St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1895-07-31
He C0uLD TELL AIth
CONVICT ALLEN. OF ARKANSAS,
KNOWS A GREAT DEAL OF
tsG HOLMES.
PERHAPS AN ACTIVE PAL.
CHICAGO POLICE SUSPECT HE
MAY HAVE ASSISTED IN SOME
MURDERS.
PERHAPS AN ACTIVE PAL
PRIVATE PAPERS DISCOVERED.
A Man Who Helped Holmes With
His CHASTITY and Mysterious
lEStiffsH

CHICAGO, July 30.-Tomorrow an
officer from the central station will
start for Little Rock, Ark, commits
stoned by Chief Badenoch to inter
view the convict Allen, who claims
that he can relate the secret chapters
Of H. H. Holmes career of murder
and fraudulent dealing. Attorney
William Caps, Of Fit. Worth, Tex,
who has been in Chicago for nearly
three weeks endeavoring to obtain
proof that Minnie and Annie Will
Jams We're murdered, and who has
pursued lines of investigation sep
arate and distinct from those of the
police, has made a partial inVesti-
cation Of Convict Aliens stories, and
is SO well convinced that the man
is really witness OF, if not an ac-
tual participant in, the crimes of
Holmes, Pietzel and others, that he
can reveal the whole story if he
wants to do so. The police are in
clined to regard the convicts asser-
lions hopefully, especially as they
happen to know that Holmes spent
some time in Arkansas conducting a
land swindling operation that had
ramifications in half dozen Eastern
cities. He could have met and used
Allen on that occasion and brought
him to Chicago, as Allen claims.
Quinlan, who has not been disturbed
in his solitude since Monday night, will
be- conducted to the sweat box at the
central station tomorrow and given
another chance to explain some Of the
! accusations that are made against him.
Joe Owen, the Ohio farmer, who is
also. a prisoner at the armory, persists
in his assertion, made the day he came
to town, that Quinlan was Holmes
accomplice in every crime the swindler
planned and executed.
NOTHING IN THE TANK
Digging in the cellar of the Holmes
building today and tonight was less
fruitful than any day yet spent inves-
tigat ting the underground schemes Of
the Philadelphia prisoner. Bones by
the dozen were found, but as tangible
evidence against the swindler they do
not seem 10 count for much. The Ia
borers confined their work principally
to the southeast end OF the basement,
where was located the mysterious tank
An investigation Of the tank revealed
nothing even as circumstantial evil
! dence against Holmes. The tank was
| easily made accessible, and nothing
| was found therein but small quantity
| of petroleum in its raw state. Nowhere
were there traces Of carbolic acid or
! other fluids which might have been
! used by Holmes in putting away his
victims.
Rather a significant bit of informa-
! ton came to the police today when
| Mrs. Strowers. of Sixty-frst and Nor
! gan streets, informed the police that
! Holmes had once persisted in her TAX
! ing out $4,000 life insurance policy.
! Not only did Holmes beg her TO take
out the policy, she said, but he also
offered her 5000 for it. Her friends,
| she said, dissuaded her from taking
| Holmes advice and she never saw
| him afterwari. Clinton Sherman, for
| merly living at 646 Sixty-ninth street,
/ came TO Holmes castle this Afternoon,
! and said he had been employed by the
! mysterious Richardson, now missing
TO remove bodies from the castle and
! deliver them to ChappelI, the articu-
| lator at the medical college. Sherman =
name was found several days ago
/ among the private papers of Holmes.
| Detective Fitzpatrick discovered he
| had been an inmate of the castle
! Sherman is a colored man. He heard
! he was wanted and left the produce
! farm on which he is working and
came to the city at once. He told OF
several mysterious happenings in con-
| nection with the removal of bodies,
| which he was told were ''stiffs'' pro
| cured from cemeteries and hospitals
! tC be sold to medical students