I am moved to make this confession for a variety of reasons, but among them are not those of bravado or a desire to parade my wrongdoings before the public gaze, and he who reads the following lines will, I beg, make a distinction between such motives and a determination upon my part to enter plainly and minutely into the details of each case without favor towards myself. And having done so I have chosen to make it public by publishing it in THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER.
A word as to the motives or causes that have led to the commission of these many crimes and I will proceed to the most difficult and distasteful task of my life, the setting forth in all its horrid nakedness the recital of the premeditated killing of twenty-seven human beings and the unsuccessful attempts to take the lives of six others, thus branding myself as the most detestable criminal of modern times – a task so hard and distasteful that beside it the certainty that in a few days I am to be hanged by the neck until I am dead seems but a pastime.
Acquired homicidal mania, all other causes, save the occasional opportunity for pecuniary gain having by others been excluded for me, is the only constant cause, and in advancing it at this time I do not do so with the expectation of a mitigation of public condemnation, or that it will in any way react in my favor. Had this been my intention I should have considered it at the time of my trial, and had it used as my defense.
All criminologists who have examined me here seem to be unanimous in the opinions they have formed, although one inexplicable condition presents itself, viz.: that while committing the crimes these symptoms were not present, but commenced to develop after my arrest.
Ten years ago I was thoroughly examined by four men of marked ability and by them pronounced as being both mentally and physically a normal and healthy man. Today I have every attribute of a degenerate – a moral idiot. It is possible that the crimes, instead of being the result of these abnormal conditions, are in themselves the occasion of the degeneracy?
Even at the time of my arrest in 1894 no defects were noticeable under the searching Bertillon system of measurements to which I was subjected, but later, and more noticeably within the past few months, these defects have increased with startling rapidity, as is made known to me by each succeeding examination until I have become thankful that I am no longer allowed a glass with which to note my rapidly deteriorating condition, though nature, ever kind, provides in this, as in the ordinary forms of insanity where the sufferer believes himself always sane so that unless called to my attention, I do not notice my infirmity nor suffer therefrom. The principal defects that have thus far developed and which are all established signs of degeneracy, are a decided prominence upon one side of my head and a corresponding diminution upon the other side; a marked deficiency of one side of my nose and of one ear, together with an abnormal increase of each upon the opposite side; a difference of one and one-half inches in the length of my arms and an equal shortening of one leg from knee to heel; also a most malevolent distortion of one side of my face and of one eye – so marked and terrible that in writing of it for publication, Hall Caine, although I wore a beard at the time to conceal it as best I could, described that side of my face as marked by a deep line of crime and being that of a devil – so apparent that an expert criminologist in the employ of the United States Government who had never previously seen me said within thirty seconds after entering my cell: “I know you are guilty.”
Would it not, then, be the height of folly for me to die without speaking, if only for the purpose of justifying these scientific deductions and accrediting what is due to those to whom society owes so much for bringing me to justice?
The first taking of human life that is attributed to me is in the case of Dr. Robert Leacock of New Baltimore, Mich., a friend and former schoolmate. I knew that his life was insured for a large sum and after enticing him to Chicago I killed him by giving him an overwhelming dose of laudanum. My subsequently taking his dead body from place to place in and about Grand Rapids, Mich., as has been so other printed heretofore, and the risk and excitement attendant upon the collection of the forty thousand dollars of insurance, were very insignificant matters compared with the torturing thought that I had taken human life. This, it will be understood I had become wholly deaf to the promptings of conscience, for prior to this death, which occurred in 1886, I beg to be believed in stating that I had never sinned so heavily either by thought or deed. Later, like the man-eating tiger of the tropical jungle, whose appetite for blood has once been aroused, I roamed about the world seeking whom I could destroy. Think of the awful list that follows. Twenty-seven lives, men and women, young girls and innocent children, blotted out by one monster’s hand, and you, my reader of a tender and delicate nature, will do well to read no further, for I will in no way spare myself, and he who reads to the end, if he be charitable, will, In the words - of the District Attorney at my trial, when the evidence of all these many crimes had been collected and placed before him by his trusty assistants, exclaim: "God: help such a man!” If uncharitable or only just will he not rather say: “May he be utterly damned," and that it Is almost sufficient to cause one to doubt the wisdom of Providence that such a man should have so long been allowed to live. If so I earnestly pray that this condemnation and censure may not extend to those whose only crime has been that they knew and trusted, aye in some instances, loved me and who today are more deserving of the world’s compassion than censure.
