Violent Crime Rates Under New York City Mayor Giuliani

My previous post detailed the drop in the violent crime and murder rates in New York City since their peak twenty-five years ago and showed that it led New York State in improving crime statistics.

The differences were dramatic. In 1990, there were 2245 murders in New York City and 360 in the rest of New York State. (In 1990, New York City had approximately 40% of the state's population.) In 2014, there were 333 murders in New York City and 284 in the rest of the state. (In 2014, New York City had approximately 42% of the state population.)


Mayor Giuliani

In this post I'm going to look at the question of how much of a real decrease took place during Rudy Giuliani's tenure as mayor of New York City.

In my opinion, Rudy Giuliani is a shrill blowhard. However, it is possible that he is a shrill blowhard who was competent at something. I am going to look at statistics as to whether the drop in violent crime rate was real, substantive and represented a better performance than the United States as a whole over the same period of time. I am not going to address the methods to achieve these changes: I'm taking on a delicate enough issue as it is. While numerical changes succumb to statistics, policy matters are a forever-long debate.

Background

Rudy Giuliani, the 107th mayor of New York City, served from January 1, 1994 through December 31, 2001. This is convenient, there are no half-year or even half-month statistics to look at. Giuliani succeeded Mayor David Dinkins, in office from 1989 through 1993.

Giuliani had three police commissioners. The first was William Bratton from January 1, 1994 to April 15, 1996. The second was Howard Safir from April 15, 1996 to August 18, 2000. The third was Bernard Kalik from August 21, 2000 to December 31, 2001. (Bratton would return as police commissioner under current Mayor de Blasio.)

According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, in 1993, the year before Giuliani took office, the violent crime rate in New York City was 2089.8 per 100,000 population. This was down by 12.3% from its peak in 1990. The murder rate was 26.5 per 100,000 population down by 13.6% from its peak in 1990.

In 2001, the violent crime rate in New York City was 927.5 per 100,000 population (official FBI statistics, more on this below) and the murder rate was 8.9. These represented decreases of 55.6% and 66.4%, respectively.

First question: violent crime was decreasing from 1990 to 1993, so, did that decrease accelerate? If we project the rate of decrease under the last three years of Dinkins' administration throughout the Giuliani years we would have had a 29.4% decrease in violent crimes and a 32.3% decrease in murders. The actual numbers (as mentioned above) came out to be 55.6% and 66.4%.

So far, things are looking good for Giuliani. Let's look at the thorny problem of the census figures. The FBI Uniform Crime Report Statistics are based in part on actual census figures every 10 years, in this case, 1990 and 2000. For the years in between, the numbers are based on official census projections. The problem is that the census projections for New York City in the 1990s were wrong. From 1990 to 1999, the census projection showed a total of 1.46% total growth. The actual growth over the ten years was 9.36%. This is reflected in the following figures.

Year   Population, NYC
1990  7,322,564
1993  7,347,257
1997  7,320,477 (down from 1990!)
1999  7,429,263
2000  8,008,278
2001  8,023,018

This artifact provided the violent crime rates to show an artificial dip between 1999 and 2000. While the number of violent crimes in New York City fell from 78,495 to 75,692 (-3.6%), the violent crime rate dropped by -11.0%. Similarly, while murders rose from 664 to 673, the murder rate dropped by -6.0%.

That may seem like an unfair boost to Giuliani's statistics, but the 2000 census did represent a real count. What is unfair is that throughout the 1990s, with the population being undercounted, the crime rates were artificially high, to a greater degree as the decade went on. The undercount overestimated the 1993 statistics, thereby favoring Giuliani's statistics. Indeed, the total number of murders bottomed out in 1998 at 633, while there were 714 in 2001, his final year. Without the census anomaly, the murder rate would have been increasing during those final years.

What was the actual population in 1993 (or 1999)? There is no way to be sure, but if we model a linear growth from 1990 to 2000, the 1993 population would be 2.5% higher (and subsequent crime rates, 2.4% lower) than the estimated figure. This works out to be more than it might seem. The projected changes in crime rates act like compound interest, with each year's number affecting the next.

So let's redo the 1990 to 1993 (pre-Giuliani) change and acquire the extrapolated figures that look at what would happen if the numbers continued to fall at the corrected 1990 to 1993 rate, and 1993 to 2001 (Giuliani numbers) using a linear model of population growth.

Giuliani's numbers change only slightly. Now violent crime was down -54.5% and murder -65.6%. The extrapolated changes using the 1990 to 1993 rate now bring a decrease of -33.9% in violent crimes and -36.5% in murders, if extrapolated to 2001.

Still Giuliani's stats are performing well. Furthermore, the New York City statistics outperformed those of the United States as a whole which had a drop of -32.5% in violent crime rates and -41.1% in murder rates between 1993 and 2001.

Let's look at when the changes occurred.

Violent Crimes, New York City
Year  Year-to-Year % Change
1991  -3.28
1992  -7.21
1993  -4.66
1994  -11.9
1995  -17.2
1996  -14.2
1997  -6.71
1998  -8.30
1999  -8.88
2000  -4.94
2001  -1.87

You may note that the most substantial changes took place in the years 1994 to 1996.

William Bratton served as police commissioner from January 1, 1994 to April 15, 1996, two full years and 105 days. I don't have the data to divide up partial years, but in his first two years as police commissioner, the violent crime rate dropped -27.1% and the murder rate dropped -40.6%. Counting the first full two years (1997 and 1998) of his successor, Howard Safir, the violent crime rate dropped -14.5% and the murder rate -36.7%. In the next three years of Safir and Kalik (1999 through 2001) the violent crime rate dropped another -15.0% while the murder rate rose by 10.7%. Overall, from 1997 through 2001, the violent crime rate dropped -27.3% while the murder rate dropped 30.0%. The five full years after Bratton the drop in crime rate performed equally or less well than the two full years under Bratton.

Year-to-Year Changes in the Violent Crime and Murder Rates, from 1990 to 2001. The figures from 1991 through 1999 were adjusted to account for a linear population growth from 1990 to 2000. Note the murder rate increased over the final three years.

The Cumulative Change in Violent Crime and Murder Rates. As above, adjusted for a linear population growth. The cumulative changes are calculated as 1991 through 1993 in comparison to 1990, and as 1994 through 2001 in comparison to 1993 (Dinkins' final year).

My personal verdict so far. Did Giuliani do something right? Yes: he hired Bill Bratton. Did he do something wrong? Yes: he let Bill Bratton go, forcing him out of office.

Giuliani's Final Year.

In David Dinkins final year as mayor, terrorists attacked the World Trade Center, leading to several deaths and thousands of injuries. In Giuliani's final year as mayor, terrorists attacked the World Trade Center leading to thousands of deaths and injuries.

