The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1895-08-28

return to her. and had secured a divorce.
She had not heard from him after he went
TO Chicago. Nudge EFT there became H. III.
Holmes. and his career was definitely
launched as a swindler of insurance COM
panies. This business. it is believed. led
him to become the greatest murderer of the
century.
When Mrs. Mudgett again saw her hus-
band 1t was on a cold. bitter night of last
November in the cottage she was occupying
in the town of her girlhood. The caller was
admitted as a stranger. but IL proved TO be
ner former husband. In explanation OF MS
had suddeniy become insane While in Chi
cago, and that for long years since then he
had been without memory and an inmate OF
said, had suddenly returned 10 him.. and he
had taken the first opportunity to search
for his wife and child. Hisfwife was SO far
true TO her first love that she had not mar,
ried again. She was hysterical with joy at
the return of her former husband. His
story was believed. but Mudgett did not
stay long under her roof. He said he must
go on to Chinatown to see his parents, and
the next time he was heard of was IN Bos-
ton. The officers of the law were then on
his track for crimes committed under the
name of Holmes. Had he not dropped a
word as to his purpose TO visit his old home
TO his MISUNDERSTANDING in St. Louis
to figh ten he seils would S5 i not nave 0f been
trdc xed so easily, and might to this day
have been pursuing his evil course. As 1t
was, he was arrested in Boston and taken
= L nllduCiDllds 41C < ltAtAitA "
plead guilty to the crime of swindling the
Fidelity Mutual Life Association, of that
city. The amount he realized was $4,000,
which had been placed on the life of Ben
jamin +. Pietzel, who was to share in the
proceeds. He was given two years in the
Moyamensing Prison. and is there now.
number of confessions, and has led the
detectives a trying pace in the effort to
locate his crimes. 1t is said that Holmes
has a magnetic power over all with whom
he comes in contact, and hat OF all the
officers of the law that have had to do
with him detective Geyer alone has re-
sisted his power.
HIS CHICAGO CRIMES.
There is only time now to refer to the
Chicago career. which resulted in the
death of Minnie Williams, the Texas heir
ess, who became Holiness stenographer.
and of her sister, who came to visit her.
While Minnie Williams wa with Holmes
he became the owner OF the building now
known as The Castle" on Sixty-third
street. in Chicago. Holmes says that Min
ME Williams is still alive, but that her
sister is dead, having been killed by Min
ME in a jealous quarrel. Minnie was then
his apparent wife, and to protect her from
the law he carried her sisters body to the
lake and sent it to the bottom. Julia Con-
ner and Gertie Conner, wife and daughter
OF l.. l.. Conner, who was once employed
by Holmes, are known to be dead-pre-
sumably On pretty strong evidence-by
hand, and it is thought a second
daughter. Pearl Conner, is also dead. EN-
cline Cigrand. who lived at Lafayette. Is
also supposed to be a victim of Holmes.
She was a beautiful girl, who went to
Chicago to become stenographer.
There is a wife now living in Chicago,
whom Holmes married under the name of
Howard, besides the wife, formerly Miss
Yoke, who lives in Franklin. How many
with certainty. but there are here and
there traces of the shrewd scoundrel
He has swindled insurance companies,
duped and murdered women and children.
He has betrayed mis- fellow-conspirators in
crime. He has shown not the first sign
of regard for honor or morals of any sort,
not even of the kind said to obtain among
thieves. The catalogue Of crime must al
most be revised to find names for all his
misdeeds. And he has prospered finan-
cially through the years of his career in
crime. He is said to have q fortune
amounting nearly to 100000. He has en-
ployed shrewd and able lawyers to de-
fend him against the charges that have
been made ~Accomplices in the Chicago
murders have been arrested and have nee
essarily been discharged because the links
in the needed evidences to hold them were
missing. Great cunning has been used to
cover tracks that point strongly toward
Holmes as the perpetrator of these evil
deeds, while there is far from satisfactory
evidence fastening the crimes upon
Holmes.