San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1896-05-07
city, of $4,000, and the swindle
was successfully accomplished.

trial is still fresn IN the puDllc
mind. With the story OF the kill
ing OF PietZel is interviewer the
schemes and acts which brought
about the killing of at least eight
other victims. These were Alice
and Nellie Pietzel, the little daugh-
ters OF Benjamin, who were as
phyXiated in a trunk in Toronto,
Canada; Howard PietZel, the young
son, killed in indianapolis, Holmes
cutting up and burning the re-
mains in a stove; Julia 1. Conner,
divorced wife OF l. Conner, and a
bookkeeper for Holmes; Pearl
Conner, her daughter; Emiline q.
Cigrande, OF Anderson, Ind, steno-
grapher for Holmes; Minnie r.
Williams, OF Fort Worth, Tex, his
private secretary, and Mana Will
liams, her sister.
The murder Of these persons has
been fixed upon Holmes almost
certainly, but there are at least q
dozen other cases which have been
laid at his door.
The execution Of Holmes closes
one of the most extraordinary Gar-
ratives in the criminal annals OF
modern times. The nerve and
calculation and the audacity OF the
man was unparalleled. Murder
was his natural bent. Sometimes
he killed from sheer greed Of gain !;
oftener, as he has himself confess
ed, to crafty an inhuman thirst
for blood.
Not one of his crimes was the
outcome OF a sudden burst of fury
"hotblood" as the code says. All
were deliberate, planned and con-
cluded with consummate skill. To
him murder was indeed fine art
and he revealed in the lurid glamor
cast upon him by his abnormal
genius. Even with the shadow of
the moose dangling over his head
he evolved a so-called confession,
detailing with horrible calmness
how he had exterminated q fellow
creatures and coldly setting forth
the varied and bloody tortures he
employed. One could almost see
the fiendish grin on his thin and
bloodless lips as in tho gloom OF
his cell in prison he set down the
terrible tale.
But the man was an atrocious
liar and several of those with
whose murder he charged himself
have since denied his story with
their own lips. The statement was
prompted by a perverted ambition
to be regarded as the greatest"
monster who ever walked in the
form of man, and an incongruous
desire to gain for the education Of
his little SON in Gilmanton, n. H.,
the $1,000 offered for the confession
by a newspaper.
The desire goes far to prove his
possession of many conflicting
traits. He proves that he knew
something OF human life, as the
trial clearly demonstrated, and
that he held affection for the wo-
man he called his wife-Miss Yoke.
1t is a well.known fact that wo-
men were attracted to him, and
one not hard to understand when
the superficial man is considered,
for he was born Of reputable pa
rents, reared under the influence
of a Christian home and sur
rounded in his early years by every
refinement. He was born at Gill
manton in 1858, so that he was 80
years old when the end of his spec
tacular career came.
At the age OF 20 years he mar
ried Miss Clara A. lowering, daugh-
ter of a well-to-do citizen Of Lon
don. H. H.Holmes is supposed to
have gone from New Hampshire to
ST. Paul, where he started in bust
ness, earned the respect of his
ne.ghbors. He, stocked a,restaurant
on credit, sold it and left, leaving
his bondsmen to settle. He was
next heard OF in Chicago. Then
began his kaleidoscope career.
He began by marrying Miss
Myrtle Belknap, daughter Of a
resident OF a suburb of Chicago. He
had not been divorced from his
first wife. He tried to get posses.
sion of her fathers property by
means of forged deeds. He failed
in that and then his wife left him,
keeping with her the girl baby
that had been born to them.
His third wife, Georgisna Yoke,
he married in Donver, under the
name Of Howard. She lived in
Franklin, Ind, and is a woman
of refinement and beauty.
The murder of the Pietzel child
rem was probably Holmes next
crime after that of the father.
When Holmes was called from
st. Louis by the insurance COM
pany to identify Pietzefs body in