12. Holmes’s story to Philadelphia detective Geyer changed many times
When Holmes was finally arrested in Boston he learned that a charge of horse theft awaited him in Texas. Fearful that the charge was considered a capital offense in Texas and unaware that Pitezel’s death was being investigated as a murder in Philadelphia, Holmes voluntarily returned to face what he thought would be insurance fraud charges in Pennsylvania. He confessed to Detective Geyer that he willfully participated in the insurance scheme, first claiming that the body had been a cadaver he had obtained for the purpose, later identifying it as Pitezel, whom he claimed he had found after he committed suicide. He claimed Pitezel had left a note asking him to distribute the insurance money to his children, and to make it appear as if he had died in an accident.
It was then that Minnie Williams reappeared in his story, according to Holmes she was in London, where she had custody of Pitezel’s children. When the charred remains of Pitezel’s son were discovered in Indiana Holmes denied all knowledge of them, as he did when the decomposed bodies of the two girls were found in Michigan. Several other missing persons were traced to Holmes, yet he continued to deny all knowledge of any murders until be provided his sensational confession to Hearst after he was convicted of murder, in exchange for cash which was sent to his then 18 year old son with the first of his three wives. He was convicted of two crimes, insurance fraud, to which he pleaded guilty on the second day of his trial, and the murder of Benjamin Pitezel, convicted by a jury. He was not charged with any other murders.