RealChoice: May 6, 1907: The Prolifically Deadly Dr. Hagenow

Wednesday, May 06, 2026

May 6, 1907: The Prolifically Deadly Dr. Hagenow

SUMMARY AND CONTEXT: Annie Horvatich, age 26, died May 6, 1907 after an abortion perpetrated in Chicago and attributed to that prolific abortionist, Dr. Lucy Hagenow. This story highlights a seldom-addressed reality: Most pre-legalization abortions were perpetrated physicians or trained medical professionals, not the woman or some amateur.

As then-Planned Parenthood Federation medical director Mary Calderone estimated in the July, 1960 American Journal of Public Health, "90 per cent of all illegal abortions are presently being done by physicians." Another researcher, Nancy Howell Lee, estimated in The Search for an Abortionist (1969) that 89% of illegal abortions were being done by physicians. These estimates are the result of independent research. Calderone was basing her estimates on Planned Parenthood's 1955 conference "Abortion in America," in which physicians, public health officials, and even one criminal abortionist worked together to draw as accurate picture as possible. Lee based her estimates on an extensive survey of women who had sought out abortions prior to legalization.

Annie's Story

A poor-quality picture of a middle-aged white woman wearing a sailor-style dark hat and blouse. She has small facial features and is wearing small wire-rimmed eyeglasses.

Dr. Lucy Hagenow

At 6:30 on the evening of May 2, 1907, 26-year-old Austrian immigrant Annie Horvatich asked her new husband, Michael, to accompany her to the home of Dr. Louise Hagenow. It was late by the time they arrived. Though she didn't bring a change of clothes or any type of overnight bag, she asked Mike to look after her 3 children from a previous marriage and to come and see her on Saturday.

Mike, who told his story through a translator, said that he didn't know Hagenow and didn't know what his wife's purpose was in the visit -- a claim that isn't held up by the letter he says he got from her the next day:

Beloved Mike -- I let you know everything is well. Slept very well. Take care of the children. Tell Fanny not to go outside unless she puts a cap and coat on her. If she won't, don't leave her out. You see how she is. You didn't have any coffee at home and you were mad this morning. I will take care you won't be angry. Don't be afraid. There won't be any serious happenings. Will be in the house that day until I go home. Come over Saturday afternoon as you said, and tell the children where you are going, so that they won't go away from the house. Tell them I will come back with you. Nothing else. With love and regards to the children. A.H.

So evidently Mike knew enough about Annie's plans that she would have to assuage his fears that there might be "serious happenings."

Annie Sickens and Dies

Mike went to Hagenow's home on Saturday afternoon and found his wife sitting up in bed. She told him she was unwell and sent him home, saying she would not be returning home until Monday.

On Sunday, Mike got a phone call to go to Hagenow's place. He arrived at 10 p.m. to find his wife very sick and Hagenow armed with a revolver. A Dr. Rasmussen was also present. Mike remained at Annie's side during the night, noting that by morning she appeared to be much worse. He went to the home of Mary Galavitch, who could speak English and thus serve as a translator. When Mike and Mary arrived, Hagenow met them and told them that Annie had died at 5 a.m.

The Business With the Undertaker

Hagenow gave Mike a business card for a neighborhood undertaker. Mike indicated that he'd prefer an undertaker that he knew. He sought out W.J. Freckleton, who went to Hagenow's home to pick up Annie's body at around 5 p.m. He said that Hagenow told him that he should return after dark to take Annie's body out the back way. He returned at about 9 p.m. with an assistant, and found it very difficult to get Annie's body down the narrow staircase. He said that Hagenow told him that her regular undertaker never reported any trouble getting bodies out down that staircase.

The Truth Comes Out

The funeral was held, Annie buried at St. Maria's Cemetery on May 8, and it seemed as if Mike and the children would be getting on with their lives as best they could. That changed on May 13.

Mike had told Annie's brother, John Sneller, that Annie had been healthy before she'd gone to Hagenow's practice. John went to Cook County coroner Hoffman and alerted him to the suspicious circumstances.

So on May 13 coroner Hoffman went to the cemetery with a crew of people including Annie's brother, Rush Medical College professor Dr. Edwin R. LeCount, coroner's physician Dr. Warren H. Hunter, chairman of the Chicago Medical Society committee on abortion Dr. Rudolph Holmes, and some policemen. They exhumed Annie's body. A post-mortem examination revealed that although Annie's death had been attributed to pneumonia, her lungs had been quite healthy and normal -- as were most of her internal organs. It was in her pelvis that the true cause of death was found. Her uterus was lacerated, with the top of the uterus torn nearly off, causing fatal peritonitis. From the condition of her uterus, the doctors gauged that she had been about four months pregnant, but there was no sign of the fetus, which evidently had been successfully killed, removed, and disposed of.

Hagenow was arrested as the primary guilty party, and Dr. Alois Rasmussen charged with concealing the abortion death. He had been the one who had signed the falsified death certificate.

