After consulting with Hatch, who was very much worried lest if I were arrested it would implicate him as being with me, and perhaps Miss Williams as well, we concluded that we should go away at once. Finally I decided to abandon the Cincinnati house, and have the Pitezel family locate elsewhere, as the attorneys knew of my former trips to that city. I therefore wrote Mrs. Pitezel at Galva, advising her to change her plans and go to Detroit.
Up to this time, all that I had done for Mrs. Pitezel she had been aware of, but I did not now think it prudent that she should know of the probability of trouble arising from the insurance company. I preferred having her locate in some large city at that time, and explain to her afterwards about her husband’s death as he had requested me to do, and also of the necessity of remaining quiet until I could ascertain if any real danger existed.
Quite early upon the morning of October 10th, I went to the children’s hotel, and found them eating their breakfast. I told them we were going away that day, and went with them to their rooms and instructed them to divide their belongings into three separate packages, they having previously been contained in a very old trunk, which was not in a condition to be taken further. There was left in this trunk some old clothing, among which was a suit of heavy clothes which had belonged to Pitezel.
I then asked the children whether they would go with me to Chicago, and then to Detroit, or go with Hatch. Howard Pitezel chose to go with Hatch, while the girls desired to go to Chicago, hoping, while there, to have time to visit some of their former acquaintances. Having some purchases to make before leaving, I therefore, after telling the girls at what time to meet me at the station, left the hotel, having instructed Howard not to leave until Hatch should come, in order that he could direct him to come to the station before my train left. I met Hatch and Howard later upon the street. This was the last time I ever saw the boy Howard, at which time he was both well and contented. The first few days after his leaving home he had been homesick.
While I was in the barber shop at the station upon this same morning, I asked Hatch to go to the hotel and have the nearly empty trunk taken to the station and have it checked to any destination he might choose, there being nothing of value in it, and it not being desirable to have it left at the hotel. Upon reaching Chicago, I took the two girls to a hotel, as I had business in a distant part of the city. I stayed during the one night I remained there at a new hotel upon the West side of North Clark Street, less than a block North of the Lincoln avenue car junction. *[6]
Not deeming it prudent, owing to the late news I had heard at Indianapolis, to go to my attorney’s office, I had both him and my agent meet me elsewhere, and arranging my work as quickly as possible, I left Chicago upon Friday, October 12th, going directly to Detroit, taking the girls with me. During the latter part of this trip my wife was upon the same train, she having left Indiana that morning in response to a request from me to do so.
Anticipating this, I had made arrangements with Hatch before leaving Indianapolis to be at the Detroit Station to take charge of the children. Upon our reaching Detroit I at once took my wife to a hotel about one mile from the station, and as I was leaving the train I saw Hatch helping the girls from the car in which they had traveled. About a half hour later Hatch met me at the Western Union telegraph office in response to a note I had given to Alice for him.
It was very late at night, and I returned with him to the hotel, where he had taken the girls, to see that they were all right, and while going there he told me that he had been delayed twenty-four hours at some junction between Indianapolis and Detroit, so that he had only reached Detroit that afternoon, and Miss Williams not wishing by any accident to meet my wife had gone to Buffalo to visit some theatrical friends, taking Howard with her. I did not think strange of this, for I knew Howard had known and liked Miss Williams the year before, when she was in my office in Chicago. The next day I engaged permanent board for both myself and wife, and also for the children, in two separate portions of the city, as I expected to remain there for some time, and enlisting Hatch’s services, we proceeded to look for a house that, if possible, could be bought in exchange for Chicago property, and by so doing save money.
If this could not be accomplished, then a house that should be rented for a few months, until such a trade could be made. A small house was found so favorably located, with school advantages for the children, that I thought it best to pay the small deposit required, five dollars, to hold it for a few days.
