By Det. Frank P. Geyer. 502p. illustrated. (1896) Available in Hardcover & Softcover

A true detective story.

H. H. Holmes was a con-artist and bigamist as well as one of the first documented serial killers in America. He confessed to 27 murders, though only 9 were plausibly confirmed. Some speculate that H. H. Holmes was also Jack the Ripper.

Benjamin Pitezel was an associate and close partner of Holmes, with whom he participated in a number of scams, including a plot in 1894 to gain $10,000 from Fidelity Mutual Life Association by feigning his own death. However, rather than using a substitute corpse as they had planned, Holmes actually killed Pitezel, a crime for which the murderer was ultimately put to death in 1896.

The Pitezel children were abducted and killed by Herman Mudgett (aka H. H. Holmes) in 1894, only months after Mudgett’s murder of their father. 11-year-old Nellie and 15-year-old Alice were killed by Mudgett in Toronto shortly after their abduction. Their remains were discovered the following year in 1895. That same year, 8-year-old Howard's remains were found in a house on the outskirts of Indianapolis by Detective Frank Geyer.

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