After relating his story and showing his pictures hundreds of times, after weeks of fruitless labor and nights, of restless sleep, Geyer again related his story and showed his pictures of Holmes. The old man adjusted his glasses and finally remarked that it was the picture of a man who rented a house from him in October, As the house belonged to a Dr.
Thompson, who had seen the tenant, Geyer, who had now taken a new lease of life, hurried to him, and the doctor not only identified the picture as a likeness of his tenant, but told the detective that a boy in his employ named Elvet Moorman had seen this man with a boy at the house.
He stated that his duty compelled him to go and milk a cow every afternoon, which was kept in a lot in the rear of the house Holmes rented, and that while so engaged Holmes asked him to help him put up a stove when he had finished milking. Geyer then proceeded to the vacant cottage, which was across the street from a Methodist church. He searched the house from cellar to roof and discovered nothing. He then looked through the lattice work between the piazza floor and the ground and saw some pieces of an old trunk.
He broke in after this and found that in one place on the remains of the trunk a piece of blue calico had been pasted, and on this calico was the figure of a flower. As the earth appeared to have been disturbed Geyer began digging with a vengeance, but all in vain.
He then proceeded to the barn, and there found an immense coal stove. As it was growing late Geyer quit for the night, with the intention of resuming the search in the morning. Pitezel was then with her folks in Galva, Ill. They brought out a handful of ashes, but in those ashes were several teeth and small pieces of bone. While Geyer was still in the telegraph office at Irvington he was informed of this discovery, and rushed back to the cottage.
The corner grocer then came forward and announced that the boy, whose picture Geyer showed him, came to his store in October and left his coat there, saying that he would call for it, but never returned. Geyer then located Albert Schiffling, who conducted a shop at 48 Virginia Avenue, Indianapolis, and he stated that on October 3 Holmes, accompanied by little Howard, called on him and left some surgical instruments to be sharpened.
But the child little realized that they were being sharpened for the purpose of dismembering his body so that it could be cremated in the stove afterward set up. On September 1, , Detective Geyer returned to Philadelphia, and after being congratulated on all sides for unraveling one of the greatest mysteries in criminal history in America, he proceeded to bring the archfiend to justice.
Holmes having been indicted for the murder of Benjamin Pitezel, the trial was set for October The lower floor was occupied by stores, a drug store being on the corner; the outside rooms of the three upper stories having square bay windows and were arranged into apartments and offices, with the exception of that part used by Holmes in connection with his human slaughter-house.
His rooms were on the second floor, and in his office was a vault from which neither air nor sound could escape when the door was closed. From his bathroom, which had no windows and no means of lighting, unless an artificial light was brought in, was a secret stairway leading to the basement, and in order to reach this stairway the rug in the bathroom was raised, and there was found a trap door. The laboratory on the third floor was connected with the cellar in a similar manner.
There was no other means of reaching this particular part of the cellar except by these secret stairs. In this cellar was a large grate with a removable iron covering in front, and under this grate was a large firebox. In an ashpile in the corner several small pieces of burned human bone were found, and in the center of the room was a long dissecting table, upon which was found blood and indentures from surgical instruments.
On July 24, , Detectives Fitzpatrick and Norton, of the Chicago police, began a systematic search for evidence of crime committed by Holmes in this building. They dug up the cellar, and buried in quicklime they found seventeen ribs, three sections of vertebrae of the spinal column and several teeth attached to the upper portion of a jaw bone.
These discoveries were all taken to Dr. In one of his numerous statements Holmes claimed that the Pitezel children had gone to Europe in care of a Miss Minnie Williams. This resulted in an investigation as to the identity of Miss Williams, and also resulted in two more murders being charged to Holmes:. Learning that she and her sister, Nettie, owned a valuable piece of land in Fort Worth, Texas, he professed love to Miss Minnie, and it is said that they lived as man and wife in the castle.
Nettie arrived in Chicago shortly afterward, but within a short time both girls mysteriously disappeared and were never seen again. Their business affairs became badly muddled and they left town before the building was completed, but not before Holmes stole a horse and engaged in numerous other shady transactions.
On July 19, , the police made another search of the Castle and found more charred bones, several metal buttons and part of a watch chain. Davis, who formerly conducted a jewelry store in the Castle, identified the watch chain as belonging to Minnie Williams, and also stated that he repaired it on two occasions. He furthermore stated that he had seen Minnie Williams wearing a dress on which were buttons similar to those found.
In I. Connor, a jeweler, married a beautiful eighteen-year-old girl named Smythe, in Davenport, Iowa. About one year afterward a little daughter was born. This child was named Gertrude.
Connor was still a beautiful woman, and being possessed of considerable business ability, Holmes consulted with her about several of his schemes, and they became quite confidential. Differences arose between Connor and his wife, with the result that he left, but Mrs. Connor and Gertrude remained at Holmes Castle.
In both Mrs. Connor and Gertrude disappeared. While in prison in Philadelphia, Holmes was interrogated as to their fate, and he stated that Mrs. Connor died from an operation, but that he did not know what became of Gertrude. On August 2, , some of Mrs. On this same day Janitor Pat Quinlan and his wife confessed that they saw the dead body of Mrs. Connor in the Castle. On July 22, , A. Minier, a nephew of Mrs. Connor, swore to a warrant charging Holmes with her murder.
Her father, A. Smythe, produced a letter supposed to have been written by her in November, , wherein she stated that she contemplated going to St.
In Holmes was president of the A. Copying Company, which also had offices in the Castle, and Miss Emily Cigrand was employed by him as a stenographer. She was formerly employed in a similar capacity at the hospital at Dwight, Ill. He eventually took over the business and was later rumored to have killed its original owner. Holmes had a three-story building constructed nearby, creating an elaborate house of horrors.
The upper floors contained his living quarters and many small rooms where he tortured and killed his victims. There were also trapdoors and chutes that enabled him to move the bodies down to the basement, where he could burn the remains in a kiln or dispose of them in other ways. During the Columbian Exposition, Holmes opened up his home as a hotel for visitors. Unfortunately, many guests did not survive in what became known as the "Murder Castle.
Jailed at one point for another fraud, Holmes confided in fellow inmate and notorious outlaw Marion Hedgepeth — who knew Holmes as H. Howard — about the life insurance scheme.
Hedgepeth later helped investigators by revealing details of their discussion. While the authorities eventually identified Howard as Holmes, they did not catch on soon enough to stop his final murders.
Holmes killed Pitezel and, after telling his widow that her husband was still alive and in hiding, convinced her to let him travel with three of her five children, who also became his victims. After several weeks of outrunning authorities, Holmes was finally apprehended in November Maybe Holmes felt like that.
One more book that I have that has the H. Holmes activities at the same time — only a short distance away from the Exposition fairgrounds. You are commenting using your WordPress.
You are commenting using your Google account. You are commenting using your Twitter account. You are commenting using your Facebook account. Notify me of new comments via email. Notify me of new posts via email. Famous 19th and 20th Century Murder Cases. Skip to content. Home About. Mostly about H. Holmes and his Murder Castle Posted on June 29, by janemclean See below.
Share this: Twitter Facebook. Henry Howard Holmes or simply H. Holmes was an infamous American serial killer who was active during the last quarter of the 19th century. Although only nine of the 27 murders could be confirmed by the police and local authorities at the time, he is one of the most talked about serial killers in history. Due to several inconsistencies and repeated alterations in his confession, the actual number of his victims and the exact procedure of the murders remain shrouded in mystery to this day.
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