HH HOLMES Ep. 6 | “Revelations”

HH Holmes goes to trial for the murder of Benjamin Pitezel. The legal battle is headline news, and he loves the attention. During that time, investigators make disturbing discoveries in the basement of the Murder Castle in Chicago, and the legend of Holmes as the arch fiend of the World’s Fair and America’s most prolific killer is born. Thanks to our sponsor, Quince! Use this link for Free Shipping and 365-day returns: ⁠Quince.com/infamousamerica Thanks to our sponsor, Rocket Money! Use this link to start saving today: RocketMoney.com/InfamousA Join Black Barrel+ for ad-free episodes and bingeable seasons: blackbarrel.supportingcast.fm/join Apple users join Black Barrel+ for ad-free episodes, bingeable seasons and bonus episodes. Click the Black Barrel+ banner on Apple to get started with a 3-day free trial. On YouTube, subscribe to INFAMOUS+ for ad-free episodes and bingeable seasons: hit “Join” on the Legends YouTube homepage. For more details, please visit www.blackbarrelmedia.com. Our social media pages are: @blackbarrelmedia on Facebook and Instagram, and @bbarrelmedia on Twitter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

• 0:00Speaker 00

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• 0:29Speaker 01

  Near the end of August 1895, H.H. Holmes was in jail in Philadelphia awaiting sentencing for life insurance fraud. He had pleaded guilty and he thought he would receive a couple of years in prison at the most. But before the judge decided Holmes' sentence, the Philadelphia authorities decided to investigate the death of Benjamin Pitezel as a murder. Holmes had initially claimed that his former associate was alive and in hiding as a part of the life insurance scam.

• 1:10Speaker 01

  Then Holmes changed his story and said Pitezel had taken his own life. As the Philadelphia authorities learned more about the boastful criminal in their custody, they believed the truth was that Holmes had murdered his accomplice. Then they became increasingly suspicious that Holmes may have murdered three of Pitezel's children: 15-year-old Alice, 12-year-old Nellie, and 8-year-old Howard. District Attorney George Graham entrusted the case to his friend, Inspector Frank Geyer. In the summer of 1895, Geyer had crisscrossed part of the US to try to find the missing children. In Toronto, Canada, Geyer had found the bodies of Alice and Nellie buried in the basement of a rental house.

• 1:55Speaker 01

  Then, Geyer returned to one of his early stops, Indianapolis, on a hunch. He had verified that Holmes had been there with the children, and he hadn't found any evidence of the murder of Howard Pitezel, but he tried again.

• 2:09Speaker 01

  Newspapers tracked Geyer's mission and readers eagerly awaited every new development. The attention turned Geyer into a celebrity detective and it also led to tips from the public. In Indianapolis, after days of searching, a tip came in from a real estate agent. It was about a small rental cottage in the suburb of Irvington. The cottage was in a secluded neighborhood, which would have been a great place to conceal criminal activity. Knowing that Alice and Nellie's bodies had been buried in the basement of the rental house in Toronto, Geyer immediately started digging in the basement of the cottage in Irvington.

• 2:52Speaker 01

  Hundreds of people assembled at the house in anticipation of a major discovery. But by the end of the day, the digging had produced nothing but a trunk Holmes had left behind. Geyer decided to call it a night. After he left, a few neighborhood boys snuck into the cottage to poke around. In the basement, they noticed a hole in the chimney pipe. One of the boys reached inside and pulled out a piece of bone. Geyer was alerted and he rushed back to the house. The search of the chimney revealed more small bones, including part of a skull, child's teeth, and some toys and buttons. Carrie Pitezel, Howard's mother, confirmed that the buttons came from Howard's coat.

• 3:36Speaker 01

  With Geyer's discovery of Howard's remains, Philadelphia District Attorney George Graham finally believed he had enough evidence to convict Holmes of murder. Less than two weeks later, a grand jury in Philadelphia indicted Holmes for the murder of the children's father, Benjamin Pitezel. Holmes was charged, arraigned, and pleaded not guilty, and his murder trial was set to begin one month later. Holmes would never be formally charged with the murders of the three Pitezel kids, but it's probably safe to assume that if the first murder trial had gone differently, DA George Graham would have pushed hard for a trial for the murders of the children. And despite the fact that the trial for the murder of Ben Pitezel seems crystal clear today, it was no sure thing in 1895.

