The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1895-08-01

culties and of the sickness of his daugh.
ter in st. Louis. II must have money" +"
he said, or words to that effect, Ito
send to my wife in st. Louis" Holmes
demonstrated with Pietzel as to his
spendthrift habits. Pietzel threatened
suicide, after they had left the house
and were on the street.
Holmes then AYERS that he jokingly
remarked to Pietzel: We'll, your body
is as good as any other, but would not
advise you to do anything RASH"
Holmes accounts for making this re.
mark, by saying that he and Pietzel
had under consideration the defrauding
of the Fidelity Mutual Insurance com.
pany.
Holmes says he went to the Callow.
hill street house to visit Pietzel on Sun
day, and found note addressed to
him
It directed him to 60 up to the second
floor and open q closet in which he
would find large blue bottle contain.
ing another letter addressed to him
Holmes followed the directions. He
found the note in the bottle as de.
scribed. It was from Pietzel, and ad.
vised Holmes that his Pietzel's) dead
body could be found in the house. The
letter pleaded that Holmes look after
PietZels children, and suggested that
there would be no difficulty in getting
the insurance money from the Fidelity
company now that the dead body Of
Pietzel could be produced in evidence.
Holmes said that he sat in the room
with the body for over an hour. He
finally made up his mind that since
Pietzel had taken his life there would
be no harm in destroying any evidence
of suicide, so that he might be able to
get the insurance on Pietzeps life with
ont any difficulty.
dragged the dead body to the second
floor, laid the corpse on the floor, pried
open the mouth Of the dead mar with
pencil and poured in a quantity Of ex-
plosive chemicals. He then, he says,
placed q lighted match to the man s
mouth, when the explosion which so
horribly disfigured the corpse followed.
To give the more forcible impression
that Pietzel came to his death by an &C.
cidental explosion, Holmes stated to his
friend that he got pipe Of Pietzel's,
filled it With tobacco. lighted it. then
blew out the flame, after the tobacco
had been partly consumed. and placed
the pipe beside the dead man body
II was nearly o'clock in the evening
before he left the Callowhill street
house. He put on hat of Pietzels 10
partially conceal his identity, and
placed his own hat, which was of felt
under his coat The criminal went di-
rectly to the Broad Street station, SO he
alleges, and inquired at what hour the
first train left for Chicago. He and his
wife, Holmes alleges, left for Chicago
that night.
Holmes attorney has given out an.
other statements, purportina to come
from the archconspirator and relating
to the statements made by Charles
Chappell of Chicago, 70 the effect that
he had articrlated four skeletons for
Holmes
In the first place, Holmes declared
that any medical man who failed to
make a living by the practice of his
profession adds to il in many other
ways by calling into play his scientific
knowledge. Accepting this idea him
self, he said he resolved to procure q
number OF skeletons, and when he
found them expensive he concluded
that to deal In the CHASTITY articles
would be lucrative business There.
upon he procured @ number Of corpses
and had them scraped and articulated,
but the supposition that he had muir
dered people to obtain them he secuted
as arrant nonsense. II got them in
legitimate manner. he continued, land
] am prepared to prove it when the
time comes"