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Lucy Hagenow

Lucy Hagenow
Dr. Lucy Hagenow
Born	1852 or November, 1848 Germany
Died	September 26, 1933 Norwood Park, IL
Other names	Louise or Louisa Hagenow
Occupation	Abortion practitioner

Lucy Hagenow (1852 or November, 1848 – September 26, 1933) was also known as Louise or Louisa Hagenow. She was a notorious criminal abortionist of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, whose exploits in San Francisco and Chicago sparked nationwide headlines. The Bellingham Herald called her a "human monster." The Seattle Times proclaimed, "Lucy Hagenow of Chicago has Criminal Record that Surpasses Anything of a Similar Nature in World's History."

Hagenow first operated as Louisa Hagenow, then as Louise Hagenow, in San Francisco, then switched over to the name Lucy Hagenow after moving to Chicago.

Early life

Hagenow was born in Germany in either 1852 or in November of 1848. She immigrated to the United States in either 1865 or 1870, likely along with her mother and two sisters.

Hagenow had a diploma dated June 26, 1876 from the Homeopathic Medical College of Missouri, which graduated female physicians from 1874 to 1909. She later claimed that she had graduated from Missouri Medical College in 1879.

The California Years

Hagenow's name first surfaces as "Hagenow, Dr. L." in the 1877 San Francisco city directory under "Physicians, Female," practicing at 14 Turk Street..

Her first documented run-ins with the law came in 1879, when she was arrested for abortion, then shortly thereafter for battery at her San Francisco practice for brawling with a patient. The patient told police that she had gone to Hagenow's practice to complain that Hagenow had sent her home injured then delayed coming to treat her for the complications, and that Hagenow had "replied with some coarse epithet." Hagenow argued that the patient had been sent by a rival to try to get her arrested again for abortion.

The Death of L.D.

Hagenow was indicted on a charge of murder in the death August 27, 1886 death of abortion patient L.D. The L.D. murder case exemplified how complex dealings with Hagenow could be. L.D.'s death certificate was signed with the name of Dr. F. F. Gedecky by Jules Maurin at Hagenow's request. At first Gedecky denied that he had given Hagenow permission to use his name, but under oath he admitted that he had given permission for her to use his name only if the death could be verified as due to peritonitis, and only if she informed him afterward.

Hagenow attempted to get the L.D. murder cased dismissed in January of 1888 on the grounds that the juries in the two previous trials had disagreed. The case went forward, however, and led to an acquittal in April of 1888, largely due to the loss of the state's prime witness when local journalist D. C. Buckley, who had done the original investigation of L.D.'s death, himself died.

The Death of A.D.

On July 26, 1888, nearly three months to the day after the acquittal, 16-year-old patient A.D. died after having been treated at Hagenow's Twelfth Street hospital/maternity home. Hagenow faced three trials for the murder of A.D., the first with one holdout leading to a hung jury, and the second with two holdouts. She was released in November of 1889 on a reduced bail of $10,000 to await a third trial, which ended in a third hung jury in May of 1890.

The Early Chicago Years

Hagenow relocated to Chicago, and was issued a license to practice medicine on April 12, 1890. Just as she had done in San Francisci, she opened a lying-in hospital.

Through the late 1890s, Hagenow ran thinkly-veiled advertisements for her practice in the Chicago Inter Ocean, usually reading:

DR. LOUISA HAGENOW, 104 N. WELLS Successful treatment of monthly irregularities by new method approved by Prof. Koch, of Berlin; no operation; 22 years' practice; private home.

1891: The Death of M.D.

Hagenow was held to a grand jury in January of 1891 in connection with the death of M.D. At the coroner's inquest, witnesses testified that M.D. had gone to Hagenow "for relief from her woe," and suffered "from a criminal operation." In an attempt to treat her, someone administered carbolic acid, which rather than heal the woman killed her. However, Hagenow's attorney requested a writ of habeas corpus, which was granted by Judge Tuthill, who said that only ignorance could have led the coroner's jury to hold Hagenow, who "should not have spent an hour in jail.

1892: The Deaths of S.K and E.A.

S.K., 30 years of age, died at Cook County Hospital on September 25, 1892. She had been brought there by ambulance from Hagenow's practice. Although the woman's father identified Hagenow as the perpetrator of the fatal abortion, the woman herself insisted that she had undergone an abortion elsewhere and had just taken ill near the home of a midwife who brought her to Hagenow's practice to recover.

