Benjamin F. Pitezel (friend/assistant/and business partner to H. H. Holmes) was murdered at 1316 Callowhill Street on September 2, 1894 in Philadelphia.
(A sketch of 1316 Callowhill Street from David Franke's The Torture Doctor)
Though his insurance policy was under his actual name, he was using the alias B. F. Perry while operating his phony patent office. Pitezel was under the impression that he and Holmes would work together to fake his death in order to defraud the Fidelity Mutual Life Insurance Company of $10,000. They were to split the money but Holmes had other plans. Wanting the money for himself, he actually killed Pitezel and then staged the room to make it look like an accident. (The company would not pay if they believed Pitezel/Perry had taken his own life). It was only after his arrest that Holmes would claim Pitezel had become distraught and committed suicide, leaving Holmes a note saying he should continue with their plan. However, at that point Holmes was no longer looking to make money. He was looking to avoid the hangman's noose.
Below is one of the first newspaper accounts published about Perry's Peculiar Death. (Pitezel would not be identified as Pitezel until Holmes contacted the company). It was printed by
The Times in Philadelphia on September 5, 1894 (3 days after Pitezel was killed and 1 day after his body was discovered by inventor Eugene Smith).
The text reads as follows:
B. F. Perry, who lived at 1316 Callowhill street, was found dead at his home early yesterday morning under extremely peculiar conditions. Perry was about 45 years of age. He came to this city two months ago and rented the house from S. K. Shedaker, who lives at 519 South Eleventh street. At the time that he secured the house he paid one month's rent in advance, exhibiting before Mr. Shedaker a large roll of bills.
At the house he used a room on the second flood as a laboratory, where he manufactured a washing powder and a cleansing compound. In making the latter he used benzine and several acids.
Perry was last seen alive on Saturday evening when he appeared to be in the best of health. In the evening a messenger boy went to his house and handed him a telegram. Perry went into a saloon a few doors above, read the message and then returned to his house, closing the door after him, but not locking it. That was the last seen of him alive.
On Monday morning Eugene Smith, who lives at 1827 Rhoades street, called at the house to help Perry unpack some goods which were to arrive there, and finding the door unlocked went in and called Perry. Receiving no answer he waited for a half hour and went away.
Yesterday morning he went in the place again and found the door unlocked as before. Smith then became suspicious and started an investigation. As he climbed the steps he smelled a strong odor, and in passing an open door discovered Perry lying on his back on the floor with his right hand clasped over his heart and what appeared to be blood above his head. Smith was very much frightened and went to the Buttonwood street station where he informed the police of his discovery. Policeman Lewis and Special Policeman Sauers went to the house and made an investigation.
It was discovered that an explosion had taken place, as the body was badly burned on the right arm and the hair was singed. It is supposed that Perry held in his right hand a bottle of benzine and was in the act of lighting his pipe when a terrible explosion occurred, knocking him to the floor. A doctor who was called in stated that the man's bladder was burst by the concussion evidently causing his death.
The Coroner was notified and has the body taken to the Morgue. Two letters were found in his pockets dated St. Louis, August 29, from his wife and daughter, in which they expressed pleasure that he was getting along well, and said that they were coming on in a few days to live with him. Other things found on him were a Swiss watch, a pair of cuff pins, $2.00 in silver and a number of business cards.
Few statements are correct.
It has never been mentioned anywhere else that Pitezel used the second floor for anything but a bedroom and the chance is rare that he would have. Since he was supposed to be operating a patent office, it seems unlikely that he would have also been running a lab to make "washing powder and a cleansing compound." The paper claimed that he used benzine and several acids to make the latter. Pitezel was a carpenter and sort of jack of all trades. He did not work with chemicals. But benzine and acids were tools of both the medical and pharmaceutical profession. (Holmes ran a pharmacy from his Castle and had worked in quite a few after graduating from college). And since benzine was one of the chemicals used to burn and disfigure Pitezel's face, it is likely that they were brought to Callowhill Street by Holmes and then used to fabricate a reason for the "accidental" death.