On Sunday morning, Mrs. Pitezel came to Detroit, and I did not think it wise to tell her positively that she was to settle there until I should have heard again from both St. Louis and Chicago. During the interval, I had her board at a hotel; nor did I think it wise to tell her the other children were in the city, until I knew that no further move was to be made, lest she not understanding the danger of arrest—if such danger I should find still existing—she would be unwilling to go elsewhere, unless she supposed the children and her husband or both, had already gone.
I had brought with me a package of papers from Chicago, which I did not care to carry in my own trunks, and it was arranged to conceal them in the house lately rented in Detroit. I took them there in company with Hatch, and proceeded to place them above the ceiling of the upper story, when he suggested that in case of fire they would be lost, and volunteered to prepare a place next day in the basement for their safe-keeping. And this he did by first buying a new shovel, and then making a small excavation in the earth, not using this shovel, as it afterward appeared, but another found in the basement.
Upon the morning of October 17th I received startling intelligence from both St. Louis and Chicago, and, upon holding a consultation, it was with reluctance that we decided to leave Detroit and go either to Canada or Europe; for I felt that any move, without regard to expenses, was better than to have Mrs. Pitezel arrested and myself as well. This day was a very busy one. Before Mrs. Pitezel left St. Louis I had bought a large trunk, which I loaned to her to carry part of her personal effects to her new house. When it was decided to make a move into other lands, I arranged with Hatch that, while I was busy about other matters, he should take the trunk to his room and repack it, and exclude a multitude of worthless articles, after having told Mrs. Pitezel that this was to be done.
It also became necessary to go to a city called Ypsilanti upon that same day to get a package of valuable papers I had ordered forwarded to me there, and, being too busy about other matters, I requested Hatch to make the trip for me. He hesitated considerably about doing it, saying he must see to repacking this trunk. I told him that I could better take the time to do this than to go to Ypsilanti. He replied that I could not well take it to his room as I was not known to the people of whom he rented. I told him I would arrange it otherwise, and he then started for Ypsilanti.
At about one o’clock I found an expressman, and accompanying him to a feed store near by bought a flour barrel with the address of a party in Hartford, Conn., upon one end of it. We then drove to Mrs. Pitezel’s hotel and had the trunk taken to the depot. There, upon the platform, I took such worthless articles as Mrs. Pitezel had placed in a separate part of the trunk and put them in the barrel, and leaving the trunk at the depot had the expressman take the barrel to either the United States or American Express Company’s office, and ship it to Hartford, Conn. At about 2 P. M. I went to a livery stable on ----- Street, and hiring a horse and buggy drove to the house that had been rented and took the two girls with me for a drive. I entered the house and procured the papers I had previously left there. I also left a note instructing Hatch to the effect that if he came there from Ypsilanti with the other papers, not to bury them. I then drove to Hatch’s room and left a small note, and this accounts for the note being later found in the house where I directed the authorities to search.
Earlier in the same day Hatch and I visited several large stores, and at one obtained a $500 and two $200 bills, which, together with other small bills, making in all $1,000, whic
h sum he took to Miss Williams to pay upon what was due her on the Fort Worth transaction. Before leaving Detroit Hatch brought to the depot the new shovel wrapped in a paper, and wished to put it in the trunk, but upon my remarking that it seemed more useless than things I had just taken out to make more room, he said he had paid for it and did not care to throw it away.
The next morning my wife and I left Detroit for Toronto at 10 o’clock. Mrs. Pitezel and the two children started two hours later. The next morning Hatch took the two girls, Alice and Nellie, to the train and they made the journey to the same city alone twenty-four hours later, and over the same road I had come, while Hatch came to Toronto by the way of Buffalo, where he stopped to see Miss Williams.
I reached Toronto early Thursday evening October 18th, and went at once to the Walker House. After taking dinner, I went to the station and met Mrs. Pitezel, taking her to a hotel near by, and returned to the Walker House for the night. Next morning we breakfasted at about 8.30. I visited Mrs. Pitezel at her hotel about a half hour, and then with my wife visited several fur stores, purchasing a fur cape and returned with her to the Walker House for the mid-day meal. Immediately thereafter we went for a long country drive, and did not return until about 6 P. M. I ate dinner and then, as upon the preceding evening, went to the station. This time I met the two girls, Alice and Nellie, which whom Hatch had started from Detroit that morning, as stated.
