WEBVTT

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All the other true crime historian presents
yesterday's news serial Killer Clips Edition, a

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reading of America's historic newspapers from the
golden age of yellow journalism. The entire

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nation was shocked and outraged in the
waning years of the nineteenth century by the

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gruesome deeds of one Hermann Mudget,
the arch fiend who took on the pseudonym

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H. H. Holmes as he
prepared his famous castle of death in downtown

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Chicago. He was arrested for an
insurance fraud in November eighteen ninety four,

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but his string of murders, perhaps
two hundred in all, were soon revealed.

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He was convicted of one capital crime
in Philadelphia, and while he awaited

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execution, he pinned a confession detailing
twenty seven murders that was published in newspapers

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across the country. He would recant
this confession before he hanged, but really,

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you can't make this stuff up.
I'm true crime historian Richard O.

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Jones, and I call this episode
of Serial Killer Clips the Confession of H.

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H. Holmes, a litany of
horror. Philadelphia County Prison, April

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eighth, eighteen ninety six. The
first taking of human life was a torturing

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thought. This, it will be
understood, was before my constant wrongdoing,

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I had become holy deaf to the
promptings of conscience. For prior to this

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I begged to be believed in stating
that I had never sinned so heavily,

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either by thought or deed. Later, like the man eating tiger of the

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tropics, whose appetite for blood has
once been aroused, I roamed about the

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world seeking whom I could destroy.
The killing of Miss Julia Connor was to

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a certain extent due to a criminal
operation performed by parties who were cognizant of

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and partly responsible for both the operation
and the death. A reference to almost

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any newspaper of August eighteen ninety five
will give the minute details. The horrors

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of this case were worked out by
the detectives, therefore making it unnecessary to

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repeat it here. The death of
Pearl, her little daughter was caused by

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poison. The parties I mentioned were
equally responsible for its administration, Although it

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was at my instigation that it was
done. I believed the child was old

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enough to remember her mother's sickness and
death. The other parties wished at first

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to place the child in the care
of their aged parents, who lived south

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of the city, but were overruled
by my opposition. Owing to the suddenness

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of Missus Connor's death. A certain
note of considerable value, well secured by

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property south of the castle, was
uncollectable, and at the time of my

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death it will be sent to such
relatives as may appear to have the greatest

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right to receive it. The next
case is that of Charles Coal, a

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Southern speculator. After considerable correspondence,
this man came to Chicago, and I

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enticed him into the castle, where, while I was engaging him in conversation,

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my associate struck a most vicious blow
on the head with a piece of

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gas pipe. So heavy was the
blow that it not only caused his death

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without a groan and hardly a movement, but it crushed his skull to such

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an extent that his body was almost
useless. This was the first instance in

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which I know of this confederate having
committed murder, though in several other instances

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he was fully as guilty as myself, and if possible, more heartless and

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bloodthirsty. And I have no doubt
he is still engaged in the same nefarious

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work. A domestic named Lizzie was
the seventh victim. She for a time

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worked in the Castle restaurant, and
I soon learned that another of my employees

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was paying her too close attention,
and, fearing lest it should progress so

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far that it would necessitate his leaving
my employ I thought it wise to end

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the life of the girl. This
I did by calling her to my office

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and suffocating her in a vault of
which so much has since been printed.

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She was the first victim that died
there. Before her death, I compelled

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her to write letters to her relatives
and to state that she had left Chicago

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for a western state and should not
return. A few months ago, the

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prosecution, believing from certain letters purporting
to have been written by her that she

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was still alive, showed me its
willingness to give me a fair trial.

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By having this public life known,
she being a witness, that I could

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have used a great advantage in the
pencil case. Soon after this, Miss

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Emmeline Segrand was sent to me by
Chicago firm to fill the vacancy of a

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stenographer. She had been previously employed
at Dwight, Illinois, where she had

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become acquainted with a man who visited
her from time to time while she was

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in my employ She was finally engaged
to him, and the day was set

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for their wedding. This attachment was
particularly obnoxious to me, both because Miss

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Segrand had become almost indispensable to me
in my office work, and because she

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had become my mistress as well as
stenographer. I endeavored upon several occasions to

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take the life of the young man, and failing, I finally resolved that

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I would kill her instead, and
upon the day of their wedding, even

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after the cards had been sent out
announcing that it had occurred, she came

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to my office to bid me good
bye. While there I asked her to

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step inside the vault for some papers
for me. There I detained her,

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telling her that if she would write
her husband that at that last moment she

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had known it would be impossible to
live happily with him, and consequently had

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left Chicago in such a way that
search for her would be useless. I

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would take her to a distant city
and live openly with her as my wife.

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She was very willing to do this, and prepared to leave the vault

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on completing the letter, only to
find that the door would never again be

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opened until she had ceased to suffer
the torture of a slow and lingering death.

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Here follows an unsuccessful attempt to commit
a triple murder for ninety dollars that

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would have been given me for the
bodies of the intended victims, who were

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three young women working in my restaurant
upon Milwaukee Avenue. That these women lived

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to tell of their experience to the
police last summer is due to my foolishly

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trying to chloroform all of them at
one and the same time. By their

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combined strength, they overpowered me in
and screaming into the street, clad only

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in their night robes. To this
attempt to kill could very justly be added

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my attempt to take the lives of
Missus Pitzel and two of her children at

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a later date, thus increasing the
total of my victims. As it was

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no fault of mine that they escaped. My next attempt was carried out with

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more caution. The victim was a
very beautiful young woman named Anna van Tassau,

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whom I induced to come into my
fruit and confectionery store, and when

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she was once with me, I
compelled her to live there for a time,

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threatening her with death if she appeared
before my customers. A little later,

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I killed her by administering pharaocyanide of
potassium. The location of this store

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was such that it would have been
hazardous to have sent out a large box

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containing a body, and I therefore
bury her remains in the store basement,

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and from day to day during the
investigations at the castle, I expected to

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hear that excavations had been made there. Robert Latimer, a man who had

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for some years been in my employee
as a janitor, was my next victim.