• 4:37Speaker 01

  From Black Barrel Media, this is Infamous America. I'm your host, Chris Wimmer, and this season, we're telling the story of H.H. Holmes, the con artist and murderer, whose crimes during the Chicago World's Fair became the stuff of legend. This is episode six, Revelations.

• 5:02Speaker 01

  In spite of his upcoming murder trial, H.H. Holmes felt he had reason to celebrate. His autobiography, titled Holmes Own Story, was published in early October. To him, it was just in time. By releasing it right before the beginning of his murder trial, he assumed the additional conflicting stories about his alleged crimes would help his case get dismissed. He loved the attention from the media and the public, but obviously, he didn't want to be convicted of the crimes which brought him all that fame. The murder trial began on October 28, 1895, and lasted for five days. From the first moment, the trial was a national spectacle.

• 5:44Speaker 01

  In addition to the three dozen witnesses and countless reporters inside the courtroom, a crowd of spectators formed outside to catch a glimpse of the alleged killer. On the first day, they were disappointed. Holmes entered through a side door and took a seat in the prisoner's dock. Nearly a year in jail seemed to have taken its toll on Holmes. His mustache had grown into a thick beard, and he appeared pale. Holmes was represented by William Shoemaker, the young lawyer who had represented him during the insurance fraud case. In a somewhat strange move, Holmes had added a second lawyer to his team, who was essentially a clone of Shoemaker. Samuel Rotan was in his early twenties and had very little experience.

• 6:28Speaker 01

  It soon became apparent that the youngsters were no match for DA George Graham, who skillfully led the prosecution.

• 6:39Speaker 01

  Before opening statements began, Shoemaker nervously addressed the judge and asked for the trial to be postponed. He explained that the six weeks they had been given to prepare was not sufficient for a case of this magnitude. The young lawyers had not been able to bring a single witness to Philadelphia to testify for the defense. The potential witnesses were scattered all across the US and Canada, and they were unwilling to travel if their expenses weren't paid. By that time, Holmes had very little money to fund his defense. Shoemaker claimed that if they were granted 60 more days, they could secure the money for a strong case. When the judge asked District Attorney Graham if he would agree to the postponement,

• 7:22Speaker 01

  the DA nearly laughed in Shoemaker's face. For the same reason the defense wanted the delay, the prosecution objected to a delay. In contrast to Holmes' lawyers, Graham had spared no expense in gathering witnesses from Indiana and Toronto. Of course, it helped that he was backed by the giant insurance company, Philadelphia Mutual. But most importantly, Graham referenced Carrie Pitezel's importance to the case and her precarious condition. She was in poor health and was only able to attend the court proceedings with the help of a nurse. Graham wasn't sure Carrie could survive a postponed trial.

• 8:03Speaker 01

  Trying to reach a compromise, one of the defense attorneys made a clever suggestion. If Graham did not use any evidence connected to the Pitezel children's murder investigations in other states, then the defense would happily continue with the trial for the father's murder. The matter was never officially settled, but that was what ended up happening. The judge overruled the defense's motion for a postponement. He ordered the trial to begin and the jury to be called. Once again, the defense attorneys interrupted. William Shoemaker, who was visibly uncomfortable and speaking for both lawyers, asked permission for himself and his co-counsel to withdraw from the case.

• 8:45Speaker 01

  The inexperienced lawyers realized that their careers might be at stake. And then they learned that they were damned if they did and damned if they didn't. The judge was mad. He said that if they abandoned their client at the beginning of his murder trial, they would be disbarred. So if they stayed, the lawyers assumed their careers would be ruined. If they left, their careers would be ruined for sure. William Shoemaker and Samuel Rotan took their seats at the defense table and jury selection started. But the fireworks weren't done. Just as DA Graham had finished examining the first juror, Holmes asked to make a statement. Since his lawyers clearly didn't want to be there, he asked the judge to dismiss them.

