Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1895-07-25
|ANOTHER VICTIM
ONE MORE MURDER CHARGED
AGAINST HOLMES.
WAS MINNIE WILLIAMS KILLED.
A Watch Chain Found with the
Bones IL Identified az That
Once Owned by the Girl.

Chicago, July 21.-Another appalling
crime will be laid at the door of H. III.
Holmes, the notorious insurance swim
dler and the alleged murderer of Pet
Eel. That Minnie Williams of Fort
Worth, Tex, met her death at the
hands of Holmes there is scarcely a
doubt. That she died in this city in
a violent manner has been proven al
most to a certainty. Late last night
the police found in stove in a three
story brick building at 7O7 Sixty-third
street which was built by Holmes, and
In which he and the Williams girl
lived, quantity of charred bones, but
tons known to have been on a dress
owned by Minnie Williams and a
partly melted portion of a watch chain
which was positively identified as
having been the property Of the girl.
The chain was instantly recognized
by G. r. Davis. who occupies a portion
of the store formerly used by Holmes
when he was in the drug business, as
one that he had seen Miss Williams
wear, and which he had on two sep
arate occasions repaired for her. Davis
also claimed to recognize the buttons
as those he had seen on a dress worn
by Miss Williams.
The CHASTITY discovery was made
late last night by force of detectives
working under the command of In
spector Fitzpatrick, who had all day
been at work searching the building
from cellar to garnet. The floors We're
taken up in part, the walls were
sounded and the big iron vault care
fully inspected. The walls of the
vault We're found to be heavily packed
with asbestos, which the police be-
lieye was put there for the purpose
of deadening sound:
The search of the house was under
taken by the police, who had received
a communication from the Philadel-
phia authorities. The building was
carefully gone over and the dummy
elevator which ran from the top floor
of the building, where Holmes had his
office, to the basement without exit
on the intervening floor, was tried
and worked in every possible manner.
On the top floor in the room which
was used by Holmes as an office,
stood an immense stove, fully eight
feet high and three feet in diameter,
with door sufficiently large to adj
NIT of the admission of human body
into the interior. The stove had in
the former examinations been entirely
overlooked, and no examination of it's
contents had ever been made before.
Inspector Fitzpatrick opened the door
and poked carelessly among the de-
bris with his cane. Almost the first
thing he turned up was human
bone badly charred. He hastily jerked
it out and found that it was, beyond
all question, human rib of an adult.
The contents of the stove were then
quickly dumped and other portions Of
bones too badly burned to admit Of
positive Identification as belonging to
any particular portion of the body
were also found.
A number of small buttons, said to
have been worn on the front of Miss
Williams dress, were picked up, as
was also about six inches Of a golden
watch chain which she wore. The
buttons were of peculiar make with
strands Of twisted wire running from
the head up into the shank, which
prevented their falling apart in the
flame. All of the ashes and debris
moved from the stove were carefully
preserved and taken to the police sta
ton where more careful examina-
ton will be made.
The police are now of the opinion
! that not only Minnie Williams, but
her younger sister, Annie and the boy,
Howard, both met death in this house.
They will renew the search of the
house, beginning with the basement,
which will be carefully dug up. They
are Of the opinion they will find either
the body of Anna Williams or that of
Howard Pietzel before they have con-
cluded their work.