The Portland daily press., 1895-08-01
CAREER OF Il. E. MUDGETT.
A Record Of Crime Without Parallel
in This Century.
HOLINESS CASTLE AND ITS HORRI
BILE REVELATIONS.

Ten Persons Murdered by the Monster and
Other Crimes Laid at His Door-Hypno-
tism is Said to Have Aided Him
A Monster in Human Form.
Herman E. Mudgett, alias II. IL.
Holmes, whose career in crime has no
parallel in the nineteenth century, is
charged with a multiplicity of crimes,
among them the murder of the following
named people:
Minnie Williams.
Annie Williams.
Emeline Cigrand.
Julia IL. Conner.
Pearl Conner
Gertrude Conner.
Benjamin f. Pitzel
Alice Pitzel
And others unknown.
The world knows him as FL. Fl. Holmes.
His good old New Hampshire mother
named the bright eyed babe Herman e.
Mudgett. He was born in the little village
of Gilmanton, thirty four years go.
Amid the prosaic surroundings OF that
country town he passed the early days OF
his life. There is no faint of criminality in
none of the mental phases which crimi-
nologists class among the indirect causes
OF depravity in the Development of
criminal lives 1t is said that if visit
were made to the Mudgett homestead, in
Gilmanton, N. H, among all the traceable
connections of the family of the man now
imprisoned pending the investigation
of desperate crimes nothing would be
met with but pious, God fearing people.
1t is inexplicable that man guilty of
the criminal atrocities that are laid to the
account of Holmes, whose right name is
Mndgett, should have such a family
origin
He was handsome youth and no one
was surprised when the good old pastor
announced the approaching nuptials of
Herman Mudgett and Clara Lowering the
pretty daughter of well-to-do citizen of
Loudon, n. II. Mudgett was then is
years old, and his father, Levi Fl. Mud
gett, was the postmaster of Gilmanton
Corners. Only year before the boy had
graduated from-the village academy with
high honors.
Herman Mudgett was a faithful and
loving husband He taught school for a
store at East Concord, and with the
money thus earned become student in
the University of Vermont, in Burlington
The little wife encouraged the ambitions
of her husband and went bravely to work as
dress maker, not only supporting her
self, but sending small sums of money to
Mudgett, who was studying day and
night in the university. He had an ambi-
| ton to become a physician, and with all
| the reSistleSS yigor which has since domi-
mated his lies he worked his way forward
in spite of all discouragements. A yeal
was spent in the university of Vermont,
at which time Mudgett determined tic
study medicine at Ann Arbor, Mich
where he was promised chance to toll
for his tuition. s..ss
When he went away, full of determine
| ton to carve a path for himself in the
world, he bore the stamp of a homely clad
rustic. After the lapse Of an interval
| which seemed like an age to a longing
wife, the good young man of the New
Hampshire village returned to it. He was
no longer a homely clad rustic He had been
transformed a marked feature of his
attire was silk hat of fashionable shape,
land his apparel bore a stamp Of quality
that the New Hampshire hills were not
familiar with. Fortune seemed to have
cast an eye of favor on the upright youth,
and the village was proud to own him.
After spending two months as a vaca-
ton, Mudgett returned to Ann Arbor
and resumed his study of medicine. But
it was not the quiet, homely, honest
country boy who kissed his fond, little
wife good bye that calm August forenoon.
The Transformation was already in pro-
gress. The seeds Of evil which developed
into the future Holmes had already been
planted and were bursting into life. And
such a life.
His first crime was characteristic of the
man. He was not petty thief. He did
not pick the pocket Of a fellow student, or
loot the cash box of a country store.
There are stories told in Ann Arbor of
how young Mudgett and companion
despoiled a neigh boring graveyard OF
corpses which they used for purposes of
dissection. These crimes are to an extent
condoned in the interest of medical
science, but they may have given Mud
evolved into conspiracy for graveyard
insurance. 1t has been suggested that his
first false step from theft from grave
yard led him to swindle insurance COM
panies by the substitution of dead bodies
for the living holders Of policies.
Mudgett proposed to his chum scheme
for defrauding an insurance company,
and no time was lost in putting his plans
into execution. They managed to col
lect enough money to go to Chicago,
where Mudgett's friend had his life in
sured for S12, 500 The first premium was
paid and the policy made out in favor of
Mudgett. Several months later the sup
posed body of the friend was found in
Connecticut. He had little trouble in col
Letting the face of the policy, and the
two divided the money, Mudgett COM
plotting his course in college and some
years later meeting his friend in Chicago,
where they successfully worked the same
scheme on another insurance company.
After quitting Ann Arbor Mudgett be-
gan the practice of medicine at Moore S
Fork, Pa. His wife was with him for a
while, and he seemed to have made an
effort to lead an honest life. But dishon-
esty and crime was in his heart. He built
up good practice, but was not satisfied