While reading through the book Depraved (author: Harold Schechter) I found a section that detailed a cartoon published while Holmes was in prison. During the time that his various crimes starting coming to light, other crimes (that he didn't commit) were being pinned to his name. Similar to what would happen years later with Bonnie and Clyde, when the police couldn't fine a perpetrator, they would hang the blame on Holmes.
In one example, according to Schechter, "newspapers throughout the country had published sensational accounts of a massacre in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. A tribe of 'hostile Bannocks' had butchered every white settler in the area."
The story turned out to be false. The problem arose because local cattle rustlers wanted the land and were attempting to drive the Bannocks off it. The Chicago Tribune ran a self mocking article before the truth was revealed.
"In the drawing, Holmes is shown standing in his jail cell, holding up a newspaper whose front page reads, 'BANNOCK INDIANS ON WARPATH - SETTLERS MASSACRED.'"
Holmes looks dismayed, not because of the deaths, but because he knows he'll be blamed for them (even though he's locked in a prison cell). His caption reads, "I AM INNOCENT!" However, when I found the actual cartoon, I saw that it said more than what Schechter had written.
The rest of the caption reads, "I HAD NO INSURANCE ON ANY OF THOSE SETTLERS." Holmes was known for taking out insurance policies on victims, then killing them and claiming the money. At the time, he was suspected of murdering Benjamin Pitezel in this way and the cartoon's artist was not letting the chance to poke fun at the doctor pass without notice. Personally, I find this cartoon rather humorous and clever. And it wasn't the only time someone made a witty insurance remark at Holmes' expense.
In one interview, Holmes claimed to have hatched a chicken in his cell, kept it, and took care of it for a month. I'm not sure how much truth there is in that tale since I can't see how no one would notice or hear a chicken, even though Holmes claims he hid it. (Where? I don't know considering he was living in a space the size of a telephone booth). However, Holmes said to his visitors, "it died, as all the things we love die in the world." Upon leaving the room, one of the two men remarked that sometime after hatching the egg, "Holmes doubtless had the chicken's life insured."
Until next time.
XOXO, Kate
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