The FBI Uniform Crime Statistics don't include the deaths and injuries from the 2001 attacks. They do include the deaths and injuries from the 1993 World Trade Center attack, the 1995 Oklahoma City attack, in fact, all other terrorist attacks on American soil.

Let's be clear: Giuliani was not behind the 9/11 attacks. Giuliani was not behind any of the 7,175 other murders that took place in New York City when he was mayor. And, of course, Dinkins was not behind the 1993 attack.

Still, the erasure of murders from the counts, just because the number is horrific, is wrong. Giuliani is not responsible for the 9/11 attacks, but is he responsible for any of the deaths or injuries of the 9/11 attacks? This is a thorny issue. A mayor does not only reduce crime through law enforcement, but, among other things, also through making sure street lamps work, and that emergency crews have timely access and coordinated communication. The last of these was a real issue when it came to firefighters hearing the evacuation orders after the first World Trade Center tower fell.

Should the communication have been better? Yes. You can argue that we know that because hindsight is 20/20, but: the buck stops at the mayor's office. Everything he did right to make New York less dangerous has to be weighed with what he didn't do.

As a result of the 9/11 attacks in New York City, 2,753 victims died and an additional 6,294 were treated for injuries at local hospitals. If these were included with Giuliani's statistics, as the World Trade Center attacks were for Dinkins, the murder rate would have reached its peak in 2001 with 43.2 murders per 100,000, an increase of 67.2% over the course of the Giuliani administration. The violent crime would be adjusted to 1040.3 per 100,000, still a healthy decrease of -49.0%.


Martin Hill Ortiz is the author of Never Kill A Friend, Ransom Note Press.

Never Kill A Friend, Ransom Note Press

Never Kill A Friend is available for purchase in hard cover format and as an ebook.
The story follows Shelley Krieg, an African-American detective for the Washington DC Metro PD as she tries to undo a wrong which sent an innocent teenager to prison.

Hard cover: Amazon US
Kindle: Amazon US
Hard cover: Amazon UK
Kindle: Amazon UK
Barnes and Noble 

Continue reading →

Violent Crime Rates: New York City Versus New York State

As mentioned in my previous post, from its peak approximately 25 years ago to the most recent statistics, the rate of violent crimes in the United States has dropped by approximately 50%. The state of New York had a greater decrease (-65.2%) than any other state. I also noted that, in general, rural states have fared poorly in reducing their violent crime rate.

So, this begs the question, how much do the large cities dominate the statistics? In this particular case, how much of the reduction in violent crime was due to the decrease in crime in New York City and how much was due to the rest of the state? As noted in detail below, New York City greatly outperformed the remainder of New York State in its reduction in crime.

(This analysis is New York City, not the metropolitan area.)

Citywide and statewide crime statistics are compiled by the FBI and historical figures from 1985 to 2012 can be found at this site. Violent crime figures go through the year 2012. In that year, the definition of rape changed, increasing rape statistics by about 39%. While the FBI provides legacy definition figures for more recent years, these definitions do not extend to New York City statistics. Because of this, violent crime trends were analyzed from 1985 to 2012, while murder statistics were analyzed from 1985 to 2014.

Although New York City keeps their own statistics, I relied on the FBI resource (which provided slightly different numbers) to maintain a consistency in sources.

From its peak in 1990, New York City has had a drastic decrease in violent crime while the remainder of New York State has had a modest decrease. The rates are given for each five years. The year 1992 is included because that is when the rest of New York State peaked. The year 2012 represents the most recent year on the FBI UCR database for both entities.

In 1990, New York City had its peak in both murders and total violent crimes. The violent crime rate for that year was 2383.6 per 100,000 population and the murder rate was 30.7 per 100,000. That same year, the rest of the state of New York experienced a violent crime rate of 355.4 and a murder rate of 3.38.

In 1990, the population of New York City made up 40.7% of the population of the state but was responsible 82.2% of the violent crimes and 86.2% of the murders.

An even more dramatic drop occurred in the New York City murder rate, well beyond the improvement in the remainder of New York State.

The national violent crime rate dropped precipitously in the 1990s. By 2000, New York City saw 945.2 violent crimes per 100,000 (a drop of -60.5%) and 8.40 murders (-72.6%).  In this same time period, the rest of New York state saw 268.2 violent crimes per 100,000 (-24.5%) and 2.54 murders (-24.9%).

The more rapid drop in New York City's statistic is reflected in the fact that by 2000, New York City (with 42.2% of the state population) was then responsible for 72.0% of the violent crimes and 70.7% of the murders for the state as a whole.

From 2000 to 2012, violent crime in New York City dropped from 945.2 violent crimes per 100,000 to 639.3 (-32.4%) and murder dropped from 8.40 per 100,000 to 5.05 (-39.9%). Across the rest of New York State violent crimes dropped from 268.2 per 100,000 to 249.6, a modest decrease of -6.9% while murders dropped from 2.54 per 100,000 to 2.35 (-7.5%).

In 1990, those in New York City were 6.7 times more likely to be a victim of a violent crime than those in the rest of New York. In 2012, they were 2.7 times more likely. In 1990, those in New York City were 9.1 times more likely to be murdered. In 2012, they were 55.6% more likely.

In 1990, New York City was responsible for 86.2% of the statewide murders. In 2014, it was responsible for 54%.

Continued with Mayor Giuliani and the Decrease in Violent Crime in New York City.

Martin Hill Ortiz is the author of Never Kill A Friend, Ransom Note Press.

Never Kill A Friend, Ransom Note Press

Never Kill A Friend is available for purchase in hard cover format and as an ebook.
The story follows Shelley Krieg, an African-American detective for the Washington DC Metro PD as she tries to undo a wrong which sent an innocent teenager to prison.

Hard cover: Amazon US
Kindle: Amazon US
Hard cover: Amazon UK
Kindle: Amazon UK
Barnes and Noble 

Continue reading →

The Twenty-Seven Murders of Henry H Holmes, Part Four

The Twentieth and Twenty-First Victims.

This is the final chapter in my critical evaluation of Holmes and his victims.
 

    "The Williams sisters come next. .... I first met Miss Minnie R. Williams in New York in 1888, where she knew me as Edward Hatch .... Early in 1893 I was again introduced to her as H. H. Holmes in the office of Campbell & Dowd. of Chicago, to whom she had applied for them to secure her a position as a stenographer. Soon after entering my employ I induced her to give me $2500 in money and to transfer to me by deed $50,000 worth of Southern real estate and a little later to live with me as my wife .... I also learned that she had as sister Nannie in Texas who was an heir to some property and induced Miss Minnie Williams to have her [sister] come to Chicago upon a visit. Upon her arrival I met her at the depot and took her to the Castle .... It was an easy matter to force her to assign to me all she possessed. After that she was immediately killed in order that no one in or about the Castle should know of her having been there save the man who burned her clothing. It was the foot-print of Nannie Williams, as later demonstrated by that most astute lawyer and detective, Mr. Copps, of Fort Worth, that was found upon the painted surface of the vault door made during her violent struggles before her death. [snip] I took Minnie] eight miles east of Momence [Illinois] upon a freight line that is little used, and ended her life with poison and buried her body in the basement of the house^b."