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Several years previous, before I had
ever taken a human life, he

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had known of certain insurance work I
had engaged in, and when in recent

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years he sought to extort money from
me, his own death and the sale

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of his body was the recompense meeted
out to him. I confined him within

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the secret room and slowly starved him
to death. Finally needing its use for

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another victim, and because his pleadings
had become almost unbearable, I ended his

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life. The partial excavation of the
walls of this room found by the police,

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was caused by Latimer's endeavoring to escape
by tearing away the solid brick and

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mortar with his unaided fingers. The
succeeding case was that of Miss Annabett's,

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and was caused by my purposely substituting
a poisonous drug prescription that had been sent

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to my drug store to be compounded. I believe that, as it was

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known that I was a physician,
I should be called to witness her death,

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as she lived very near the store. This was not the case,

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however, as the regular physician was
in attendance at the time. The prescription

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still on file at the Castle drug
Store should be considered by the authorities if

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they are still inclined to attribute this
death to causes that reflect on Miss Betts's

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moral character. The death of Miss
Gertrude Connor of Muscatine, Iowa, though

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not the next in order of occurrence, is so similar to the last that

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the description of one suffices for both. Save in this respect. Miss Connor

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left Chicago immediately, but did not
die until she had reached her home in

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Muscatine. Perhaps these two cases show
more plainly than any other of the light

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regard I had for the lives of
my fellow beings. The next death was

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that of a man named Warner,
the originator of the Warner's glass bending company.

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And there again I realized a very
large sum of money, which,

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prior to his death had been deposited
in two Chicago banks, nearly all of

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which I secured by means of two
checks made out and properly signed by him

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for a small sum each. To
these I later added the word thousand and

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the necessary ciphers, and by passing
them through the bank where I had a

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regular open account, I promptly realized
the money, save a small amount not

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covered by the checks, in the
Park National Bank. It will be remembered

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that the remains of a large kiln
made a fire brick were found in a

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basement. It had been built under
mister Warner's supervision for the purpose of exhibiting

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his patents. It was so arranged
that in less than a minute, after

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turning on a jet of crude oil
atomized with steam, the entire kiln would

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be filled with a colorless flame so
intensely hot that iron would be melted therein.

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It was in two this kiln that
I induced mister Warner to go with

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me, under the pretense of my
wishing certain minute explanations of the process,

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and then stepping outside, as he
believed to get some tools. I closed

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the door and turned on both the
oil and steam to their full extent.

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In a short time, not even
the bones of my victim remained. The

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coat found underneath the kiln was the
one he took off before going Therein in

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eighteen ninety one, I associated myself
in business with a young Englishman who,

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by his own admission, had been
guilty of all other forms of wrongdoing save

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murder, and presumably of that as
well, to manipulate certain real estate securities

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we held, so as to have
them secure us a good commercial rating.

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It was an easy matter for him, and he was equally able to interest

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certain English capitalists in certain patents,
so that it seemed that in the near

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future our greatest concern would be how
to dispose of the money that seemed to

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be showered upon us. By an
unfortunate occurrence, our rating was destroyed,

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and it became necessary to at once
raise a large sum, and this was

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done by enticing a wealthy Chicago banker
named Rogers from a Wisconsin town in such

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a manner that he could have left
no intelligence with whom his business was to

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be to bring him to the castle
and into the secret room under the pretense

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that our patents were there. Was
easy, much more so than to force

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him to sign checks and drafts for
seventy thousand dollars, which he had prepared.

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At first, he refused to do
so, stating that his liberty that

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we offered him in exchange would be
useless to him without his money, and

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that he was too old to hope
to make another fortune. Finally, by

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alternately starving him and nauseating him with
the gas, I made him sign the

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securities, all of which were converted
into money, and by the Englishman's skill

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as a forger, in such a
manner as to leave no trace of their

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having been passed through our hands.
I waited with much curiosity to see what

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proposition my colleague would advance for the
disposal of our prisoner, as I well

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knew that he no more than I
contemplated giving him his liberty. Evidently,

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the Englishman waited with equal expectancy for
me to suggest what should be done,

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and I finally made preparations to allow
Rogers to leave the building, thus forcing

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the Englishman to suggest that he be
killed. I would consent to this only

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upon the condition that he should administer
the chloroform and leave me to dispose of

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the body as part of the work. That evening, the large sum of

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money was divided between us. The
next case is that of a woman whose

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name has passed from my memory,
who came to the Castle restaurant to board.

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The person who was conducting the restaurant
at the time immediately became very much

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infatuated with a woman who he heard
was a widow and wealthy. The manager

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was married, and his wife occasionally
came to the restaurant when this boarder was

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there, which did not tend to
decrease the family quarrel, which for quite

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a time had threatened the family with
disruption. Finally he came to me for

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advice, and I was very willing
to have him in my power that I

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could later use him if need be. I suggested that he lived with the

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woman in the castle for a time, and later, if this life became

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unpleasant to him, we would kill
her and divide her wealth. Although this

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man showed no disposition to spare me
in the recent investigations, and also deserved

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death for this and other crimes,
it is but fair to say that at

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first he was not willing to enter
into this arrangement, and would probably today

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not be guilty of murder, but
for my influence. As I had anticipated,

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he soon tired of the castle life
and suggested that it was time to

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take his companion's life. This was
done by my administering chloroform while he controlled

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her violent struggles. It was the
body of this woman within the long coffin

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shaped box that was taken into the
castle in late eighteen nine twenty three,

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of which the man told the police. Is it to be wondered at that

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he should have remembered her name?
In order that the deaths of the Williams

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sisters may be more fully understood.
It is necessary for me to state that

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what has been said by Miss Williams's
southern relatives regarding her pure and Christian life

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should be believed. Also that prior
to her meeting me in eighteen ninety three,

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she was a virtuous woman, thus
rendering truthful the statements of Charles Goldthwaite

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of Boston that he had never known
her otherwise than as an intimate friend of

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his wife's, and that in June
eighteen ninety three he did not wire her

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a considerable money to Chicago. In
response to a demand for the same from

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her, That she was not temporarily
insane at a hotel opposite the Pullman Building

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in Chicago from May twentieth to twenty
third, eighteen ninety three, was not

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a little later secluded in the Baptist
Hospital in Chicago under the name of missus

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Williams, was not still later in
retreat at Milwaukee, And that she did

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not kill her sister and threaten to
kill her nurse who had her in charge

