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.
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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.
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.
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.
Sources:
- "La Salle Physician is Held in Girl's Death," (Streator, IL) Daily Times-Press, August 17, 1928
- "Hold Doctor and Asst. on Murder Charge," Streator Daily Times-Press, August 18, 1928
- "Hold Doctor and Nurse on Murder Count," Clinton (IL) Daily Journal and Public, August 19, 1928
- "Indict Three for Girl's Death After Illegal Operation," Decatur (IL) Herald, October 13, 1928
- "Doctor and Nurse Sentenced to Prison," Alton (IL) Evening Telegraph, November 16, 1928
- "Nurse Unmoved as She Entered Joliet Bastille," Dixon (IL) Evening Telegraph, November 22, 1928
- "Deny Dr. Moran Was Released," (Streator, IL) Times, January 29, 1929
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