    Holmes had a high turnover rate among secretaries. He killed them. Having known Minnie Williams for years, in March, 1893 he acquired her services as a stenographer. She was an orphaned child raised by a rich uncle in Fort Worth, Texas. Her younger sister, Anna "Nannie" Williams grew up in Mississippi and became a school teacher in Texas.

    Holmes wooed and quickly married Minnie Williams in a private ceremony with just the two newlyweds and the preacher — who may not have been a preacher. The marriage was never registered²⁹; the ceremony was probably intended to induce Minnie to sign over her properties. With another wife living closeby, Holmes moved Minnie into a house away from the Castle.

    Perhaps concerned about all of the letters Minnie wrote to her sister, Holmes asked Minnie to invite Nannie to come visit. In contrast to Holmes's confession, when Nannie arrived, he treated the two sisters to a tour of the Columbian Exposition. Holmes is believed to have killed Nannie in his vault on or about July 5th, 1893.

    What happened to Minnie is uncertain. Holmes confessed to killing her and burying her in the small town of Momence south of Chicago. There are several indications that she lived for several more months, presumably unaware of the fate of her sister.

     In his explanation for Nannie's disappearance in Holmes' Own Story, he offered up his most brazen act of chutzpah. He claimed Nannie became enamored by the irresistible Holmes and Minnie killed her in a fit of jealousy. Afterwards Minnie suffered a series of nervous breakdowns and institutionalizations. Holmes claimed she later took the Pitezel children [victims twenty-five through twenty-seven] and headed off for London to start a massage establishment with Edward Hatch.

Summary: Victims Twenty and Twenty-One

Minnie and Nannie Williams
Secretary and her sister
Motive: Money.
Method: Locked in vault and suffocated. Poisoned.
Site: Holmes Castle. Possibly Monence, Illinois.
Time: approximately July 5th, 1893 and unspecified time, early 1894.
Confirmation of murder: Generally accepted as being among those Holmes killed.

Minnie and Nannie (Annie) Williams
Hopkinsville Kentuckian, August 27, 1895

Victim Twenty-Two.
    "A man who came to Chicago to attend the Chicago Exposition, but whose name I cannot recall, was my next victim. ... I determined to use this man in my various business dealings, and did so for a time, until I found he had not the ability I had at first thoughthe possessed, and I therefore decided to kill him. This was done, but as I had not had any dealings with the "stiff" dealer for some time previous to this murder, I decided to bury the body in the basement of the house that I formerly owned near the corner of Seventy-fourth and Honore streets, in Chicago, where, by digging deeply in the sandy soil, the body will be found^b."

    The Chicago Exposition, more properly "The World's Columbian Exposition," closed on October 30, 1893, giving an anchoring point for the timeline of this story. Although Holmes provided some additional details on how to find the man's name, no such victim was ever identified and his body was not unearthed.

 Summary: Victim Twenty-Two

Unknown
Castle guest.
Motive: Did not have money.
Method: Unspecified.
Site: Holmes Castle.
Time: During the Chicago Exposition. May to October, 1893.
Confirmation of murder: none.

Victim Twenty-Three.

    "After Miss Williams' death I found among her papers an insurance policy made in her favor by her brother, Baldwin Williams, of Leadville, Col. I therefore went to that city early in 1894, and, having found him; took his life by shooting him, it being believed I had done so in self-defense. A little later, when the assignment of the policy to which I had forged Miss Williams' name was presented to John M. Maxwell, of Leadville, the administrator of the Williams estate, it was honored and the money paid^b."

    In Holmes' Own Story, he ascribes the death of the Williams brother to a train accident taking place before Minnie came to work for him. Holmes quotes Minnie as telling him, "At about that time my brother, whom I had never seen much of, was killed, or rather died, as the result of a railroad accident at Leadville, Colorado...^a"

    A Baldwin H. Williams of Leadville, Colorado died in early 1893.

    "Estate of Baldwin H. Williams, Deceased. The undersigned, having been appointed administrator of the estate of Baldwin H. Williams, late of the county of Lake and the state of Colorado, deceased, hereby gives notice that he will appear before the county court of Lake County at the court house in Leadville, at the January term, on the third Monday in February next being the 20th day of February, A.D. 1893, at which time all persons having claims against said estate are notified and requested to attend for the purpose of having the same adjusted. All person indebted to said estate are requested to make immediate payment to the undersigned,
Dated this 17th day of January, A.D., 1893, John M. Max[?]e[?]l, Administrator³⁰."

    In the newspaper notice, no cause of death is given. This death took place before Holmes hired Minnie Williams supporting Holmes non-confessional version of the story. Holmes did have the detail of estate administrator correct.

    What can be made of this? Holmes had known Minnie Williams for years including when she lived in Boston and Denver. Immediately before she moved to Chicago, she lived in Denver. Perhaps the death of her brother gave her the impetus to move on. Perhaps Holmes visited her there and helped settle her brother's estate. Or perhaps he remembered details of this from what he had later told her.

Summary: Victim Twenty-Three

Baldwin H. Williams
Brother-in-law
Motive: Money.
Method: Shooting.
Site: Leadville, Colorado.
Time: 1894? 1893?
Confirmation of murder: None. A man by this name did die a year earlier than mentioned.

Leaving Chicago.
    On January 4, 1894 in Denver, Colorado, Holmes married Georgiana Yoke³¹. She remained in rapturous ignorance of his three other wives and his myriad schemes. She would defend him and when necessary, bail him out. Together they headed to Fort Worth, Texas where Holmes attempted to collect on the estate of Minnie Williams. Once there, intent on starting a franchise, Holmes initiated the construction of a new murder castle. He found a new accomplice, John C. Allen, alias "Mascot." They tried their hands at a horse swindle which ended in St. Louis where Holmes was jailed. While incarcerated he concocted a plan to kill off an old associate for the insurance money.


Victims Twenty-Four through Twenty-Seven: The Pitezel family.