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at number twelve twenty Rightwood Avenue,
Chicago. All these statements, it gives

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me certain amount of satisfaction to retract
thereby undoing so far as I can,

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these additional wrongs I have heaped upon
her name. I first met miss Williams

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in Chicago in eighteen eighty eight,
where she knew me as Edward Hatch,

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and later under the same name in
Denver, as has been testified by certain

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young women who recognized my photograph.
Early in eighteen ninety three, I was

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introduced to her as H. H. Holmes. She had applied for a

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position as a stenographer. Soon after
entering my employ I induced her to give

206
00:16:56.080 --> 00:16:59.679
me two thousand, five hundred dollars
in money and to transfer to me by

207
00:16:59.759 --> 00:17:03.360
d much southern real estate, and
a little later to live with me as

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00:17:03.399 --> 00:17:08.839
my wife, all this being easily
accomplished owing to her innocent and childlike nature,

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00:17:10.200 --> 00:17:15.720
she hardly knowing right from wrong in
such matters. Thereafter I succeeded in

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00:17:15.799 --> 00:17:18.960
securing two checks from her for twenty
five dollars each, and I also learned

211
00:17:19.000 --> 00:17:22.079
that she had a sister, Nanny
in Texas, who was heir to some

212
00:17:22.160 --> 00:17:26.599
property. I induced Miss Williams to
have her come to Chicago on a visit.

213
00:17:27.160 --> 00:17:30.720
Upon her arrival, I met her
at the depot and took her to

214
00:17:30.759 --> 00:17:34.160
the castle, telling her Miss Williams
was there. It was an easy matter

215
00:17:34.240 --> 00:17:38.039
to force her to assign me all
she possessed. After that, she was

216
00:17:38.079 --> 00:17:42.400
immediately killed in ordered that no one
in her about the castle should know or

217
00:17:42.440 --> 00:17:47.240
having known of her being there.
It was the footprint of Nanny Williams,

218
00:17:47.279 --> 00:17:51.640
as was later demonstrated by that most
astute lawyer and detective mister Capps of Fort

219
00:17:51.680 --> 00:17:55.559
Worth, that was found upon the
painted surface of the vault door, who

220
00:17:55.680 --> 00:18:00.319
was made during her violent struggle before
her death. It was also easy to

221
00:18:00.319 --> 00:18:03.880
give Miss Williams a delayed letter stating
that her sister's proposed visit had been given

222
00:18:03.960 --> 00:18:08.519
up, and also by intercepting later
letters and substituting others to keep her from

223
00:18:08.599 --> 00:18:12.519
learning that her sister had left the
South. Having secured all the money and

224
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property Miss Williams had. It was
time that she was killed. Owing to

225
00:18:17.920 --> 00:18:21.400
a fire that occurred in the castle, I was unable to resort to the

226
00:18:21.480 --> 00:18:25.680
usual method of taking her life,
and after some delay, I took her

227
00:18:25.720 --> 00:18:30.079
to Moment's, Illinois about November fifteenth, eighteen ninety two, registering at a

228
00:18:30.079 --> 00:18:37.319
hotel near the post office under an
assumed name as man and wife. My

229
00:18:37.400 --> 00:18:41.240
intention was to quickly kill her in
some manner, but a freight wreck that

230
00:18:41.319 --> 00:18:45.440
occurred on the outskirts of town the
day following my arrival there, which out

231
00:18:45.440 --> 00:18:51.279
of my curiosity I visited, brought
me into contact with a passenger conductor,

232
00:18:51.359 --> 00:18:55.279
Peck, who knew me, and
I therefore abandoned my plans, but later

233
00:18:55.359 --> 00:18:57.519
returned and took the girl eight miles
east of Moments on her freight line.

234
00:18:57.559 --> 00:19:03.240
Little used into her life with poison
and buried her body in the basement of

235
00:19:03.279 --> 00:19:07.799
the house spoken about at the time
of the Irvington discoveries in eighteen ninety five.

236
00:19:07.160 --> 00:19:11.000
It was a great wonder that the
body was not found at that time.

237
00:19:11.039 --> 00:19:15.160
If the detectives in reality went to
that location. Nothing would at the

238
00:19:15.160 --> 00:19:18.359
present time give me so much satisfaction
as to know that her body had been

239
00:19:18.359 --> 00:19:22.319
properly buried. I would be willing
to give up the few remaining days I

240
00:19:22.400 --> 00:19:26.960
have to live, if by so
doing this would be accomplished. Because of

241
00:19:26.960 --> 00:19:30.839
her spotless life before she knew me, because of the large amount of money

242
00:19:30.839 --> 00:19:34.160
I do frauded her of, because
I killed her sister and her brother,

243
00:19:34.519 --> 00:19:38.359
and because, not being satisfied with
all this, I endeavored, after my

244
00:19:38.519 --> 00:19:41.759
arrest to blacken her good name by
charging her with the death of her sister,

245
00:19:42.000 --> 00:19:45.200
and later with the instigation of the
murder of the two Pizel children,

246
00:19:45.440 --> 00:19:48.920
endeavoring to have it believed that her
motive for so doing was to afford the

247
00:19:48.960 --> 00:19:53.319
avenue of escape for herself if she
should ever be apprehended for her sister's death,

248
00:19:53.839 --> 00:19:59.480
by pointing to me as a wholesale
murderer, and therefore presumably guilty of

249
00:19:59.480 --> 00:20:03.640
her sister death as well. For
all these reasons, this is, without

250
00:20:03.680 --> 00:20:11.680
exception, the saddest and most heinous
of my crimes. A man who came

251
00:20:11.720 --> 00:20:17.079
to Chicago to attend the Columbian Exposition, but whose name I cannot recall,

252
00:20:17.359 --> 00:20:21.240
was my next victim. I determined
to use this man in my various business

253
00:20:21.240 --> 00:20:23.680
dealings, and did so for a
time, until I found that he had

254
00:20:23.680 --> 00:20:27.960
not the ability I at first thought
he was possessed of. I therefore decided

255
00:20:29.000 --> 00:20:38.880
to kill him. This was done
after Miss Williams's death, I found among

256
00:20:38.960 --> 00:20:44.240
her papers an insurance policy made in
her favor by her brother, Baldwin Williams

257
00:20:44.240 --> 00:20:48.799
of Leadville, Colorado. I therefore
went to that city in eighteen ninety four.