Figure 1: Robert Leacock
My second victim was Dr. Russell, a tenant in the Chicago building recently renamed “The Castle.” During a controversy concerning the non-payment of rent due me, I struck him to the floor with a heavy chair when he, with one cry for help, ending in a groan of anguish, ceased to breathe. This quarrel and death occurred in a small outer office, and as soon as I realized that my blow had been a fatal one and I had recovered somewhat from the horror of having still another victim's blood upon my hands, I was forced to look about for some safe means of concealing the crime. I locked the doors of the office, and my first intention was to dispose of the body to a Chicago medical college, from one of whose officers I had previously obtained dissecting material, as they believed, but in reality to be used in insurance work. I found it difficult, if not impossible, to thus dispose of it, and was directed to call upon a party to whom I sold the bodies and whose name I withhold, but I have confessed his name to parties in whom I have confidence.
To him I sold this man's body, as well as others at later dates. In short, in this writing, in each instance when the manner of the disposal of their remains is not otherwise specified, it will be understood that they were turned over to him, he paying me from $25 to $45 for each body, and right easily could be, during the recent investigations, go from room to room in the building when each was more or less gruesomely familiar to him. It is not necessary for me to add that the efforts of his friends to shield him when it became evident that he, had talked too freely for his own safety should not have saved him from being compelled to turn over the remains of these persons for decent burial or to point out the various museums where they were sold.
The third death was to a certain extent due to a criminal operation. A man and a woman were cognizant of and partly responsible for both the operation and the death. The victim was Mrs. Julia L. Connor.
Figure 2: Julia Conner
A reference to almost any newspaper of August, 1895, will give the minute details of the horrors of this case, as they were worked out by the detectives, therefore making it unnecessary to repeat it here, save to add that the death or the child Pearl, her little daughter, who is the fourth victim, was caused by poison, and that the man and woman above referred to were equally responsible with myself for its administration, although it was at my instigation that It was done, as I believed the child was old enough to remember of her mother's sickness and death. They wished, at first, to place the child In the care or their aged parents, who lived south of the city, but were overruled by my opposition. Owing to the suddenness of the
third death, a certain note of considerable value, well secured by property south or the Castle, was uncollectible, and at the time of my death it will be sent to such or her relatives as it may appear have the greater right to receive it.
Figure 3: Pearl Conner
The fifth murder, that of Rodgers, of West Morgantown, Va., occurred in 1888, at which time I was boarding there for a. few weeks. Learning that the man had some money I induced him to go upon a fishing trip with me and, being successful in allaying
his suspicions, I finally ended his life by a sudden blow upon the head with an oar. The body was found about a month thereafter, but I was not suspected until after my trial here, and even then by a. fortunate circumstance succeeded in having the report publicly denied, but did not succeed in changing the opinion of fifty or more persons living in the town who had recognized my picture in the daily papers.
The sixth case is that of Charles Cole, a Southern speculator. After considerable correspondence this man came to Chicago, and I enticed him into the Castle, where, while I was engaging him in conversation, a confederate stuck him a most vicious blow upon the head with a piece of gas pipe. So heavy was the blow it not only caused his death without a groan and hardly a movement, but it crushed his skull to such an extent that his body was almost useless to the party who bought the body. This Is the first instance in which I knew this confederate had committed murder, though in several other instances be was fully as guilty as myself, and, if possible, more heartless and bloodthirsty, and I have no doubt is still engaged in the same nefarious work, and if so is probably aided by a Chicago business man.