• 9:30Speaker 01

  Exasperated, the judge explained that Holmes would not be able to receive new counsel until the next day. Holmes said he understood, and he announced his intention to represent himself.

• 9:46Speaker 01

  In the US, self-representation in court proceedings is a constitutional right. But until H.H. Holmes in October 1895, no defendant who was accused of murder had used it. Reveling in the spotlight, Holmes skillfully examined the jurors. He asked if they had any connections to Fidelity Mutual or the Philadelphia Police Force. He asked if they had heard about the case prior to being summoned. Holmes was likely hoping he would have the grounds to dismiss all 60 potential jurors. But when he asked to discharge a juror who admitted to having formed an opinion about the case, the judge declined.

• 10:26Speaker 01

  Because of the high volume of stories which had already been written, including Holmes's own autobiography, the rule was hardly enforceable. At that time, the question was not if a juror had formed an opinion. It was if the opinion was firm to the point that the juror could not earnestly consider evidence from both sides while reaching a verdict.

• 10:49Speaker 01

  By the end of the day, the jury was sworn in. Most reporters agreed that Holmes would conduct an excellent defense for himself. His abilities in court were lauded in all the newspapers. But the real test would begin the next day. On day two, the prosecution called its witnesses, starting with inventor Eugene Smith. Smith had found Ben Pitezel's body two days after Pitezel died. By the time of the trial, it was accepted as fact that Pitezel was dead. Now the debate centered on how he died.

• 11:28Speaker 01

  DA George Graham had to prove that the death was murder instead of any other possibility. A doctor who testified for the prosecution said it was not reasonable to believe that Pitezel took his own life. In a cunning move, Holmes cross-examined the doctor and presented a scenario in which Pitezel might have used a towel and a jug to poison himself with chloroform. The doctor was forced to admit that the method could have worked. It was a huge win for Holmes, and he seemed to have a surprising amount of momentum. Later that day, attendees were in for another surprise: the return of Shoemaker and Rotan. During a break, Holmes met with the two lawyers and successfully persuaded them to return.

• 12:13Speaker 01

  He explained that he wanted to protect their reputations and careers, though knowing Holmes, that was probably a lie. It's possible that the lawyers simply changed their minds after Holmes' impressive performance, and now they believe the case could be won. At the end of the day, Rotan gave an interview to the Philadelphia Inquirer and boldly asserted his belief that Holmes would be acquitted. In response to the statement, District Attorney Graham sent a letter to the editor of the New York World affirming his belief that Holmes was guilty. Carefully parsing his words, Graham added that if the accusations of the children's murders were true, they were dealing with the most dangerous criminal he had ever heard of in all his years as a prosecutor.

• 12:59Speaker 01

  The exchange was the opening salvo in a war of words outside the court. Lawyers on both sides knew the important role the newspapers would play in the trial. If either side failed to provide conclusive evidence to support its case, public opinion could end up becoming the deciding factor, despite the jurors' claims to the contrary. In modern times, the case might be considered heavily weighted in the prosecution's favor, but in 1895, it was very much in doubt, until Carrie Pytzel took the stand.

• 13:37Speaker 01

  On day three of the trial, attendees gasped at the appearance of Carrie Pytzel as she entered the courtroom. Given her perpetually worsening health, her ability to testify had been uncertain, but she did it with a nurse next to her. Carrie patiently answered Graham's questions. Starting from the very beginning, she described her first encounters with H.H. Holmes. She described how she learned about the life insurance plan and the shocking news of the explosion in her husband's office in Philadelphia. Carrie detailed her weeks of travel with Holmes and her constant request to hear from her children or to see her husband. In every city, Carrie Pytzel expected to be reunited with her family,

• 14:20Speaker 01

  only to be put off by Holmes with another excuse and then rushed to another location. Carrie held up well in the early stages of her testimony, but grief and strain began to take their toll as George Graham had to move into more emotional territory. Graham asked if she had corresponded with her husband and children. She responded she had given letters to Holmes to mail to her children. Graham then showed her the letters, and she realized for the first time that they had never been mailed. Holmes had kept them, whether as grotesque souvenirs or to help with a future lie. And to make matters worse for Carrie's emotional state, Graham handed her another stack of unmailed letters.

