The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1895-08-06
through the door OF death, and Holmes
sent them there
THE MEANS OF MURDER.


There are lot of stories about the
victims out ot the way. They are, OF
course, all speculation. The favorite
theory is that he suffocated his Victims.
In the room in the Castle which he used
as an office there was steel dummy
vault, which was practically alright. In
the case or the women who worked for
him, he may have asked them to step in
and get check book or any other book,
and then slammed the door shut. This
vault is surrounded by solid masonry,
and person might yell as loud as a To-
comotive's whistle and never be heard.
Suhocation would occur very quickly. In
the case of people like Belknap, who
could not be inveigled into vault,
Holmes may have got them into a room
like Belknap's without means OF ventila.
tion, He may then have blown into a
gaspipe in some other part of the house.
The blowing wou Id extinguish the gas,
but the moment IL was stopped II would
flow again. After killing victim in this
easy way the body would be cut up and
either burned in the furnace or put into
one of the vaults down stairs with quick
lime, when il would soon be consumed.
Gas, II will be remembered, was the
method supposed TO have been used in
the murder of the Pietzel children in To-
ronto.
ATTEMPT TO COLLECT INSURANCE ON
HIMSELF.
The attempted crime that best shows
the nerve of the man Is one which he
confesses and which occurred at Provi-
dence, h. /. He got his life insured for
$40, 900. Then he went to Providence
lived at hotel couple OF days and
looked round for body. He had beard
at the time When he procured a body
that was about his size he took 1t out in
the woods and cut off the head. Then he
got shaved, went back TO the same hotel,
registered under another name, and asked
IL Mr.. III. III. Holmes was there. The
clerk said Mr.. Holmes had been out all
the morning, but he expected him in
pretty soon. Holmes waited a long time
for himself and then went away. At the
end Of few days he had the body dis
covered and went out and identified 1t as
II. II. Holmes, his friend, whom he had
come TO Providence 10 see. The scheme
didn't work, and he had to skip out OF
Providence.
EVEN SOLD STOLEN CHICAGO WATER.
big business I'm mineral water. He tapped
one of the Chicago water mains, and
sold the water at 5 cents glass. 1t had
the peculiar pearl color OF Chicago
water, and people who didn't know
Chicago thought 1t was great stuff. He
got up what he called a patent gas
machine, and sold the patent to Cana
dian for $500. The machine wouldn't
make anything, but Holmes let enough
gas into the room to convince the
Canadian. He pretended to have
patent glass-curving machine, which he
succeeded in disposing of for nearly as
much more
PROBABLE MURDER OF EMILINE C. cI-
GRAND.
The next murder in point of interest OF
which Holmes Is accused is that of Emil
line G. Cigrand. Miss Cigrand came from
Lafayette, Ind, where her parents are
reputable people She was blonde and
was the prettiest of any of Holmes alleged
victims. When she was 10 years old she
was employed by DIR. Kelley, the gold
cure man, as a stenographer. At this
time Pietzel was an inmate OF the institute.
He met Miss Cigrand there, and after he
was cured and returned to Chicago he
told Holmes about her. Holmes wrote TO
her and offered to give her employment
at considerable increase over the salary
she was receiving. She was made a stock
holder in the A. B. Z. Gopher Company
to the extent OF 80, 600. Whether she had
money and invested il in this concern Is
not known. 1t was known that she was
the confidential secretary of Holmes until
in promises. In October, 1892, she told
some relatives that she had met one
Robert T.. Phelps, who was a very rich
man, much older than she was that he
had fallen in love with her, and asked her
TO marry him, and that she had accepted
him. On Dec. 9 her relatives received
card bearing this inscriptions:
ROBERT E. PHBLPS
MISS EMILINE @. oIGRAED.
Married Dec. z, 1892, Chicago.
That was all. Not word had been
heard from Miss Cigrand or Robert +.
Phelps since.
WERE MRS. CONNER AND HER CHILD
ALSO VICTIMS OF HOLMES?
The alleged murder Of Mrs Julia Con-
ner and her daughter, Pearl Conner, aged
8 years, should be narrated next. The
Conners went from Davenport, Ia, to
Chicago about 1890. Holmes was then
running a drug and jewelry store at the
corner of Wallace and Sixty-third streets.
Conner got q job working In the jewelry
department of Holmes store Holmes saw
his wife, who was very pretty woman,
and offered to give her place as book
keeper. She accepted II. Holmes made
love to her, but Conner didn't suspect
anything. The affair went on for some
time, and Conner heard of 1t, indirectly,
through Holmes himself Conner con-
suited his friends and separated from his
wife, leaving her with Holmes. She kept
the child. Mrs. Conner was woman of
brains and just the kind that Holmes
would pick out TO help him along In his
schemes. She was last seen alive, still i'm
Holmes employ, about September, 1892
Then she disappeared like the rest OF
them. Her murder, II she was murdered,
is supposed to have been one of the first
Holmes committed.
HOLMES MYSTERIOUS CASTLE.
In the story OF Holmes and his crimes
there is nothing more interesting than