Benjamin Frelan Pitezel

    "Benjamin F. Pitezel comes next. .... It will be understood that from the first hour of our acquaintance, even before I knew he had a family who would later afford me additional victims for the gratification of my blood-thirstiness, I intended to kill him...^b"

    Holmes was convicted and executed for just one murder: that of Benjamin Frelan Pitezel. Holmes insured Pitezel for $10,000 and set him up in a storefront in Philadelphia where he offered to buy inventions. Holmes told Pitezel he would fake a disfiguring accident, provide a substitute corpse and they would split the proceeds from the insurance fraud. On September 2, 1894, Holmes got his long-time friend drunk. Once he had passed out on the floor...

    "Only one difficulty presented itself. It was necessary, for me to kill him in such a manner that no struggle or movement of his body should occur, otherwise his clothing being in any way displaced it would have been impossible to again put them in a normal condition. I overcame this difficulty by first binding him hand and foot and having done — I proceeded to burn him alive by saturating his clothing and his face with benzene and igniting it with a match^b."

    In Holmes' Own Story, he maintained that Pitezel's death was suicide. The suicide note, which, naturally Holmes had to destroy, asked him to stage the death as part of a crime scene. "He wished me to so arrange his body in one of two ways that it would appear that his death had been either accidental or that he had been attacked by burglars and killed, giving the details of how I was to carry our either course: First, that his family should not at present know of his death; second, that the children should never know he had committed suicide...^a"

    If nothing else, Holmes' Own Story was inventive for its range of explanations behind the disappearance of so many: one staged his death for insurance, one ran off to get married, they killed each other, suicide, accidents, they were still alive (sometimes true)...

    With his associate dead, Holmes headed back west to undertake the steps involved in collecting the insurance. Benjamin's wife, Carrie Pitezel, knew of the scheme and believed the corpse to be a substitute. The five Pitezel children believed their father dead. Holmes couldn't bring Carrie to Philadelphia to identify the body — she would see who it really was. So, instead, Holmes instead brought fifteen-year-old Alice to identify her father's body. On September 20th, she wrote to her mother.

"Just arrived Philadelphia this morning ... I am going to the Morgue after awhile ... Have you gotten 4 letters from me besides this?³²" 

Holmes intercepted and never mailed any of her letters, stashing them in a tin box. 

    On September 27th, Holmes received the insurance money. He told Carrie that, with her husband still alive, they were to take separate paths and later meet up with him. With Holmes having long been a family friend, a virtual uncle to the children, he convinced Carrie to let him transport three of her children.


Howard, Nellie and Alice Pitezel



Howard, Nellie and Alice Pitezel.
 
    Holmes saved his greatest act of sadism for his last three victims. Their murders seemed without motive, a cruelty beyond fathoming. It left no doubt Holmes could not be romanticized as an anti-hero or be pitied as some pathetic creature.

    With the insurance money in hand, Holmes began to hopscotch between cities with three of the Pitezel children in tow. He ordered them to stay in the hotels, indoors. They were cold. Alice wrote, begging, "Tell Mama that I have to have a coat³³."

    Eight-year-old Howard Pitezel became the first to die.

    "I called at the Irvington [Indiana] drug store and purchased the drugs I needed to kill the boy ... I called him into the house and insisted that he go to bed at once first giving him the fatal dose of medicine. As soon as he had ceased to breathe I cut his body into pieces that would pass through the door of the stove and by the combined use of gas and corncobs proceeded to burn it with as little feeling as 'though it had been some inanimate object^b."

    Unaware of her brother's fate or what awaited the rest of them, Alice wrote home, saying, "Howard is not with us now³⁴."

    In Holmes' Own Story, he tried to pass off the child's disappearance on the mysterious Edward Hatch, a name he invoked sixty-six times. "I met Hatch and Howard later upon the street. This was the last time I ever saw the boy Howard...^a"

    The detectives were not impressed. Holmes complained, "They at once branded my statements concerning Hatch as untrue, and said that he was a mythical person, asking me to name any one who had ever seen him...^a"

    Now with only Nellie and Alice Pitezel in his charge, Holmes continued to move from town to town. In Detroit with the two girls stashed in a hotel, he met up Carrie Pitezel and her other two children. He planted explosives to kill them but was unsuccessful^b.

    He transported the children to Toronto where, on October 25th, he enticed the Pitezel girls to climb inside a trunk where he locked them in. "[After] 8:00 P.M. I again returned to the house where the children were imprisoned, and ended their lives by connecting the gas with the trunk, then came the opening of the trunk and the viewing of their little blackened and distorted faces, then the digging of their shallow graves in the basement of the house, the ruthless stripping off of their clothing and the burial without a particle of covering save the cold earth, which I heaped upon them with fiendish delight^b."

    In Holmes' Own Story, he claimed the Pitezel girls went off with the still-living Minnie Williams and the never-seen Edward Hatch, headed to London where they would use the insurance money to open a massage parlor him...^a."

    Why kill the Pitezel children? Perhaps the telling clue comes in the fact he tried to kill Carrie Pitezel and the remainder of the family. With Benjamin Pitezel's death being real, he feared Carrie would soon realize he had arranged the murder. She and the children were witnesses.


 
Letter of Alice Pitezel to her grandparents, October 14, 1894

Summary: Victim Twenty-Four

Benjamin Frelan Pitezel Long-time associate Motive: Money. Method: Burned alive. Site: 1316 Callowhill Street in Philadelphia. Time: September 2nd, 1894 Confirmation of murder: well-documented.
 

Summary: Victims Twenty-Five through Twenty-Seven  
Howard, Alice and Nellie Pitezel Friends of the family  
Motive: Witnesses?  
Method: Howard, poisoned. Alice and Nellie locked in a trunk and gassed.  
Site: Howard, Irvington, outside Indianapolis, Indiana. Alice and Nellie in Toronto.  
Time: Howard, October 5, 1894; Alice and Nellie: October 25, 1894.  
Confirmation of murder: well-documented.

End of the Line.

     In order to secure the Pitezel insurance money, Holmes needed a crooked lawyer. To find a crooked lawyer, he asked the notorious train-robber, Marion Hedgepeth. Hedgepeth turned in Holmes, telling the authorities and the insurance company about the swindle.

    On November 17, 1894, Holmes was arrested in Boston. While on a train being transported to custody, he tried to bribe his way free.

    "I'm a hypnotizer. If you let me hypnotize you so that we can escape, I'll give you $500."

    "Hypnotism," [responded Detective Crawford], "always spoils my appetite³⁵."

    While insurance scams were common enough, Holmes, with his multiple wives, proved to be a particularly salacious scandal. His story made national headlines. Holmes tried to account for his polygamy. "He explained that when he left New Hampshire he went west and while traveling there he had his skull fractured and was robbed of his gold watch and considerable money in a railroad accident. In the hospital he was given the name of H.H. Holmes and went out never knowing he had any other. During the year [sic] of his mental trouble he married a western woman and by her had one child³⁶."

