VICIOUS CANDY MAGAZINE
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railroad heiress sisters, to one of
whom he had promised marriage
and both of whom he murdered, go
figure. There, he sought to construct
another castle along the lines of his
Chicago operation. However, he soon
abandoned this project and continued
to move throughout the United
States and Canada. The only murders
verified during this period were those
of his longtime associate Benjamin
Pitezel and three of Pitezel’s children.
In July 1894, Holmes was arrested
and briefly incarcerated for the first
time, for a horse swindle that ended
in St. Louis. He quickly bailed
out, but while in jail struck up a
conversation with a convicted train
robber named Marion Hedgepeth,
who was serving a 25-year sentence.
Holmes had concocted a plan to
swindle an insurance company out
of $10,000 by taking out a policy on
himself and then faking his death.
Holmes promised Hedgepeth a
$500 commission in exchange for
the name of a lawyer who could be
trusted. He was introduced to Colonel
Jeptha Howe, the brother of a public
defender, who found Holmes’ plan
brilliant. Holmes’ plan to fake his
own death failed when the insurance
company became suspicious and
refused to pay. Holmes did not press
his claim; instead he concocted
a similar plan with his associate,
Benjamin Pitezel.
Pitezel had agreed to fake
his own death so that his wife could
collect on the $10,000 policy which
she was to split with Holmes and
the shady attorney, Howe. The
scheme, which was to take place
in Philadelphia, was that Pitezel
should set himself up as an inventor,
under the name B.F. Perry, and then
be killed and disfigured in a lab
explosion. Holmes was to find an
appropriate cadaver to play the role
of Pitezel, but Holmes instead killed
him. Forensic evidence presented
at Holmes’ later trial showed that
chloroform was administered after
Pitezel’s death, presumably to fake
suicide. (Pitezel had been an alcoholic
and chronic depressive.) Holmes
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proceeded to collect on the policy
on the basis of the genuine Pitezel
corpse. He then went on to manipulate
Pitezel’s wife into allowing three of
her five children (Alice, Nellie, and
Howard) to stay in his custody. The
eldest daughter and the baby remained
with Mrs. Pitezel.
Holmes and the three Pitezel
children traveled throughout the
Northern United States and into
Canada. Simultaneously, he escorted
Mrs. Pitezel along a parallel route,
all the while using various aliases
V
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local pharmacy to purchase the drugs
which he used to kill Howard Pitezel,
and a repair shop to sharpen the
knives he used to chop up the body
before he burned it. The boy’s teeth
and bits of bone were discovered in
the home’s chimney.
In 1894, the police were tipped
off by his former cellmate, Marion
Hedgepeth, whom Holmes had
neglected to pay off as promised for
his help in providing Howe. Holmes’
murder spre