• 15:05Speaker 01

  They were the letters Alice and Nellie had written to their mother while they were in Holmes' custody. Wincing and sobbing, Carrie identified Alice and Nellie's handwriting. Graham asked if she had seen her children since departing St. Louis a year earlier to join Holmes on the road. Using all her remaining strength, Carrie Pitezel replied that she had last seen Alice and Nellie at the morgue when she identified their bodies. Then she burst into tears.

• 15:41Speaker 01

  Holmes seemed unaffected by Carrie's testimony. And when the trial court adjourned for the day, the case went back to the court of public opinion. Shoemaker tried to turn the tables in favor of Holmes. He urged the public to refrain from assuming guilt. Instead, they should form their own judgment on the basis of the evidence alone. According to Shoemaker, at present, the evidence was not sufficient to prove Holmes had killed Pitezel. He closed by reminding the public that the defendant was innocent until proven guilty, a mantra he would repeat throughout the trial.

• 16:17Speaker 01

  The next day, it was Georgiana's turn to take the stand. In anticipation of her testimony, Holmes had tried everything to persuade her to take his side. But after the discovery of the remains of Alice and Nellie, Georgiana had abandoned any belief of Holmes' innocence. Fully cooperating with the authorities in Philadelphia, she had already wrecked Holmes' alibi by revealing that he was not with her at the time the girls were murdered.

• 16:45Speaker 01

  In a final sign of separation, Georgiana introduced herself as Georgiana Yoke, not Holmes. Witnesses said Holmes became emotional. They said he shook and cried while Georgiana answered Graham's questions about her life with her husband. Graham later noted that it was likely a calculated performance by Holmes in an attempt to influence her to take pity on him. Later that day, Graham asked the court to admit testimony about the discovery of the Pitezel children's remains. Defense attorney Samuel Rotan objected, as he had done on the first day of the proceeding. The judge sided with Rotan. The current case was about the murder of Benjamin Pitezel in Philadelphia, not the

• 17:29Speaker 01

  murders of the children elsewhere. The judge said that if Holmes was acquitted in the current case, he could be sent to Canada or Indiana to be tried for his alleged crimes in those jurisdictions. That was a major, unexpected win for Holmes' team, and a big setback for the prosecution. Months later, the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania ruled that the judge's decision was wrong, but the trial and the aftermath were long since done by then. Feeling confident, Rotan and Shoemaker opted to not present a case or call witnesses of their own. They were banking on the hope that the prosecution had not eliminated reasonable doubt. Closing arguments the following morning would be the final word on the murder case

• 18:14Speaker 01

  against H.H. Holmes.

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• 18:52Speaker 01

  District Attorney George Graham spoke for two and a half hours to finish the prosecution's case. And the most notable part of his closing argument was the clever way in which he worked in information about the murders of the Pitezel children. He was not formally allowed to use it during trial, but he found a way to speak about the murders without violating the judge's order. He reminded the jury about the part of the trial a couple days earlier, when the coroner had testified. The coroner had been forced to testify that Alice Pitezel had identified her father's body at the Philadelphia morgue. The coroner had to deliver the information because Alice couldn't do it herself. Alice couldn't give the testimony because she was dead.

• 19:36Speaker 01

  And the jury knew Alice was dead because her mother Carrie had been forced to identify her daughter's body in a morgue, in a tragic replay of the same thing Alice had been subjected to when she identified her father's body. Graham couldn't directly accuse Holmes of the murder of Alice Pitezel, but he didn't have to. The statements hit like a sledgehammer. Graham had clearly won over the room. When Samuel Rotan rose to give the defense's closing argument, he looked weak and disorganized. His speech paled in comparison to Graham's. All he could do was claim that the prosecution's evidence was not sufficient to justify a conviction. Finally, he tried to use himself and William Shoemaker as shields.

