h the Pitezel children. In the
meantime Holmes, under the name of Bond, and Pitezel, under that of
Lyman, had proceeded to deal with Miss Williams' property in Texas.

For women Holmes would always appear to have possessed some power of
attraction, a power of which he availed himself generously. Holmes,
whose real name was Herman W. Mudgett, was thirty-four years of age
at the time of his arrest. As a boy he had spent his life farming in
Vermont, after which he had taken up medicine and acquired some kind
of medical degree. In the course of his training Holmes and a fellow
student, finding a body that bore a striking resemblance to the latter;
obtained 1,000 dollars from an insurance company by a fraud similar
to that in which Holmes had engaged subsequently with Pitezel. After
spending some time on the staff of a lunatic asylum in Pennsylvania,
Holmes set up as a druggist in Chicago. His affairs in this city
prospered, and he was enabled to erect, at the corner of Wallace and
Sixty-Third Streets, the four-storied building known later as "Holmes
Castle." It was a singular structure. The lower part consisted of a shop
and offices. Holmes occupied the second floor, and had a laboratory on
the third. In his office was a vault, air proof and sound proof. In the
bathroom a trap-door, covered by a rug, opened on to a secret staircase
leading down to the cellar, and a similar staircase connected the cellar
with the laboratory. In the cellar was a large grate. To this building
Miss Minnie Williams had invited her sister to come for her wedding
with Holmes, and it was in this building, according to Holmes, that the
tragedy of Nannie's untimely death occurred.

In hoping to become Holmes' wife, Miss Minnie Williams was not to enjoy
an exclusive privilege. At the time of his arrest Holmes had three
wives, each ignorant of the others' existence. He had married the first
in 1878, under the name of Mudgett, and was visiting her at Burlington,
Vermont, when the Pinkerton detectives first got on his track. The
second he had married at Chicago, under the name of Howard, and the
third at Denver as recently as January, 1894, under the name of Holmes.
The third Mrs. Holmes had been with him when he came to Philadelphia to
identify Pitezel's body. The appearance of Holmes was commonplace, but
he was a man of plausible and ingratiating address, apparent candour,
and able in case of necessity to "let loose," as he phrased it, "the
fount of e