258
00:20:48.640 --> 00:20:52.039
A little later the assignment of the
policy to which I had forged Miss

259
00:20:52.079 --> 00:20:57.119
Williams's name, to John Maxwell of
Leadville, the administrator of the Williams estate,

260
00:20:57.720 --> 00:21:02.160
was honored, and the money was
paid. Both in this instance and

261
00:21:02.240 --> 00:21:04.799
in that of the thousand dollars check
given by D. Tolman and checks aggregating

262
00:21:04.799 --> 00:21:10.200
two thy five hundred dollars by JR. Hitt and Company of Chicago. Inasmuch

263
00:21:10.240 --> 00:21:14.960
as the endorsements are forgeries, the
Williams heirs can now recover these amounts,

264
00:21:15.200 --> 00:21:18.200
although it will be an undeserved hardship
on those who have once advanced the money

265
00:21:18.240 --> 00:21:29.480
upon them. So much has already
been printed regarding the case of Benjamin F.

266
00:21:29.559 --> 00:21:33.079
Pizel, that there is little for
me to tell save the actual manner

267
00:21:33.079 --> 00:21:36.200
in which his death was brought about. It will be understood that from the

268
00:21:36.200 --> 00:21:38.880
first hour of our acquaintance, even
before I knew he had family who would

269
00:21:38.920 --> 00:21:45.079
later afford me additional victims. For
the gratification of my bloodthirstiness, I intended

270
00:21:45.079 --> 00:21:48.039
to kill him. In all my
subsequent care of him, as well as

271
00:21:48.039 --> 00:21:52.079
my apparent trust in him by placing
in his name large amounts of property,

272
00:21:52.480 --> 00:21:56.160
was simply to gain the confidence of
him and his family, so that when

273
00:21:56.200 --> 00:22:00.680
the time was ripe, they would
the more readily fall into mine hands.

274
00:22:00.279 --> 00:22:04.160
It seems almost incredible, now as
I look back, that I expected to

275
00:22:04.160 --> 00:22:10.440
have experienced sufficient satisfaction in witnessing their
death to pay me for even the physical

276
00:22:10.440 --> 00:22:14.680
exertion that I had put forth in
their behalf during those seven long years,

277
00:22:14.680 --> 00:22:18.160
to say nothing of the amount of
money I had expended for their welfare over

278
00:22:18.200 --> 00:22:22.119
and above what I could have expected
to receive from his comparatively small life insurance.

279
00:22:23.720 --> 00:22:27.559
Yet so it is, and it
furnishes a very striking illustration of the

280
00:22:27.640 --> 00:22:33.000
vegaries in which this human mind will, under certain circumstances, indulge vagaries in

281
00:22:33.039 --> 00:22:37.680
comparison with which the seeking of buried
treasure at the rainbow's end, the delusions

282
00:22:37.680 --> 00:22:41.880
of the exponent of perpetual motion,
or the dreams of the Hashish fiend,

283
00:22:42.119 --> 00:22:51.359
are sanity itself. Pittzel left his
home for the last time in late July

284
00:22:51.519 --> 00:22:56.279
eighteen ninety four. We journeyed together
to New York and later to Philadelphia,

285
00:22:56.759 --> 00:23:00.000
where the fatal house on coll Street
Hill, in which he met a hiss

286
00:23:00.119 --> 00:23:03.000
death in September, was hired.
Then came my writing to him, the

287
00:23:03.039 --> 00:23:07.559
discouraging letters purporting to be from his
wife, causing him to resort to drink.

288
00:23:08.160 --> 00:23:11.160
Then the waiting from day to day
until I should be sure to find

289
00:23:11.240 --> 00:23:17.119
him in a drunken stupor at midday. This was an easy matter, as

290
00:23:17.160 --> 00:23:21.240
I was well acquainted with his habits, and so sure was I of finding

291
00:23:21.319 --> 00:23:25.079
him. Thus incapacitated that when the
day came on which it was convenient for

292
00:23:25.160 --> 00:23:27.480
me to kill him, even before
I went to his room, I packed

293
00:23:27.480 --> 00:23:33.799
my trunk and made other arrangements to
leave Philadelphia in a hurried flight immediately after

294
00:23:33.839 --> 00:23:37.640
his death. After thus preparing,
I went to the house, quietly,

295
00:23:37.759 --> 00:23:44.039
unlocked the door, and stole noiselessly
within. In the second story room.

296
00:23:44.519 --> 00:23:48.920
I found him insensibly drunk, as
I expected, even with him in this

297
00:23:48.039 --> 00:23:52.599
condition. The question made be asked, had I no fear that he might

298
00:23:52.640 --> 00:23:56.119
only be naturally asleep or partially insensible, and therefore likely at any moment to

299
00:23:56.160 --> 00:24:02.440
come to himself and defend himself.
I am answer no. Only one difficulty

300
00:24:02.480 --> 00:24:06.279
presented itself. It was necessary for
me to kill him in such a manner

301
00:24:06.480 --> 00:24:10.759
that no struggle or movement of his
body should occur. Otherwise his clothing be

302
00:24:10.799 --> 00:24:14.319
in any way displaced, it would
have been impossible to put him again in

303
00:24:14.359 --> 00:24:18.200
a normal position. I overcame this
difficulty by first binding him hand and foot,

304
00:24:18.559 --> 00:24:22.400
and having done this, I proceeded
to burn him alive, saturating his

305
00:24:22.480 --> 00:24:29.160
clothing in his face with benzene and
igniting it with a match. So horrible

306
00:24:29.279 --> 00:24:32.599
was this torture that, in writing
it I have been tempted to attribute his

307
00:24:32.680 --> 00:24:36.799
death to some more humane means,
not with a wish to spare myself,

308
00:24:37.079 --> 00:24:40.480
but because I fear that it will
not be believed that no one should be

309
00:24:40.519 --> 00:24:45.559
so heartless and depraved. But such
a course would be useless. The authorities

310
00:24:45.559 --> 00:24:48.720
have determined for me that this death
could have occurred only in this manner,

311
00:24:49.400 --> 00:24:55.440
no blows or bruises upon the body, and no drugs administered save chloroform,

312
00:24:55.759 --> 00:24:59.359
which was not placed in his stomach
until at least thirty minutes after his death.

