RealChoice: The Seedy Career of Abortionist Justin Mitchell

Monday, May 12, 2025

The Seedy Career of Abortionist Justin Mitchell

Marital Woes

Dr. Justin Mitchell's life was already on the rocks in May of 1911. He wife, Della, reported that she spotted in walking into a theater with a tall blonde woman that addressed him as "Honey Bunch." She intercepted two postal cards addressed to "Honey Bunch" and signed "Morning Glory."

Della and Mitchell had married in 1903, when he was working his way through Bennett College of Eclectic Medicine and Surgery.

Della told the Inter-Ocean, "We lived quite happily until he became a doctor in 1908 and had several women among his patients. Then he seemed to tire of me."

She went on to describe treatment that went beyond merely tiring of his wife. "When I asked him to treat my throat one night he said he wouldn't do it, as there was no money in treating me. Another time he threw me on the floor and broke my glasses. He used abusive and profane language when he talked to me."

Another Marriage

On October 22 of 1914, Mitchell married Stella Tetu, a pianist. In the 1920 Federal census Mitchell listed his occupation as manager of a hospital He shared his rented house on East 55th Place in Chicago with his wife; his mother-in-law, Rose Tates; his sister-in-law, Blanche Lippert; and a 33-year-old woman named Mary Purtel whose relationship to Mitchell was listed as "nurse."

Sexual Harassment Suit

Mathilde Benkhardt

In 1922, a nurse named Mathilde Benkhardt filed suit against Mitchell, then staff physician at German Deaconess Hospital, for $50,000, alleging that while she was a student nurse, Mitchell groped and kissed her against her wishes. Mathilde alleged that when she complained to the hospital board, they expelled her without granting her nursing license.

The first case resulted in a hung jury, but a second jury awarded her $20,000. A judge reduced the award to $10,000. Mitchell was a married man at the time, so evidently the bad publicity when Della divorced him didn't stand between him and matrimony.

Mitchell faced possible jail for not paying Mathilde, saying that he was insolvent and could not afford to do so. His neighbors pulled together $25,000 for an appeal bond to get him released. Through his attorneys Mitchell characterized his attentions towards Mathilde as "mere caresses, certainly not malicious."

Abortion Survivors Murdered?

On July 11,1928, Dr. Justin Mitchel and Mrs. Marie Fenton were held in the deaths of six infants reportedly born alive then killed after surviving abortions at Michigan Boulevard Hospital, also called Michigan Boulevard Sanitarium. Fenton owned the facility where Mitchell was the chief surgeon. One infant was reportedly killed via drowning, then the child's body was burned. A woman named Gertrude Underwood, alias Gertrude Westlake, had worked as a nurse at the hospital and had made the accusation.

An investigation of the hospital found conditions worthy of a modern safe-and-legal clinic. The City Health Commissioner asked that the facility be closed because illegal abortions were being performed there, hospital records were incomplete, and there was no responsible physician in charge of the patients.

The murder charges relating to the abortion survivors were dropped because of lack of evidence.

Marital Status

The 1930 Federal Census had Mitchell listed as a divorced man living in an apartment on Normal Avenue in Chicago. But that soon changed. He married Lillian V. Macey in Lake, Indiana on September 4, 1931, according to Indiana marriage records.

The Women Start Dying

On December 10, 1931, 30-year-old homemaker Ethel Vaughan died from abortion complications at St. Bernard's Hospital in Chicago. Her husband, clerk Harold Vaughan, alleged that Mitchel had perpetrated the fatal abortion in his office on November 16.

While dying in Chicago's West Side Hospital in May of 1933, Mrs. Florence Jordan named Mitchell as the man who had perpetrated her fatal abortion on May 8. Florence died on May 26.

Almost exactly a year later, in May of 1934, Mary Schwartz asked a friend to help her arrange an abortion. The friend brought her to Mitchell, who had perpetrated an abortion on her three years earlier.

Mary Nowalowski died on April 3, 1935 after an abortion perpetrated by Mitchell. He was convicted in Mary's death on February 12, 1936. But he was evidently free on bail during the trial because 11 days earlier, February 1, Alice Haggin died from complications of an abortion attributed to Mitchell.

Mitchell's Career Ends

Mitchell was incarcerated for Mary's death as evidenced by the 1940 census showing him as an inmate at Stateville Correctional Center near Chicago.

Mitchell died in Chicago on May 8, 1941 at the age of 63, leaving behind his widow and a son, Justin Jr. His place of death is listed as Chicago in Illinois death records, indicating that he had been released from prison prior to his death.

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