This was the tall tale printed in the article and later spun by Holmes to the company. Pitezel/Perry had lit his pipe too close to the bottles resulting in an explosion. This, Holmes believed, would explain why Pitezel was on the floor and account for his singed hair and disfigured body. The explosion, being at close range, badly burned the victim on his face and right arm. Though the article mentions how Pitezel/Perry might have "held in his right hand a bottle of benzine," this was later proved to be untrue and replaced with the equally incorrect theory that the bottles might have been on a shelf.
The investigators were much smarter than Holmes had predicted (Holmes thought he was the smartest man in the world) and started noticing holes in the plot that would not spell out an accidental death. First, if an explosion had occurred, the body would have been thrown backward, possibly into the wall, and landed in a disheveled heap on the floor. As the newspaper reported, "Perry [was] lying on his back on the floor with his right hand clasped over his heart," his left arm positioned straight out, and his clothes in perfect condition minus some burn marks. He looked as peaceful as if he were merely asleep. Second, if lighting his pipe too close to the chemical fumes (the bottles were supposedly open) caused the explosion, the pipe would have been shattered. Instead it was sitting in tact above Pitezel's head like it had been placed there. In a similar sense, the chemical bottles, though broken, appeared to have been dropped on the floor. An explosion would have caused them to break into tinier shards than the ones found.
Investigators also got a lucky break when the autopsy discovered a large amount of chloroform that had yet to be digested in Pitezel's stomach. Before CSI and advanced crime scene technology, large quantities of chemical substances needed to be present in order for them to be properly identified. Less chloroform and the chemical would have been passed over. Instead, it helped tighten the rope around Holmes' neck. He was never able to conjure up a believable explanation for the chemical's appearance. He claimed that Pitezel had committed suicide by drinking it but expert witnesses from the medical field said that Pitezel would have experienced spasms before death and been unable to place himself in the calm position he was found in. Holmes then claimed Pitezel had killed himself on the third floor and he had moved him downstairs and repositioned his body. The witnesses again stated an impossibility as, upon his death, a red fluid had seeped from Pitezel's mouth into the cracks in the bedroom floor boards. No fluid was found in any of the third floor rooms. Pitezel had died in the second floor bedroom. Holmes' final claim was that Pitezel had laid on the floor, put a towel over his face, and sucked chloroform from a jar into his mouth via a tube. The statement was so unbelievable that the court scoffed at the absurdity of it. What really happened was that Holmes, having found Pitezel in a drunken sleep, used chloroform first to sedate him, tied him up to prevent his clothes from showing signs of a struggle, and then administer a lethal dose of chloroform, saturated his face and clothing with benzine (so his "confession" states) and burned him so as to disfigure the features of his face. (Whether Pitezel was alive or at least conscious we will never know).
Why would Holmes sedate Pitezel first? Why would he then disfigure his face even though he had never done that to other victims?
Holmes knew that his ill-muscled 5 foot 8 inch frame was no match for the well built 6 foot 1 Pitezel, even if Pitezel was slightly drunk (Holmes must have known that Pitezel sometimes got into bar fights). In fact, Pitezel did not become Holmes' assistant until after the Castle was built. Before construction was complete he served as Holmes' bodyguard. Second, Pitezel told his wife, Carrie, that Holmes was going to procure a cadaver (a dead body used mainly for dissection practice in medical school classrooms) and disfigure it so they could claim it was Pitezel. However, the cadaver would not have the exact same features as Pitezel (obviously). Furthermore, the insurance company mandated that a family member of the deceased must positively identify the remains before any money would be paid. At the time Holmes thought this relative would be Carrie Pitezel who bore no special fondness for Holmes and was already leery about the plan. Should Ben Pitezel's features not be masked enough, she would recognize the man in the morgue as her husband, not a lookalike, and instantly reveal the scheme and declare Holmes a murderer, sending him on a one way trip to the gallows. Holmes would be happy to learn later that he would have to take the Pitezel's 15 year old (easily persuaded) daughter, Alice, to identify the body since Carrie had fallen ill.
The newspaper reported that Pitezel's body was taken to the city morgue after it was found. What they failed to mention was that the morgue was, ironically, located directly behind the Callowhill street house. Seriously. Only a small alley kept the buildings from bumping into each other. I have always found this interesting since Benjamin Pitezel did not get to choose the location of his patent office façade. That decision belonged to only one man: H. H. Holmes.
(A newspaper sketch of Pitezel which incorrectly spells his name)
Until next time.
XOXO, Kate
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