313
00:25:00.000 --> 00:25:03.000
And make a misstatement of the facts
now would serve only to draw out

314
00:25:03.039 --> 00:25:07.599
additional criticism from them. The least
I can do is to spare my readers

315
00:25:07.640 --> 00:25:11.119
the victims cry for mercy, his
prayers, and finally his plea for more

316
00:25:11.160 --> 00:25:17.400
speedy termination of his sufferings, all
of which, upon me had no effect.

317
00:25:18.839 --> 00:25:22.920
Finally, when he was dead,
I removed the strips and ropes that

318
00:25:22.000 --> 00:25:27.240
bound him and extinguished the flames,
and a little later poured into his stomach

319
00:25:27.680 --> 00:25:33.279
one and a half ounces of chloroform. It has been asked why I did

320
00:25:33.319 --> 00:25:37.200
this after I knew he was dead. What possible use could it have served.

321
00:25:37.920 --> 00:25:40.400
My answer is that I placed it
there so at the time of the

322
00:25:40.440 --> 00:25:44.920
post mortem examination, which I knew
would be held. The coroner's physicians would

323
00:25:44.920 --> 00:25:48.440
be warranted in reporting that the death
was accidental and due to cleansing flood composed

324
00:25:48.440 --> 00:25:52.119
of benzene and chloroform, and that
the chloroform had at the time of the

325
00:25:52.160 --> 00:25:57.559
explosions passed into his stomach. On
the receipt of such intelligence, I believed

326
00:25:57.559 --> 00:26:03.000
the insurance company would at once pay
the full amount of the claim. Chloroform

327
00:26:03.039 --> 00:26:06.880
did more than this, however,
It developed a condition of his body which,

328
00:26:06.960 --> 00:26:10.519
in my limited medical experience I have
never seen or heard of, and

329
00:26:10.599 --> 00:26:14.480
I mention it here as a fact
of scientific interest that I believe is not

330
00:26:14.599 --> 00:26:18.359
generally known. It drove from his
entire body tissue, brains, and viscera,

331
00:26:18.920 --> 00:26:23.119
all evidence of recent intoxication, to
such an extent that the physicians who

332
00:26:23.200 --> 00:26:27.680
examined the body after death were warranted
in stating under oath that there was no

333
00:26:27.759 --> 00:26:32.400
evidence of alcohol, and that they
did not believe the man was drunk at

334
00:26:32.440 --> 00:26:37.319
the time of his death or within
twelve hours thereafter. That they were wrong

335
00:26:37.400 --> 00:26:41.279
in making such deductions is proven by
the well known fact that all the testimony

336
00:26:41.279 --> 00:26:45.359
and circumstances of my trial tended to
show that he must have been insensible from

337
00:26:45.440 --> 00:26:48.400
liquor, and that only in this
condition could I have killed him, a

338
00:26:48.480 --> 00:26:52.240
fact so strongly brought out that the
learned trial judge and his argument commented upon

339
00:26:52.240 --> 00:27:02.160
it. At some length after his
death, I gathered together various assignments of

340
00:27:02.200 --> 00:27:04.920
patents and deeds to property he had
held for me that I had been careful

341
00:27:04.960 --> 00:27:10.039
to have him sign over days before, so that I should not suffer pecuniary

342
00:27:10.119 --> 00:27:14.680
loss. I also wrote the cipher
message found by the insurance company among my

343
00:27:14.759 --> 00:27:18.279
papers after my arrest, imitating his
handwriting, and after placing the body in

344
00:27:18.279 --> 00:27:22.559
such a position that, by a
cunning arrangement of a window shutter upon the

345
00:27:22.599 --> 00:27:25.839
south side of the building, the
sun would be reflected upon his face the

346
00:27:25.960 --> 00:27:30.440
entire day. I left the house
without the slightest feeling of remorse for my

347
00:27:30.599 --> 00:27:38.960
terrible acts. For one month and
six days thereafter, I took no human

348
00:27:40.039 --> 00:27:44.920
life, although about three weeks after
Pittzel's death, I was afforded an opportunity

349
00:27:44.960 --> 00:27:48.000
to gratify my lust for blood by
going to the graveyard where his corpse had

350
00:27:48.039 --> 00:27:52.160
been taken, and, under the
pretense of securing certain portions of his body

351
00:27:52.160 --> 00:27:57.240
for examination, removed the saying with
a knife and a heartless manner in which

352
00:27:57.279 --> 00:28:00.480
I did this, and the evident
gratify occasion it afforded me, have been

353
00:28:00.519 --> 00:28:06.920
most forcibly told by mister Smith upon
the witness stand as an instance of the

354
00:28:06.960 --> 00:28:11.240
infallibility of justice, as a triumph
of right over wrong, and of the

355
00:28:11.279 --> 00:28:15.640
general safety of condemning to death upon
circumstantial evidence alone. This case is destined

356
00:28:15.680 --> 00:28:21.279
to remain long prominent as a warning
to those viciously inclined, and as a

357
00:28:21.279 --> 00:28:25.519
warning that their only safe course is
to avoid even the appearance of evil.

358
00:28:30.920 --> 00:28:34.200
Two questions I have often been asked
that I will answer, why did I

359
00:28:34.240 --> 00:28:38.279
make no defense at my trial when
by so doing I lose nothing and possibly

360
00:28:38.319 --> 00:28:44.759
could have gained. I answer that, after Detective Guyer's Western investigations, which

361
00:28:44.759 --> 00:28:47.839
we could not at that time in
any way refute, and in the face

362
00:28:47.880 --> 00:28:51.440
of doctor Leffman's learned statements, it
would have been but a waste of my

363
00:28:51.480 --> 00:28:55.319
counsel's energy and of my own to
try to convince the most impartial of juries

364
00:28:55.559 --> 00:28:59.079
that it was a case of suicide
and not murder. Is it to be

365
00:28:59.160 --> 00:29:03.119
wondered at that I I hesitated before
placing the defense of suicide before a jury

366
00:29:03.119 --> 00:29:06.640
composed of men who had, with
three exceptions, stated under oath before being

367
00:29:06.680 --> 00:29:11.559
passed upon by the courts as competent, that they had already formed opinions prejudicial

368
00:29:11.559 --> 00:29:15.119
to my interests. The second question
is, did Pitzel, during his eight

369
00:29:15.200 --> 00:29:21.319
years acquaintance and almost constant association with
me, know that I was a multi

370
00:29:21.400 --> 00:29:25.039
murderer, And if he did know, was he a party to such crimes?

