Birmingham state herald. (Birmingham, Ala.) 1895-1897, 1896-05-08
A DLOODTH|RSTY BRUTE
He Confessed to Having Killed
Twenty-seven People.
MURDERER H. H. HOLMES
Wound Up His Career Yesterday Morning at
the End Of Rope.
He WAS SELF-POSSEsSeD TO THE LAST
The Execution Was Devoid of Any Sensa-
tional Features-His Object in Max
ing His Confession Was to Obtain
$500, SO 1t Is Said.
He WAS SELF-PoSsEssED TO THE lAsI

Philadelphia, May Murderer Her.
man w. Mudgett, alias II. H. Holmes,
was hanged this morning in the county
prison for the killing of Benjamin F.
Pietzel.
The drop fell at 1912 O'Clock, and
twenty minutes later he was pronounced
dead by the prison physicians, Drs. Sharp
and Butcher.
The execution was in every way entire
iy devoid of sensational features To the
last Holmes was self-possessed and cool,
even to the extent of giving a word of ad-
vice to Ass.stan Superintendent Rich
ardson as the later was arranging the
final details. He died as he had lived,
unconcerned and thoughtless, apparent
ly, of the future, even with the recollec-
ton still vividly before him of his recent
confesson,in which ne admitted killing
score of persons of both sexes and in all
parts of the country.
He refuted everything, and almost his
last words were a point blank denial OF
any crimes committed, except the deaths
of two women at his hands by mal-prac-
tice. OF the murder of the several MEM
berS of the Pietzel family he denied all
completely particularly of the father, for
whose death he stated he was suffering
the penalty.
attendants still sounding in his ears, and
with few low spoken words to those
about the trap; Holmes swung and be-
yond a few incidental post mortem de-
tails, the execution which eliminated
one of the worst criminal stories known
to criminology was ended.
Holmes Career.
Herman w. Mudgett better known as
H. Fl. Holmes, was one of the most con-
spicuous criminals of modern times and
if the murder confessions" which ne has
written can only partially be believed,
he was without peer as bloodthirsty
demon.
His recent ingenious confession"
wherein he claimed to have killed tWen-
ty-seven persons, was disproved, partly
at least, by the appearance OF several
of the so-called victims, but Holmes OBJ
1ect in making the confession was real
ized--the obtaining of sum, said to be
$780, and which amount is said to have
been settled upon the criminals lS-year-
old son.
While the confessions" have served
to increase the sensationalism of the
case, the only capital crime for which
Holmes had to answer was the killing in
this city on September 2, 1894, of BenJa-
tain f. Pietzel, his fellow conspirator.
The murder was committed in the dwell
ing, No. 1916 Callowhill street. Holmes
conviction of murder in the first degree
the affirmation by the Pennsylvania su-
preme court of the verdict and the re-
cent refusal of Governor Hastings to
grant a respite are so well known that
narration of these facts is unnecessary.
Holmes was captured in Boston In the
latter part of 1894 by Owen Hanscom,
deputy superintendent of police upon the
strength of a telegram from Fort Worth,
Tex where he was wanted for horse
stealing and for other charges of larceny.
At that time officials of the Fidelity Mu-
t,Ial Life associa ton of Philadelphia were
hot on Holmes trail for defrauding the
concern out of $4,000 in connection with
Pietzel's death, the latter being insured
for that amount, and as the accused be-
lieved horse stealing to be high crime
in Texas, he voluntarily confessed to
Deputy Superintendent Hanscom the IN
surance fraud. He did not for moment
dream that he was then suspected OF the
murder of P.etzel and he came to Phil
adeIphia without requsition papers. He
expressed Willingness to be tried here
on the conspiracy charge in preference
to that of horse stealing at Fort Worth.
Before leaving Boston Holmes made this
confession to Mr.. Hanscom:
"When concluded 1t was time to carry
out our scheme to defraud the Insurance
company / secured a stiff in New YORK
and shipped it in a trunk to Philadelphia
] turned the check for the trunk over TO
PietZel on the Sunday nearest the last
of September 1 instructed him how to
prepare the body. and in three hours we
were on our way to New York. The day
after the payment of the money l saw
Pietzel In Cincinnati. I took the three
children to that city, where the father
saw them. Pietzel agreed to go south,
and he took one child, Howard ! took
the two girls to Chicago because l had
bus ness there. We all met again In De-
troft Pietzel took the children and went
to South America. During all this time
Mrs. Pietzel knew her husband was alive,
but she did not know he had the children
If she had been aware of that she would
have insisted that the crooked business
be wound up right away. In order to
keen Mrs. Pietzel away from her husband
] had to tell her ne was here and there,
travelling from one place to another
This was the first of a number of al
legged confessions that Holmes subse-
uuently made. In fact, he acquired a
penchant for making confessions" that
surprised the authorities.
The insurance officials had good
ground for believing that Holmes had
murdered Pietzel and the three children,
so when the prisoner arrived in Philadel-
phia he was urged to make another con-
fession He did so without any hesita-
tion, but 1t varied somewhat from the
one he made in Boston. 1t principally
narrated how the body was substituted
for Pietzel in the Callowhill street
house and its identification by Alice
Pietzel as that of her father a week af-
tcrward. Holmes also related how the
money was received from the insurance
company and it's subsequent division be-
tween Mrs. Pietzel. Jeptha d. Howe, the
ST. Louis lawyer, and himself. 1t was in
his confession that Holmes accused
Howe of receiving $250O for his share in
the transaction.
Howe was indicted for conspiracy, but
recently the case against him was
dropped.
Soon after Holmes was brought to
Philadelphia Detective Geyer visited him
in the county prison in relation to the
finding of the body at 1916 Calowhill
street on September 4, 1894. After an
hours conversation with the willy
Holmes the detective emerged from the
prison with confession" in which the