Two Chicago Deaths, Two Decades Apart

Twenty-eight-year-old Ida Vierow was found dead in a ditch near Dunning, Illinois. It was determined that she had died January 6, 1905, from an abortion performed in Chicago. Two midwives, Amella Maichrowicz and Anna Becker, were arrested, along with Maichrowicz's husband, Joseph.

On December 30, 1923, 26-year-old Helen Koss underwent an illegal abortion somewhere in Chicago. On January 6, 1924, she died at Norwegian American Hospital of complications. Midwife Mrs. Emma Morch was arrested, and indicted for homicide by a grand jury. Helen, the daughter of German immigrants Carl and Rose Koss, lived with her widowed mother and three grown siblings. She worked as a clerk in an office.