371
00:29:25.960 --> 00:29:29.200
I answered that he neither knew of
nor was a party to the taking

372
00:29:29.279 --> 00:29:33.880
of any human life, and I
earnestly beg that this statement may be believed

373
00:29:33.920 --> 00:29:37.680
both in justice to his memory and
on account of the surviving members of his

374
00:29:37.759 --> 00:29:44.000
family. The worst acts he ever
participated in were dishonesties regarding properties and unlawful

375
00:29:44.039 --> 00:29:47.839
acts of trade in which he aided
me freely. In support of my statement

376
00:29:47.920 --> 00:29:49.880
that he was not cognizant of any
of the given crimes, which I so

377
00:29:51.000 --> 00:29:55.039
freely confess. Here in, I
will mention one of the many instances already

378
00:29:55.119 --> 00:29:57.960
known to the authorities vis a vis
that for six months previous to his death,

379
00:29:59.200 --> 00:30:02.400
he had planned open with his wife
that their daughter, Alice, should

380
00:30:02.440 --> 00:30:06.599
spend a year at a school he
believed Miss Williams intended to open near Boston,

381
00:30:06.920 --> 00:30:10.079
and their plan was of such a
nature that missus Pitzel knew he was

382
00:30:10.119 --> 00:30:12.400
not deceiving her, he would not
have made the arrangement, and there would

383
00:30:12.440 --> 00:30:17.319
have been no occasion for him to
have deceived her or his family if he

384
00:30:17.359 --> 00:30:29.519
believed Miss Williams was not alive.
On the first day of October eighteen ninety

385
00:30:29.519 --> 00:30:33.920
four, I took the three Pitzel
children to Circle House at Indianapolis, where

386
00:30:33.960 --> 00:30:37.640
I engaged permanent board for them until
such a time as I could kill one

387
00:30:37.720 --> 00:30:41.000
or more of them. On the
evening of that day, I went to

388
00:30:41.000 --> 00:30:45.839
Saint Louis, where I remained until
October fourth, busily engaged in settling up

389
00:30:45.880 --> 00:30:49.440
the insurance matter with MacDonald and Howell, the attorneys. During this time I

390
00:30:49.480 --> 00:30:53.640
also called upon the agent or owner
of the Irvington or Indianapolis house. This

391
00:30:53.839 --> 00:30:59.200
was my first incautious step and was
later destined to fasten the crime upon me.

392
00:30:59.519 --> 00:31:02.519
For later, when detectives learned that
I had made this call upon the

393
00:31:02.640 --> 00:31:06.799
date they knew the insurance settlement had
taken place, they no longer hesitated in

394
00:31:06.839 --> 00:31:11.839
stating that I and I alone could
have murdered the boy. On October fifth,

395
00:31:11.880 --> 00:31:15.440
the rent of the house was paid, and about nine o'clock October sixth

396
00:31:15.599 --> 00:31:18.759
I called upon doctor Thompson at Irvington
for the keys, he having been the

397
00:31:18.799 --> 00:31:22.559
former occupant. At five o'clock upon
the same day, I called upon mister

398
00:31:22.599 --> 00:31:26.480
Brown at Irvington to engage him to
make some repairs upon the house, and

399
00:31:26.599 --> 00:31:30.480
upon his appearing indifferent, I became
very angry with him. And my only

400
00:31:30.480 --> 00:31:34.039
wonder now is that I did not
entice him to the house and kill him.

401
00:31:34.480 --> 00:31:37.960
This small circumstance aided in bringing the
crime home to me when it was

402
00:31:38.000 --> 00:31:41.759
made known to the detectives, and
was considered by them in connection with many

403
00:31:41.799 --> 00:31:51.599
other complaints of my violence and ungovernable
temper that had come to their knowledge.

404
00:31:51.839 --> 00:31:55.720
On October seven, I called at
the Irvington drug store early in the evening

405
00:31:55.720 --> 00:31:59.400
and purchased the drugs I needed to
kill the boy, and the following evening

406
00:31:59.440 --> 00:32:01.559
I again went to the same store
and bought an additional supply, as I

407
00:32:01.599 --> 00:32:06.599
found that I had not obtained sufficient
quantity on my first visit. The next

408
00:32:06.680 --> 00:32:09.960
step was to secure the furniture of
the house. This was done on October

409
00:32:10.000 --> 00:32:14.640
eighth, late in the afternoon,
at such an hour that made it impossible

410
00:32:14.640 --> 00:32:16.720
for the store owners to deliver them, and as I had wished to stay

411
00:32:16.759 --> 00:32:21.440
at Irvington that night, I hired
a conveyance and started the goods to the

412
00:32:21.440 --> 00:32:24.680
house myself, keeping the horse there
until the next day. It was also

413
00:32:24.759 --> 00:32:29.880
October eighth, early in the afternoon
that I went to the repair shop for

414
00:32:29.920 --> 00:32:34.480
the long knives I had previously left
there to be sharpened. Early in the

415
00:32:34.480 --> 00:32:37.599
afternoon of October tenth, I had
the boy's trunk and the stove I had

416
00:32:37.599 --> 00:32:42.160
bought taken to the depot, and
they arrived at the Irvington house at about

417
00:32:42.200 --> 00:32:45.359
six o'clock PM, at which time
mister Mormon was the last person who saw

418
00:32:45.400 --> 00:32:51.400
the boy alive, for almost immediately
I called him into the house and insisted

419
00:32:51.400 --> 00:32:53.720
that he go to bed at once, first giving him the fatal dose of

420
00:32:53.799 --> 00:32:59.960
medicine. As soon as he had
ceased to breathe, I cut his box

421
00:33:00.200 --> 00:33:02.599
into pieces that would pass through the
door of the stove, and by the

422
00:33:02.640 --> 00:33:07.759
combined use of gas and corn cobs, proceeded to burn it with as little

423
00:33:07.759 --> 00:33:15.279
feeling as if it had been some
inanimate article. If I could now recall

424
00:33:15.359 --> 00:33:22.119
one circumstance, a dollar of money
to be gained, a disagreeable act or

425
00:33:22.160 --> 00:33:25.640
word on his part, and justification
of this horrid crime, it would be

426
00:33:25.640 --> 00:33:30.200
a satisfaction to me. But to
think that I committed this and other crimes

427
00:33:30.240 --> 00:33:35.920
for the pleasure of killing my fellow
beings, to hear their cries for mercy

428
00:33:36.000 --> 00:33:38.960
and please to be allowed even sufficient
time to pray and prepare for death.

