Otto H. Helms

Thirty-seven-year-old Otto H. Helms taught flute at the Chicago Conservatory of Music. It is conjecture that he was in the Iroquois orchestra. Though his name was listed in Iroquois Theater victim lists, none mentioned that he was a musician. Nothing was reported about a theater companion, however. If he was in the orchestra, given the attention given to Nellie Reed, the aerial dancer who lost her life in the fire, it's odd newspapers didn't mention his connection to the performance.

He married Alma Campe on May 8, 1895, but in 1900 he and his family — wife Alma Campe Helms and only child, a daughter named Ruth Helms — were living apart. Alma and Ruth lived with Otto's parents, and Alma was described in the U.S. Census as widowed, a common description in an era when divorce was verboten. On the other hand, there is evidence that he suffered from some sort of mental illness that might have caused temporary marital disruptions. At the time of his death, they seemed to have reconciled.

Otto was the son of German immigrants Christine Bormann and Christian Helms, both deceased before his death. He had eight siblings, one of whom, Walter, identified his body after the Iroquois Theater fire.

Otto was buried in Wunder's Cemetery in Chicago with his parents. On January 3, 1904, his funeral was attended by brothers in his Garden City, AF & AM No 141 Consistory and Shrine.

Music was the family business

In becoming a musician, he followed in the footsteps of his father and older brothers — Christ, a bass trombone player, and Richard, who played the double bass. In addition to teaching flute at the Chicago Conservatory of Music and Dramatic Art at the Auditorium, he performed in various amateur orchestra and chamber music groups, including the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. In city directories, he was listed as a music teacher. Arrested for threatening Teddy Roosevelt.

Six months prior to the Iroquois Theater fire, Otto was arrested for sending threatening letters to president Theodore Roosevelt and underwent a sanity hearing. The report was brief, only saying that it involved a $20,000 insurance dispute. He wanted to debate with the president.

To newspapers insisted he meant no harm to the president. He was sent to the hospital for the insane in Elgin but six months later had apparently been released.  His three brothers may have helped.  I found no evidence of a second Otto Helms in Chicago in 1903 but did find two other Alma's.  Otto had a sister named Alma and one of his brother's also married an Alma.