Show ONE JmRE DARK CHAPTER Brother of Hermans First Wife Tells How She Died UNDOUBTEDLY MURDERED The Letter Arrived Here from England Only Yesterday Begins to Look as Though the Complete Com-plete Story of the Career of the 3Im Who Stole thc Livery of Heoren to Serve the Devil in May Never He Told Letter Written l > y Hermans Ijy Means of Which He Made the Authorities of His ChnrclL Believe He Had Squared His Accounts Now Published for the FIrst Time The Monsters Cunning The complete story of Rev Francis Hermans dark career of crime may never be told Another chapter was added yesterday when the pastor in charge of the Scandinavian Scan-dinavian Methodist church in this city received a letter from the fugitive preachers brotherinlaw in England imparting information which tends to confirm the theory that Hermans slaved slav-ed hiE > fin wife Not only this but that another woman whose name is yet unknown here and his own nine yeirold son Frank may now be numbered num-bered among the victims of his blood besmeared hands With all these horrifying revelations Hermans may well be classified as one of the most fiendish murderers C the century and alongside of whom such criminals as Holmes and Jack the Ripper were but babes in the profet1 sicin of crime HIS CAREER OF CRIME Fresh from his boyhoods home in Sweden where he grew to his majority major-ity entered the ministry bee criminally crim-inally intimate with several lady members mem-bers of his flock to cover up which oft e he prepared and administered the stuff through the cpmmunion wine which sent fourteen souls to meet their maker he departed for England only to continue his black career He en tered a good Chritilan family sought and won the hand o a pure woman whom he took to his home that was only a few years afterwards to be defiled with the blood of the victim and their innocent child Then having added this chapter to his history he departed for Minneapolis where he remarried re-married A short period elapsed and his second wife dCed under suspicious circumstances He went to Duluth took unto himself a third wife and a few years afterwards she and her newborn new-born babe died as suddenly and mysteriously mys-teriously a his previous victims The awful murder of Annie Samuelsen and Henrietta Clausen and the cremation of the latters body in the church in this city of which he was pastor is but recent history and make up the last page of Ills criminal history as far a known to the world at present THE NEW CHAPTER The old saying that murder will out has again been demonstrated to be truthful Since the discovery of the church tragedy in this city the people who were deluded into tlaiink ing Hermans was a man of God have never relaxed in their efforts to bring the author of the crlaies to justice So far their efforts have been in vain save for the additional evidences confirming his right to the title of king of criminals The developments yesterday were But additions evidence to the stock of this class bf evIdencHER HERMANS CUNNING When the trustees of the Scandinavian i Scandina-vian Methodist church discovered that Hermans had embezzled the funds belonging be-longing to the cthurch of which he was in charge they called him back from Chicago where he had gone in connection connec-tion with matters pertaining to his ministry min-istry and with characteristic brazen nest he returned to the church where the bones of one of hJs victims bodies were hidden I hid-den He told those who called him to account that he would make a full settlement with the church So implicit I was the confidence in him by his coworkers co-workers that when he told them he would write a letter to his brotherin law in England and request him to send a draft covering the amount of the sViortnge they accepted it in good faith He told them a very plausible story that he had made previous arrangements ar-rangements for his relative across the water to send the money that epa e-pa had the money ready and was prepared to remit on short notice All I this the trustees believed and Hermans succeeded in e1 settlement effectIng a with I the church by writing a letter t A thur Smith his brotherinlaw in Eng land requesting him to send 200 sterling ling In the shape of a draft payable to Elder E E Mork WROTE TO A FICTITIOUS ADDRESS Now it transpires that while Arthur Smith is Ms brotheri7ilavs correct name he purposely addressed the letter to 3 fictitious address knowing probably prob-ably that Mr Smith had no money wiUh whlteh t help him out of his difficulties cult or if he had that he would not loan i to Hermans THE LETTER The letter which Hermans sent to his brotherinlaw was as follows Salt Lake City Utah May 6 1S96 Mr Arthur Smith Highdere England Dear Brother You will be surprised to hear from me from Sal Lake city as when I lost wrote you from Deeorah I told you that I would net be home till in the end of summer and therefore asked you not to send the money before you heard from me again But I have unexpectedly been called home to settle some financial difficulties in which I am involved I therefore need the money now immediately and as you told me you had it on hand and liked to get rid of i I ask you now to send a once upon receipt of this letter a draft for two hundred pounds sterling and this letter and the returned draft shall be sufficient receipt for you until you hear further from me As I am about to leave home again for the summer I wH ask you t make ih draf payable in favor of Jtov L E l Moxie of Salt Lake city na I have given him power of attorney to act for me Please address the letter to me in care of Rev Olaus Arvesen Sat Lake < ity Uoi U S A I hope to write you further as soon as I know where I am to be settled for the summer I heard from my little L d 3 i > > Samuel not long ago and he and all I there are well and happy You ask 1 if T will not come over and see you I will not come this summer a circumstances I circum-stances may be such that after next October I will come and spend sometime some-time with you but I wU let you know more later on With brotherly love to I yourself and ail with you I you g over