A CRIMINAL HISTORY OF MANKIND

insurance. He married a second time - bigamously - but ran into trouble when he forged his wife’s
uncle’s signature. He became an assistant in a drug store run by a Mrs Holden on 63 rd Street,
Englewood, and in 1890 became a partner. There was some talk about rigged books and
prosecution, and Mrs Holden vanished. Holmes became sole owner of the store. He was soon doing
so well that he built himself a house opposite - it later became known as ‘murder castle’; one of its
peculiarities was a chute leading to the basement; others were glass pipes with which he could
flood rooms with gas, and peep holes into all the rooms. One of his tenants, Dr Russell, was killed
with a blow from a chair; the body was sold to a medical school which apparently asked no
questions about the injuries.
A Mrs Julia Conner and her daughter moved into the house, and Mrs Conner became pregnant by
Holmes, so her husband left her. Mrs Conner died in the course of an operation for abortion, and
Holmes poisoned the daughter, afraid she might talk about her mother’s death.
Holmes next killed a companion on a fishing trip, discovering he was carrying a great deal of
money; the man - named Rodgers - was killed with blows from an oar. A southern speculator
named Charles Cole was also killed for his money - his skull was so damaged by the blow that his
corpse was useless to the medical school. After that, Holmes killed a domestic servant called Lizzie
because he was afraid the janitor was about to run away with her and he wanted to retain his
services. Holmes was preparing to ship this corpse to the medical school when his secretary, Mary
Haracamp, walked into the room together with a pregnant woman named Sarah Cook. Holmes
swiftly pushed them into the tiny room he called ‘the vault’, to be suffocated.
A girl named Emily Cigrand became his new secretary and also his mistress. When she told him
she was getting married, Holmes lured her into the ‘vault’ and ordered her to write a letter to her
fiancé breaking off the engagement. The girl wrote the letter, but Holmes nevertheless turned on
the gas and watched her die a lingering death. His later confession makes it clear that he was now
beginning to take considerable pleasure in watching people die.
Ten more victims followed within months. Holmes began using poison; the motive was normally to
extort money, but when - as in most cases - the victims were women, they usually became his
mistresses too. One of these mistresses was a girl called Minnie Williams, from whom Holmes had
swindled several thousand dollars. Holmes murdered her sister Nannie in the vault, and also
somehow persuaded her brother to make him the beneficiary of an insurance policy; the brother
was later shot ‘in self defence’. By that time, Minnie had also been murdered; she had confessed to
an insurance representative that a fire in the ‘castle’ had been deliberate arson.
Soon afterwards, Holmes acquired a partner in crime, a man named Benjamin Pitezel. This may
seem out of character; but in fact, Holmes planned to murder Pitezel from the beginning. Their first
joint venture in crime landed Holmes in jail for the first time. He bought a drug store in St Louis,
mortgaged the stock, then let Pitezel remove it. He spent ten days in jail before being bailed out by
his current ‘wife’, a girl named Georgiana Yoke. It was in prison that Holmes met the famous trainrobber,
Marion Hedgepeth, and confided in him that he had worked out a perfect insurance swindle.
It involved insuring a man’s life, getting him ‘killed’ in an accidental explosion, and substituting
another body for that of the victim. Hedgepath gave Holmes the name of a crooked lawyer to deal
with the insurance company, and Holmes promised to give him five hundred dollars if the plan was
successful.
In August 1894, the police were called to a house in Philadelphia where a body had been
discovered; it was that of a man who had apparently died in an explosion involving chloroform.