The morning news., 1894-11-23
HOLMES STRANGE STORY.
A Series of Insurance Swindles and
Bigamous Marriages.


Philadelphia, Nov. 20.--Interesting de-
velopments continue to be made in the al
! legged conspiracy to swindle the Fidelity
! Mutual Life Association. H. H. Holmes,
who is alleged to have insured the life of
B. F. Pitzel for $4,000 and attempted to
collect the money by representing that a
body found in a house on Callowhill street,
near Broad street, was that of Pitzel ar
rived in this city to-day from Boston,
where he was arrested on Saturday. Mrs.
PitzeI and her son and daughter and Mrs.
Holmes accompanied the party from Bos
ton. The detective who had charge of
Holmes says the prisoner offered him a
bribe of $500 to allow him to escape by
hypnotizing the detective. The proposition
having no effect, the detective said Holmes
entered into general converse tion and then
told the story of his life.
Holmes said he was raised in Burling-
ton, VT, and so well educated in school
that at Is he was a teacher. For some
time afterward he went to college there,
and later in Detroit, Mich. Here he
formed the acquaintance of a medical stu
dent, who, he said, furnished the body in
New York in the present case. He refused
to divulge his name. During vacations
they worked on farms to raise their col
themselves without means, and it was
then that the medical man suggested the
idea of getting a body and beating an in
surance company. This was twelve years
ago. The doctor got his life insured for
$l2, 800 they obtained a body in Chicago,
took it east, arranged the details of iden-
thcation and successfully got the money,
with which they continued their studies.
He refused to name the company thus
swindled
They worked the scheme afterward with
success, Holmes continued obtaining sums
ranging from $4,000 to $4,000. once Holmes
got his life insured for $40 900. He went
to hotel in Rhode Island. At that time
he wore a beard. He secured a corpse in
Chicago, cut off the head and took the
body to a lone spot not far from the hotel.
Then he shaved off his beard, returned to
the hotel, asked for Holmes and engaged
a 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, threatened to tell the 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 a house on the out
skirts, where they lived together A Young
q
man grew so Jealous Of her that in a quar-
rel one day she struck her over the head
with a 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
Pitzoll took it off her hands and sent
her abroad IT was worth he said, $40
600, and after getting it in their hands
they went through Texas buying carloads
as they never had legal title to the prop
erty the notes were worthless and 1t is
for this affair that they are wanted in
said he and Pitzcll formed the scheme
Of swindling the Fidelity Company lie
told the detective that for the crimes he
has committed he deserves to be hanged
"a dozen times
Holmes Be- not lacking for money, as he
himself admitted that at the present
time he i9 supporting nearly two dozen
persons, including the typewriter girl, her
mother ana an imbecilo brother, two Or
phaus iu Chicago who live in one OF his
properties, three separate alleged wives
and their children and his own mother
Hud father iu kankakee. Tie would not
give the names OF Tho women. ile firmly
maintains that Pitzcll lH alive in San
Salvador. ana chat boz Will hear from him
through tbe rer1nal column Of cer-
tain hew York Newspaper.
rhe police Say they viii make other ar-
feHfr. THtF mHInfHlu tlHt Mrr. rltEril
aHH duueH fhai Mr Ilizeu WAS muir.
der0d ana That ihe body found Was that