Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 30, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 August 1895 — MURDER HIS TRADE. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

MURDER HIS TRADE.

K. H. HOLMES ACCUSED OP DIABOLICAL CRIMES. More of Hie Devilishness Coming to Light Every Day— Startling Discoveries Made in Chicago— Building with MysterioueChambere—Bones Found. Fiend in Human Form. There is incarcerated in Moyamtnsing Prison, in Philadelphia, a man who, according to his own admission, has deserved hanging a dozen times, and, if guilty of half of the crimes laid at his fioor, is, without doubt, the arch-criminal of America, The name he is known by In prison is H. H. Holmes, but he has as many aliases as a chameleon has colors, and, when at liberty, he could change them as quickly.Holmes’ real name is Herbert, or Herman, Mudgett, and he was born in Gilmanton, N. H., about thirty-four years ago. His father was Levi H. Mudgett, and he was postmaster of Gilmanton Corners. He gave his son a good education, the boy graduating from the village academy with honor. When but 18 young Mudgett married Clara Lovering, the pretty daughter of a well-to-do citizen of Louden, N. H. Mudgett supported his wife for awhile, first by teaching school and after by clerking in a store. Then he took a notion to study medicine, and partly through his parents’ and his wife’s parents’ assistance ho become a student in the University of Vermont, at Burlington. His wife in the meantime supported herself as a dressmaker. By and by Mudgett went to the medical college at Ann Arbor, Mich. Here he run out of funds. He and a chum went to work during the summer vacation on a farm. One day it*occurred to Mudgett that i* was possible to obtain a quantity of money by swindling a life insurance company. It is said that he told his plan to his chum, who at once fell in with it. The chum had his life insured under a fictitious name, and shortly after they procured a body from the pickling vat of a medical college, boxed it up and

shipped it to Connecticut. Then it was given out that the chum had died, the body was palmed off as his, and Mudgett got the insurance money, some $12,000. After securing his degree Mudgett began the practice of his profession at Moore’s Fork, in his State. His wife was with him for awhile. She bore him a child, and then went back to her parents on a prolonged visit. Commits Bigamy, The young doctor built up a fairly good practice, but did not ask his wife to return to him, as he thought his field of action too circumscribed and he talked of going to Chicago to establish himself there. His was a flirtatious nature, and meeting an adventuress in Boston, he married her. She soon found that his means were poor and left him. Then he paid his real wife a visit and told her he was going west. That was the last she had heard of him for several years. Believing that she was deserted she went to hard work as a dressmaker to support herself and her child. Holmes, by which name he is afterward known, then entered into various schemes in Chicago. He employed a typewriter named Minnie Williams. He learned that she and her sister were worth $50,000 and determined to have the money. Ho persuaded Minnie to live with him. Then they sent for her sister Annie. Tho latter soon disappeared and no clue has ever been found of her whereabouts. It was not long after this that Minnie also disappeared. Then Holmes met Benjamin F. Pitezel. They laid a plan to defraud the Fidelity Mutual Life Insurance Company of Philadelphia. Pitezel took out a policy for SIO,OOO. In September last the body of a man was found in a certain house in Philadelphia. By his side was a broken bottle of carbolic acid. He was identified at the time as the man who, under the name of B. F. Perry, had rented the house some time before. The doctors said he had died in a natural manner. The body was buried in the Potter’s field.

Then Holmes came forward with a man named Howe to represent Mrs. Pitezel, whaclaimed that the body was that o*f her husband. It vras exhumed and she identified it. The insurance money was paid. The largest share went tp Holmes. He then persuaded Mrs. Pitezel to let him take care of three of her five children. She agreed and he took them with him. They have not been seen since, dead or alive, until the finding last week of the Vodies of two of them in the cellar of a house in Toronto, Ont., and every circumstance indicates that they were murdered by Holmes. Holmes Arrested. In some way the insurance company became suspicious. 'When Mrs. Pitezel was pressed she admitted that the whole thing was a conspiracy and that Pitezel,

■ki believed, was alive. She wvl arrsstsd, as was Howe. Then the detective* chased Holme* from city to city until they arrested him in Boston. Pitezel ha* never been found and the belief is strong that he waa murdered by Holmes. When the children could not be located detectives began to hurt for them. They were tracked with Holmes to Detroit Then one of them seems to have disappeared. The other two were traced to Toronto.. It was discovered that Holmes rented a certain house in that city and that he had two children with him. A search waa made. The earth forming the floor of the cellar had been disturbed. The detectives began to dig and soon they uncovered the nude bodies of the two children. Where the other one is, whether dead or alive, whether or not their father is living, and whether or not Minnie and Annie Williams were murdered are matters the police and detectives are trying to solve. That the Williams girls met death at the hands

of Holmes, there is scarcely a doubt. That they died in Chicago in a violent manner has been proved almost conclusively. The police found in a stove in a three-stprv brick building at 701 63d street, which was built by Holmes and in which both he and the Williams girls lived, a quantity of charred bones, buttons known to have been on a dress owned by Minnie Williams, and the partly melted portion of a watch chain which was positively identified as having been the property of the girl. The contents of th* stove were quickly dumped, and portions of bones too badly burned to admit of positive identification as belonging to any particular portion of the body were found. All of the ashes and debris removed from the stove was carefully preserved. The police are now of the opinion that not only Minnie Williams but her young-

er sister, Anna, and the boy Howard Pib zel met death in this house. Anna Williams has not been seen or heard of since Holmes left the 63d street building. If she has fallen victim to Holmes’ murderous instincts sho will be tho sixth he has killed—Pitezel, his three children and the two Williams girls. Holmes pleaded guilty to conspiracy in defrauding tho insurance companies out of about $250,000, and was awaiting sentence therefor when the bodies of the children were found and the suspicion that he murdered Pitezel was aroused.

Of course he disclaims all knowledge of the manner of their death.

MINNIE WILLIAMS. ANNIE WILLIAMS.

THE HOLMES BUILDING IN CHICAGO. [The star shows Holmes’ office.)

HOLMES IN HIS CELL.

THE TORONTO COTTAGE.