429
00:33:39.960 --> 00:33:45.400
All this is now too horrible for
even me, hardened criminal, that I

430
00:33:45.480 --> 00:33:50.759
am to again live over without a
shudder. Is it to be wondered at

431
00:33:50.839 --> 00:33:53.400
that, since my arrest, my
days have been those of self reproaching torture,

432
00:33:53.880 --> 00:33:59.240
and my knights those of sleepless fear, Or that even before my death

433
00:33:59.480 --> 00:34:02.319
I have committed to assume the form
and features of the evil one himself.

434
00:34:04.720 --> 00:34:08.000
After I had finished the creation of
my victim, I made the excavations in

435
00:34:08.039 --> 00:34:12.400
which the few remaining portions were found
at the time the horror was brought to

436
00:34:12.480 --> 00:34:15.559
light, which, together with the
stove and other evidences of my wrongdoing,

437
00:34:16.000 --> 00:34:21.039
were brought here to Philadelphia at the
time of my trial to mock me and

438
00:34:21.119 --> 00:34:24.440
my efforts to save my life.
Then, after I had removed the blood

439
00:34:24.519 --> 00:34:29.400
and other evidences of the crime,
and had buried the contents of the trunk

440
00:34:29.440 --> 00:34:32.360
and part of the trunk itself,
I went to the office of Powell and

441
00:34:32.440 --> 00:34:37.519
Harder at Indianapolis for my mail.
From there to the hotel of the other

442
00:34:37.559 --> 00:34:42.480
two children, whom I took at
once to Chicago. I immediately returned to

443
00:34:42.519 --> 00:34:45.679
the Irvington house, and was seen
there by mister Armstrong, a teamster,

444
00:34:46.000 --> 00:34:50.000
at such an hour as to make
it a foolish act for me to persist

445
00:34:50.000 --> 00:34:53.920
in saying it was some other person
whom he saw my identification. In Chicago,

446
00:34:54.000 --> 00:34:58.159
by a woman with whom the children
boarded, and by the station agent

447
00:34:58.199 --> 00:35:02.119
at Milwaukee and later at Adrian,
Michigan, all showed the uselessness of trying

448
00:35:02.159 --> 00:35:07.400
to escape from one's self or from
the responsibility of one's wrong act. In

449
00:35:07.480 --> 00:35:12.519
Detroit, I hired a house and
made an excavation in the basement, where

450
00:35:12.559 --> 00:35:15.199
I left a note in my own
handwriting, all of which I hastened to

451
00:35:15.239 --> 00:35:19.840
tell the detectives as soon as I
was arrested, so that by their going

452
00:35:19.880 --> 00:35:22.280
to the house and finding both the
excavation in the note, they would not

453
00:35:22.360 --> 00:35:31.719
be inclined to make a similar search
in Toronto or other places. I now,

454
00:35:32.039 --> 00:35:37.599
with much reluctance, come to the
discussion of the murders of Alice and

455
00:35:37.679 --> 00:35:42.519
Nellie Pitzel, whose deaths will seem
to many to be the saddest of all,

456
00:35:43.360 --> 00:35:45.880
both on account of the terribly heartless
manner in which they were accomplished,

457
00:35:46.199 --> 00:35:50.519
and because, in one instance,
that of Alice, the oldest of these

458
00:35:50.599 --> 00:35:54.119
children, her death was the least
of the wrong suffered of my hands.

459
00:35:55.039 --> 00:35:59.760
Here again I am tempted either to
pass the matter by without speaking of it,

460
00:36:00.239 --> 00:36:04.679
or to deny it altogether. But
to what purpose? It was publicly

461
00:36:04.719 --> 00:36:07.400
known and freely commented upon at my
trial, And to deny it now would

462
00:36:07.440 --> 00:36:12.079
only serve the double purpose of breaking
my resolution to hold nothing in reserve,

463
00:36:12.599 --> 00:36:15.800
and of causing many who are somewhat
familiar with the details of different cases to

464
00:36:15.880 --> 00:36:22.480
disbelieve me in other matters. Moreover, the testimony already given by missus Adleiah

465
00:36:22.519 --> 00:36:25.440
Alacombe, and the opinion of Coroner
Ashbridge and mister Perry, who knew the

466
00:36:25.440 --> 00:36:30.599
mental condition of the child upon the
following day, would, if called for,

467
00:36:30.960 --> 00:36:35.599
be sufficient to decide the matter.
These children, after boarding in Detroit

468
00:36:35.639 --> 00:36:38.400
for about one week, reached Toronto
and were taken to the Albion Hotel,

469
00:36:38.679 --> 00:36:43.920
where they boarded until they were killed. On October twentieth, I hired the

470
00:36:44.000 --> 00:36:46.679
Vincent Street house, having the least
made in the name of H. M.

