The evening herald. [volume] (Shenandoah, Pa.) 1891-1966, 1895-07-17
HOLMES MANY CRIMES.
Startling Evidence Against Insur-
anoe Swindler Holmes,
PERHAPS SIX TIMES A MURDERER.

The Missing Boy, Howard Pitezel, Prob
ably Murdered by Holmes in Indian
npolis and His Body Taken Away in a
Trunk-The Accused Non-CommittaI.
PHILADELPHIA. July 1.-THE discovery
Of the lead bodies of the two girls, Nellie
and Alice Pitezel, in a cellar in Toronto,
Canada, by Detective Geyer, of Philadel-
phia, is the all absorbing topic of CONVEX
sation in police circles. The girls are be-
lieved TO be the victims of II. H. Holmes,
the insurance swindler, now in Moyamen-
sing prison awaiting sentence for swind-
ling the Fidelity Mutual Insurance com
pany out of $40, 900.
Holmes, who has himself confessed that
be has committed enough crimes to hang
him half a dozen times, is supposed to
have first deliberately murdered the
Pitezel girls father and brother and then
the girls themselves.
These murders are alleged to a been
committed for the purpose of getting the
victims money. Besides the above crimes,
Holmes is supposed to have done away
with Minnie and Nellie Williams, whose
money he admits having obtained,
swindled several fire insurance companies
out of large amounts, and otherwise COM
mitted d%epredations which will hand him
down as one of the most notorious addi-
tions TO the criminal annals of the coun.
try.
Holmes was in consultation for nearly
two hours with Assistant District Attor-
neys Barlow and Flnletter yesterday. The
prisoner has grown a beard, and this and
the other changes he has undergone would
serve to be valuable aids to him if he was
again escaping from justice.
District Attorney Graham had issued an
order to Superintendent Perkins, of Moya-
mensing, that Holmes was not to be per.
mitted to see any newspapers in which ap-
peared an account of the finding of the
Pitezel children. Before the order had
reached the prison, however, some of the
morning papers had reached Holmes, and
he was reading an account of Detective
Geyer's terrible find in Toronto when the
special officer entered.
1t was evident that the publication pre-
pared him for the subsequent examination
by Assistant District Attorney Barlow.
1t was learned that Holmes chung to his
old story of the disappearance of little
Alice and Nellie Pitezel. 1t is said he
feigned surprise that their dead bodies
had been found. He professed to know
nothing of the whereabouts of Howard
Pitezel.
Although nothing definite could be
learned about the examination further, il
was intimated that Holmes threw no fur
ther light on the terrible mysteries which
are now shadowing the case.
Holmes was visited in Moyamensine
prison later by his counsel, R. o. Moon
who subsequently made the Statement
that his client had positively denied al
connection with the murder of the chill
dren. He asserted that the last time h
saw them was in October of last year il
Toronto, where he had left them in charg
of Minnie Williams, the girl he met il
Chicago. He asserts that he knows moth
ing of what became of them after tina
time, and that he always believed tn
Williams girl had taken them to Europe
He also insists hat he knows nothing o
the boy, and that he had nothing to d.
with the death of Pitezel.
Superintendent of Police Linden declare
that there is no possibility of convictini
Holmes of the murder of the man fount
in the Callowhill street house, and say
the authorities here will not oppose extra
dition to Canada.