Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1895-07-20
INNOCENTs SLAIN.
Bodies of Two Little Girls Found
in Cellar at Toronto.
Remains of the Missing Daughters OF
Pltzel, and Are Thought to Have Been
Killed by Swindler Holmes, Their
Fathers Alleged Shaver.

TORONTO, Ont, July 16.--The bodies
of the murdered children of benjamin
+. Pitzel, Alice and Nellie, were found
in the cellar of a cottage at IF st. Vim
cent street in this city Monday.
It is claimed that the children were
murdered by II. II. Holmes, the insur-
ance swindler, who is also charged with
the murder of the father, on whose life
he held an insurance policy for $40, 600.
The cottage in the cellar of which
the naked bodies of the children were
found was rented and occupied last
October by Holmes, now under arrest
at Philadelphia on n charge of de-
frauding Insurance companies. Pitzel,
whose life was insured for $4,000, was
found dead in house he had rented in
Philadelphia, and it was thought he
was accidentally burned to death, and
Holmes left here with Pitzels three
children to go to the funeral. They
went to Cincinnati, Indianapolis, De-
troit and then came here October Is
last.
Holmes, now under arrest at Phila-
delphia, is believed to have deliberate
ly murdered the girls after he had
phia and their brother in Detroit. In
| quiries begun by the police led to the
knowledge that Holmes and the chill
! dren lived at the house in question
and search was made by the officers.
A few days ago Detective Geyer, of
Philadelphia, arrived here and pro-
ceeded quietly to search for the bodies
of the children. He seemed confident
they were last seen alive here, and said
he was determined to find them before
he left, and he found their bodies Nom
day, naked and partly decomposed.
! They had been buried in the earth
| without coffins.
There were no traces of wounds on
the bodies, and the theory of the de-
tectives is that Holmes and some one
else decoyed the children one at a time
into a trunk under the pretense of
telling them to hide from each other.
and inserted gas through a small hole
which has been discovered in the
trunk, and which is neatly covered
with strap tackled over it. The bodies
are those of the little girls. No trace
of the body of Howard, the missing
s-year-old boy who disappeared at De-
troit, has yet been found.
H H Holmes was arrested In Boston last
November for defrauding the Fidelity Mutual
Life association of Philadelphia out OF $4,000
the amount OF the policy on the life of B. F.
PitzeL He was taken to Philadelphia and
finally was indicted on the charge of "conspir-
acy to cheat and defraud," and Is now held in
the Jail IN that city awaiting trial
H II. Holmes, alias Hartman W. Mudgett,
alias H. H. Howard, was born in New Haven,
Conn, and attended q medical school at Bur-
lington, VT, and later at Ann Arbor, Mich.
He was married at the latter place He and a
friend swindled an insurance company in Chi
cago out OF $4,000 after graduating.
They made another haul of $4,000 In a similar
way.
About this time the man Pitzel became one
OF his acQuaintances. He hung around
Holmes drug store at Englewood, ILL.,, much OF
the time. Shortly after they became friends
Holmes found another one in the person OF
Miss Minnie Williams, of Fort Worth, Tex.
This was in the beginning OF 1893.
Miss Williams owned property In Fort
Worth to the amount of $4,000 Holmes, it
appears, lived with her, and later her sister
Anna came from Texas and Joined them.
Afterward both the Williams girls disap-
peared and have never been heard from since.
Holmes at the time OF his arrest in Boston,
said that Minnie killed Anna and went to
Europe, but it is generally believed that he
made away with both of them Anyhow, he
afterward appeared in Fort Worth with deeds
to the property formerly owned by Minnie
williams.
In Fort Worth Holmes passed as II. H.
Pratt. Pitzel showed up there also. With
money obtained from the sale of the Williams
property they indulged in various schemes one
OF which is said to have benn Wholesale
horse-stealing venture Texas became too
hot for them, and they went to Philadelphia.
Pitzel carried $4,000 life insurance policy
in the Fidelity Mutual Life association. which
had been written for him in Chicago, Shortly
afterward what was supposed to be the corpse
of Pitzel was found and the $4,000 was paid
over to Holmes, who delivered portion of II
to Mrs PitzeL The insurance company last
November come to the conclusion that Holmes
murdered Pitzel, and accordingly had him ar
rested Holmes contended that Pitzel was In
South America. 1t could not be learned then
Il,l,