'd been called to tend to her at her home for chills and fever and had transferred her to Hagenow's care about two days before her death, when his treatment was not successful. 

Annie was buried on July 28, but suspicious were raised. On August 19, Annie's body exhumed for autopsy. Annie's uterus had been punctured in three places, and "all contiguous organs showed traces of a violent inflammation, which had produced peritonitis and subsequent death. She had, in short, died from a botched abortion. 

The first witness in the inquest was Dr. V. P. Buckley, one of the physicians who performed the autopsy. He noted that Annie's uterus had three puncture wounds caused by a sharp instrument. Under questioning he admitted that one such wound might be self-induced, but that a woman could not inflict three such wounds on herself. He was shown an instrument, described in the Sunday San Francisco Chronicle as "a wicked-looking affair" that had been seized in the search of Hagenow's premises. 

Dr. D. W. Montgomery testified next and described the wounds in greater detail, noting that the dark color indicted congestion and showed that they had been inflicted before death. He believed that such injuries and the resulting infection would be surely fatal in about 24 hours.

Annie's bother, Louis, testified that Annie had always been sickly. She had been ailing intermittently since January. He said that he came home from work one night in July to find Annie very sick and asking for a doctor. "We had read Mrs. Hagenow's advertisement in the papers, and talked about getting her, as she might be pretty smart and was a German woman. Dr. Dodel and Mrs. Hagenow were called in. They made an examination and said she had inflammation of the bowels, and ought to be taken to the hospital."

Louis said that he got a carriage that took his sister, their mother, and Hagenow to the hospital.

The following day he went to see Annie. She told him that she had been very ill but was feeling better. He stayed with her a short time, kissed her goodbye, then went home. He never saw her alive again.

Hagenow's sister, Mrs. Sophia Siebert, testified next. The San Francisco Chronicle described her as "a stout, fat German woman, and a full sister to Mrs. Hagenow. She is the unfortunate one who is given to too much talking, and is the person who told Mrs. Anna Hickert of 1620 Howard street that Mrs. Hagenow's place was a murderers' hole and a robbers' nest." Speaking entirely in her native German, she explained that she lived with her daughter in the city. She worked at her sister's "maternity home." She was busy with her work the night Annie arrived with Hagenow and Mrs. Dorris. Siebert said that she'd only seen Annie alive once, when she'd brought her some watermelon. After the girl died, Siebert said, she had washed and dressed her body for the funeral in the presence of some other people.

Siebert described the gossip in the neighborhood after Annie's death. She limited her own part in the gossip as talking about a second young lady who had died at Hagenow's facility, and an old man who had died there as well. 

Two employees of undertaker Theodore Diereks testified. One, John Driscill, said that he had completed the death certificate but omitted the place of death because he hadn't known where Annie had died. He sent somebody to fetch Dodel, who came to the undertaking establishment and signed the document.

However, Diereks's own testimony differs from that of his employee. He said that he took the death certificate to Hagenow's maternity home when he went to pick up the body. He completed the death certificate there then took it to Dodel to be signed. The one that his employees testified about, he said was not the original. He'd left the original, he said, with Dodel. He said that he'd been brought in by Annie's parents, who were assuming all expenses. Annie's parents, however, denied having been the ones who contacted Diereks.

Hagenow and Dodel were promptly suspected and arrested. A reporter from the San Francisco Chronicle spoke to Hagenow in her jail cell. "When informed of the result of the autopsy, she became much depressed, and shook her head sadly, with the remark that she couldn't understand it. She was about to volunteer a statement of her case, when Robert Ferral, her counsel, appeared and cautioned her to say nothing about the matter, either to her friends or the reporters. Mrs. Dr. Hagenow thereupon contented herself with saying that 'she could not see how doctors could discern punctures in the womb after nearly a month's burial.' She also said that she was innocent, and would prove it in time, and that Annie Dorris was not tampered with in her home."

Officer John F. Seymour also testified. He had been sent to Dodel's residence to arrest him. Dodel led him to a parlor where his brother and a friend were. Dodel's brother and friend were there. The brother took up running up Howard Street towards Fifth. Seymour arrested Dodel. Officer Seymour said that he'd heard a conversation between Dr. Stanton and Dodel. According to Seymour, Dodel told Stanton that Hagenow had consulted him about treating a fever. He went with Hagenow to a house on Welsh street, where he found a young woman with a high fever. He examined her and removed some clots. He'd transferred her to a hospital where she'd died after three days. He had signed a death certificate blaming the death on peritonitis. Seymour said he'd heard Dodel tell Stanton, "You know, doctor, how I needed the money, and that was why I signed the certificate. I have had a great deal of trouble." 

