September 11, 1918: Obstetrician Arrested After Chicago Death

On the evening of September 11, 1918, 35-year-old homemaker Gertrude Mathieson Harrington died in Chicago's Wesley Hospital. She had been admitted by Dr. John J. Gill, who noted evidence of an abortion when treating her. 

According to public records, Gertrude had been born in Kansas to Charles and Sarah Jane Snowden Mathieson in 1883. She was a homemaker, and there is no record that she and her husband had children.

Dr. Helen Dugdale, an obstetrician, was arrested. 

Dugdale, an obstetrician who advertised as a midwife (which was common for female obstetricians at that time), was born Helen Wolschlager on June 24, 1873 in Germany. Irony of ironies, this reputed abortionist's husband was a butcher, according to the 1920 census. 

She went on trial in June of 1920 but I haven't been able to determine if this was for Gertrude's death or for the death of another woman.  

Helen Dugdale eventually divorced George Dugdale, owner of Chicago's infamous "Bucket of Blood" saloon -- allegedly a combination brothel and drug den. She died January 10, 1938 in Chicago at the age of 64. 

Dugdale had been implicated the previous year in the abortion death of Marie Benzing.

Sources:

• "Suspect Illegal Operation Caused Death of Woman," Chicago Tribune, September 12, 1918
• "Sixteen More Face Trial as Slayers Today," Chicago Tribune, June 1, 1920

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Veteran pro-life investigator Kevin Sherlock asks people of good will to help him have Planned Parenthood prosecuted for profiteering from the rapes and incests of underage girls many thousands of times each year.

Sherlock has  pulled the police records of hundreds of cities and has pulled the child protective services records of multiple states to prove Planned Parenthood staffers are violating mandated reporting laws designed to protect girl victims.   But there is more to be done. Sherlock will make sure more and more evidence gets to federal and state prosecutors who care about protecting girls from abusers and profiteers.

If you would like to help, please click the following link:

https://www.givesendgo.com/stop-pp-from-profiteering-from-the-rapes

Sherlock has talked to many girls and young women who trust him. Their stories and the forensic evidence shows most of them undergo pill abortions or humiliating invasive surgical abortions due to fear or ignorance or pressure or coercion. He treats the girls or women carrying children or devastated from their abortions as friends and neighbors in his home town, not afterthoughts.

Thank you for doing what you can to help girls and fight sexual predators and rape profiteers.