Yesterday's Print

Showing 10 posts tagged serial killer

A collection of old photographs, historic newspaper clippings and assorted excerpts highlighting the parallels of past and present. Featuring weird, funny and baffling headlines, articles and advertisements! Visit www.yesterdays-print.com 

Liked Posts

The Decatur Daily Review, Illinois, November 22, 1936 John R. Kizer, a veterinarian, was on trial for the murder of his stepson via strychnine poisoning when he committed suicide. He was also suspected of killing his second wife (the mother of his...   High-res

The Decatur Daily Review, Illinois, November 22, 1936

John R. Kizer, a veterinarian, was on trial for the murder of his stepson via strychnine poisoning when he committed suicide. He was also suspected of killing his second wife (the mother of his stepson); her mother and her father; his first wife, years earlier; his niece and her husband; his aunt and her friend; and the husband of a man whose wife he was courting (luckily for the lady she turned him down, saying she was still in love with her husband). 

After killing his wife, her mother and her father, the only obstacle left in gaining the whole inheritance for himself was his stepson, Arnold. All the Bonner fortune had been put in trust for Arnold. The young man wanted to join the army but Kizer realized that if he did, he might remain out of his grasp and old enough to claim the money for himself. So Kizer had to act. He told Arnold to wait a couple years before deciding whether to take such a step. And then he began to poison him.

When Arnold Bonner, the stepson, was hurt during a high school football game and a doctor was called in, it was noted that the young man had extremely high levels of strychnine in his system. When Arnold died, the bodies of his mother and grandmother were disinterred to look for signs of poisoning, but by the time the tests were completed, John R. Kizer was dead.

The picture was taken after he had asked the officers escorting him to his preliminary hearing to stop at a barbershop for a shave and something to drink. He polished off his soda and went to the bathroom before they all got back in the car. When they got to the courthouse, John was writhing in pain, before he became unconscious and died. A bottle of poison was later found in his jail cell.

Published in the Chicago Inter Ocean on July 28, 1895, a letter from serial killer H.H. Holmes (Herman Webster Mudgett) to the former caretaker of his “Murder Castle”, Pat Quinlan, written 8 months after his arrest on November 17, 1894. The police believed the letter was a “blind”, written to Quinlan to try and throw them off Holmes’ track, as he knew it would be read by the authorities. The asterisks halfway through were meant to show where part of the letter was cut out. Quinlan would commit suicide by taking strychnine in 1914, leaving a note which read “I couldn’t sleep”. 

June 18, 1895 - Dear Pat: Among their other fool theories, they think you took the Pitezel boy to Michigan and either left him there or put him out of the way. I have always told them that I have never asked you to do anything illegal, but they are all bullheaded. 

Oct 12 I saw you at the factory, I think. Can’t you show where you were all the rest of the month? If they question you or threaten to arrest you, tell them anything there is about this or any other matter. They may want to know if you were in Cincinnati or Indianapolis about Oct 12. It is well for you to be about to know where you were working. 

I am awfully sorry, Pat, for I have always tried to make things easy for you. When Minnie killed her sister I needed you the worst way, but would not drag you into it. If the detectives go to New York, as I want them to, they would find where Minnie W. took them by boat. I have done no killing, Pat. One by one, they are finding them alive. Minnie W. will not come here as long as there is danger of her being arrested. A Boston man knows where she is, and her guardian, Morris H. Watt, will at the proper and safe time go to her.

 Let your wife write me anything you wish; not oftener than two times a month, directing “H. Holmes, County Prison, Tenth and Reed streets, Philadelphia.”

 * * * I cannot write many letters to you; I am doing all I can for all. Expect to hear shortly from you. Give my love to your wife and Cora. Tell her I have her picture in my room with me, and thank her for it. Tell her I have a tame mouse and spider to keep me company. 

My food is the worst part here. Clarence Phillips’ restaurant at its worst would be fine compared with it. I only eat once a day. 

Shall be out sooner than you expect. They kept Mrs. F shut up here for six months, when we would have let her out on bail. Made a fool of her. Write soon and free. Ask any questions you want to. Georgina is visiting her mother; went about two weeks ago.

With respects to all,

H.H.H.

In 1938 it was discovered that Texas roadhouse proprietor Joe Ball had been murdering women and feeding them to his pet alligators. Although only two bodies were found, it is believed that he may have killed up to 20 women between 1936 and 1938, when he committed suicide during police questioning.

From Wikipedia:

After a while, women in the area were reported missing, including barmaids, former girlfriends and his wife. When two Bexar County sheriff’s deputies went to question him in 1938, Ball pulled a handgun from his cash register and killed himself with a bullet through the heart (some sources report that he shot himself in the head).

A handyman who conspired with Ball, Clifford Wheeler, admitted to helping Ball dispose of the bodies of two of the women he had killed. Wheeler led them to the remains of Hazel Brown and Minnie Gotthard. Wheeler told authorities that Ball murdered at least 20 other women, but the alligators had disposed of any evidence. There has never been any concrete evidence that the alligators actually ate any of his victims.

There were few written sources from the era which could verify Ball’s crimes. Newspaper editor Michael Hall investigated the story in depth in 2002, and wrote on his findings for Texas Monthly.