Officer Dillon testified that Dodel's brother had taken off in order to warn Hagenow about the arrest. He'd found the doctor's brother at Hagenow's establishment when he'd gone there to arrest her. She was taken into custody at 6:00 on the evening of August 25. She was charged with murder in Annie's death as well as with suborning perjury. Hagenow denied the abortion and the witness tampering, telling a San Francisco Chronicle reporter, "Those witnesses lied when they swore that I endeavored to get them to give false testimony. The fact is that came to me after 11 o'clock at night and begged me on their knees to swear to the same story as themselves, and I refused. I know who performed the operation on the girl, but it was not me."

Coroner Stanton testified that he'd spoken with Dodel on the day of his arrest. Dodel admitted to having treated a girl named Dorreis. He said that he'd been called in by Hagenow and had removed something from the patient's body. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, "Dr. Stanton then related the circumstances connected with the discovery of the crime, of how he worked up the case and of the finding of the instruments at Mrs. Hagenow's, and the matter was then left with the jury." 

On behalf of Dodel, his attorney, Mr. Louderback, said that the charges against Dodel should be dismissed because the only evidence is that he had been called in to attend to Annie after a "butcher" had injured her prior to her removal to Hagenow's hospital.

Who Was Responsible

Annie had been engaged to young machinist named Matthew Cox who drowned in the San Francisco Bay the Christmas after Annie's death. She had been buried wearing a gold-washed ring engraved "Presented by M. C. to A. D." According to the San Francisco Daily Examiner, "The two were a great deal together, but the girl's parents declare that they would never think of associating young Cox with their daughter's downfall and death."

Until about three months before her death, Annie had worked for the Gutmann family on Clara Street, near Fifth. Mrs. Guttman told the Daily Examiner, "There were no young men lived in the house except my son. The girl was, while in the house, well behaved, and neither wilder nor more quiet than other servant girls. She frequently went to balls and parties and returned when she pleased. She had a key of her own and my family consequently never knew what time of night she came in."

The Inquest

Hagenow ad, SF Chronicle, May 15, 1888
During the coroner's inquest, Annie's mother, Augusta, testified that on New Year's Day, Annie had come to her, "Troubled with what she thought was some female disease." Some time in late July Augusta had heard that Hagenow was skilled in treating. She said that she had read in a German newspaper that “Mrs. Hagenow's hospital on Twelfth street was a good place,” so she took Annie there. 

“Mrs. Hagenow said that she would cure the girl for $30 and took her into a private room to examine her.” After Annie emerged, Hagenow charged her mother an additional $10, saying that she had damaged an instrument due to Anna's inability to lie still.

Three days later, Annie took to her bed, complaining of pains in her legs and back. According to Annie's father, Frederick, Hagenow came to the house to check on Annie. Hagenow took the girl into a side room, from which Frederick heard Annie cry out. Hagenow emerged and said that a "man doctor" had to be called in due to inflammation of the bowels and high fever. Hagenow left and returned with Dr. Dodel. The two of them went into the room with Annie, and again Frederick heard his daughter cry out. Dodel emerged from the room with bloody hands.

Frederick didn't seem to be a particularly concerned or attentive father, judging by this exchange in the Examiner:

Reporter: Did you know what was the matter with her?

Frederick: No.

Reporter: Do you know now?

Frederick: My son was reading something about it out of the paper but I didn't pay much attention.

Reporter: (shares results of autopsy)

Frederick: Well, sir, I must say I'm surprised. I never thought the girl was in that way.

Upon his recommendation, Annie was removed to the "maternity home." Hagenow's sister, Sophia Siebert, worked at the establishment. She told a reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle that she had seen Annie arrive in a carriage, accompanied by her mother and a young man.

Annie died at the maternity home on the third day.

