Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 August 1895 — TOILS DRAW TIGHTER [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

TOILS DRAW TIGHTER

e • <s, M CHICAGO POLICE THINK THEY WILL CONVICT HOLMES. The Modern Bluebeard's Gauzy Tale Concerning Pitzej—Says the Latter Committed Suicidal—The Mysterious “Mascot” Located in Arkansas. Holmes Tells a Story. H. H. Holmes tells to the Philadelphia police an entirely new version of his connection with Pitzel, who is supposed to have been murdered for his life insurance. He says the two had on foot a plan to defraud the insurance company; that while in Philadelphia Pitzel became despondent over financial difficulties, the sickness of his daughter in St. Louis, and other matters, and threatened to commit suicide. Holmes then avers that he jokingly remarked to Pitzel: “Well, your body is as good as any other, but I would not advise you to do anything rash.” On the following day, Sunday, Holmes says he went to the Callowhite street house wheie Pitzel was stopping, and found a note telling him that the suicide had been accomplished. The letter pleaded that Holmes look after Pitzel’s children, and suggested that there would be no difficulty in getting the insurance money from the Fidelity company, now that the dead body of Pitzel could be produced in evidence. Holmes then told of the appearance of the corpse, and said that he sat in the room with the body for over an hour. He finally made up his mind that sinbe Pitzel had taken his life there would be no harm in destroying any evidence of suicide, so that he might be able to get the insurance on Pitzel’s life without any difficulty. Holmes has confessed that he thereupon dragged the dead body to the second floor, laid the corpse on the floor, pried open the mouth of the dead man with a pencil and poured in a quantity of explosive chemicals. He then, he says, placed a lighted match to the man’s mouth, when the explosion which so horribly disfigured the corpse followed. To give the more forcible impression that Pitzel came to his death by an accidental explosion Holmes state*} to the police thp.t he got a pipe of Pitzel’s, filled it with tobacco, lighted it, then blew out the flame, after

the tobacco had been partly consumed, and placed the pipe beside the dead man’s body. * Search in the basement of the Chicago house has revealed almost everything suggestive of dark crime except a corpse. Skeletons and bones were there, but these may have been procured from medical colleges or other sources; they furnish no proof of murder. More mysterious vats, tanks, retorts and kindred devices have been unearthed. And most important of all, there has been found in the Arkansas penitentiary a man who is said to have been closely associated with Holmes in his fraudulent life insurance deals and who assisted in the transfer of the Fort Worth, Texas, property of the missing Williams girls. This man is known by the name of Hatch, A. E. Allen, A. E. Bond, Caldwell and “Mascot,” and it is thought was Holmes’ confidential agent. He is serving a fifteen-year term for horse-stealing, and he is now 55 years old. He claims to know all about the disappearance of the Williams girls and the I’itzel children, but refuses to tell until he is pardoned for his present term and relieved of ttvo more indictments for horse-stealing. Holmes not long ago asserted that the man Hatch took the Pitzel children to Toronto, in the company of Minnie Williams, and that if he could be found he could clear-up the mystery of their death. An attorney went from Chicago to Little Rock to treat with the authorities of Arkansas for the release of the old man, and the strongest influence will be used to secure all he knows. One other man now held by the Chicago police is thought to know enough to convict Holmes. This is Pat Quinlan; but in convicting Holmes he will also convict himself, so he has the strongest incentive to keep his mouth shut. On the other hand, Hatch will have the reward of liberty for his disclosures, in case the latter are conclusive. So it is upon him that the police pin their faith. a ,

H. N. MUDGETT, ALIAS H. H. HOLMES. AND HIS SUPPOSED VICTIMS-