By November 1894, H.H. Holmes had been on the run for nearly six months. He had jumped

bail in St. Louis, where he had been arrested for mortgage fraud. Before that,

he was wanted for horse theft in Fort Worth and a whole host of fraud-related crimes in Chicago.

Since St. Louis, he had murdered his sometime fraud partner, Benjamin Pitzel, and three of Pitesle's

children, eight-year-old Howard, 12-year-old Nellie, and 15-year-old

Alice. He had also committed life insurance fraud in Philadelphia, which was why he was on the

run from insurance agents and Pinkerton detectives. For weeks, he had moved members of the

Pytel family and his third wife Georgiana,

around the U.S. and Canada, like pieces on a chessboard.

Despite the confusing web of lies which he told to keep the travelers from going to the police

and the extraordinary logistics of moving three separate groups of people from place to place

without them knowing about each other,

he had managed to stay ahead of the detectives, until now. He had Ben Pitzel's wife, Carrie, and her two remaining children stashed in a house in Burlington, Vermont. Georgiana was also in

Burlington, but Holmes had left them while he traveled to his hometown of

Gilminton, New Hampshire. There, he had briefly reunited with his parents and his first wife, Clara.

Most people in town had assumed Holmes, whom they knew by his given name, Herman Mudgeett, had died.

He explained his long absence through an absurd story of a train accident and amnesia.

But as soon as it sounded like he was planning to return to his old life, he told his wife

Clara that he had to leave. He said he had to attend to outstanding business, but in reality,

he had organized a rendezvous with Georgiana in Boston.

When he boarded a train for Boston, the Pinkerton's followed.

Pinkerton agents, working for Fidelity Mutual Insurance, had picked up his trail and followed

...