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And His Body Was Burned at Philadelphia. MOTHER CRAZED WITH GRIEF, Although Prostrated She Goes to Identify her Babies—A Strange, Weird Story. Carcano, July 19.—Mrs. Pitezel, who has gone to Toronto to identify the bodies of the two children found in the cellar of the house at 16 St. Vincent street, talked about her past life and her husband's dealings with Holmes just before leaving. Mrs. Pitezel is broken in health and mind, the victim, she believes, of hypnotic influence exerted by Holmes. Her story was straightforwardly told, and it is impos sible to believe, after being any length of time in her company, that she was either a confederate or accomplice of Holmes in the commission of any of his crimes. “Holmes, whom I had never met,”’ said Mrs. Pitezel, “but once before the death of my husband, seemed from the time he asked me for the care of the children until his final arrest to have a peculiar influence over me. I felt con trolled by him. He had a sway over me that was not natural, since he has been the intimate friend of my hus band. Besides my husband had re peatedly told me that I could trust him; he was a good man and that he would always be true to us. The children idolized him. There was nothing he could not do with them. Again and again my husband told me how much he thought of Holmes and how honorable he was until I came to the same opinion myself, although at first I did not like the man and told my husband so and begged him to have nothing to do with him. “I saw my husband last. On August 24, 1804 He had gone to St. Louis. He was then heavily interested with Yolmes in whatever the enterprises were they had on together, and I was lying sick with my baby. IT was very sick. I could not go to Philadelphia to identify the body which they suspected to be that of my husband. [I could not be moved, Holmes came to me and Alice was taken Kast and she iden tified the body. It was after that that I Holmes told me that the body was not that of my husband, that it was a bogus body made up to look like him, and that if for the children said anything about it the insurance company would get hold of us and we would be punished severely. “LT was very sick and I believed Holmes, Ie talked kindly and offered to take Alice, Nellie and Howard away from me and educate them. He said that he would put them to school and pay all of their expenses. The children loved him, and I was alone in the world and poor. L let him take them, and they went away. At this time and all other times Lalmes acted to me like a gentleman. “We constantly kept me under the impression, though, that Io and the children were to be mixed up in the bogus body which he said was found in Philadelphia. Io said Pitezel was still alive and that I would see him again when this trouble is over. He wished, though, to save us from arrest, and after the three children were gone I moved about the country. I began to worry about the children. I wanted to see them and wished to know where they were. Holmes always put me off with the story that I must keep quiet until the detectives stopped their work. “When he took me to Detroit it was he who registered me as Mrs. Adams. He told me so when he came up to the room where Bessie, my oldest daughter, and I were. I told him that he did wrong to put my name down wrong, but he explained that the detectives must be kept off the track and that I was protecting my husband by this. I finally heard the children were at Tor onto and Bessie, Lund the baby went there alone to search, but without suc cess. “Since then I have been working for the location of the children with Dis trict Attorney Graham of Philadelphia. Mr. Geyer, the detective, of Phila delphia, and the officers of the life in surance company have done all in their power to aid me. You must under stand that when my children were first really missing I was locked up and could not communicate with anyone. I was not allowed to see the newspapers nor to receive mail. In Holmes’ trunk there was found a letter from my daughter Alice to me, which never reached me, showing that my mail was intercepted. Since I have had my free dom the Philadelphia authorities and the insurance company have worked to bring my children back to me and I have aided them so far as I could. “When I gave the children up to Holmes in St. Louis I was too sick and trusted him too much to pay careful attention to what I did. He told me to go home to Galva, to recruit there with my parents and he would keep the three in school._ When he took me to Detroit, and I supposed we were being hounded by detectives, Holmes paid most of the bills. Sometimes I was compelled to pay my own expenses. I believe Holmes intended to kill me. I think he meant to kill me in Burlington, Vt., but he must have lost his nerve, or he still had the children on his hands and hesitated. I cannot give any other explanation of why he spared my life. He intended to kill my entire family. Two Children at Galva, Galva, IL, July 19.—Living with their parents here, Mr. and Mrs. Robert Canning, are Bessie Pitezel and Baby Pitezel. Bessie is 17 and the baby 20 months old. The children and Mrs. Pitezel are the sole survivors of a family of seven, after their experience with H. H. Holmes. Benjamin Pitezel, a farmer, and Car rie Canning were married 17 years ago and went west to live. About eight years ago they removed to Chicago. Pitezel formed the acquaintance of Holmes there, according to Bessie Pete gel, and last July Holmes and the entire family went to St. Louis. The family remained in St. Louis and Pitezel and Holmes started on a tour of the west. “Sometimes we would receive a letter from papa in one state and then in an other,” said Bessie. ‘Finally he and Holmes came back and left for Phila delphia, when we heard papa was dead. Mamma was sick in bed and I was tak ing care of her, so we sent Alice, my sister, on to Philadelphia to identify papa. Mr. Canning showed a facsimile let ter, signed by Mrs. Pitzel and ac knowledging the receipt of the $10,000 insurance money. It was dated at St. Louis, Sept. 29, 1804. October 5 Mrs. Pitezel and her two children came to Galva and remained until Oct. 13, when they received word from Holmes to come to Detroit. Bessie says Holmes wanted to leave her at Detroit and take Mrs. Pitezel to Toronto, Canada. From Toronto they went to Prescott, then to Ogdensburg, and then to Burlington, Va. All the time Holmes would show them to a hotel and then leave them until time to take a rain, when he would put them on the train, but would not ride in the same car. Says Ditezel is Dead. Pumapurata, July 19,—iolmes, the insurance swindler and supposed mur derer of BL. Pitezel has told another story. When first arrested Holmes stoutly maintained that Pebezel was alive, and that the charred body found in the Callowhill street house was that of a medical subject. Today he said that the body was that of Pitezel. His statement was that a scheme had been concocted to use the body of a college subject, but that Vitexel had become afraid of detection and fad gone on a spree during which he committed sui cide by taking chloroform. Holmes refused to tell how the fire which charred the body had occurred. Ht has all along contended that Pitezel could be produced, but now acknow ledges that he is dead. In view of his conflicting Statements it is not won dered at that he remarked to an officer yesterday: ‘“‘I guess PH hang for this.”’
Newspaper Details
Fort Wayne Times Post
Fort Wayne, Indiana, US
Fri, Jul 19, 1895
Page 1
Full Page
Clipped by
Viviana M.
USA 29 Apr 2026
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