Sunday, May 19, 2024

May 19, 1932: One of Six Deaths Blamed on Dr. Lou E. Davis

Irene Kirschner, age 24, died on May 19, 1932 at West Suburban Hospital in Chicago. Before her death, she named Dr. Lou E. Davis as the abortionist who had fatally injured her.

Davis had already been implicated in four other Chicago abortion deaths:  Anna Adler in 1913, Mary Whitney in 1924, Anna Borndal and Esther V. Wahlstrom in 1928.

When police went to arrest Davis for Irene's death, they found another abortion-injured woman at her house on Logan Boulevard, but no sign of Davis.

According to Illinois death records, Irene was a Chicago native, born to Austrian immigrants John and Bernice Briske Kirschner. She worked as a housekeeper. Her high school yearbook noted that she focused on commercial studies and was active in swimming and the dramatic club. Her nickname was Babs.
Low-quality newspaper picture of a white woman, in profile, with short curly light-colored hair and a dark hat coming to a sharp peak at the back
Dr. Lou E. Davis

For reasons that I haven't been able to yet determined, the coroner's jury cleared Davis, though she was a well-known abortionist. She went on to be implicated in the 1934 abortion death of Gertrude Gaesswitz


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