On December 12, 1892, E.A. died under circumstances that strongly cast suspicion on Hagenow. Several women who had attended the dying woman named a man "responsible for her condition," who took police to Hagenow's practice and identified it as the place to which he had accompanied E.A. on the day she underwent the fatal abortion. Hagenow was held over to a grandy jury by the coroner's jury. On March 13, 1893, her murder trial in E.A.'s death ended in an acquittal by order of Judge McConnell, who told the jury that the state had not presented sufficient evidence to convict.

1896: The Death of H.C.

On July 2, 1896, Hagenow, along with Dr. Ida von Schultz, was arrested after patient H.C. turned up at Emergency Hospital, dying several hours later from abortion compliations.

1907: National Outrage

On November 30, 1907, Hagenow -- making her first offical appearance as Lucy rather than as Louise or Louisa -- burst onto the national scene when she was sentenced to 20 years in Joliet Prison for the death of patient A.H.

This particular conviction sparked attention for a number of reasons.

One was the gruesome nature of the testimony, which included graphic accounts of other women who had died under Hagenow's care. Eclipsing even the gore was the tangled web of scandal the press could associate with one of Hagenow's prior deaths. The victim, Lola Maddison, a stenographer from Salt Lake City, was revealed to be the sister of Anne Maddison Bradley, the spurned lover whose trial for the murder of former U.S. Senator Arthur Brown of Utah was opening in Washington. Though the father of L.M.'s unborn baby was never posititvely identified, Chicago police indicated that "he was a prominent lawyer and former federal official of Utah."

Furthermore, during closing arguments, the prosecution made two spectacular assertions: that Hagenow had been a practicing abortionist for 37 years, and that she had been responsible for a thousand deaths. The first assertion is in keeping with Hagenow's own claim that she had graduated from medical school in 1870. The latter claim would mean an average of 27 deaths at her hands annually. It is unclear whether the prosecutor was claiming that Hagenow killed that number of unborn children by abortion annually, or that her abortion practice was so busy and deadly that 1,000 of her patients had succumbed over the years. An Associated Press article seems to indicate that the reference was to dead patients:

"Dr." Hagenow has long been a thorn to the police, and the object of attacks by physicians and medical societies. It was stated in the closing argument for the state that Mrs. Hagenow had practiced for thirty seven years, and had been the cause of a thousand deaths. one of the deaths is that of Lola Madison, sister of Mrs. Bradley, whose trial for the murder of Senator Brown, of Utah, is in progress at Washington.

That the reference might have been to Hagenow's patients is supported by the testimony of undertaker W. J. Freckleton, sent by A.H.'s husband to collect the body of his wife for burial. Freckleton said that he had complained to Hagenow how difficult it was to get the body down the narrow staircase; Hagenow had replied that her usual undertaker never had any trouble getting bodies out.

In an article headlined, "Old Woman Kills Ten Thousand Persons," and that "Lucy Hagenow of Chicago Has Criminal Record That Surpasses Anything of a Similar Nature in World's History.", the Seattle Times said that Hagenow had been the cause of 10,000 deaths. This would indicate that the prosecutor had been referring to around 270 abortions perpetrated annually by Hagenow.

The news of Hagenow's conviction went national, with coverage in states as wide-flung as Arizona, Idaho, Michigan, Montana, Nebraska, Washington,

The Tuscon Daily Citizen, which referred to Hagenow as a "terrible old woman," alone of all the papers picking up the Associated Press story, noted that Hagenow had also been accused of "the murder by poison of several children."

Citywide Bribery Investigation

In May of 1907, the city of Chicago convened a grand jury, under the charge of States' Attorney Healy, to investigate charges that at least 133 midwives and physicians in the city were able to operate abortion businesses unmolested by bribing politicians and police officers. Falsified death certificates would be issued in order to obtain burial permits.

Hagenow was called before the grand jury as a star witness on May 24 to answer questions regarding an interview she had done earlier in which she had made specific allegations about numerous abortion practitioners, and had admitted to paying bribes herself.

Wire service coverage of the investigation, and Hagenow's involvement, appeared in papers all over the country.

The grand jury, while convened, also indicted Hagenow a second time regarding the death of Lola Maddison of Salt Lake City, since the indictment handed down the previous year had been dropped due to a technicality.

Lifestyle

Hagenow evidently thrived financially during her practicing years. She was the victim of a burglary that made the news in New York and Michigan as well as in Chicago, when George Alexander, a former police chief of Muskegon, Michigan, as well as a former Deputy U.S. Marshall, broke into her home, beat her mother severely into unconsciousness, and stole between $1,000 and $3,000 worth of jewlery.

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• autobiography
• biography

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