Hagenow's Claims Ring Hollow

Hagenow's Ad

Hagenow admitted that Annie had come to her place on the 2nd and died on the 6th, but insisted that Annie had been bleeding vaginally upon her arrival. She insisted that Annie told her she had seen a doctor on the South Side who had "brought her around" (i.e. done an abortion). Hagenow's claim that she hadn't performed an abortion on Annie wasn't very credible, given her history. She advertised consistently in Chicago daily papers, ads reading, "Dr. Louise Hagenow; licensed physician; expert; twenty seven years; female diseases; a new scientific, painless method; no operation; good results...." " In short, she was an open and known abortionist. In fact, she was out on a $10,000 bond for another abortion when Annie entrusted herself to her care.

Also entered into evidence in the trial was the dying declaration of Marie Hecht, who died from one of Hagenow's "scientific, painless" abortions in 1899, as testified to by the police officer who had taken the statement. Likewise entered into evidence was the testimony of a doctor who Hagenow had brought in to help try to save the life of a young woman Hagenow had disemboweled in the process of an abortion sometime ten or fifteen years prior to the trial over Annie's death -- which would mean this woman could have been Minnie Deering (1891), Sophia Kuhn or Emily Anderson (1892), Hannah Carlson (1896), or another as of yet unidentified woman. A police officer also testified about taking the dying declaration of Lola Madison. To top it off, during cross-examination, Hagenow admitted involvement in the abortion death of Hannah Carlson.

An Appeal Denied, a Sentence Pronounced

The appeals court noted, "had the evidence shown that Annie Horavitch was the only pregnant woman whom [Hagenow] had caused to miscarry or abort, it might not have been unreasonable to presume that she did so in good faith and for the purpose of saving the woman's life. .... [but for] 27 years [Hagenow] had been constantly engaged in producing miscarriages and causing abortions... [and] she kept a place for the treatment and care of women upon whom miscarriages and abortions had been caused and performed; ... she was surrounded at her house by men and women engaged in the business of causing and producing criminal miscarriages and abortions, and ... she had caused the death of several women upon whom she had caused miscarriages and produced abortions within a few years prior to her indictment for causing the death of Annie Horvatich ...."

Hagenow, nearly 60 years old at the time of her trial, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for Annie's death.

A Trail of Death

Hagenow was reportedly an 1879 graduate of Missouri Medical College. While operating under the name Dr. Louisa Hagenow she had already been implicated of the abortion deaths of Louise Derchow, Annie Dorris, Abbia Richards, and Emma Dep in San Francisco, then relocated to Chicago.

Before Annie died Hagenow, now operating as Dr. Louise Hagenow, was implicated in the deaths of Minnie Deering in 1891, Sophia Kuhn and Emily Anderson in 1892, Hannah Carlson in 1896, Marie Hecht in 1899, May Putnam in 1905, and Lola Madison in 1906.

Hagenow was freed from Joliet on October 29, 1917, having served less than half of her sentence. She went straight back to business, now calling herself Dr. Lucy Hagenow and landing 22-year-old Pauline Albrecht in the hospital fighting for her life. Pauline, writhing in pain in her hospital bed, told police, “I didn’t know what I was doing. A friend told me of her and I went to see her. I just asked for an examination; and she said she must operate.” With no cash on hand, Pauline gave Hagenow a $400 diamond ring.

In her jail cell and pressed by reporters, Hagenow snapped, “I didn’t do anything to her. There wasn’t anything the matter with her. She asked me for advice and I told her to go home and forget it.”

“Yes, I’ve been arrested before — what’s that to you? Yes, I’ve served time in Joliet — why do you blame me for these things? If these fool girls would take care of themselves they wouldn’t have these things done, would they?”

“There’s lot of midwives in Chicago making a living the way I do. I’ve been performing operations for fifty years. Since I got out of prison this last time, though, business is booming. Everybody’s doing it — no one wants babies; they come to us — it’s our business to help them.”

“I didn’t hurt this girl. She went home and caught cold. Then she called me up and told me she had taken some pills. I don’t know anything about that, do I? Why arrest me?”

Perhaps she had been arrested because Pauline’s ring was found in her possession, which certainly corroborated the ailing woman’s story. Fortunately, Pauline survived her ordeal, and Hagenow lay low for a while.

Then, suddenly in 1925, it was as if something snapped and Hagenow began making up for lost time. Five young women lost their lives at Lucy Hagenow’s hands that year: Nina H. Pierce, Elizabeth Welter, Bridget Masterson, Lottie Lowy, and Jean Cohen. None of these deaths lost Hagenow her freedom, but her luck ran out with the 1926 death of Mary Moorehead. She was sentenced to prison for Mary's death. However, when she 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.”

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.”

Context in Closing:

The idea that legalizing abortion magically eliminated tragic deaths is false. The major decline in maternal mortality — including deaths from illegal abortion — occurred decades before Roe v. Wade (1973), driven primarily by sulfa drugs (1930s), penicillin and other antibiotics (1940s), improved blood transfusions, and advances in obstetric care. Legalization simply shifted many abortions from one set of physicians to another. In some cases it led those "back alley" physicians to move onto main street and start killing women with a carelessness they never would have dared before legalization, as exemplified by Milan Vuitch, Jesse Ketchum, and Benjamin Munson. All three had no criminal abortions deaths to their discredit but each went on to kill two patients with appalling malpractice after legalization. Legalization did not eliminate the human cost or the incentives for providers to cut corners. Claims of dramatically improved “safety” still rest on voluntary self-reporting from the facilities and physicians performing the procedures, a system with documented cases of falsified records and gaps in accountability.