• 20:21Speaker 01

  He asked the jurors for compassion, as he and Shoemaker were young, inexperienced lawyers who were taking on a veteran prosecutor in George Graham.

• 20:36Speaker 01

  The judge had the final word. He remarked that truth was indeed stranger than fiction. He claimed that he had never heard a more thrilling and sad story than that of Mrs. Pitezel's long journey in pursuit of her children and her husband. And it was now time for the jury to retire to its chamber to deliberate its verdict. The twelve men of the jury talked for two hours. When they returned to the courtroom, they found Holmes guilty of the murder of Benjamin Pitezel. Holmes seemed to take the news without flinching. After several failed appeals and efforts at a retrial, Holmes was sentenced to death by hanging. His execution was set for May 7, 1896.

• 21:20Speaker 01

  But Holmes didn't give up trying to control his legacy. With just six months to live, the master manipulator spent the rest of his time doing what he did best: scheming and making up stories. To his great delight, Holmes was inundated with opportunities to publish his official confession. The offers came with hefty sums of money, and newspapers all over the country tried to outbid each other for the inside scoop. Ultimately, Holmes sold his confession to two newspapers which shared the rights: The New York Journal and The Philadelphia Inquirer. In the final version, Holmes confessed to killing twenty-seven people, including Julia

• 22:01Speaker 01

  and Pearl Connor, Minnie and Nanny Williams, and four members of the Pitezel family. Specifically, he admitted that he had poisoned eight-year-old Howard Pitezel, dismembered the boy's body, and burned it in the cottage chimney. As always, his confession was a mix of truth and fiction, which continued to add confusion to his story while also ensuring that it would continue to live long after he was gone. He claimed credit for murdering several people who had disappeared. Since there was no proof either way, it's impossible to know the truth. In some cases, he claimed credit for killing people who weren't dead. And some of the most famous parts of his confession weren't written by him at all.

• 22:44Speaker 01

  Several newspapers were eager to profit from the story, but they didn't have the rights to it. So they simply made up excerpts which they reported as being in the official confession. In one Philadelphia newspaper's version, Holmes was quoted as saying that he no longer felt human. He claimed he was "gradually turning into the devil, head, tail, and all, the living personification of Satan himself." Murderous instincts had always been inside him, Holmes supposedly wrote. And Holmes couldn't stop himself. He continued to change his story. Publicly, he confessed to a slew of crimes. Privately, he maintained his innocence.

• 23:25Speaker 01

  He said the confessions in newspapers and his autobiography were entirely made up. He was only giving the press the sensationalized stories they wanted. Holmes wrote letters to Inspector Frank Geyer, and Carrie Pitezel, and Georgiana, to try to find a way to reverse his sentence. The efforts didn't work.

• 23:50Speaker 01

  On May 7, 1896, six months after H.H. Holmes' conviction, Holmes had coffee, toast, and eggs for breakfast. After that, his lawyer Samuel Rotan joined him at his prison cell to accompany him to his execution. Eighty people managed to get tickets to witness Holmes' final appearance, including Inspector Frank Geyer and the president of Fidelity Mutual Insurance Company. Many more gathered outside the gates of Moyamensing Prison in Philadelphia. At 10:00 a.m., Rotan and Holmes started to walk from his cell to the scaffold in the central yard of the prison. They were joined by two priests, as Holmes claimed he had become religious in his final months.

• 24:34Speaker 01

  On the walk to the scaffold, he supposedly prayed. Looking more like himself, with his beard finely trimmed back to a mustache, a reporter from the Philadelphia Times nonetheless observed that Holmes was so pale, he looked dead already. Initially, Holmes decided not to give a final statement, but walking up the steps to the rope, he changed his mind. Minutes before his death, Holmes shared what would become his last account of his crimes. He confessed to performing two criminal operations: abortions. Both women had died as a result of the surgeries, but aside from those accidental deaths, Holmes said he never killed anyone. To the very end, he continued to change his story.

