The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1894-11-22
CONFESSES HIS CRIME
DEMONSTRATORS HOLMES UN-
BOSOMS HIMSELF.

ARCH-CONsPIRATOR HOLMES UN-
BOSOMs HIMSELF.
He Says That He Has Swindlcd Many
Insurance Companies and That He
Deserves to he Hanged Many |
Times Over for His Numerous
Grimes.
Philadelphia, Nov. 22.-Archconspir-
.ntOr III. III. Holmes, accompanied by |
Mrs. Pitzel and a pretty woman who
calls herself Mrs. Holmes, arrived in |
this city to-day in the custody Of De
tective Crawford and Special Agent |
Perry, OF the Fidelity Mutual Life as
sociation. Mrs. Pitzel's sixteen-year-
old daughter Media and her one-year-
old boy were also with the party. Mrs.
Holmes disappeared soon after her ar
rival and no clue to her whereabouts
could be obtained. Mrs. Pitzel's nerv-
GUS condition was such that she was
unable to walk from Broad street sta
ton to the central station across the
street, and had to be supported by
Detective Crawford and a policeman.
After their arrival the party was
closeted with Superintendent Of Po-
w
the conference was over Detective
Crawford detailed the story of the
trip, the most important feature of
which was the relation made to him
by Holmes of the story of his whole
life. 1t reads like the most sensa-
tional of romances. Holmes sat be-
side the detective with handouts on.
The train had scarcely emerged from
the Boston depot before the prisoner
tried to bride his captor. He offered
the detective $500 if he would allow
him to hypnotic him so that he could
escape. He said he had frequently
hypnotized persons having acquired
the art from college professor in the
West. He said he could get the money
from his wife and Mrs. Pitzal. When
he saw that his words had no effect,
Holmes entered into a general CONVEX
satiOn and told the story of his life.
He said he was raised in Burlington.
VT, and so we'll educated in school
there that at fifteen he was teacher.
For some time afterWard he went to
college there, and later in Detroit,
Mich. Here he formed the acquaint-
ance Of a medical student. who. he
said, furnished the body in New York
in the present case. He refused to Ill
vulge his name. During vacations
they worked on farms to raise their
college expenses, but one summer they
found themselves without means, and
it was then that the medical man sug
gested the idea Of getting a body and
beating an insurance company. This
was twelve years ago. The doctor got
his life insured for $4,000. They OBJ
tanned the body in Chicago, took ii,
East, arranged the details Of identifi-
cation and successfully got the motley
with which they continued theiI
studies. He refused to name the con-.
pany thus swindled. They worked
this scheme afterward with success,
Holmes said. obtaining sums ranging
from $1,000 to $4,000. Once Holmes
got his own life insured for $4,000
He went to hotel in Rhode Island.
At that time he wore beard. He Sc
cured corpse in Chicago, cut OF the
head and took the body to a lonely
spot not far from the hotel. Then he
shaved off his beard, returned to the
hotel, asked for Holmes and engaged
room to wait for him. He had
brought the head with him and
burned it beyond recognition in the
fireplace of the hotel. This scheme,
however, fell through, the mother OF
his wife, WHEN she discovered it.
threatening to inform the police, and
his story, Holmes said that while iy-
ing in Chicago about fifteen months
ago he fell in with a typewriter girl
: and furnished house on the outskirts
where they lived together A young
sister came to live with them, and the
woman grew so jealous of her that in
a quarrel one day she struck her over
the head with q stool and killed her.
To save the woman with whom he
was living, Holmes said he put the
body in a trunk, loaded it with stones
and sunk it in the lake. This girl had
property in Texas and he and oitZnl
took it off her hands and sent her
abroad. 1t was worth, he said, $40.
900, and after getting it in their hands
they went through Texas buying ca,
loads CT horses on notes on this prop
erty, but rs they lever had legal title
to the property the notes were worth
less, and it is for this affair that they
arc wanted in Fort Worth. To save
this property Holmes said lie and
Pitzel formed the scheme of ;Winliing
the Fidelity company. He told the de-
tectives that for the crimes he had
committed he deserved to he hangeu
q uOZSll IllueS.
Holmes is not lacking for money. as
he himself admitted that at The ;,res-
ent time he is supporting nearly two
dozen persons, including the girl mur-
deress, her mother and an imbecile
brother; two orphans in Chicago who
live in one of his properties, three sep
arate alleged wives and their children
and his own mother and father in
kankakee. He would not give the
names of the women. He firmly main
tanned that Pitzel is alive in Salvador
and that he will hear from him
through the personal columns of a GER
tain New York newspaper.
MIR. Perry said that in the secret
conference to-day, nothing had been
said that would in the slightest degree
refute his original theory that Pitzel
had been murdered. Mrs. Pitzel, he
said, was perfectly innocent of any
completely in the whole affair.
Fort Worth, Tex, Nov. 22.-There is
every reason to believe that H. H.
Holmes, who went by the name of O.
G. Pratt in Fort Worth, is guilty of