471
00:36:46.719 --> 00:36:51.159
Howard, in order to avert suspicions
as much as possible in case an

472
00:36:51.239 --> 00:36:54.199
investigation should follow. Between five and
six p m. On the same day,

473
00:36:54.280 --> 00:36:58.079
I took a large empty trunk to
the house, and then passed the

474
00:36:58.119 --> 00:37:01.239
following day at Niagara Falls. On
the twenty third, I bought and took

475
00:37:01.280 --> 00:37:05.440
to the house the furniture, stove
and bedding, and the children went to

476
00:37:05.480 --> 00:37:08.840
the house for a few hours.
The twenty fourth was passed in other parts

477
00:37:08.840 --> 00:37:12.960
of the city, but on the
twenty fifth, the day of their death,

478
00:37:13.400 --> 00:37:15.639
the children were seen at the house
at one o'clock PM, and a

479
00:37:15.679 --> 00:37:21.599
little later they accompanied me to some
clothing stores. Finally, at four o'clock

480
00:37:21.639 --> 00:37:24.079
PM, while they were in a
restaurant near by, I entered a large

481
00:37:24.119 --> 00:37:28.800
store in which I believed I should
meet Missus Pitzell. Holding my hands some

482
00:37:28.880 --> 00:37:31.840
heavy winter underclothing, which I bought
for the little boy already dead. At

483
00:37:31.880 --> 00:37:37.320
Indianapolis. Speaking of this meeting,
missus Pitzell has since said, I believe

484
00:37:37.400 --> 00:37:42.440
my children were at that time in
the store with me. I immediately took

485
00:37:42.480 --> 00:37:45.400
the children to the Vincent Street house
and compelled them both to get within the

486
00:37:45.480 --> 00:37:50.199
large trunk, through the cover of
which I made an opening. There,

487
00:37:50.239 --> 00:37:53.960
I left them until I should return, and at my leisure killed them.

488
00:37:54.280 --> 00:37:59.119
At five o'clock PM, I borrowed
a spade of a neighbor, and later

489
00:37:59.199 --> 00:38:02.840
I called on missus Pitzel at her
hotel. I then returned to my hotel

490
00:38:02.880 --> 00:38:07.840
and ate my dinner, and at
seven o'clock PM went again to missus Pitzel's

491
00:38:07.880 --> 00:38:12.440
hotel and aided her in leaving Toronto
for Ogdensburg, New York. Later than

492
00:38:12.480 --> 00:38:15.159
eight PM, I again went to
the house in which the children were imprisoned

493
00:38:15.480 --> 00:38:22.159
and ended their lives by connecting the
gas pipes with the trunk. Then came

494
00:38:22.360 --> 00:38:25.599
the opening of the trunk and the
viewing of their little, blackened and distorted

495
00:38:25.639 --> 00:38:30.599
faces. Then the digging of the
two shallow graves in the basement of the

496
00:38:30.639 --> 00:38:35.920
house, the ruthless stripping of their
clothing, and their burial without a particle

497
00:38:35.960 --> 00:38:38.719
of clothing, but the cold earth
which I heaped upon them, These little,

498
00:38:38.760 --> 00:38:43.840
innocent, helpless children, the oldest
being only thirteen years of age,

499
00:38:43.960 --> 00:38:46.960
a puny and sickly child whom,
to look at one would believe much younger.

500
00:38:47.159 --> 00:38:51.440
Consider that for eight years before their
death I had been almost as much

501
00:38:51.480 --> 00:38:54.320
a father to them as if they
had been my own children, thus giving

502
00:38:54.360 --> 00:38:59.000
them a right to look at me
for care and protection. And in your

503
00:38:59.079 --> 00:39:04.519
righteous judgment, let your bitterest curses
fall upon me. But again I pray

504
00:39:05.239 --> 00:39:10.920
upon me alone. There is little
more to tell. The next day was

505
00:39:12.000 --> 00:39:15.559
past and burning the children's clothing,
and in resting from my terrible night's work.

506
00:39:16.320 --> 00:39:20.440
And upon the twenty seventh, I
called an expressman and had the trunk

507
00:39:20.519 --> 00:39:24.079
removed from the house. After giving
the keys to a neighbor, I went

508
00:39:24.119 --> 00:39:32.199
away, never to return. From
Toronto, I went to Ogdensburg, and

509
00:39:32.239 --> 00:39:37.239
from there to Burlington, Vermont,
where I hired a furnished room for missus

510
00:39:37.239 --> 00:39:39.800
Pitzel's use, and a few days
prior to my arrest in Boston, I

511
00:39:39.840 --> 00:39:43.960
wrote her a letter in which I
directed her to carry a bottle of dynamite

512
00:39:44.000 --> 00:39:46.800
that I had previously left in the
basement, so arranged that in taking it

513
00:39:46.840 --> 00:39:51.280
to the third story of the house, it would fall from her hands and

514
00:39:51.320 --> 00:39:54.320
not only destroy her life, but
that of her two remaining children, whom

515
00:39:54.360 --> 00:39:59.320
I knew would be with her at
the time. This was my last crime,

516
00:40:00.079 --> 00:40:08.480
happily did not have a fatal termination. The eighteen intervening months I have

517
00:40:08.559 --> 00:40:13.960
passed in solitary confinement, and a
few days I am to be led forth

518
00:40:14.000 --> 00:40:16.920
to my death. It would now
seem a very fitting time for me to

519
00:40:17.000 --> 00:40:22.280
express regret or remorse in this which
I intend to be my last public utterance

520
00:40:22.719 --> 00:40:28.599
for irreparable shortcomings. I do so
without the expectation that even one person who

521
00:40:28.599 --> 00:40:31.400
has read this confession to the end
will believe that in my depraved nature there

522
00:40:31.440 --> 00:40:36.599
is room for such feelings. I
fear to expect more than would be granted,

523
00:40:37.199 --> 00:40:43.239
and I can and do refrain from
calling forth such criticism by openly inviting

524
00:40:43.280 --> 00:41:13.920
it. Signed H. Holmes.
This has been the Confession of H.

525
00:41:14.079 --> 00:41:17.719
H. Holmes. A litany of
horror presented by true crime historian Richard O.

526
00:41:17.880 --> 00:41:22.719
Jones. The descriptions and quotes used
in this production have been called from

527
00:41:22.719 --> 00:41:29.960
the pages of the Chicago inter Ocean
and other newspapers of the day before he

528
00:41:30.079 --> 00:41:34.000
was hanged in the Philadelphia County Prison
on May seventh, eighteen ninety six.

529
00:41:34.440 --> 00:41:38.840
Holmes recanted his confession, but the
details are so specific that most historians believe

530
00:41:38.960 --> 00:41:43.159
this to be at least a semblance
of the truth of what happened in the

531
00:41:43.239 --> 00:41:50.719
murder Castle of H. H.
Holmes musical direction by Chuck Wiggins. This

532
00:41:50.760 --> 00:42:12.039
is true crime. Historian Richard O. Jones signing off for now all unity