A domestic named Lizzie, was the seventh victim. She for a time worked in the Castle restaurant and l soon learned that Quinlan was paying her too close attention and fearing lest it should progress so far that it would necessitate his leaving my employ I thought it wise to end the life of the girl. This I did by calling her in the vault of which so much has since been printed, she being the first victim that died therein. Before her death I compelled her to write letters to her relations and to Quinlan, stating that she had left Chicago for a Western State and should not return. A few months ago the prosecution, believing from certain letters purporting to have been written by her that she was alive, at once showed me their willingness to give me fair trial by having this publicly known, she being a witness that I could have used to great advantage in the Pitezel case, here.
The eighth, ninth and tenth cases are Mrs. Sarah Cook, her unborn child, and Miss Mary Haracamp, of Hamilton, Canada. In 1888 Mr. Frank Cook became a tenant in the Castle. He was engaged to be married to a young lady living at some distance from Chicago who later came there and was married to him in my presence, by the Rev. Dr. Taylor, of Englewood, Ill. They kept house in the Castle, and for a time I boarded with them. Shortly Miss Mary Haracamp, of Hamilton, a niece of Mrs. Sarah Cook, came to Chicago and entered my employ as a stenographer. But Mrs. Cook and her niece had access to all rooms by means of a master key and one evening while I was busily engaged preparing my last victim for shipment, the door suddenly opened and they stood before me. It was a time for a quick action, rather than for words of explanation upon my part, and before they had recovered from the horror of the sight, they were within the fatal vault, so lately tenanted by the dead body, and then, after writing a letter at my dictation to Mr. Cook that they had tired of their life with him and had gone away not expecting to return, their lives were sacrificed instead of giving them their liberty in exchange for their promise to at once and forever leave Chicago, which had been promised them in return for writing the letter. These were particularly sad deaths, both on account of the victims being exceptionally upright and virtuous women and because Mrs. Sarah Cook, had she lived, would have soon become a mother. Soon after this Miss Emmeline Cigrand, of Dwight, Ill, was sent to me by a Chicago typewriter firm to fill the vacancy of stenographer. She had formerly been employed at Dwight where she had become acquainted with a man who visited her from time to time while she was in my employ. She was finally engaged to him and the day set for their wedding. This attachment was particularly obnoxious to me, both because Miss Cigrande had become almost indispensable in my office work, and because she had become my mistress as well as stenographer. I endeavored upon several occasions to take the life of the young man and failing in this I finally resolved that I would kill her instead, and upon the day of their wedding, even after cards had been sent out announcing that it had occurred, she came to my office to bid me good bye. While there I asked her to step inside the vault for some papers for me. There I detained her, telling her that if she would write her husband that at the last moment she had found that it would be impossible to live happily with him and consequently had left Chicago in such a way that search for her would be useless, I would take her to a distant city and live openly with her as my wife. She was very willing to do this and prepared to leave the vault upon completing the letter only to learn that the door would never be again opened until she had ceased to suffer the tortures of a slow and lingering death.
Figure 4: Emmeline Cigrand
Then follows an unsuccessful attempt to commit a triple murder for the $90 that my agent for disposing of “stiffs” would have given me for the bodies of the intended victims, who were three young women working in my restaurant upon Milwaukee avenue, Chicago. That these women lived to tell of their experience to the police last summer is due to my foolishly trying to chloroform all of them at one and the same time. By their combined strength they overpowered me and ran screaming into the street, clad only in their night robes. I was arrested next day, but was not prosecuted. To this attempt to kill could very justly be added my attempt to take the lives of Mrs. Pitezel and two of her children at a later date, thus making the total number of my victims 33, instead of 27, as it was through no fault of mine that they escaped.
