Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1915-07-09
Holt and His Helpers

T is reasonably certain that Frank Holt or
1 Erich Muenter. who killed himself In his
cell In the NIineola Jail, had accomplices who
provided the funds with which he conducted
his extensive and expensive campaign for the
destruction of property and life. For this
reason and because his death seriously mill
tates against the pture OF these accomplices,
the gross carelessness that permitted his
suicide cannot be too strongly condemned
1t is inConceivabe that man of his narrow
personal resources, with wife and children
dependent on him for support, could have
made such long anu frequent railway
Journeys. rented Long Island bungalows and
bought high priced explosives. in large guam
titles. as Holt did. without financial assist
ance. Somebody else was furnishing the
cash.
This is natural. Hollis latest mania was
not peculiar to him. as have had occasion
to say before. There are thousands of men
in this country who, to judge from their ac-
customed utterances. are not much better
balanced. The great mass of them certain
ly, would not join in efforts to write their
hatreds in blood. but there are others besides
Holt who are subject to no such restraint
Some OF these were his partners in the con-
spiracy to wreck the Capitol, destroy ocean
liners and intimidate or Stay ]. Pierpont Nor
gan and members of his family Where are
these criminal maniacs? The nation will not
be comfortable until they are placed under
restraint, and. therefore, is but little inclined
to condone that carelessness in guarding Holt
which made his suicide possible and the arrest
OF his helpers much more difficult
In the meantime. there is cause for wonder
that man OF Hollis type, accused nine years
ago OF the murder OF his first wife known to
be oil desperate character and thirsting for
revenge on society, which he fancied had
wronged him, could have pursued so long and
so entirely unmolested the course he did pur-
SaaT ofy1t tI,n
methods aided their success. He shaved off
the beard he wore when he was Muenter and
took another name. but he did not go to the
trouble of changing his occupation conceal
ing his scholarly attainments or apparentlv
OF avoiding old associates
Moreover. he carried in his heart always
that passion to kill which he expressed in
pamphlet he sent members OF the Harvard
faculty after he made his escape from Cam
bridge. In that pamphlet he wrote:
The lesson that you teach me will
execute and II shall go hard, but will
better the instruction. Without know
Ing whether innocent or guilty
YOU have revled me. you have cast me
out II do not strain every to
set revenge, the oloodiest. the mos,
brutal kind Of revenge let me never
r"spect myself any more. | never
prove my innocence you My only
witness is dead. Hence, II I could an
hih!iate all OF Chicago and Cambridge at
one blow that would be the thing to do
you WISH 70 annihilate me. / must an
ticipate you.
When Hollis diseased imagination took
hoid OF cause that infa med it and fed at the
same time his blood lust. the tiger in him
gained complete asccndancy. In his tangled
brain, probably. he conceived himself as a
destroying angel appointed to execute
DIVINE purpose. That he could hide his mad
ness from his family and the world argues
his accomplices, yet free to destroy, all the
more dangerous Like him, they are mad
men with homicidal tendencies-or they are
worse. They must not, in either case. he
permitted to escape