Upon their arrival I placed them in an omnibus running to the Albion Hotel, in care of the runner for that house, and returning to the Walker House had hardly time to prepare for the theatre, which I attended that evening with my wife. The next morning, after eating a late breakfast *[7], my first occupation upon this day was to go to the Hotel Albion and visit the children. I found them in their room, greatly interested in watching the immense open market across the street. I remained with them until almost, if not quite, 10 A. M. I then went to the post-office, making a few calls at some haberdashers on the way. I reached the post-office not later than 10.30, when I met Hatch, in accordance with an arrangement made before leaving Detroit. He had visited Miss Williams at Buffalo, upon the trip to Toronto; and, in answer to my inquiry, stated that the boy Howard was well, and that he had wanted to come to Toronto with him, but he had thought it best for him to wait and accompany Miss Williams if she came.
He then left me, as he stated, to find for himself a private room, agreeing to meet me at the same place at 2 P. M.
Now, in this short time between 10.30 A. M. and 2 P. M., it appears from the testimony recently taken in Toronto at an inquest, that a visit was made to a real estate agent then in a distant part of the city; a call was made upon the owner of the house at Vincent Street of sufficient length to arrange for renting the property, and to enter into a detailed description of the family supposed to be the future tenants, and become well acquainted with the owner; then to take possession of the house, to call upon a neighbor and make their acquaintance as well, and, presumable, to eat a lunch at some restaurant, and buy a small amount of furniture for the house just hired. Add to this the almost certain probability that the lessee had visited other houses as well, it being hardly possible that he could have found a house at once so well adapted to the purpose as this seems to have been, and there is little time left for other work before 2 P. M. of the same day.
My movements during these same hours were as follows: Leaving Hatch at the post-office, I went to Mrs. Pitezel’s hotel, fully one mile away, stopping upon my way at the telegraph office for fully fifteen minutes, while a search was instituted in a different part of the building for undelivered telegrams. After making a short call at the hotel, I returned to the Walker House, went again to the fur store where our purchase of the day previous had been made (one of two stores located very near each other about two blocks West of the post-office and North of K Street). Here fully one-half hour was taken up on the work one there, which included the purchase of two storm garments. We then went to King Street, made several calls at furnishing stores and one large dry goods store, and then, after spending some time in selecting a good pocket compass, returned to the Walker House for lunch; to do which, and to write two letters, certainly occupied fully an hour, probably more.
I then went again to the Albion Hotel, stopping to buy the children some fruit and toys upon the way. At the appointed hour, I went to meet Hatch at the post-office. He was late in keeping his appointment, and I made several purchases in that neighborhood, and I think at this time selected the material and was measured for a suit of clothes at a custom tailor shop, upon the West side of Young Street, near junction of the street leading to the post-office.
Upon meeting Hatch, I told him I was to be absent from the city on Sunday, and asked if he could see to the children while I was away, and if they wished to go for a street car ride, he would accompany them. This he agreed to do, and after making some further plans with him for the following week, I went to the Hotel Albion again and told the children of the arrangement made for their ride, then went to the furnishing store on King Street kept by a man named Dickson, I think.
When I found the grade of goods I had been in search of, and after purchasing some, I returned to the Walker House with hardly time left to be shaved and go to Mrs. Pitezel’s hotel, to let her know I was to be out of the city the next day, and to catch the 4 or 4.30 train for Niagara Falls.