My next attempt was carried out with more caution. The victim was a very beautiful young woman named Rosine Van Jassand, whom I induced to come into my fruit and confectionery store, and, once within my power, I compeller her to live with me there for a time, threatening her with death if she appeared before any of my customers. A little later I killed her by administering ferro-cyanide of potassium. The location of this store was such that it would have been hazardous to have sent out a large box containing a body, and I therefore buried her remains in the store basement, and from day to day during the recent investigation at the Castle I expected to hear that excavations had been made there as well.
Robert Latimer, a man who had for some years been in my employ as janitor, was my next victim. Several years previous, before I had ever taken human life, he had known of certain insurance work I had engaged in, and when, in after years, he sought to extort money from me, his own death and the sale of his body was the recompense meted out to him. I confined him within the secret room and slowly staved him to death. Of this room and its secret gas supply and muffled windows and doors, sufficient has already been printed. Finally, needing its use for another purpose and because his pleadings had become almost unbearable, I ended his life. '-The partial excavation in the walls of this room found by the police was caused by Latimer’s endeavoring to escape by tearing away the solid brick and mortar with his unaided fingers.
The fourteenth case is that of Miss Anna Betts, and was caused by my purposely substituting a poisonous drug in a prescription that had been sent to my drug store to be compounded, believing that it was known that I was a physician, I should be called in to witness her death, as she lived very near the store. This was not the case, however, as the regular physician was in attendance at the time. The prescription, still on file at the Castle drug store, should be considered by the authorities if they still are inclined to attribute this death to causes that reflect upon Miss Betts' moral character.
The death of Miss Gertrude Conner, of Muscatine, Iowa, though not the next in order of occurrence, is so similar to the last that a description of one suffices tor both, save in this
case Miss Conner left Chicago immediately, but did not die until she had reached her home at Muscatine. Perhaps these two cases show more plainly than any others the light regard I had for the lives of my fellow-beings.
The sixteenth murder is that of Miss Kate Gorky, of Omaha, a young woman owning much valuable real estate in Chicago, where I acted as her agent. This was at the time so graphically described by a local writer — as when I was allowed to hold property under one name, act as notary public under another and carry on a general business under still another title. I caused Miss Kate Gorky to believe that a favorable opportunity had come for her to convert her holdings into cash, and, having accomplished this for her, she came to Chicago and I paid her the money, taking a receipt in full for same, and thus protected myself in the event of an inquiry at a later date. I asked her to look about my offices and finally to look within the vault, and, having once passed that fatal door, she never came forth alive. She did not die at once, however, and her anger when first she realized that she was deprived of her liberty, then her offer of the entire forty thousand dollar in exchange for same and finally her prayers are something terrible to remember. It was stated that I had also killed a sister of Miss Kate Gorky but I think this report has already been contradicted.
The next death was that of a man named Warner, the originator of the Warner Glass Bending Company, and here again a very large sum or money was realized, which prior to his death had been deposited in two Chicago banks, nearly all of which I secured by means of two checks, made out and properly signed by him for a small sum each. To these I later added the word thousand, and the necessary ciphers and by passing them through the bank where I had a regular open account I promptly realized the money, save a small amount not covered by the checks in the Park National Bank, northwest corner Dearborn and Washington streets, in that city. It will be remembered that the remains of a large kiln made of fire brick was found in the Castle basement. It had been built under Mr. Warner's supervision for the purpose of exhibiting his patents. It was so arranged that in less than a minute after turning on a jet of crude oil atomized with steam the entire kiln would be filled with a colorless flame, so intensely hot iron would be melted therein. It was into this kiln that I induced Mr. Warner to go with me, under pretense of wishing certain minute explanations of the process, and then stepping outside, as he believed to get some tools. I closed the door and turned on both the oil and steam to their full extent. In a short time not even the bones of my victim remained. The coat found outside the kiln was the one he took off before going therein.
Confessions of the Serial Killer H.H. Holmes (Illustrated) Page 15
