I'll try to keep this brief as I'm not sure this is the most appropriate place to ask this question. I've been digging through my family's ancestry and came across my Great Great Aunt Josephine. Dr. Josephine Gabler performed thousands of illegal abortions in Chicago from 1905 to 1942 when her license was revoked. I've heard stories of my Grandmother visiting her Aunt and being told to hide in the closet if anyone knocks on the apartment door. I've also been told she had significant ties to the Chicago Mob. Obviously these points are near-impossible to find information on.
The most (legitimate) information I can find on her is a few excerpts from a book titled 'When Abortion Was a Crime.' This has led me to searching for court filings, arrest records, and really any other primary source that has her name anywhere near it. I haven't been successful other than finding mentions of information out there, such as home and business addresses, possibly getting arrested/detained, practice getting raided by police, a business card that tipped authorities off to the practice, and an insane story of a bribed cop shooting and killing my Aunt's Assistant's daughter. The cop (Daniel Moriarity), worried that the assistant (Ada Martin) would turn him in for accepting bribes, went to her apartment and shot her five times only to discover that he shot and killed the assistant's daughter (Jennie) rather than the assistant. Ironically, he saved the 6th bullet in the chamber for himself but the gun was either only loaded with 5 rounds or it misfired.
Again, sorry for wasting space if this is the wrong subreddit. Just to be clear, I'm not some guy trying to have his homework done for him or trying to capitalize on an increasingly volatile subject matter. I simply wish to know more about a fascinating branch of my family tree. I was a history minor forever ago in college and researching this has reminded of the incredible story-telling aspect of history that I enjoyed so much. My ultimate goal from this post is really to just get a bread crumb to follow. I've reached out to the author of 'When Abortion was a Crime' as well as Illinois Public Court Records, Sec of State, Department of Corrections, and Physicians' Database but keep hitting dead ends. I'd love to find a picture of Dr. Gabler but I think the holy grail here would be a copy of her business card. Thanks a lot, and I appreciate any help someone can provide.
Have you tried any newspapers? It looks like the Chicago Public Library has newspaper archives including the Chicago Tribune going back to 1849. I can't access it because I don't have a library card (and I'm in Canada, so my American newspaper resources are limited). Even if you don't have access to the CPL, try looking at your local library branch, most libraries will have online access to resources and databases. A lot of the time newspaper archives (for major newspapers) are digital and text-searchable (although not all). You could also see if your library has access to JSTOR, someone might have published academic work on your great great aunt.
The Library of Congress online collection now includes a huge collection of newspapers from across the country. If she made the papers, the coverage is probably there.