The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1894-11-21
. SWINOLER'S STORY.
Ell. Fl. Holmes Who Beat Insur-
ance Companies Confesses.
His Life Has Been Full of
Many Crimes.
GOT THOUSANDS By IT.
When Captured He Tried to
Bride the Detective.

PHILADELPHIA. Pa. Nov. 21.-Arch-
Conspirator II. II. Holmes. accom-
panied by Mrs. Pitzel and a pretty
woman who calls herself Mrs.
Holiness arrived IN this city IN the
custody of Detective Crawford and
Special Agent Perry of the Fidelity
Mutual Life association Mrs Pit
zeIs 16-year- old daughter, M eda, and
her 1-year-o1d boy were also
with the party. Mrs Holmes disap-
peared soon after her arrival and no
clue to her wherea bouts could be OBJ
tanned. After their arrival the party
was closeted with superintendent Of
Police Linden until late in the after
noon When the conf srence was
over Detective era vford @tailed the
story Of the trip the mos important
feature Of which was the relation
made to him by Holmes Of the story
Of his whole life. 1t reads Like the
most sensational of romances.
Holmes sat beside the detective
with handouts on. The train had
scarcely emerged from the Boston
depot before the prisoner tried to
bribe his captOr. He offered the de-
tective $500 if he would allow him to
hypnotic him so he could escape.
He said he had frequently hypnOtized
persons, having acquired the art from
a college professor in the West. He
said he could get the money from his
wife and Mrs PitzeL When he saw
his words had no effect, he entered
into general con versa ton and told
the story Of his life.
He said he was raised in Burling-
ton, Vt, and SO well educated in
school there that at Is he was a
teacher. For some time afterward
he went to college there and later in
Detroit, Mich. Here be formed the
acquaintance of a medical student,
who, he said. furnished the body in
the present case. He refused to d.
vulge his name.
During vacations they worked on
farms to raise their college expenses,
but one summer they found them
selves W -thout means, and then the
medical man suggested the idea Of
getting a body and beating an insur-
ance conn any- This was twelve
years ago. The doctor got his life
insured for S12, 500. They obtained q
body in Chicago, took it East, ar
ranged the details of Identification
and successfully got the money with
which they continued their st es.
He refused to name the cOmpa aus
swindle ed They worked the sci 4e af-
terward with success Holmes cOntin-
ued. obtaining sums ranging from
$40, 600 to SEQ 900. Once Holmes got
his own life insured for $40, 600. He
went to hotel in Rhode Island At
that time he wore a beard. He Sc
cured a corpse in Chicago. cut off the
head and took the body to a lonely
spot not far from the hotel Then
he shaved off his beard, returned to
she hotel, asked for Holmes and en-
gagged a room to wait for him. He
had brought the head with him and
burned it beyond recognition in the
fire place of the hotel. This scheme
however, fell through, the mother Of
his wife, when she discovered it,
threatened to tell tie police and
Holmes fed to the West.
Resuming his story. Holmes said /
that while living in Chicago, about
eighteen months ago, he fell in with
a typewriter girl and furnished q
house on the outskirts, where they
lived together. A younger sister came I
to visit them, and the woman grew
SO Jealous of her that in a quarrel 7
one day She struck her over the head I
with stool and killed her. To save 4
the woman with whom he was living, /
Holmes said he put the body in /
sunk it in the lake This girl +
had property in Texas. and he and /
Pitzel took it off her hands and sent 4
her broad It was worth, he said, I
$40 600 and after gettint- it in their 4
hands they went through Texas buv- /
ing car loads OF horses on notes on +
this property, but as they never had 4
a legal title to the property the notes
were worthless and it is for this +
affair that they are wanted at Fort +
Worth. To save this property. Holmes
said. he and Pitzel formed the scheme 4
Of swindling the Fidelity com PAW. +
He told the detective that for the 4
crimes he comm tied he deserved to I
be hanged dozen times.