The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-10-31

IHe autnOrltleS on november II, 1854. IHe
statement was another confession of
Holmes of the swindling of the insurance
company and implicated Jephtha D. Howe
| in the scheme.
During the reading of the statement
Mrs. Pietzel was brought in and given a
seat at the side of the room. Immediately
after the reading of Holmes deposition,
Mrs. Pletzel was placed upon the stand.
The woman's face showed the terrible suf-
ferings she has undergone, but she walked
unassisted to the stand. She carefully
avoided looking at Holmes, but he gazed
| steadily and composedly at her for at
| least minute. 1t was only when the
| District Attorney asked her if she knew
| the prisoner that Mrs. Pietzel for an IN
slant raised her eyes to Holmes face, and
| then as she answered that she did she
| quickly averted her look. Mrs. PietZel
| was so weak that it was necessary for
court crier to repeat her answers to Mr.
| Graham's questions. Under Mr.. Graham's
| questioning it was slowly drawn from the
| woman that she knew Holmes and that
| her husband had written her from Phila-
| delphla that he expected to see her again
When Mr.. Graham asked Mrs. Pietzel if
her husband had any interest in Holmes
castle in Chicago and in the Fort Worth
| property, the defense objected. Mr.. Ora
| ham stated that he asked the question for
| the purpose of showing Holmes motive in
| killing PietZel and the children. The
court overruled the objection, and Mrs.
| PietZel said Holmes told her that he would
put $4,000 in the Fort Worth property and
pay off note falling due on September 49,
1894. The Fort Worth property was in the
name of Benton F. Lyman, which was an
alias of Pietzel.
Frequent objections were entered by the
defense to Mrs. Pietzel testifying to mat
| ters which she only knew by hearsay. It
was often necessary to repeat the ques-
| tions asked Mrs. Pietzel. The woman
seemed in a stunned condition, and it evil
IDENTIFY required some mental effort for her
| to understand and answer interrogatories
Mrs. Pietzel testified that she employed
i Howe to collect the insurance money by
! the advice of Holmes. At the time Holmes
told her that Pietzel was alive and was 60
ing around by Puget Sound. Later Holmes
told her through his wife at Willamette,
ILL.,, the insurance company had found
him. Alice Pietzel started tor Philadel-
phia with Howe, Holmes not being along.
| 1t was at Holmes suggestion that the
child was sent to Philadelphia and both
| men promised to take good care of her.
Holmes further promised that his cousin"
Minnie Williams, would be in Philadelphia
| to look after the girl. Mrs. Pietzel was
| sick at the time and in no condition to
combat such a man as Holmes. Holmes
| told her that he had arranged with her
| husband to have Minnie Williams come
on a1d nurse her if she got very sick.
The next time she saw Holmes was on
| Septem ber 27, at her home in st. Louis.
| The body had been identified, and Holmes
| told her he had left Alice in Cincinnati,
and as she would not want to leave the
child alone he offered to take Nellie and
| Howard, the two children, to her in In
dlanapolis. She took the children to the
railroad station and there they met Howe,
| who gave her $5 of the insurance money.
Holmes and the children left, and she did
| not see Holmes again until October 2,
when the prisoner came to her house in st.
Louis.
| More than once during her testimony
! Mrs. Pietzel was asked if she did not wish
| to rest, but she stuck persistently to her
| task. Indeed, she seemed to grow stronger
as she went on. Holmes would not allow
her to mail any letters herself, but took
| them from her and promised to post them
| for her. A bunch of these letters to the
children that Holmes had never mailed
were shown to Mrs. Pietzel and she readily
| identified them. Holmes not only did not
mail the letters, but opened and read
them. In Burlington Holmes was known
as Judson.
! Mrs. PietZeI seemed about to break down
when asked to identify the handwriting OF
her dead girls in letters to herself, but she
| bore up bravely and amid deathlike
| silence in the courtroom named the writer
of each letter as it was shown to her.
After she had identified the letters the
recollection that they were written by her
| murdered children overpowered her for a
moment and she sobbed quietly. With
strong determination she recovered her.
| self and nodded to Mr.. Graham to go on
with the examination. She left Burling-
ton for Boston, she said. in company with
man named White. who brought her
letter from Holmes. In Boston she saw
Holmes under arrest and he said to her:
"You needn't take it so hard. Ben and
I are the ones who will suffer-
Mr.. Gl aham asked: when did you last
see or hear from your husband2"
In voice choking with emotion Mrs.
Pietzel replied u have never seen my
husband since the 29th of July or heard
from him in his own handwriting since
August o."
Then Mr.. Graham, in solemn voice,
asked, "Have you ever seen any of your
three children since you gave them to this
MANI"
This question was 100 much and amidst
her sobs Mrs. Pietzel replied, Il have never
seen my little girls except lying side by
side at the morgue at Toronto, and have
never seen How ard, but I saw some of his
little things at the Coroner's Office at Indi-
anapolis.'
There was more than one moistened eye
in the court while the sobbing woman was
speaking, and the defense realizing the
probable effect of the sight of the bereaved
and suffering mother would have upon the
sensibilities OF the jury, interposed an OBJ