At this time my wife’s trunk and the large trunk from Detroit, were both at the Toronto Depot, and I asked that they be checked to Niagara. I remarked to the baggage agent that I had no need to take the large one, save to avoid storage. He asked how long I desired to leave it there, and I replied that was uncertain, but perhaps a week. He asked for a half dollar and said that there are no further charges if it was taken away in a week’s time. The trunk never left the Toronto Depot during my stay there. Sunday, October 21st, was passed by us at the falls, returning to Toronto by the way of Hamilton in the early evening, at which time I went to the Palmer House.
During Monday all was busy about the city, returning to my hotel often during the day. Part of the time I was with Hatch searching for a suitable location in which he and Miss Williams would open a respectable massage establishment, if they all settled there, which was the real object of the Toronto trip, as I have reason to believe.
During the day he asked me if I would not spend Tuesday night with him in and about the city. I gave him to understand that I might do so. Tuesday morning we met, as had become our custom, at the post-office between 10 and 11 o’clock.
I received additional and disquieting messages from the West, and by noon-time we had made up our minds that the conditions favorable to the business we had hoped to find did not exist in Toronto, and had decided to go to England instead. Hatch particularly favored this plan, as they had had a prosperous business there during the foregoing year, and he at once wrote Miss Williams to that effect, and for her to meet the two girls at Niagara at as early a day as possible, which she was to appoint by letter.
She was to take the three children to London, while Mrs. Pitezel took the others there a little later on, or as soon as we could become settled again.
When Hatch again urged me to stay with him during the night, I finally told him that since my terrible experience of the year before, which the indirect results of my loose living had been Nannie Williams’ death, and more particularly since my marriage, I had endeavored to live a clean life, and thought best not to deviate in this instance. I returned to the Palmer House not later than 4.30 P.M. Later, in thinking the matter over, I thought, inasmuch as he had helped me so much during the preceding weeks, it seemed like ill-treatment towards him, and decided that if he brought the matter up next day I would spend a part of the evening with him.
Acting upon this decision, I told my wife next morning, Wednesday, that I might not return until late, but later in the day I reconsidered my former plan and returned to the Palmer House at about 2.30 P. M. and my wife being absent and the room locked at the time, I t
hrew some flowers I had just bought into the room through the open transom, my wife finding them upon her return a short time later.
During the day I had been buying a quantity of small articles to send to my relatives in New Hampshire, and had gotten them together temporarily at the furnishing store previously mentioned. At noon-time I had eaten lunch with the children and in the afternoon Hatch had taken them for a drive. In the evening I accompanied my wife to the theatre, enjoying myself far more than the case would be had I been going about the city together with Hatch and a guilty conscience.
On Thursday, October 24th, the day when it is reasonable to suppose the two girls were killed, I was busy about the city during the forenoon. The girls came to the post-office at about 10.30 and either went with Hatch for a drive or a streetcar ride, they having been in Hatch’s care more than with me while in Toronto, for the reason that their hotel was so distant it encroached upon my time to ride to visit both them and Mrs. Pitezel and do what work I wished. That morning we heard that Miss Williams would meet the girls at Niagara upon the arrival of the afternoon train. They ate lunch with me between 1 and 2 o’clock, Hatch being elsewhere at the time. The girls returned to their hotel afterwards for a few minutes to change part of their attire for some that was warmer, which I had bought for them in anticipation of their sea voyage. Later they joined me again and I bought them a number of presents. I also bought Miss Williams a small brooch, which I gave to Alice, together with a note, which she was to deliver personally to Miss Williams.
My object in sending it in this way was that Hatch knew of our former relations, and I had avoided sending by him as he then claimed she was his wife. About half an hour before train time, which I think was 4.30 P. M., we were upon Young Street. I sent the girls to a restaurant or bakery near by to get some lunch prepared to take with them upon the train, instructing them to then come to a large store which I pointed out to them where I would await their arrival. I then entered this store and bought some small articles for the children, having in my hands at the time some underwear I had previously purchased to send to Howard, the boy, when I heard a familiar voice, and turning saw Mrs. Pitezel and the other two children.
Confessions of the Serial Killer H.H. Holmes (Illustrated) Page 10