Yours Truly, E. Alice Pitezel

After posting about a letter from Edwina Booth to her father, Edwin, I decided to stick with this letter theme and post about another, though much sadder, letter. A letter from Alice Pitezel to her grandparents.

At the time the letter was written, Alice and her sister, Nellie, were traveling with H.H. Holmes. Her brother, Howard, had already been killed. Being in hotel rooms for days on end, Alice passed the time by writing letters to her grandparents and to her mother, Carrie. She would then give them to Holmes to send. However, Holmes never sent them, instead keeping them in a small tin box for unknown (aka sociopathic) reasons. When he was arrested, the letters were found in his possession, confiscated, and given to the police. Because each letter had a date and place written on top, detective Frank Geyer was able to follow Holmes' twisting path across the country and find the dead bodies of Alice and her two siblings, sealing the fate of Holmes.

Many of the letters Alice wrote described her loneliness, homesickness, and sadness that her mother was not responding to her and had yet to come and visit even though Holmes had been promising to bring her. Holmes would leave the children alone for days to plot his next move. Aside from moving the three Pitezel children from city to city, he was also moving his "wife," Georgiana Yoke, and the children's mother, Carrie Pitezel, keeping up the charade that her husband, Benjamin, was still alive (Holmes had already killed him too). At one point, Carrie was staying less than a block away from her children with neither party knowing of the other. Below is a real photo of Alice and a newspaper sketch of her. She was 14 years old but some sources say she was 15.

Detroit, Michigan

Oct. 14, 1894

Dear Grandma and Grandpa,

Hope you are all well. Nell and I have both got colds and chapped hands but that is all. We have not had any nice weather at all. I guess it is coming winter now. Tell momma that I have to have a coat. I nearly freeze in that thin jacket. We have to stay in all the time, Howard is not with us now. We are right near the Detroit River. We was going a boat riding yesterday but it was too cold. All that Nell and I can do is draw and I get so tired sitting that I could get up and fly almost. I wish I could see you all. I am getting so homesick that I don't know what to do. I suppose Wharton walk by this time don't he? I would like to have him here. He would pass away the time a good deal.

Yours truly, 

E. Alice Pitezel  

Until next time.

XOXO, Kate