The Black Maria. described the finding of Pitezel's body and was intended to lead the reader to believe that Pitezel was accidentally killed or com mitted suicide. It contained much informa tion which gave the detectives clues which they ran out and thus unravelled the case. Holmes also talked to the detectives and told one of them that he had dragged Pitezel's body from the third to the second floor of his house after he was dead. The inquiry on this would naturally be — why did he do it? It may be truly said that Holmes convicted himself. He did not go upon the witness stand, and no evidence was offered in his behalf. After his conviction Holmes wrote and sold to a newspaper combination (it is said for $7,500) a confession in which he said he had killed twenty-seven persons, but this was vain boasting. It is believed that he killed at least six,— that is, Pitezel and three of his children, and two girls named Williams, with whom he was intimate, and who were never heard of after they lived with him. On the
scaffold he denied that he had killed Pitezel, so that he died as he lived, a murderer and a liar. He was of good personal appearance and manner, and neat and tidy in his dress. He was called " smart " by some persons, but he caused his conviction by his talk before and after his arrest, by the book he pub lished while in prison, and by the questions he put to the witnesses, which questions con vinced every one who heard him that he knew the facts to be just as his questions were in tended to elicit. The trial was commenced on Monday, October 28, 1895, and was concluded on Saturday night, November 2, shortly after eight o'clock. Two sessions of the court were held daily, from ten to one and from two to six o'clock, and on two nights from seven to ten o'clock. The trial was conducted with entire propriety and great care for the in terests of the prisoner as well as of the Com monwealth, and the verdict of guilty of mur der of the first degree was right and just. Holmes was hanged on May 7, 1896.
THE BLACK MARIA. By John De Morgan. THE repulsive, hearse-like wagon used in England for the conveyance of prisoners is universally There is a degradation known as the in "being Blackcarried Maria." to court, or to a police cell, in this wagon which is positively cruel, because even those arrested on suspicion as well as the most hardened and vicious have to use it. Most of the Black Marias are constructed like a furni ture wagon, but have small cells, in which it is impossible to sit down, on either side of a centre aisle. In this aisle sits a court officer, policeman or deputy warden of the prison. In 1867 Colonel Kelly and Captain Deasy,
two Irish-Americans suspected of Fenianism, were being conveyed to prison in a Black Maria, in the city of Manchester, when they were rescued by a mob of Irishmen. In the turmoil the police-sergeant sitting in the Black Maria was accidentally killed. Three men, Allen, Larkin and O'Brien, were hanged for the death of Sergeant Brett, another, Edward O'Meara Condon, was reprieved and eventually liberated, though he too had been sentenced to death, and a fifth, also convicted of the capital offence, was proved to be en tirely innocent of any participation in the rescue.
