8. Holmes changes a faked death to several murders
Holmes arrived in Philadelphia planning to lend an air of authenticity to the anticipated fake death of Benjamin Pitezel. Holmes killed his partner, after which he burned the body using benzene, though whether he burned his partner while still alive or killed him prior to setting the body on fire remains unknown. At any rate, the presence of a real body led to the insurance claim being paid, and Holmes then journeyed to Canada in a bizarre journey in which he escorted three of the Pitezel children, while at the same time Pitezel’s widow and her other two children traveled north on a parallel path. In Detroit, Mrs. Pitezel and Holmes with her other three children stayed in homes only a few blocks apart, though Holmes did not reveal their whereabouts to each other. Holmes killed two of the Pitezel children in Detroit and buried them in the cellar of a rented house.
Holmes then went to Indianapolis where he killed the remaining Pitezel child and burned the body in the fireplace of yet another rented home. Meanwhile a detective from Philadelphia investigating Holmes found the decomposed bodies of the Pitezel children in Detroit. When Chicago police got wind of the investigation into Holmes’s activities they began looking at several missing persons of their own, and a search of Holmes’s Castle was conducted. The search of the Castle was sensationalized by the Chicago newspapers at the time, and became the source of most of the myths surrounding Holmes, nearly all of which are false. The truth is, the Chicago police did not find sufficient evidence to charge Holmes with any crimes in Chicago. There was no torture equipment, no killing machinery, and no evidence of criminal activity.