    Holmes was imprisoned, charged with insurance fraud. Even within a week, newspapers began speculating he was responsible for at least six murders: the Williams sisters and the Pitezels.

Holmes vs. Holmes.

    On June 3, 1895 Holmes pled guilty to insurance fraud and received a mild sentence. With his national notoriety, the Chicago police began searching the Castle, uncovering blood and bones. Frank Geyer, a Philadelphia detective, embarked on a hunt to track down the location of the three missing Pitezel children, fearing they had been abandoned somewhere. His methodical investigation was broadcast day by day across American newspapers. Geyer became known as the American Sherlock Holmes. On July 15th, he discovered the bodies of the Pitezel girls. On August 27th, he discovered Howard Pitezel.

    Although generally acknowledged as having killed a dozen more, perhaps scores of victims³⁷, in late October 1895, Holmes was tried only for the murder of Benjamin Pitezel. For part of the proceedings he acted as his own lawyer. He lost.

    On May 9th, 1896, while walking to the gallows in the courtyard of Moyamensing Prison, Holmes made one last confession, again rewriting his story.

    "Gentlemen, I have very few words to say. In fact, I would make no remarks at this time were it not that by not speaking I should acquiesce in my execution. I only wish to say that the extent of my wrong-doing in the taking of human life consists of contriving the killing of two women that have died at my hands as a result of criminal operations. I wish to also state, so that there can be no chance of misunderstanding my words hereafter, that I am not guilty of taking the life of any of the three Pitezel children, or the man for whose death I was convicted, and for whose death I am now to be hanged. That is all I have to say³⁸."

    The phrase "criminal operations" has been interpreted as abortions, although, in his confession to the murder of Anna Betz, "operation" could also have meant "criminal venture."

    At 10:13 a.m., H.H. Holmes was hung. He took fifteen minutes to die.



Frank Geyer, Philadelphia detective.
The more bad-ass mustache always wins.

Holmes' grave

    Shortly before his execution, Dr. Holmes had converted to Catholicism. In this age, many sins, even divorce, could exclude a Catholic from a church burial. Oddly, he was buried on consecrated ground in the Holy Cross Cemetery, south of Philadelphia. (Holmes never divorced.) Fr. Henry McPake presided over the service. To ensure no one would dig up his grave, he had his coffin filled with cement and set beneath a one ton block of cement. "The remains of Holmes were pronounced safe from grave robbers for all time³⁹." His grave is unmarked. 


    Seventeen months after Holmes' death, the thirty year-old Father McPake died under mysterious circumstances⁴⁰.


References, Notes and Citations
a. Holmes' Own Story in which the Alleged Multi Murderer and Arch Conspirator Tells of The Twenty-Two Tragic Deaths and Disappearances In which He is Said to be Implicated. Philadelphia. Burk & McFetridge Co. 1895.
b. Holmes Confesses 27 Murders. The Most Awful Story of Modern Times Told by the Fiend in Human Shape. The Philadelphia Inquirer, Sunday, April 12, 1896. Copyright 1896 by WR Hearst and James Elverson, Jr.



30. Administrator's Notices. Leadville Daily and Evening Chronicle. February 6, 1893, Page 4.

31. Holmes married Georgiana Yoke using the name Henry Mansfield Howard. Using a variety of names was one means Holmes employed to keep his wives from learning about one another. From Depraved: The Shocking True Story of America's First Serial Killer. Schechter, H. Copyright 1994. New York: Pocket Books. Page 77.

32. Letter, Alice Pitezel, dated September 20, 1894 as presented in The Holmes-Pitezel Case. A History of the Greatest Crime of the Century and of the Search for the Missing Pitezel Children by Detective Frank P. Geyer of the Bureau of Police, Department of Public Safety, of the City of Philadelphia. A True Detective Story. Publishers' Union copyright 1896, p. 353.

33. Letter, Alice Pitezel, dated October 14, 1894, ibid, pages 264-5.

34. Ibid.

35. Part of His Life. The Now Famous Mudgett Tells of His Crimes. Evansville Courier, November 21, 1894.

36. Mudgett's Early Life. Wilkes-Barre Times, November 21, 1894.

37. With his murderous bent, an abundance of opportunity and his complete unreliability in recounting his story the question of the true number of Holmes' victims remains open. Holmes combined a variety of methods popular among serial killers: he was a "Bluebeard," a poisoner, and killed for profit. The newspaper accounts named many more missing who were not mentioned in Holmes' confession.

38. Holmes Cool to the End. Under the Noose He Says He Only Killed Two Women. New York Times, May 8, 1896.

39. Holmes in a Ton of Cement; The Murderer's Body Buried. New York Times, May 9, 1896. 

40. MacPake in the above New York Times article, McPake most everywhere else. Large Rewards Freely Offered Strenuous Efforts to Solve the Mystery of Father Mcpake's Death. Philadelphia Inquirer Friday, November 12, 1897.

 --------------------------- 
A Predator's Game is available in soft-cover and ebook editions through Amazon and other online retailers.

A Predator's Game, now available, Rook's Page Publishing.

 -----------------------
Nikola Tesla, Arthur Conan Doyle and Dr. Henry H. Holmes are all characters in my thriller, A Predator's Game.

Back page blurb.

Manhattan, 1896.

When the author Arthur Conan Doyle meets Nikola Tesla he finds a tall, thin genius with a photographic memory and a keen eye, and recognizes in the eccentric inventor the embodiment of his creation, Sherlock. Together, they team up to take on an "evil Holmes." Multi-murderer Dr. Henry H. Holmes has escaped execution and is unleashing a reign of terror upon the metropolis. Set in the late nineteenth century in a world of modern marvels, danger and invention, Conan Doyle and Tesla engage the madman in a deadly game of wits.

Martin Hill Ortiz, also writing under the name, Martin Hill, is the author of A Predatory Mind. Its sequel, set in 1890s Manhattan and titled A Predator's Game, will be available from Rook's Page Publishing, March 30, 2016. It features Nikola Tesla as detective.

