SUMMARY: On July 2, 1896, 20-year-old Hanna Carlson died at Chicago’s Emergency Hospital after an abortion she blamed on Dr. Lucy Hagenow and Dr. Ida Von Schultz.

On July 2, 1896, 20-year-old Hanna Carlson died at Chicago’s Emergency Hospital at about 5 p.m. Her brother, A. O. Carlson, swore out a complaint against Dr. Lucy Hagenow and Dr. Ida Von Schultz. Both women, who said that they were originally licensed to practice medicine in Switzerland, were charged with murder.

A man named Emil Olson, identified as “the man who secured their services,” was also arrested.

Hagenow and Von Schultz asserted that Hannah had come to them after a self-induced abortion and that they were merely trying to save her life. The jury evidently found the evidence against the known abortionists to be insufficient, since they acquitted both defendants after deliberating for two hours.

Dr. Lucy Hagenow
Hagenow, who had already been implicated of the abortion deaths of Louise Derchow, Annie Dorris, Abbia Richards, and Emma Dep in San Francisco, would go on to be linked to over a dozen Chicago abortion deaths:

• 1891: Minnie Deering
• 1892: Sophia Kuhn and Emily Anderson
• 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:

• “Told in a Paragraph,” Chicago Inter Ocean, July 2, 1896
• “Held Responsible for Result of a Criminal Operation,” Chicago Inter Ocean, July 3, 1896
• “Olsen Admitted to Bail,” Chicago Inter Ocean, August 30, 1896
• “Faces a Big Docket,” Chicago Tribune, July 21, 1896
• “Women Physicians Acquitted,” Chicago Inter Ocean, July 28, 1989
• “Doctors Acquitted of Murder,” Chicago Tribune, July 28, 1898