The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-07-22
THE ARCH FIEND HOLMES.
ANOTHER DOUBLE MURDER ADDED
TO THE LONG LIST OF HIS
ATROCITIES.

A Conviction That Almost Amounts
10 "A Certainty That He Has MUIR
dered and Disposed OF the Bodies
of Mrs. COnnor and Her 13-YeRr-
old Dnughter-DetectiVe in search
of the Missing PcOpIe-EiEht MUIR
dcrs Charged 10 HIS Long Account
OF Crime, With RObberies and
SvyindIes Innumcrable.
Chicago. July 21.-To the long list of
murders and other crimes directly trace
able to the arch fiend. II. Fl. Holmes, must
now be added the mysterious disappear
ance of Mrs. 1. L. Connor and her 1S-year-
old daughter. with a reasonable certain
ty that they may have been disposed of in
the same manner in which the rest of
his victims met their deaths. Mrs. Con-
nor and her child were last seen in the
company of Holmes in this city in 1898.
Since then all trace of them has been
lost, and the shrewdest detectives who.
al the instigation of the woman's family.
have been working on the case are now
of the opinion that the finding of their
bodies is the only possible solution of
the mystery. The hunt for Mrs. Connor
and her child has not, until lately, been
made on the theory that they had been
murdered. 1t was pursued in an effort
to locate the woman and get her away
from the influence of Holmes, in whose
net she had been trapped. and it was not
until the disclosures of his work in con-
nection with the Pietzel case were
made that her friend began to fear the
lives of herself and child had been taken.
Mr.. I. l.. Connor and wife and 13-year-
old daughter came from Davenport, Ia,
to Chicago in 1889. Holmes at that time was
beginning to exploit the swindles for
which he afterward became notorious
one of his schemes was the drug and
jewelry store in the Englewood flats.
Connor, who was a jeweler, was en-
ployed to conduct the jewerly store. and
moved with his family into a fiat above il.
When Holmes had perfected his plan of
robbing his creditors, he pretended to
make a sale of the store and stock to
Connor. Mrs. Connor. a bright, ambi-
tious woman, was given a position as
bookkeeper. In a short time Holmes
piloted her from the moral path. and then,
wishing to get rid of Connor. furnished
him with proofs of his wifes infdelity.
Connor promptly abandoned his wife,
and she, 1t is alleged, became a counselor
and advisor. In this capacity she soon
learned the character of the horrible work
he had in hand, and to a degree had him
in her power. They had many violent
quarrels, and in 1898 the woman and her
child disappeared.
The theory of the people who have been
investigating the case is that she was re
moved" to prevent exposure.
If Mrs. Connor and her child are dead,
as now seems almost certain, the list of
murders with which Holmes is charged
numbers eight, viz:
B. F. Pietzel, the three Pietze! children,
the two Williams girls, and Mrs Connor
and her child, and there is a plausible mo-
tive for the crime in each case.
PietZel was murdered to get the money
from the insurance company, and the chill
dren We're killed to remove the heirs to
make the seizure of the property by
Holmes just that much easier; the Will
liams girls were killed to get control Of
$4,000 worth of real estate in Fort Worth,
Tex, and Mrs. Connor and her little girl
were made away with to get rid Of a wo-
man who knew too much, and a child
whose keeping would be troublesome and
might necessitate an explanation of her
mothers fate.
ashes under the stove in the room of the
Holmes building in Sixth-Third street and
supposed to be the remains of the two
missing Williams girls, were late last night
subjected to a chemical test by DIR. G. p.
Struggled and pronounced by him to be
bits of fire clay. When matched together
the pieces of fire clay formed a section,
which, if complete, would equal the inside
circumference of a large stove.
During the search yesterday for further
evidence of Holmes crimes, bank book
was found in Holmes office on the third
floor of the building at Sixty-third streets
by Detectives Fitzpatrick and Norton 1t
belonged to Lucy Burbank and was the
property of the First National Bank of
this city. 1t showed that Miss Burbank
was a heavy depositor, putting money in
the bank every day, and sometimes as high
as $500 Who the woman is, is unknown,
but Detectives Fitzpatrick thinks he will
be able to find her.
Twenty men, tomorrow morning, under
the direction of detective sergeants, will
continue the search of the cellar of the
house at 701 Sixty-third street, with picks
and shovels for more traces of the muir
derous work of Holmes. By that time the
place is expected TO be free from gas and
chemicals which caused the explosion Sat
urday, and the men will do their work
thoroughly. If there are any bones OF
Holmes supposed victims or any mys-
terious subterranean passages or any pipes
leading from the vat of deadly gas to the
Holmes apartments on the third floor the
detectives expect to find them.