The Portland daily press., 1895-08-01

ears of some young girl the old tale of
love In these years he was a loving
husband to several wives yet alive He
supported them in good style, and to-day
thew refuse to listen to the charges AGAINST
them Harry Gordon the lover Harry
Howard. the faithful and Devoted hus
hand. II. H. Holmes. the sbreyUd iyeen
business man; Holmes, the monster-can
fiction or history produce such oharac-
ter?
Before entering into any of the details
of the murders charged against Holmes
brief description OF
THE NOW FAMOUS CASTLE,
at FOL Sixty-third street. Chicago. is
necessary. In fiction the villain takes
some mysterious old house with mil
dewed rooms, and in the dead of night
he builds trap doors, secret passages and
hidden vaults. Holmes built his den of
horrors in broad daylight, in the center
of a busy community. He built it the
same as man would a packing house
Suppose novelist would tell of "a man
who, in 1889, constructed in a great city
a three-story building 1865 feet deep and
planned it so as to make murder a safe
and profitable profession. But that was
what Holmes did. He constructed a
labyrinth, and although the police and a
big force of men have been working at it
almost a week, they are not vet &C
quainted with all the diabolical plans of
the grewsome structure. There are
sealed chambers and false doors, trap
doors and narrow passages leading into
| hidden vaults In the bathroom, on the
second floor, is a trap door in the floor
| which escaped detection for the first few
DAYS of the search The trap is about
four feet long and two feet wide. Below
it pair of narrow stairs lead down into
darkness. After crawling down them
about eight feet one stands in a secret
chamber, situated about halfway between
the first and second floors. 1t is the size
of the bathroom, seven feet by five, but
| there is little floor space on account of
| the stairs from above and cut through
which a second set of stairs descends. At
| the south end of
THIS SECRET CHAMBER
there is door VIII ich is securely fastened
1t is known, however, to open on stair
way which leads down to the level of the
first floor and opens into the tin shop in
4 Wallace street. The timer has built a
bench against the door, and says he
knows there is a stairway leading up
but cannot tell where it ends. There are
secret doors leading out to the roof of the
adjoining houses The basement is a
network of vaulted passages, connecting
with the floors above by secret openings
and narrow winding stairs closed at the
top by false doors.
| This conception was Holiness master
piece. He built it after years of crime had
imbued him with a contempt for the law
1t was an audacious challenge to the
machinery OF the law. Here Holmes
made the base of his operations, aid it is
not yet time to pen history of the TRACE
dies here committed.
| In 1889 I. l.. Conner, of Gibson City,
| ILL.,, went to Chicago with his wife, Julia
| f. Conner, and his daughter Pearl. They
| became acquainted with Holmes, and
soon there was trouble in the family and
Mr.. Connor went away; In due time
Mrs Conner and Pearl disappeared, and
Holmes said they had gone to ST. Louis
| They have not been seen since.
| Emeline Cigrande was Holiness steno-
grapher for seven months in 1892. She
came from Lafayette, Ind, in May, 1892,
and worked in the Holiness building I'M
til December. She was a handsome
she was his cousin, but no one believed
him. Three weeks before Christmas
without any word to her friends, she dis
appeared, and Holmes took pains to
spread the report that she was married.
A study of Holiness career shows that
he seldom deviated from the policy of
GETTING RID OF PEOPLE
who threatened to become troublesome.
He changed his associates as rapidly as
possible, and his former companions did
not come back to hamper and harrass
| him. In the pursuance of this policy it
was but natural that Benjamin T. Pitzel
should go the way Of the others. But
while it is easy to find motive for the
murder of Pitzel, and possibly for the
slaughter of his three children, there ar G
| features of this last atrocity which defy
all attempts to logically account for their
| happening. The public is familiar with
the main details of the Pitzel murders,
and only digest is necessary
| PltZel was the trusted accomplice of
II. Fl. Holmes They had been together
for years, and it is not impossible that
Pitzel was Holiness fellow student
when the pair successfully worked the
S12, 500 swindle against Chicago insur-
ance company. Pitzel was absolutely I'M
der the control of Holmes. He was a man
of but limited education, but Holmes
gave MIN q tral ming winch IuaGe Hlin u
value to the arch conspirator. Pitzel had
wife and five children.
| In July, 1894 policy of insurance for
$40, 900 on the life Of Benjamin f. Pitzel
was issued by the Fidelity Mutual Life
Insurance Association. of Philadelphia.
In September the charred body of a man
was found in house at 1916 Callowhill
street This house had been rented by a
man who gave the name of B. F. Perry.
When
THE DEAD BODY
of Perry was found Mrs Pitzel wired to
the insurance company asking if the pre-
MUM on Pitzels policy had been paid.