Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1896-05-08

aOtStEDitCS. Nc tAOuSut SaAHS ~ h-AA
when he was in the dissecting room
and body was brought in, why
couldn't a body like that be substitute
ed for the body of man whose life was
insured?" He decided it could. His
fellow student was of the same opin-
ion, and agreed to get his life insured
for S12, 500.
A YEAR LATER
body was obtained and successfully
palmed off on the insurance company
IS that OF the insured man. The money
was divided.
Whether this was Holmes first seri-
Gus crime or not it is impossible TO
say. Whether it ever happened as ne
said it did is a question. Certainly at
later period than this he appeared to
be without money, and taught school
for a living This was at Mooers
Forks, Clinton county, \. Y. He went
there as a nursery agent for firm in
Maine, and was engaged as DISCREET
school teacher. He represented HIM
self as single. and proposed marriage
TO two or three women. lie boarded
with man named Hayes, ran up big
board bill, and then left i'll broad day
light, never to return. Holmes had
lived with his wife off and on. She had
borne him one child. boy, and she
spent nearly all her time with her par
ents in Loudon. Shortly after the
school episode ne visited her, and then
he left. it seems, for good
Holmes is supposed to have gone from
New Hampshire to ST. Paul, where he
started in business, earned the respect
of his neighbors. and got appointed re-
ceiver for restaurant. He stocked the
restaurant with goods on credit, sold
them all, and walked away, leaving his
bondsmen TO settle. He was next heard
of in Chicago. Then began his kaleido-
scopic career He began by marrying
Miss Myrtle y. Belknap. daughter OF
resident OF Willamette, suburb OF
Chicago. He had not been divorced,
from his first wife. He tried to get
possession of her fathers property by
means of forged deeds He failed in
that. and then his wife left him, keep
ing with her the girl baby that had
been born to them.
His third wife, Georgiana Yoke. he
married il Denver under the name OF
Howard. She lived in Franklin, Ind,
and is a woman of refinement and
beauty.
The murder of the Ptezel children
was probably Holmes next crime after
that of the father. When Holmes was
called from st. Louis by the insurance
company to
IDENTIFY PITEZEL'S BODY
in this city he prevailed upon Mrs. Pite-
eel to allow the child Alice TO 80 with
him. Upon their arrival, the body was
disinterred from the Potter's Field,
and Holmes. in the presence OF doctors
and officials of the company, calmly
cut certain marks from the corpse. The
Identification being complete, the mon
ey was paid. and, as Mrs. Pitezel swore
at the trial, Holmes appropriated all but
a few dollars. which he gave 10 nef.
After the departure of Holmes and Aice
for PHILADELPHIA. the next time Mrs. PiteZel
saw him was September p. He SAID ne
left Alice in Cincinnati in the care of his
cousin" Minnie Williams. Then he in
duced her to let him take Nellie and How
ard there. so that Alice should not be lone
TX. She never again saw her children alive.
Some time afterward he took her TO De-
troit under the pretense that she was TO
meet her husband there. From that time
TO the day of his arrest ne kept her moving
from place to place throughout the coup-
try on some pretence or other During
these travels Holmes carried with him
three separate detachmeBts-Mrs. Pitezel
Miss Yoke and the children-all within
four blocks of each other in all the differ
ent cities almost travelling together, IN
der Holmes leading strings, and yet each
detachment ignorant Of the presence of the
other two. Eventually he rid himself of
the membranes by numbering the girls
in Toronto and the boy in indianapolis.
\ remarkable illustration of the incon-
gruous elements making up the mans
character is offered right here. and IL is a
story that has never before been told in
print. In some Western city he registered
at hotel with Miss Yoke-or Mrs. How
ard-hs third wife. but she saw little of
him, for he divided his time between her.
the children al another hotel and Mrs. Pite
Eel at a third. His wife undoubtedly loved
H.,
course ignorant Of
HOW HIS TIME WAS OCCUPIED.
II was not Holmes purpose, however, to
spend any night at the hotel where she
was, but, TO quiet her remonstrances, he
promised TO be more devoted. and en-
ployed a plan which shows that he had
i'm his makeup some grain of sentiment
perhaps or poetry. He told her he was
very busy with important affairs, and that
there were circumstances which would
make It unwise for him TO he known at the
hotel as her husband When he found an
opportunity to he with her. he said. ne
would surrepttiously come to the hotel
and toss rose in her window. The lonely
wife-wife in name only then-watched pa
tiently for the symbol, but the welcome
rose never came while she was there.
Several times. when she returned from err
rands. she found it. but it was then too
late for Holmes had gone. This was his
plan. He had watched from hiding place
until she had gone out then tossed the rose
in the window and fled. And even at this
time he was calmly planning the slaughter
of the innocenjs.
II was also during these travels that he
received from the children pathetic little
scrawIs to their mother. whom they
thought was in ST. Louis. He was to mail
them 10 her hut upon his arrest, long
after nearly every one of the childish let
ters was found on him, unmailed.
At Toronto. Canada, Holmes. with the
two girls. hired a house The boy Howard
had previously disappeared in Indianapo-
lis, where his charrsd bones were after
wards found in stove. The girls were
murdered in this way: Holmes, probably