The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1895-08-28
THE CAREER OF HOLMES.
A Brief Review of the Ffend' List of
Murders.

MUEueTSs
The fact that Holmes made Indianapolis
one of the way stations in his trunk line
of crime makes a sketch of his career per-
tinent. His real name is Herman Z. Mudg-
EFT. and his aliases are as numerous as
the demands for new names. He was chiefly
known, however, as H. H. Holmes. and
married a girl, Miss Yoke. in Franklin,
this State, under the name of Howard.
He was born in the village of Gilmanton,
n. H., in 1858, and amid the prosaic sur
roundings of that country town he passed
the early years of his life. There is no
faint of criminality, it is said. in the family
history. His ancestors were pious, God
fearing people. His associations were pure
and under the guidance of a Christian
mother the boy bore the early stamp of
piety. The little home was pervaded with
the spirit of peace and reverence. He was
the brightest pupil in the village school.
and was esteemed a model boy. His father
eked out a meager salary as the pastor
of the village church. by farming and by
holding the Office of postmaster. Young
Mudgett worked on the farm until he was
nearly grown graduating in the meantime
in the village academy. He was not yet
of age when he wooed and married Clara
Lowering. daughter Of a well-to-do mer-
chant at London, n. H.. For a time he was
a faithful husband. supporting his wife by
teaching school and later in clerking in a
store. He saved his money in order that
he might satisfy an ambition he had for
a greater store of knowledge. He longed
to be among the worlds great men. His
wife was faithful and stimulative of his
ambition. She willingly stinted herself and
her child in order that the young husband
and father might become of Importance
In the world by the aid of that education
for which he thirsted. Mudgett went to
the University of Vermont on his savings,
and his wife aided him by taking in sew
ing. A year was spent there. and then he
went to Ann Arbor, Mich, there to take
tic innocent when he went away to school.
but on his first visit home 1t was seen that
the little learning he had secured, together
with his contact with a wider world, had
swelled his ambition. sharpened his wits
and had given him ideas of style in dress
of which he knew nothing before. The
rustic returned a polished man of the
world, wearing a silk hat, something that
was the talk of the village and made the
simple people believe that Mudgett would
one day bring great honor TO their town.
The people shared with the parents and
the little wife their pride in the bri ght
young man.
Whatever the motive that led Mudyett
into crime-ambition, avarice or laziness-
he developed the determination and disre-
gard of his early moral teaching while
studying. medicine at Ann Arbor. He
needed human bodies, of course. as sub
jects for dissection. II was the custom of
students at the college who could not af-
subjects TO make raids upon the neighbor-
ing graveyards of the rural district and to
remove the bodies to the dissecting rooms,
first destroying. everything about the body
that might lead to it's Identification. 1t is
believed that while engaged in this sort
of work Mudgett conceived the idea of
SWlnQIlnR Insurance. COnD2ntRG nc
preached the subject to a fellow student,
and between them they concocted a plan to
for sl2,5OO. One premium was paid, and in
the course of a few months, word was re-
ceived of the death of the insured con-
sp.rator in a town in Connecticut. Mudgett
identified the body, and the money was
paid. 1t was divided between Mudgett and
the other student. and both finished their
college courses in ease
A VILLAGE TOO SMALL.
Having his medical degree, Mudgett be-
gan to practice medicine in the town Of
Moore's Fork. Pa. He took his wife thither,
and together they settled down to the hap
piness of welded life for which the wife
had sacrificed. toiled and hoped. But the
village was not a wide enough sphere for
Mudgett. and ne concluded that only in
Chicago could he hope to find the conditions
OF that high grade of success for which he
longed. He therefore arranged to send his
wife and child back to her parents In the
little New Hampshire town. promising to
send for her when he should have acquired
an income large enough TO support both.
That was the last Mrs. MIDGET heard of
him for many years. and then he was a
fugitive from ju~stice-but that fact was not
known to her. She welcomed him. though
she Is said TO have lost faith that her tai
ented husband. and the father OF her child,
who was growing up to be q hne lad. would