Dodel's Statement

Dodel told the Daily Examiner, "At Mrs. Hagenow's request. on July 24th I went to see a girl at 21 1/2 Welsh Street. I found her suffering from peritonitis, and taxed her for having undergone a criminal operation. She denied it, but said she had had a miscarriage. As she could not be well attended to there, she was moved to Mrs. Hagenow's place, where she died on the 26th. I thought there would be trouble about the case, and I refused to sign the death certificate until my fee was paid. On July 29th the girl's mother paid me $50, and I went down to Dierks' undertaking rooms, where the body had been taken, and signed the death certificate."

When asked why he hadn't reported Annie's death to the coroner, Dodel reportedly shrugged and said that he'd only suspected an abortion and hadn't been certain.

Hagenow's Character

Louisa "Lucy" Hagenow
As Augusta testified about her daughter's death, she “cried pitifully.” After being given time to regain her composure, Augusta, with her husband by her side, was asked about her encounter with Hagenow at the coroner's office. Augusta said that Hagenow told her to denied ever meeting her, or she (Hagenow) would end up doing 25 or 30 years at San Quentin. The coroner had chased Hagenow from the room.

Augusta said that Hagenow's sister, Mrs. Sophia Seibert, told her that she'd taken her daughter to a “hell hole” and that “other persons had been murdered there.” 

Anna Hickert, who operated a bakery, said that she relayed to Hagenow that Seibert had told her that Hagenow ran “a murderous den,” but Hagenow had told Hickert not to relay this because her Seibert would deny having ever said any such thing. 

The characterization of Hagenow's establishment seems legit. Hagenow had been implicated in the abortion death of Abbia Richards earlier that month, and of Louise Derchow in 1885. Emma Dep died under mysterious circumstances at Hagenow's maternity home in August of 1888.

Something Fishy

Hagenow reportedly nearly fainted when Judge Hornblower set Hagenow's bail at a total of $25,000. (Over $800,000 in 2023)

Hagenow eventually made bail, but the San Francisco Chronicle noted, “The bond itself is a queer one. Although the signers qualify in the aggregate for $20,000 there is more than the faint suspicion afloat that it is a bond of straw.” Pretty fishy – perhaps in one case even fictitious – characters were putting their signatures on it. Jasper Karnary, a man that Judge Lawler had scolded for signing too many bonds, signed for $6,000 in the form the value of his his Natoma Street house. However, Karnary's name and address were not noted in the city directory. The same situation held with George M Williams, supposedly of Tehama Street, who contributed $4,000 in the form of his house. J. Pelier, who claimed to own the Evergreen Vineyard in Sonoma County, signed for $10,000 against the value of the vineyard.

News coverage doesn't indicate how Hagenow came up with the additional $5,000 bond for the subornation of perjury charge, but evidently she managed.

Dodel's bail was set at $20,000, evidently since he did not have the additional charge of suborning perjury.

“When Mrs. Hagenow was released she ran to Dr. Dodel's cell and held a short conversation with him. It is quite probable that he will soon be out on bond if [Judge] Hornblower can be persuaded to accept the same kind of sureties for him as he did for his female companion." Hagenow stuck to her story that Annie had been deathly ill before she'd even been called in.

Freed to Kill Again

Hagenow relocated to Chicago, a city more tolerant of abortion quackery, and began piling up dead bodies there as well, this time as Louise rather than Louisa. She was implicated in numerous abortion deaths there, including:

Hagenow was sentenced to prison for Annie's death. Upon release  in 1924 she began using the name Lucy Hagenow and made up for lost time by piling up more corpses:

Hagenow

Though she was sentenced to prison for Mary Moorehead's death, when Hagenow appealed the Supreme Court of Illinois 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."

Hagenow, the Associated Press noted, was nearly deaf and "may not have heard. She muttered something, and shambled laboriously from the room."

Deaths of her patients must have been a common occurrence, since undertaker W. J. Freckleton, sent by one husband to collect the body of his wife for burial, testified that he had complained to Hagenow how difficult it was to get the body down the narrow staircase; Hagenow had replied that her usual undertaker never had any trouble getting bodies out.

Clearly, laws against abortion can only protect women if the local authorities care enough to enforce them.

As near as I can determine, Hagenow died September 26, 1933, in Norwood Park, Cook County, Illinois. Her occupation on her death record was given as "midwife."

*Annie's name is also spelled Dories, Dorreis, Doreis, or other variants in different sources.

Sources:





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