76 pages • 2 hours read
Erik LarsonA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Summary
Prologue
Part 1, Chapters 1-3
Part 1, Chapters 4-6
Part 1, Chapters 7-10
Part 2, Chapters 1-3
Part 2, Chapters 4-6
Part 2, Chapters 7-9
Part 2, Chapters 10-12
Part 2, Chapters 13-15
Part 3, Chapters 1-3
Part 3, Chapters 4-6
Part 3, Chapters 7-9
Part 3, Chapters 10-12
Part 3, Chapters 13-15
Part 3, Chapters 16-19
Part 3, Chapters 20-22
Part 4, Chapter 1
Part 4, Chapters 2-4
Part 4, Chapters 5-6
Epilogue
Key Figures
Themes
Symbols & Motifs
Important Quotes
Essay Topics
In June 1895 Detective Frank Geyer visited a physician by the name of Mudgett but more commonly known as H. H. Holmes, incarcerated for insurance fraud in Philadelphia’s Moyamensing Prison. From Fort Worth, Holmes had moved to St. Louis, and finally Philadelphia, committing frauds on the way. In Philadelphia, Holmes had faked the death of Ben Pitezel to defraud the Fidelity Mutual Life Association of nearly $10,000. The company hired Pinkerton Detective Agency to investigate. It was becoming gradually clearer that Holmes had not faked Pitezel’s death but murdered him, and now Geyer’s job was to locate the three of Pitezel’s five children last seen with Holmes.
Geyer had recently lost his wife and daughter in a house fire when he interviewed a “glib” Holmes, who insisted the children were traveling with a woman called Minnie Williams. Holmes claimed to have obtained a cadaver that resembles Pitezel and instigated an explosion in a rented property ironically close to the city morgue. Holmes assisted in identifying the cadaver and nonchalantly lanced the identifying wart on Pitezel’s neck. His 15-year-old daughter Alice identified her father’s teeth. Holmes had taken Alice, 11-year-old Nellie, and 8-year-old Howard, telling their mother, Carrie, that their father was desperate to see them.
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