The Warwickshire Herald. — 1895-08-29 (Birmingham, West Midlands, England)

CHICAGO MURDER FACTORY.  Further particulars have come to hand of the astodnding story of wholesale murders by H. H. Holmes, now in custody of the Chicago police, charged with murdering 11 people, and suspected of still more colossal exploits in homicide. Holmes is • druggist, and suspicion was first aroused by the disappearance of several persons known to have been inmates of his house, a large building in which he took lodgers. Amongst these were Miss Williams, his secretary, a pretty young woman, and her sister. When Holmes was arrested his house was searched by the police, and was found to be planned and fitted with most exirao.dhaary cornpleteness for the scientific commission of murder and safe disposal of the bodies of victims. Amongst the rooms are secret closets  CASED WITH STEEL AND ASBESTOS, and without light or air, a hanging room to which entrance can only be had by a trap-door in the floor above, and from which there is no exit but'a shoot leading to the cellar. The second floor is a labyrinth of mazes, doors, and passages. The cellar, where large quantities of human remains have been discovered, contains every provision for destroying bodies. Two large vaults of quicklime, one of them containing some human bones, have been found beneath the floor. A hidden tank was found which contained a deadly oil, and when this was unearthed an explosion followed which nearly cost three of the workmen their lives. Even more horrible than this was the discovery of  A CREMATORY IN THE CELLAR where human bodies could be incinerated. A woman's footprint discovered id a bed of quicklime in the cellar is supposed to be that of Miss Williams, who was last seen in this house, and part of whose jewellery has been identified among the contents of a stove used by Holmes. Human bones of all kinds have been dug up out of the cellar, and the police have found tufts of hair, blood-stained linen, and pieces of clothing which had been hastily concealed.  Holmes's Castle, as the house is popularly called, is an immense structure, with hundreds of rooms where victims could be " removed" with more expedition and safety than in the mountain stronghold of any feudal baron. The castle is 162 ft. long and 50ft, wide, and from one end to the other it is a labyrinth of narrow passages, twisting at all angles. in construction the basement and first floor are peculiar enough, but when the second floor is reached the bewilderment is complete. On this floor there are six halls. The most peculiar feature of the 35 rooms on this floor is the number and location of the doors. There are 51 of these doors. They are cut in the walls in every conceivable place. Their location is such that no room, with the exception of the sealed chamber, is without an exit other than the door by which it might be entered. Some of the rooms have four doors, one opening on each side, and each into a different room. Interest centres, however, around the mysterious closet, to which entrance is had by five doors opening from different rooms. This  SECRET CONCEALED CHAMBER is one of the largest rooms in the house, about 12ft. long and flit, wide. There was no furniture in it. The air was stifling when the detectives entered, and there was no visible means of ventilation at that time. Later, however, in a triangular end of the chamber there was found near the ceiling an opening into the dummy elevator shaft,which is large enough to admit the body of a man. The steel-jacketed room was found on the third floor of the castle and next to the office used by Holmes. It is practically a bank vault. In addition to a steel lining its sides are covered with asbestos to deaden sound. Nobody but Holmes could open this safe, which was large enough for people to stand up and walk about inside. With the door once closed tight, anybody inside would suffocate. A gaspipe, however, had also been introduced by Holmes, ostensibly to give light, but in the opinion of the Chicago police to hasten the death of his victims. By blowing in any of the pipes on the outside lie could extinguish the light in the locked steel room, and the unhappy victim