SUMMARY: Dr. Lucy Hagenow perpetrated the abortion that caused the December 12, 1892 death of 32-year-old Emily Anderson in 1892 in Chicago.

Dr. Lucy Hagenow.On Monday, December 12, 1892, 32-year-old Emily Anderson of Milwaukee Avenue, Chicago, died of peritonitis from a criminal abortion. Emily, widow of Andrew Anderson, kept a boarding house.

Dr. A. P. Ohlenocher, whose office was just up the street from the unfortunate young woman’s home, testified that he was called in to attend to her. A woman who was caring for Emily said that one of Emily’s boarders, a shoe salesman named Henry Gilbspen, had gotten Emily pregnant, but she didn’t know who had perpetrated the abortion.

When Ohlenocher questioned Henry, he denied having gotten Emily pregnant. He told the doctor that he had accompanied her to a doctor at her request, but had stayed at the foot of the stairs. He saw her enter Dr. Lucy Hagenow’s office, then went home.

Hagenow denied ever having seen Emily.

Gilbspen turned State’s evidence against Hagenow, but she was acquitted when the judge instructed the jury to return a not-guilty verdict, concluding on his own that the state had not produced sufficient evidence for a conviction.

Hagenow, who had already been tried multiple times for abortion deaths in San Francisco (Louise Duchow, Annie Dories, Emma Dep, and Abbia Richards) before moving to Chicago, and had already been implicated in the deaths of Minnie Deering and Sophia Kuhn, went on to be tied to nearly a dozen more Cook County abortion deaths, including:

• 1896: Hannah Carlson
• 1899: Marie Hecht
• 1905: May Putnam
• 1906: Lola Madison
• 1907: Annie Horvatich
• 1925: Lottie Lowy, Nina H. Pierce, Jean Cohen, Bridget Masterson, and Elizabeth Welter
• 1926: Mary Moorehead

Sources:

• “Dr. Hagenow in Trouble,” Chicago Inter Ocean, Dec.16, 1892
• “Louise Hagenow Acquitted of the Charge of Murder,” Chicago Inter Ocean, Mar. 14, 1983
• “Charged With a Grave Crime,” Sacramento Daily Union, Dec. 16, 1892
• Untitled clipping, Chicago Tribune, Mar. 12, 1893
• “Dr. Hagenow Admitted to Bail,” Chicago Inter Ocean, Dec. 23, 1892
• “Habeas Corpus Writ for Dr. Hagenow,” Chicago Inter Ocean, Dece. 17, 1892