to Samuel before I write again please kiss him for wrte aln ple me Yours very affectionately FRANCIS HERMANS Hermans wrote tie above epistle on his typewriter and adressed the envelope en-velope as follows Mr Arthur Smith Highelere England near Reading Berkshire IT CAME BACK The letter if not called for was made returnable t Rev Olaus Arvesen a ting t-ing pastor of the church here A few days ago the leer came back < with the 1 notation on the envelope not known 8 Highclere THE BROTHERINLAW WRITES I was then plain to the church authorities au-thorities that they had been buncoed by the expastor and this was made plain yesterday by the receipt of a letter let-ter from Arthur Smith his fro giving correct cor-rect address But this was but the smallest part of the importance attached t the receipt I re-ceipt of ibis letter Within its four pages was contained sufficient information informa-tion t convince the people here of the truth of their worst fears that Her mans murdered his wife if not other people before he trod upon Americas soil The letter is a follows Brier Wbodl WashJCommoinv Newbury Berks England Aug 4 1896 SirI am writing to alt you If you can give me any information respecting the pastor of your church Francis Her mans who a short time back I saw by the papers was under arrest for dreadful dread-ful crimes I should feel greatly obliged i you could let me know anything I about him and if dead could you send me a certificate of his death I would be of great importance to me and l would feel greatly obliged and would pay you what the certificate cost I and all the family are greatly grieved with the sad tidings of him I a sorry to say he is my brotherin law My dear sister was a worker in a Miss 11 C Phersons home London when she became acquainted with Her mans He was hen a city missionary mission-ary and we all thought a good man He left London for Honfleur France stayed a short time there and then went on to Havre removing thence to Glasgow Scotland My dead sister came home to see us and left U6 as far as I could see well as ever We saw her a strong healthy young woman Soon after we heard she was ill not seriously but on the IGtlh of November Novem-ber 1SS9 I had a letter l from Frank saying she was very ill Consumption had set in the doctor told him the day before At 4 oclock the some day came a telegram saying she was legrm wa gone My dear sister was a bright sweet Christian only 32 years of age She ItLt two dear boys Another sister sent a good middleaged woman to look a ter him and the dear children and between i be-tween November and the following April the eldest boy and the woman I both died after which Hermans left Glasgow for Minneapolis then went onto on-to Wisconsin and then t Utah another sister taking the other little boy who i i still alive dear little fellow l I wrote to Hermans but seldom got I a reply and we all felt grieved because I be-cause he did net write often or send his own child to inquire how he was I is i i long over a twelvemonth since he wrote and better imagine our feel to me you beter iagne OUl feelIngs feel-ings than I can write them when we saw the accounts in the papers A letter wH greatly relieve xour < respectfully re-spectfully ARTHUR SMITH SUSPICIOUS CIRCUMSTANCES I wH be noted that Mr Smith states that coi the 16th of Nevember 1SS9 he had a letter from Frank stating that his mamma was sick Frank was Her mans oldest child by his first wife In a little giltedged book called Our Anniversaries i An-niversaries found among Hermans possessions here appears a notation in j the pastors handwriting to the effect toat Frank was born November 16 1SS2 According to the above Frank wrote that letter to his uncle telling of i his mothers illness when he was but 7 years old This seems rather incredi ible and it is more thai likely that if the letter was written by the boy at all his father dictated it to him fther The fact that Mrs Hermans left her I brothers house a strong healthy woman wo-man and son after died from consumption I i r con-sumption is a circumstance which requires j I quires only the ingenuity of her slayer t explainDEATH DEATH OF HIS BOY I The suddenness with which the death of the boy Frank and the good woman i wo-man who was sent to care for the i motherless lad is in line with the i mystery surrounding the death of his two wives ir this country The letter I is somewhat meagre in detail but no doubt had Mr Smith heard anything about their sudden demise that would have lifted the cloud of suspicion attached at-tached thereto the letter would have conveyed the information But there is I probably no explanation other than that these three innocent people were murdered as were Henrietta Clausen and Annie Samuelsen Hermans connection Itith the wholesale whole-sale murder in the little church in Sweden has been confirmed to such an extent that there is little doubt but that he was the guilty man Correspondence Corres-pondence is now passing between the authorities here and in Sweden and full I particulars of this crime may be expected ex-pected before long I HERMANS AGE There has been some question about Hermans age In the same book in which he has recorded the age of his wives and children appears the following follow-ing in his own handwriting Francis Hermans born October 10 1852 According Ac-cording to this he would now be 44 years old CHANCES OF HIS CAPTURE The prospects for locating the fugi j I I tive minister encouraging tve are not very Since he departed from the city on I I i May 6 last he has been seen and recognized but once That was in I Council Bluffs la The reward500 is far too small to stimulate effective search and eastern detectives are not in the habit of doing anything for nothing noth-ing Report that he has been seen at I different points I still come in occasionally I occasion-ally to Chief Pratt a well as Sheriff Hardy but they are mere cases of mistaken identity and Hermans may never be called to account for his crimes before he goes to meet his maker J I n I V l 5 U I Sfc If L I I I I JAI 1 I 3 i Q 1 1ii I S LLi 7 i IEtILS HIS liIRST WIFE AND THEIR BOY FRANK J |