Continue reading →

The Twenty Seven Murders of Henry H. Holmes, Part Two

On The Road and a Mysterious Death and Disappearance

    In May 1886, Holmes headed to Philadelphia. He first found employment at the newly opened "State Lunatic Hospital at Norristown," still in operation today. How bad does a place have to be to spook even Holmes? "This was my first experience with insane persons, and so terrible was it that for years afterwards, even now sometimes, I see their faces in my sleep^a."
    His job there was limited to a few days. He then found employment at a pharmacy on Columbia Street in Philadelphia. This didn't last long either. From Holmes' Own Story: "About July 1st, one afternoon, a child entered the store and exclaimed, 'I want a doctor! The medicine we got here this morning has killed my brother (or sister).' I could remember of no sale that morning corresponding to the one she hastily described, but I made sure that a physician was at once sent to the house, and having done this I hastily wrote a note to my employer, stating the nature of the trouble, and left the city immediately for Chicago, and it was not until nine years later that I knew the result of the case^a."
    The nine years later would have been July, 1895, a time when many accusations about Holmes' past came to the fore. Here, we have the news that this incident rattled Holmes enough to get him to abandon his job on a moment's notice and rush off to Chicago. This is suggestive of guilt.
    In July, 1886, Holmes began working at Dr. E.S. Holton's drugstore at Wallace and Sixty-third in Englewood, IL, just outside the Chicago city limits. The story as presented in the papers of the time is that Dr. Holton was suffering from prostate cancer and would soon die. Holmes arranged to purchase the drugstore and then failed to pay to Mrs. Holton who, in turn, brought a lawsuit. She disappeared, with Holmes claiming she'd moved to California¹⁰.

    This story did not appear in Holmes' April 1896 confession. In a minor coup in investigation, Adam Selzer of Mysterious Chicago found that Dr. E.S. Holton did not die of prostate cancer. Dr. Elizabeth S. Holton was Mrs. Holton and she lived into the twentieth century.
    Regardless of the end of Dr. Holton, Holmes, now the owner of the pharmacy, settled in to the Chicago area which would be his home for the better part of eight years. On January 28, 1897, he married Myrta Belknap of Minneapolis, Minnesota¹¹.
Jekyll and Hyde?
    In January of 1886, Robert Louis Stevenson published his famous novella about the good Dr. Henry Jekyll and his evil alter-ego Edward Hyde. Herman Webster Mudgett first used the name Henry Howard Holmes when he applied for a pharmacy license in July, 1886¹². Did Dr. Mudgett derive the name Henry from the novel? Later, when Dr. Holmes needed a mysterious person to blame for some of his crimes, he invented "Edward Hatch."
    "Howard Pitezel [victim twenty-five] chose to go with Hatch...^a" In his death row confession, Holmes admitted he was Hatch. "I first met [victim twenty-one] Miss Minnie R. Williams in New York in 1888, where she knew me as Edward Hatch...^b"

(Whether there existed a confederate of Holmes, literally named Hatch, or else going by another name would make for a lengthy post all its own.)
 
    As for his surname, Dr. Henry H. Holmes and Sherlock Holmes came into existence about the same time. Sherlock Holmes first appeared in A Study in Scarlet, completed in May of 1886, although not published until November of 1887 and therefore too late for Mudgett to borrow this name.
    It's quite possible Mudgett and Conan Doyle chose the name from the same source. By the 1880s, Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, author and professor of medicine was one of the most famous people in America and had a world-wide reputation. Oliver Wendell Holmes briefly taught anatomy and physiology at the medical school at Dartmouth in New Hampshire, a fact of which Mudgett would have been acutely aware.
    Oliver Wendell Holmes has been cited as the origin for the surname of Sherlock Holmes. "...the most likely source is Oliver Wendell Holmes, the American essayist, novelist, poet, physician and professor of anatomy, of whom Conan Doyle wrote in Through the Magic Door, 'Never have I so known and loved a man whom I had never seen¹³.'"
    In 1886, the year of the creation of Sherlock Holmes, Oliver Wendell Holmes traveled to Scotland to receive an honorary degree from the University of Edinburgh. Arthur Conan Doyle received his medical degree from the institution a year earlier.

 
 The Second Victim.

    Holmes declared, "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^b." Holmes stated he then sold the body to be used as a laboratory skeleton.
    Supposedly taking place in "The Castle," this murder represents a jump of four years inasmuch as the building wasn't completed until mid-1890.
    In regards to this victim, I will again cite the author, Adam Selzer. He has written several treatises regarding the killer, including one examining the confessions¹⁴. Selzer presents various spellings from the contemporary papers, which refer to the victim as Dr. Thomas Russel, Russell, or Russler. The last of these names represented a tenant with an office in the Holmes' castle who according to 1895 news reports had disappeared in 1892. Selzer states he is inclined to believe that Holmes made a false confession and was referring to a Dr. Thomas Russell, in charge of a hospital in Grand Rapids, Minnesota in 1896, therefore not a victim.
    The commonality of the name helps to lend a murkiness to this matter. In a personal communication from his grandson, Dr. Thomas Russell of Grand Rapids, Minnesota did live in Chicago before moving north. He found the city too "rough.¹⁵"
    Further confusion arose when various contemporary news accounts claimed that Doctor Russell was either still living in or else could not be found in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Summary: Second Victim.
Dr. Russell
Tenant
Motive: Non-payment of rent.
Method: Struck with chair.
Site: The Murder Castle.
Time: 1890?
Confirmation of murder: unconfirmed, unlikely.

The Murder Castle as presented in The Holmes-Pitezel Case, Frank Geyer, 1896

 
The Third and Fourth Victims
    "The victim was Mrs. Julia L. Conner. A reference to almost any newspaper of August, 1895, will give the minute details of the horrors of this case...^b" Holmes goes on to say that the fourth death, the poisoning of the young child, Pearl Conner was carried out with the help of accomplices, an unspecified man and woman.

    In Holmes' Own Story, he explains away their disappearances, saying Julia was worried about losing her daughter to her husband and fled. "...she had given her destination as Iowa, she was going elsewhere to avoid the chance of her daughter being taken from her, giving the Iowa destination to mislead her husband^a." Holmes claimed he kept correspondences from her after her disappearance, proving she was alive.

    The story of Julia Conner and her four-year-old daughter Pearl is well-documented. In the version proffered in the book, Depraved¹⁶, Ned Conner, husband of Julia, worked for Holmes. The Conners lived in the Holmes castle. Julia was alleged to be Holmes lover. Ned filed for divorce and left town. Julia became pregnant. Holmes offered to marry her but only if she agreed to an abortion. At his behest, she took out life insurance. On Christmas Eve, after chloroforming Pearl, Holmes performed the procedure on Julia, ensuring she did not survive.

    Is this abortion story real? Holmes was not the source of the story and who else would tell of it? In another part of his confession, Holmes counted an unborn child among his murder victims, but not in this case. In his final confession on the gallows, Holmes admitted to only killing two women during "criminal operations" which some have interpreted as abortions.

    Ned Conner and the relatives of Julia Conner strongly believed Holmes was responsible for his wife and daughter's murder, well before Holmes achieved notoriety.

    Years later, when the police searched the castle, they encountered what they believed to be the bones of Julia and Pearl. The alleged accomplices were never identified.

Third and fourth victims: Julia Conner and daughter Pearl Conner
Residents in the castle. Alleged lover.
Motive: To collect insurance.
Method: Butchering, poisoning.
Site: The Murder Castle.
Confirmation of murder: well-established.

