Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1896-04-15
HOLMES CONFESSION.
THE AUTHOR OF TWENTY
SEVEN MURDERS.
six Others Were Planned, but Failed Him
Declares He Was Born with the Evil
One In Him. and That He Is Assuming
the Physical Form OF Satan.

PHILADELPHIA, April 1l-H. III.
Holmes, the mult-murderer now
under sentence of death for the MUIR
der of Benjamin Pietzel, has made
confession.
In prefacing the confession, which
! covers in full nearly three newspaper
pages, written in Holmes own hand
writing, and detailing with minute
ness that is at times revolving, the
arch-mutilator and author of twenty
seven murders, as he admits himself
to be, states with something like
pathos that he does SO simply that he
may obtain money enough to educate
his boy.
Holmes writes of his blood curdling
atrocities with an abandon that simply
appalls one. Not one grain of remorse
seems to enter into the construction
of that document and never for mo-
ment except in two isolated caseS-one
where he refers touchingly to the
memory of Minnie Williams and an
other time when he pathetlcally
speaks of an outrage perpetrated on
his boy, does the redeeming element,
pity, figure in the case.
Born With the Devil in Him.
II was born with the devil in me-
says he, in one part of his confession.
81 could not help the fact that l was
murderer no more than the poet can
help the inspiration to sing, nor the
ambition of an intellectual man to be
great. l was born with the evil one
standing as my sponsor beside the bed
where l was ush cred into this world,
and he has been with me since The
inclination to murder came to me as
naturally as the inspiration to do
right comes to the Majority of persons.
Where other hearts were touched
with pity, mine was filled with cru
city, and where in others the feeling
was to save life, l revealed IN the
thought of destroying the same. Not
only that. / was not satisfied in TAX
ing it IN the ordinary way. | sought
devices strange, fantastical and even
grotesque. t pleased my fancy. 1t
gave me play to work my murderous
will, and L revealed in 1T with the en-
thusiasm of any alchemist who is on
the trail of the philosophers stone.
This inclination" Holmes contin-
ues, ''came TO me early in life l
remember when mere lad, my ambi-
ton was TO study medicine, that l
might know the relative effects of
poisonous gases; that l might fully
become acquainted with their uses,
and learn to be an expert in handling
them.
Il am convinced that since nv i'm
prisonment l have changed woefully
and gruesomely from what formerly
was in feature and in figure. If you
look at my picture when | was first
taken into custody in Boston, nearly
two years ago, and look at my face
now, you may begin to observe some
thing Of what l mean.
Il mean, in fact, that my features
are assuming nothing more or less
than a pronounced satanical cast; that
have become afflicted with that dis
ease, rare but terrible, with which
physicians are acquainted, but over
which they seem to have no control
whatever. That disease is malfor-
nation or distortion of the osseous
parts, causing deformity so marked
that in many cases men are made to
assume lillenesses to the inferior ami
mails. The horror of the thing did
not pail on me, for it was quite in
keeping with my nature, and, like a
true medical student, / began to study
the new conditions that had arisen.
Growing to Resemble Satan.
''Erom what l can see l believe fully
that | am growing to resemble the
devil; that the osseous parts of my
head and face are gradually assuming
that elongated shape SO pronounced
in what is called the degenerate head,
and that the similtude is almost COM
pleted
I'm fact, so impressed am 1 with
this belief, continues Holmes, that
am convinced that l have no longer
h
Holmes confession from this on
speaks of his early experiences of his
boyhood days on the farm up in Yer
mont and the life he led until he en-
tered the college to study medicine in
Michigan.
1t was not until after he was gradu-
ated, fully equipped with the knowl-
edge of poisons and the easiest way to
sever the simple thread of life, that
Holmes began his career as a muir
derer and mutilator.
When he began he admits himself
he was ruthless, and never once halted
until he took twenty-seven lives.
And l would have committed six
other MURDERS" he added, had not
certain occurrences INTERVIEWED"
Probably one of the worst, most
brutal, revolving and disgusting
crimes this arch mutillator ever com
mitted was one he speaks of in a chap
ter devoted to his boy-the son Of his
first wife. The only explanation he
offers is that he did it simply to CRAFTY
his love for mutillation
at was shortly after 1 was mar
ried," he declares, land our boy was
then but youngster. called him in
from the road, where he was frolicing
about like an innocent with a lot of
nj lad nd l.
barn. / don't know what it was that
possessed me, but l took "a surgical
knife along with me.
With the utmost abandon, and with
here and there an expressed sigh of
regret, Holmes then tells how he went
through the operation of mutilating
his own son. Finished with that,
Holmes felt satisfied and did not muir
der his boy outright.
Ruth Cleveland Has Measles.