d that her husband had deserted her; her only desire
was to recover her children.

On November 20 Holmes and Mrs. Pitezel were transferred from Boston
to Philadelphia, and there, along with Benjamin Pitezel and Jephtha
D. Howe, were charged with defrauding the Fidelity Life Association of
10,000 dollars. Soon after his arrival in Philadelphia Holmes, who was
never averse to talking, was asked by an inspector of the insurance
company who it was that had helped him to double up the body sent from
New York and pack it into the trunk. He replied that he had done it
alone, having learned the trick when studying medicine in Michigan. The
inspector recollected that the body when removed from Callowhill Street
had been straight and rigid. He asked Holmes what trick he had learnt in
the course of his medical studies by which it was possible to re-stiffen
a body once the rigor mortis had been broken. To this Holmes made no
reply. But he realised his mistake, and a few weeks later volunteered
a second statement. He now said that Pitezel, in a fit of depression,
aggravated by his drinking habits, had committed suicide on the third
story of the house in Callowhill Street. There Holmes had found his
body, carried it down on to the floor below, and arranged it in the
manner agreed upon for deceiving the insurance company. Pitezel, he
said, had taken his life by lying on the floor and allowing chloroform
to run slowly into his mouth through a rubber tube placed on a chair.
The three children, Holmes now stated, had gone to England with a friend
of his, Miss Minnie Williams.

Miss Minnie Williams was the lady, from whom Holmes was said to have
acquired the property in Texas which he and Pitezel had set about
developing. There was quite a tragedy, according to Holmes, connected
with the life of Miss Williams. She had come to Holmes in 1893, as
secretary, at a drug store which he was then keeping in Chicago. Their
relations had become more intimate, and later in the year Miss Williams
wrote to her sister, Nannie, saying that she was going to be married,
and inviting her to the wedding. Nannie arrived, but unfortunately a
violent quarrel broke out between the two sisters, and Holmes came home
to find that Minnie in her rage had killed her sister. He had helped
her out of the trouble by dropping Nannie's body into the Chicago lake.
After such a distressing occurrence Miss Williams was only too glad of
the opportunity of leaving America wit