The Fifth Victim
    "The fifth murder, that of Rodgers, of West Morgantown, Va. (sic), occurred in 1888, at which time I was boarding there for a few weeks^b."
    This murder appears to be an example where Holmes is merely confirming allegations in a news story. "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^b."
    With his nationwide notoriety, it appears that a number of people in Morgantown, West Virginia claimed Holmes had been there. Regardless of how this part of his confession came to be, the story was refuted.
    As cited in The Three Confessions of HH Holmes, a week after the April confession, a story appeared in the Wheeling Register. "No man by that name was ever murdered here, and no murder of a man ever occurred in this place that the murderer was not convicted. W. Rogers was the name used by a newspaper correspondent from here for an old tanner who disappeared and was found in the river. He was supposed to have been murdered, and people here thought Holmes' picture looked like a man who was here at the time. It was established later that the man is still living and was not Holmes... Holmes simply lied¹⁷."

Fifth Victim: "Rodgers"
Acquaintance.
Motive: Money.
Method: Clubbed over the head
Site: Morgantown, WV.
Year: 1888
Confirmation of murder: Refuted.

The Sixth Victim.
    "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. ... This is the first instance in which I knew this confederate had committed murder, though in several other instances he 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^b."
    Here, again, Holmes says an unnamed associate performed the murder. This being the first murder by this person, it would not be the same as the man and woman who supposedly helped kill Pearl Conner. Among the associates of Holmes, the one who received the most attention from the police was the Castle janitor, Patrick Quinlan. In August of 1895, the police kept him and his wife sequestered, interrogating them for three weeks¹⁸. They later sued the police for unlawful imprisonment, but lost¹⁹.
    On July 29, 1895 the story of the disappearance of Cole ran in various papers. In The Chicago Tribune, he was referred to as Wilfred Cole while in other papers his name was "Milford C. Cole." The C could stand for Charles. A typical account can be found in the Los Angeles Herald.

    "Sheriff McRae of Fort Worth, Texas, who was in this city [Little Rock, Arkansas] last week, had a long talk with [Holmes associate John C.] Allen, and during the conversation the disappearance of Milford Cole, a wealthy Baltimore man, was mentioned. Cole came here a year ago last spring as the representative of a Baltimore lumber syndicate. He at once became prominent in lumber circles, buying a sawmill near Beebe, north of here on the Iron Mountain road, and contracting for the purchase of 25,000 acres of timber lands in Southeastern Arkansas. In July, 1894, he spent two weeks at Fort Worth, becoming well acquainted with Holmes, who tried to interest him in some business enterprises. These facts Cole mentioned to friends on his return to Little Rock. About three weeks afterwards he was summoned to Chicago by a telegram from Holmes and has not been seen or heard from since. Both Allen and Sheriff McRae recall Cole's association with Holmes at Fort Worth last year and Cole's subsequent disappearance²⁰."

    In Holmes Own Story, under a section entitled "Other Disappearances," he says, "Charles Cole is also known to be alive^a."

The Sixth Victim: Milford "Charles" Cole
"Southern speculator invited to Chicago"
Motive: Money.
Method: Unnamed accomplice hit Cole over the head with a pipe.
Site: Chicago Castle.
Year: 1894
Confirmation of murder: Unconfirmed

The Seventh Victim.
    "A domestic named Lizzie, was the seventh victim. She for a time worked in the Castle restaurant and I 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^b."
    Again, in Holmes' Own Story, he claims she is living. "The same charge concerning a domestic named Lizzie is untrue, although I have no means of verifying it save that it has been proven that she was alive and in Chicago some months after I left that city, early in 1894^a."
    In one news report, the police were said to be seeking a Mrs. Perr, a former housekeeper of Holmes in 1892²¹. It was suggested she had gone missing.
    After the confession, several newspapers noted errors in who Holmes had supposedly killed. The Rockford Republic declared: "Five Victims Alive. Confession is Alleged to Be Untrue." One of his victims "has been seen those who know her well in the vicinity of the "castle," since Holmes declares that he suffocated her in a vault of his unique building.²²" Although cryptic, this could refer to Lizzie, or Sarah Cook or Haracamp (below).

The Seventh Victim: Lizzie
A domestic
Motive: Worried his janitor was too interested in her.
Method: First victim of the suffocation vault.
Site: Chicago Castle.
Year: unspecified
Confirmation of murder: Unconfirmed.

Victims Eight, Nine and Ten.

    "The eighth, ninth and tenth cases are Mrs. Sarah Cook, her unborn child, and Miss Mary Haracamp, of Hamilton, Canada^b."
    Here, Holmes counts an unborn child among his numbered victims.
    Holmes explains that Sarah Cook and her husband were tenants in the Castle. Sarah's niece, Mary Haracamp came to work as Holmes' stenographer. "...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^b." Holmes hurried the two into the vault. Holmes had them write letters stating they were running away in exchange for their freedom. He then suffocated them.
    In Holmes' Own Story, he listed together several persons who he was accused of killing. "Robert Latimer, a former janitor [victim thirteen], a Mr. Brummager, one in my employ as a stenographer, also Miss Mary Horacamp [sic], from Hamilton, Canada, are alive, as shown by letters recently received from friends or relatives of each^a."
    While Holmes appears to be responding to accusations, I could not locate the name Haracamp does not appear in any of the contemporary news articles. The names Haracamp and Horacamp do not seem to exist outside of the Holmes' confession. On April 16th, 1896, just after the confession was printed, The Omaha Daily Bee  ran a brief item stating  "In the list of Holmes victims appears the name Mrs. Haverkamp of Hamilton, Ontario. No person of that name was ever known there."

Summary: Victims Eight, Nine and Ten
Mrs. Sarah Cook, her unborn child, Mrs. Haracamp (Horacamp)
Tenant and niece.
Motive: Eliminate witnesses
Method: Suffocated in the vault.
Site: Chicago.
Time: Unknown
Confirmation of murder: unconfirmed.

 
 Victims of Holmes as presented in the Hopkinsville
Kentuckian, August 27, 1895, page 3. Included are
Julia Conner (third victim), Emeline Cigrand
(eleventh victim), Emily Van Tassel (twelfth victim)
and the Williams sisters (Victims twenty-one and twenty-two). 