• 25:22Speaker 01

  Holmes knelt with the priests for a final prayer and said goodbye to his lawyer. The prison superintendent placed a black hood over Holmes' head, fastened the rope, and stepped away. The superintendent gave a signal, an official pulled a lever, and Holmes fell five feet through the gallows floor. But his neck didn't break. It took about 15 minutes for Holmes to die, and several spectators fainted during the process. Herman Webster Mudgett, alias Henry Howard Holmes, was dead at thirty-four years old. Before his execution, Holmes had received several offers to purchase his body when he was dead.

• 26:02Speaker 01

  With seemingly no sense of irony, Holmes was greatly disturbed by the prospect of having his body examined. He staunchly rejected an autopsy and any further offers. Holmes' grave-robbing days likely inspired the precautions he took to ensure his body remained inaccessible after his death. His last wish was to be buried ten feet deep in a coffin filled with cement, which was honored. His burial was attended by a throng of reporters and several dozen spectators, but his grave was unmarked. And though he was verifiably dead and buried, rumors swirled immediately after his execution that Holmes might still be alive. One suggested that a stand-in was hanged in his place.

• 26:47Speaker 01

  Another said Holmes had escaped to South America and worked on a coffee farm. Rumors and falsehoods seemed to trail Holmes forever, as well as whispers of a curse. William Shoemaker, one of Holmes' lawyers, was eventually disbarred. The judge for Holmes' trial became terminally ill a few months after Holmes was convicted. Then, one of the jurors from Holmes' trial was electrocuted during a storm. And a fire broke out at Fidelity Mutual's Philadelphia office. Newspapers initially reported that the building burned to the ground, leaving behind nothing but ashes and a photo of H.H. Holmes. That one in particular was too convenient to be believed.

• 27:31Speaker 01

  For the others who were involved in Holmes' story, Carrie Pitezel buried her children in Galva, Illinois, and grieved until her death in 1929. Since Holmes had admitted to their murders, and had been convicted and sentenced to hang for the murder of Benjamin Pitezel, the cases of the children never went to trial. Years later, more bone fragments were found in the basement of the so-called Murder Castle in Chicago. They were presumed to be those of Minnie and Nanny Williams, though it could never be proven. Holmes’ second wife, Myrta, chose to keep calling herself Myrta Holmes and continued to cling to the belief that her husband had never killed anyone.

• 28:12Speaker 01

  To her, the only explanation for why Holmes had written his many confessions was that he had gone insane. But she also felt he had been chasing fame and fortune by any means necessary. Georgiana remarried and moved to California, where she died in 1945. Clara, Holmes’ first wife, never remarried. She died in 1956. In a final strange twist for conspiracy lovers, Holmes’ son with Clara and his daughter with Myrta both died that same year, 1956. If Herman Muddit really did kill 27 people or more, he would rank as one of the most prolific murderers in American history.

• 28:56Speaker 01

  The country wouldn’t see another of his kind until the mid-1970s, when young women started disappearing from the Seattle area and suspicion fell on a charming young man named Ted.

• 29:24Speaker 01

  Next time on Infamous America, we’ll have our change of schedule, which will include an encore series of the story of the North Hollywood robbery and then a mini-series about the unsolved murders in the greater Houston area, a story commonly known as the Texas Killing Fields. That’s next time on Infamous America.

• 29:56Speaker 01

  Members of our Black Barrel Plus program receive the entire season to binge all at once with no commercials, and they also receive exclusive bonus episodes. Sign up now through the link in the show notes or on our website, blackbarrelmedia.com. This series was researched and written by Andrew Messer. Original music by Rob Valier. I’m Chris Wimmer. Thanks for listening.

• 30:29Speaker 03

  Garden Glow returns to Mamont in Richmond, opening on Wednesday, October 14. You're invited to experience Mamont After Dark, transformed by light and color into a magical landscape. Wander around the softly glowing Firefly Field in larger-than-life displays, then experience an expanded Laser Lane in the Japanese garden. Plus, food, fire pits, and seasonal treats. Don't miss Garden Glow nightly, except select Mondays through November 8. Plan your visit to experience Garden Glow in Richmond and learn more at mamont.org.