The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-07-25
ARemarkabIe Criminal.

A Remarkable Criminal.
For several days our dispatches have
contained accounts Of the efforts being
made to discover evidence against II. II.
Holmes. who is now in jail IN Phnadel-
phia, and who. # Is alleged, murdered his
friend. a man named Peiizel. in Detroit.
three children of Peitztl in Toronto. Can
ada, a girl named Minnie Williams and a
woman named Julia Conner ia Chicago.
All Of these people. It is believed. were
murdered by Holmes 10 get the Insurance
on their lives. the policies having been
taken out in his name or assigned 10 him.
He may have committed other murders
for the same purpose. but the foregoing
are the only ones that are charged TO his
account.
The bodies OF two of the Petit
eel children were found buried be-
meath the floor of a cottage in
Toronto. The detectives who have
the case in charge have traced Holmes
from this country to Canada. In Toronto
ne stopped at the Palmer house. and the
children at the Albion. From the Albion
their bodies were unearthed. one day he
borrowed a spade, giving the person from
whom he borrowed It some satisfactory
reason why he wanted it. on the follow
ing day the children were seen alive for
the last time, and the next day after their
disappearance Holmes left Toronto. The
search is stnl going on for the
bodies OF the Williams and Conner women
in Chicago. and the body Of Peitzel has
not been discovered yet.
The evidence againt Holmes although
circumstantial. is extraordinarily strong.
HI may be properly described as a remark
able monster. The horror which his crimes
excite is almost as great as that excited
by the crimes of Jack the Ripper" He
Is a human butcher. without conscience
and without fear of future punishment.
How many crimes have been committed
for the purpose of obtaining insurance
money! 4 few of them are known and
are famous in the criminal history of the
country. II is not long since DR.. Meyer
was sent to the penitentiary by a New
York court for numbering his friend
Brandt to get the insurance on his life.
It is suspected that Brandt was not his
only victim. And there is the Hender-
shott case John Hendershott of St.
Thomas, Ontario, murdered his nephew
to get $1,000 insurance on his life. Less
than a year ago the newspapers contain
ed long accounts of a famous poisoning
case in Belgium. A woman named Marie
Jonaux murdered her brother, sister and
uncle for the Insurance on their lives. The
remarkable Hnlman case in Kansas is
still in the courts. Only recently in Min
neapolis, Harry Haywood was convicted
Of numbering Miss Cling to get insurance
on her life, and stil more recently wo-
man was tried in Montgomery, Ala, for
numbering her husband on whose life
there was very large amount of insur-
ance.
Life insurance offers great temptations
to criminals of the Holmes and Meyer
type. The taking of human life has no
terrors for them. They would promptly
destroy a dozen lives to get a few thou
sand dollars. The insurance companies
take every precaution to protect them
selves against such criminals. Indeed,
they are so jealous that the charge is
sometimes made against them that their
purpose is to avoid the pay
ment of legitimate claims. 1t
is doubtful, however, if there
is ever ground for such a charge. If they
failed to prosecute in cases in which there
was sufficient evidence to justify them IN
doing so there would be a great increase
in the number of murders committed for
the purpose of swindling them.