The Eleventh Victim.
     "Soon after this Miss Emeline Cigrand, of Dwight, Ill, was sent to me by a Chicago typewriter firm to fill the vacancy of stenographer^b."
    The disappearance and death of Emeline Cigrand became part of the canonical Holmes lore perhaps eclipsed only by the death of the Pitezels. Cigrand worked as the secretary to the head of a national chain of sobriety clinics, called the Keeley, or Gold cure. Holmes's handyman, Benjamin F. Pitezel went to their Dwight, Illinois clinic for treatment and returned, not sober, but with a glowing report of their secretary's great beauty. In May, 1892 Holmes lured her away for a 50% increase in salary. Among his many schemes Holmes ran his own alcoholism cure clinic out of the Castle, called the Silver Ash Institution²³.
    One version has it that Cigrand and Holmes became engaged to be married. Since she knew of one of Holmes's current wives, Holmes insisted that she keep his name a secret, only referring to him as Robert Phelps, until he could arrange a divorce. In December they sent out wedding announcements. On December 7th, her hometown paper ran the announcement. "Miss Cigrand Weds Robert E. Phelps. The bride, after completing her education, was employed as a stenographer in the County Recorder's office. From there she went to Dwight, and from there to Chicago, where she met her fate²⁴." Fate took on a different meaning than the societal reporter intended.
    Once Holmes locked her in the vault he promised to release her if she would send out wedding announcements. She complied and he later used these to show she was still alive and had merely run off with her new husband. He left her in the vault until she died of suffocation.

    In contrast to his confession, according to Holmes' Own Story, "She worked faithfully in my interests until November, 1892, when, much against my wishes, she left my employ to be married...^a" A year later, he claimed, she returned to Chicago wanting her old job back. Unhappy with her husband, she was considering joining the convent. Holmes said she was seen by many around town.
    The police encountered what they believed to the bones and hair of Emeline Cigrand. According to an eyewitness, the day after she disappeared Holmes and his janitor Quinlan were seen hauling a large trunk out of the Castle.

Summary: Victim Eleven
Emeline Cigrand
Stenographer.
Motive: Eliminate witness?
Method: Suffocated in the vault.
Site: The Castle.
Time: December, 1892
Confirmation of murder: Confirmed.

 

 
Dancing with a Skeleton from the University Palladium, University of Michigan,

 Intermission: Attempted Murders.
    Holmes follows up the death of his eleventh victim with a list of his attempted murders. Along with the well-documented attempted murders of three more Pitezel family members, he describes, "... 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^b."
    Famously, an intended victim of Jeffrey Dahmer escaped and made it to the police, only to be returned to his killer who then completed the killing. In this instance, Holmes claims to have three women escape his grasp and go to the police. Despite the titillating aspects of this story, no evidence supports it occurring.

Continued in Part Three

References, Citations and Notes.

a. Holmes' Own Story in which the Alleged Multi Murderer and Arch Conspirator Tells of The Twenty-Two Tragic Deaths and Disappearances In which He is Said to be Implicated. Philadelphia. Burk & McFetridge Co. 1895.

b. Holmes Confesses 27 Murders. The Most Awful Story of Modern Times Told by the Fiend in Human Shape. The Philadelphia Inquirer, Sunday, April 12, 1896. Copyright 1896 by WR Hearst and James Elverson, Jr.

10. As recounted in Depraved: The Shocking True Story of America's First Serial Killer. Harold Schechter. Copyright 1994. New York: Pocket Books. Page 12.

11. Myrta Belknap remained loyal to her husband up to the time of execution, claiming she couldn't believe he committed the crimes. Interestingly, Holmes was born in Belknap County, New Hampshire.

12. The Devil in the White City. Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America. Erik Larson Copyright 2003. Vintage Books, Random House. Page 44.

13. The Doctor and the Detective: A Biography of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Martin Booth. copyright 1997, Thomas Dunne Books.

14. The Three Confessions of HH Holmes. Adam Selzer. September 2012.

15. The genealogy site Worldfamilies.net includes these bits of information:
Dr. Thomas Russell, b 25Feb1861 Alton, Peel Co ON, CA. d 15Oct1953 Grand Rapids, MN.
http://www.worldfamilies.net/surnames/russell/pats

In a personal communication, Dr. Russell's grandson, also a doctor, said his grandfather "did live in Chicago before going to Minnesota. He said Chicago was to [sic] rough."

16. Depraved: The Shocking True Story of America's First Serial Killer. Harold Schechter. Copyright 1994. New York: Pocket Books. pp. 41-46.

17. The Three Confessions of HH Holmes. Adam Selzer. September 2012.

18. Cole's Disappearance. A Lumberman Who Was Summoned to Chicago by Holmes. Los Angeles Herald, July 29, 1895. I believe Milford Cole existed. John C. Allen gave many specific details about him while seeking a pardon in exchange for testimony: a poor strategy if such a person could easily be proven to not exist. Of course, Cole may have still been alive, Allen did not claim to witness his death in person.

19. Pat Quinlan Sues for Damage. Daily Illinois State Journal. September 17, 1895.

20. Mrs. Quinlan Loses the Suit. Chicago Daily Inter Ocean, April 21, 1897.

21. Daily Illinois State Journal, Springfield, Illinois. July 28, 1895.

22. Five Victims Alive. Confession is Alleged to Be Untrue. Rockford Republic, April 13, 1896.

23. Soup Bones Dug Up, Daily Illinois State Journal, Springfield, Illinois July 28, 1895.

24. As quoted in: Depraved: The Shocking True Story of America's First Serial Killer. Harold Schechter. Copyright 1994. New York: Pocket Books. Page 54. Although it is keeping in character with Holmes to invent names for an upcoming marriage, another version of the story is that Holmes killed both Cigrand and her fiance.
---------------------------

 
A Predator's Game is available in soft-cover and ebook editions through Amazon and other online retailers.

A Predator's Game, now available, Rook's Page Publishing.

 -----------------------
Nikola Tesla, Arthur Conan Doyle and Dr. Henry H. Holmes are all characters in my thriller, A Predator's Game.

Back page blurb.

Manhattan, 1896.

When the author Arthur Conan Doyle meets Nikola Tesla he finds a tall, thin genius with a photographic memory and a keen eye, and recognizes in the eccentric inventor the embodiment of his creation, Sherlock. Together, they team up to take on an "evil Holmes." Multi-murderer Dr. Henry H. Holmes has escaped execution and is unleashing a reign of terror upon the metropolis. Set in the late nineteenth century in a world of modern marvels, danger and invention, Conan Doyle and Tesla engage the madman in a deadly game of wits.

Martin Hill Ortiz, also writing under the name, Martin Hill, is the author of A Predatory Mind. Its sequel, set in 1890s Manhattan and titled A Predator's Game, will be available from Rook's Page Publishing, March 30, 2016. It features Nikola Tesla as detective.

His recent mystery, Never Kill A Friend, is available from Ransom Note Press. His epic poem, Two Mistakes, won second place in the 2015 Margaret Reid/Tom Howard Poetry Competition. He can be contacted at mdhillortiz@gmail.com.

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