The evening herald. [volume] (Shenandoah, Pa.) 1891-1966, 1896-04-13
A MURDERER'S ROMANCE !
H. H. Holmes Writes Calmly of His
Many Grimes.
| VERY IMPROBABLE STATEMENT
The Condemned Man Evidently Determined
to Pose as a Greater scoundrel Than
He Really Is-His Story of the
Pitezel Family Murders.

A pril 13.-The published !
confession" of Herman Mudgett, alias
H. H. Holmes, who is to be hanged in
this city on May for the murder of Ben
iamin f. Pi ezel is not generally cred
tied But the statement arouses great in
terest from the mastery manner in which
it is written, and the calm cruel delibera-
tion in which he explains how he took the
lives of twenty seven people, and was
only prevented from carrying out six other
murders because his plans were interfered
with. He admits the murder of Pitezel
and the three Pitezel children, of Minnie
and Mamie Williams, and of Mrs. Julia
Connor and her little daughter Pearl, and
then details at length the killing of nine
teen other people The names of some of
his victims, he claims, he cannot remem-
Der, which makes it evident that the arch
criminal has been romancing for the bene-
fit of the newspaper syndicate which has
paid a small fortune for the alleged con-
fession. Regarding the murder of Pitezel,
for which he is to suffer the death penalty,
he says;
81 went to the house, quietly unlocked
the door and stole noiselessly within and
TO the second story room, where L found
him insensibly drunk, as had expected.
1t was necessary for me to kill him in
such manner that no struggle or move
ment of his body should occur, otherwise
his clothing being in any way displaced
it would have been impossible to again
put them in a normal condition. over.
came this difficulty by first binding him
hand and foot, and having done this
proceeded to burn him alive by saturating
~ IL n Ia foc h
igniting it with match.
$50 horrible was this torture that in
writing of it 1 have been tempted to at
tribute his death to some more humane
means-not with wish to spare myself,
but because 1 fear that it will not be be-
lieyed that one could be so heartless and
depraved, but such course would be use
less for the authorities have determined
that his death could only have occurred in
this manner, no blows or bruises upon his
body and no drug administered, save
chloroform, which was not placed in his
stomach until at least thirty minutes after
his death, and to now make q misstate-
lnent of the facts would only serve to draw
out additional criticism from them.
'The least l can do is to spare my
reader "a recital of the victims cries for
mercy his prayers and finally his plea for
q more speedy termination of his suffer
ings, all of which upon me had no effect.
Finally, when he was dead | removed the
straps and ropes that had bound him and
extinguished the flames and little later
poured into his stomach one and one-half
ounces of chloroform.
The monster details the murder at Ir-
: vington, Ind, of little Howard Pitezel,
whom he killed by poison, which he gave
10 lt,iV, ,aY,h
GAS soon as he had ceased to breathe I
cut his body into pieces that would pass
through the door of the stove, and by the
combined use of gas and oorncobs pro-
ceeded to burn it with as little feeling as
: though it had been some inanimate object
If could now recall one circumstance, a
dollar of money to be gained, disagree
able act or word upon his part, in justiti-
S cation of this horrid crime it would be a
satisfaction to me; but to think that l
! ! committed this and other crimes for the
pleasure of killing my fellow beings, to
hear their cries for mercy and pleas to be
allowed even sufficient time to pray and
prepare for death-all this is now too hor-
rible for even me- hardened criminal that
l am, to again live over without shud-
der"
Regarding the murder of Alice and Nell
lie Pitezel at Toronto he writes
81 now, with much reluctance, come to
the discussion of the twenty-sixth and
twenty-seventh murders. The victims
were Alice and Nellie Pitezel, whose
deaths will seem to many to be the sad
dest of all, both on account OF the terribly
beartless manner in which it was accom-
plished, and because in one instance, that
of Alice the eldest of these children, her
death was the least of the wrongs suffered
at my hands Here again | am tempted
to either pass the matter by without
speaking of Ii, or to altogether deny it, but
to what purposeS 1t is publicly known,
and was freely commented upon at my
trial, and to deny it now would only serve
the double purpose of breaking my reso-
luton to hold nothing in reserve and of
causing many who are somewhat familiar
with the details of the different cases to
iisbelieye me in other matters"
Then the murderer explains with a
uicety of detail how he induced the chill.
dren to enter a big trunk, through the
cover of which he had made "A small open
ing. After he had put the children in the
trunk, he says, he went to Mrs. Pitezel's
hotel and aided her in leaving Toronto
for Ogdensburg, N. Y. He proceeds:
II again returned to the house where
the children were imprisoned ana ended
their lives by connecting the gas with the
trunk. Then came the opening of the
trunk and the viewing of their little black
ened and distorted faces, then the digging
of their shallow graves in the basement oi
the house, the ruthless stripping off Of
their clothing and the burial without
particle of covering save the cold earth
which heaped upon them with fendist
| =. III rhuf IL or fb1.
was These little innocent and helpless
children, the Oldest being only l3 years ol
age, a puny and siokly child, who to look
at one would believe much younger; con
slider that for eight years before theil
death l had been almost as much fathel
. as though they had been my own children
thus giving them a right to look to m'
for care and protection, and in your right