Joseph Patrick Moran

Joseph P. Moran (1895–1934) was an American physician known for catering to the Depression-era criminal underworld in the early 20th century. He was also a peripheral member of the Barker–Karpis gang, and was possibly the last physician to see the mortally wounded John Hamilton, a member of the John Dillinger gang, whom Moran refused to treat.

Moran disappeared in July 1934. He is believed to have been murdered by Fred Barker and Alvin Karpis.

Early career During World War I, Moran served as a pilot in the Army Signal Corps with the rank of lieutenant. Moran graduated from Tufts Medical School, Boston. An Illinois native, he briefly operated a successful private practice in LaSalle until his addiction to alcohol drove most of his business away. To maintain his income, Moran became what was then colloquially known as a "pin artist"; someone who performed illegal abortions. According to his accomplice, nurse Mae Bowers, he performed about 75 abortions, most at her home, over a three-year period.

In 1928, an anonymous letter tipped off the coroner that 19-year-old Tillie Hartel had not died from acute bronchitis, as Moran had stated on her death certificate, but had actually died from an abortion. Tillie's body was exhumed for autopsy three weeks after her death and the abortion was confirmed. Moran and Bowers were each charged with first-degree murder in Tillie's death. Each signed a confession as part of a plea deal to have the murder charges dropped. Moran received a ten-year jail term, and lost his medical license. While in prison he ran the prison hospital successfully. The warden, Henry C. Hill, was so impressed that he helped him to obtain parole in 1931 and secured the return of his medical license.

Chicago underworld Apparently embittered by what he considered to be an unfair re-internment, Moran cultivated links with gangsters, facilitated by his friendship with jewel thief Oliver Berg, whom he had treated in LaSalle jail. Berg helped him make contacts in the Chicago underworld, and he was appointed the official physician of the Chicago Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen and Helpers Union. Unofficially, he became the emergency care physician for much of the Chicago underworld, despite being fairly debilitated by alcoholism. He was successful in removing Karpis' fingerprints (so much so that even decades later, Karpis had difficulty obtaining a passport to re-enter his native Canada), but his work on the two men's faces was judged a dismal and painful failure.

In 1971, Alvin Karpis wrote in his autobiography that the identification was mistaken; he claimed that Moran had been murdered by Arthur and Fred Barker and then buried in a lime pit in Michigan. The most accepted version of the tale is that Karpis, along with Fred Barker, took Moran on a boat ride on Lake Erie, during which they both murdered him.