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, With Moyamensing Prison Diary AppendixMudgett, Herman W.
General
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, With Moyamensing Prison Diary Appendix
Mudgett, Herman W.
Mudgett, Herman W., 1861-1896; Serial murderers -- Illinois -- Chicago -- Biography
The chair was as I had left it. I sat down for a few minutes to read,
then went into the kitchen and rekindled the fire, so that he could
prepare us a light lunch as soon as he returned, while I was making up
the necessary papers.
The fire soon making the lower rooms uncomfortably warm, I went up
stairs and lay down upon his bed and resumed the reading of the
paper. While there I noticed an unusual odor and finally got up. Upon
going into the adjoining room I found perhaps two dozen small bottles
containing a certain cleaning fluid upon the mantel, some of which were
uncorked. This fluid contained some chloroform, ammonia and benzine
among other ingredients, all being of a volatile nature.
[Illustration: HOLMES BURNING PITEZEL’S CLOTHING IN CALLOWHILL STREET
HOUSE.]
I don’t know how long I stayed there, nor what time it was when I
finally thought it best to go home, and I then went down stairs to his
desk to write him a note. There among the paper I found a note written
in a cipher we sometimes used, which read, “Get letter in bottle in
cupboard,” or words to that effect. (This note being one that no one
could read without my aid, I carried it in the small watch pocket of my
pantaloons, until in Toronto, having a new suit of clothing made, from
which my tailor had omitted such a pocket, I placed the note in a tin
box of papers that later was taken by the authorities. The note is now,
or should be, in their hands.)
I went to the kitchen cupboard, which was the only one I had noticed in
the house, and there I found a whiskey flask, within which I could see
some paper.
To get at it I quickly broke the bottle, and upon opening the letter
I read, “I am going to kill myself, if I can do it. You will find me
up stairs. I am worth more dead than alive.” I did not wait to finish
the letter at that time, but went hurriedly up stairs. The only place
on the second floor I had not had occasion to visit that morning was a
small room under the stairway, and looking into it I found it empty.
I then ran up this stairway to the third story, a portion of the house
I had never before been in.
It consisted of two low, small rooms, each having one small window.
The door to one of these rooms was open. I instinctively turned to the
room that was closed. Thrusting open the door and stepping within, I
saw Pitezel lying upon the floor. I rushed to him, but before I had
remained longer than to remove a large towel that was wrapped around
his head, and not having time to find if he were alive, I was forced,
owing to the overpowering odor of chloroform, together with the shock
of coming upon him so suddenly and in such a condition, to leave the
room, falling upon my knees and crawling a portion of the way until I
finally reached the window in the adjoining room, which I opened, and
in a few minutes had recovered myself sufficiently to return to the
room where Pitezel lay, but again was forced to leave before I could
make a satisfactory examination.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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