Frank Geyer

Holmes - A Serial Killer's Downfall Frank Geyer

Written by the man who brought H. H. Holmes to justice, this book follows the criminal case as it unfolded in the 1890s, using detective notes, court documents, and newspaper articles."It is not possible to find in the annals of criminal jurisprudence, a more deliberate and cold blooded villain than the central figure in this story, nor would the most careful research among the records of the prominent murder trials that have absorbed public attention during the past century, disclose the careful planning that made possible the apprehension of Holmes, the prosecution to an almost miraculous ending of the search for the missing children, or the equal of the forensic skill and cunning that wove the close web in which this man of many names and many murders was entangled." So wrote Frank P. Geyer, the man who built the murder case against the infamous serial killer H. H. Holmes. In this updated adaptation of his police procedural true crime account, he narrates his detective notes, reprints transcripts of Holmes's interviews with the police, includes court documents and letters from Holmes, the Pitezel children, and the legal system that brought justice to the case. Modern updates to the book include an expanded chronology, eyewitness newspaper accounts of Holmes's execution, and a bizarre twist, the 2017 court decision to allow descendants of the murderer to exhume his body. Students of the law, police detective work, serial killers, and the dark side of the human mind will find much to compel them in this highly illustrated true crime story.