Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1894-11-21
SWINDLER HOLMES
Offers Detective $500 to Allow
Him to Escape.
Could Hypnotic Officer and Holmes
and Mrs. Pitezel Would Skip.
No. Thank You." Said the officer. $500 Is
No lnducement"

Philadelphia, Nov. 20.-Devclopments,
today, in the conspiracy and possible muir
der case whereby $4,000 insurance was
obtained from the Fidelity Mutual Life
Insurance Association, We're the arrival in
Philadelphia of Herman Mudgett, alias
Harry H. Holmes, alias Howard, the arch
conspirator; Mrs Benjamin F. Pitzel,
alias Cook. wife or widow of the victim,
with her l6-ycarS-old daughter Media, and
1-year- old boy: Holmes wife; and the re
ceipt of the intelligence that Lawyer
Howe, St Louis. who had been indicted
as II conspirator, is on the way hither.
The date when Holmes Howe and Mrs.
Pitezel will be arraigncd in court has not
been fixed. Holmes and Mrs. Pitczcl
were brought from Boston by Detective
Crawford and Supervisor of Claims Perry
of the Fidelity Association. Mrs Holmes
is not under arrest, but accompanied her
husband, and the Pitczcl children Were
in the company of their mother.
Detective Crawford told the story of the
trip from Boston. The party left Boston
at 730 last evening. On the train,
Holmes, handcutfed to the detective, went
over his adventures from his boyhood,
When the train vas passing Providence,
Holmes turned To his custodian and said:
"See here, Crawford, / think my wife
and Mrs. Pitezcl can raise between them
$500 I'm IA hypnotizer. If you'll let me
hypnotic you, so we can escape, II give
you $500 -
"Hypnotism, returned the detective,
always spoils my appetite. I'm afraid
$500 is no induccmcnt when weighed
against possible dyspepsia.
Holmes told the detective that he was
raised in Burlington, VT, and attended
the schools there until 10 years old. He
taught school for time, and afterwards
went to the local college, working in the
summer time to pay his fees. He graduated
at Burlington and went to Michigan Col
lege. where he made the acquaintance, as
IA student, of the physician who, he
alleges, agreed to supply the body used in
the last fraud. The two young men
worked during the vacation.
About II years ago, one summer they
were short of funds. Holmes friend
thought of an insurance swindle, in which
Il bogus body was to be had. The friend
now physician, had his life insured for
Sl2, 800; body was procured in Chicago
Identification with the insured doctor
made, and Holmes collected the money
The scheme was repeated several times.
On one occasion Holmes insured his own
life for $50, 900. Then he went to a hotel
in Rhode Island, wearing "A beard. He
got a body, took it two miles from the
hotel. cut the he ad off and buried the rest.
He shaved went to the hotel, and register
ing under II new name, asked for Holmes.
They said he had gone out, but was stay
ing at the hotel. The swindler took the
head. charrcd it in the hotel furnace, and
tried to identify il as his own. This par
ticular scheme fell through.
The arch -conspiratOr, without giving any
names, dwclt upon his dealings with Miss
Williams, as narrated, today, in dispatch
from Chicago In Chicago, he said, where
he was living with his second wife, he be
came intimate with a young girl, type
writer He furnished apartments for her,
where she was visited by an elder sister.
The young girl, infatuated with Holmes,
became Jealous of her sister, and one day,
i'm his absence Drained her with stool.
.'Whcn came back" Holmes said to
the detective. Il found the dead body in
the rooms. ! took the corpse, put it in a
trunk and sunk ii in the lake. This was
a year and half ago The younger sister,
in danger of arrest for murder was anX
ious to escape. She owned some pro
pcrty at Fort Worth, amounting to $40,
900 Pitczcl and l took this property off
her hands and gave her the money to fly
the country. We bought horses. getting
credit on the strength of the Fort Worth
property, but the deeds We're not straight.
and as we needed the money to keep the
IL, Ia, ,fy work
the insurance scheme again, and that :
how this trouble began.
Supervisor Perry declared, this morn
ing that he believed the case to be mur-
der; that Pitezel in reality is dead. Mr..
Perry said that Holmes has three wives,
one in New Hampshire, who is divorced
and with whom there is II 13ycars-
child: another in Illinois, who has a child
of six years; and the spouse who accom-
panied him to Philadelphia, and whom
Perry believes to be innocent.
When asked how Holmes accounted for
the disappearance of three of Mrs. Pitezels s
children, the supervisor said: He claims
to have left one child at "A hotel in Indian
apolis, while he went to Detroit, where
he delivered the other two to the father. -
Regarding Mrs. Pitezels connection with
the affair. Perry further said: 81 believe
she may have been accessory after the
fact, forced tn sign papers and consent 10
the actions of the Others by trcachery.
She told me- last night, that she received
only $500 Of the cash. Holmes, she said,
took $4,000 and put it in land specula-
ton at Fort Worth. Holmes afterwards
admitted that this was true. / think Mrs
Pitezal was told by Holmes to do this, and
that everything would be all right. Glad
to have some one to obey and follow. she
acted on his instructions ignorantly and
trustingly. | do not believe she is in any
way responsible for her husbands death. "
This afternoon, President Fouse of the
Fidelity Association, said: Il have re-
ceived word tia the accused Lawyer
Howe is on the way East from st. Louis,
accompanied by his partner. Mcdonald, the
former distrct attorney Of that city Me
Donald does not come as prisoner nor is
he even formally accused He is simply
an advisor to Howe. =
Assistant Distr CT Attorney kinsey, to-
day. stated that the district ttorley had
not yet taken any action upon the murder
allegations No evidence Of murder has
FContinual op oil raaO,s I