EPISODE 5: THE INVESTIGATION ## CHAPTER 1: THE DETECTIVE Frank Geyer didn't look like a hero. He was forty-two years old, heavyset, with a thick mustache and the tired eyes of a man who had seen too much. He'd been a Philadelphia detective for nearly two decades, working cases that ranged from petty theft to murder. Nothing had prepared him for H.H. Holmes. When the Fidelity Mutual Life Association assigned him to investigate the Pitezel insurance claim, Geyer expected routine work. Insurance fraud was common. Criminals were usually stupid. The case would be closed in weeks. Instead, he would spend months on a cross-country manhunt, uncovering a horror that would haunt him for the rest of his life. --- ## CHAPTER 2: THE INTERVIEW Geyer began with Carrie Pitezel. She was a broken woman—her husband dead, three of her children missing, her family scattered by a man she had trusted. She told Geyer everything she knew, which wasn't nearly enough. "Holmes told me the children were with Benjamin," she said, her voice hollow. "He said my husband was hiding, waiting for the insurance money. He said I would see them all soon." "When did you last see your children?" "September. Holmes took them—Alice first, then Howard and Nellie. He said they would be reunited with their father. He sent...