This guy always intrigued me. He went to great lengths to have his murder castle built with secret passageways and rooms. H.H. Holmes also know as Herman Webster Mudgett and Dr. Henry Howard Holmes. He was one of the first documented serial killers in the modern sense. Now Holmes confessed to 27 murders, only nine could be confirmed and several of the people he did confess to killing were still alive. He is commonly said to have killed as many as 200, though this figure came from a 1940's magazine. Many of his victims were said to have been killed in a mixed-used building he owned. This building known as the "Murder Castle" was located about 3 miles from the 1893 Chicago World Fair. Evidence suggested that the hotel part of his building was never truly opened for business.
Besides being a serial killer, Holmes was also a con artist and bigamist. He was the subject of over 50 lawsuits in Chicago.
Holmes was born in Gilmanton, New Hampshire on May 16th, 1861. His parents were devout Methodists. Its been said that Holmes tortured animals, and suffered abuse from his violent father. Holmes eventually enrolled in the University of Vermont but was dissatisfied with the school and left after only one year. In 1882, he entered the University of Michigan's Department of Medicine and Surgery and graduated in 1884 after passing his exams. Years later when he was suspected of murder he admitted to using cadavers to defraud life insurance companies several times while in college.
Now in 1886 when Holmes arrived in Chicago he purchased an empty lot where construction began in 1887 for a two story mixed-use building, with apartments on the second floor and retail spaces, including a new drugstore, on the first floor. In 1892 he added a third floor. He told investors he planned on using the third floor as a hotel during the upcoming World's Columbian Exposition. The hotel portion was never completed. When constructing the castle he used complex architecture and a series of intuitive designs to suit his preference. Inside the castle, he built an operating room, a torture chamber, mortuary, and a room for conducting human experiments. The guest rooms were built like mazes. Corridors leading nowhere, with concealed passages behind walls, sliding panels, secret staircases, peepholes into the rooms through the back of pictures, and trapdoors concealing metal chutes that connected with the elaborately designed basement.
One of Holmes' early murder victims was his mistress, Julia Smythe. She was the wife of Ned Conner, who had moved into Holmes' building and began working at his pharmacy's jewelry counter. After Julia's husband found out about her affair, he left, leaving Julia and their daughter Pearl behind. Julia and Pearl disappeared on Christmas of 1891. Holmes later claimed she had died during an abortion, what truly happened was never confirmed. Another likely victim was Emeline Cigrande, she began working in the building in May 1892, and disappeared that December. Other known victims was the Pitezal family . Benjamin Pitezal and his three children Alice, Nellie, and Howard. The family was killed in the fall of 1894. Instead of using a cadaver, Holmes used former business partner Ben as part of his insurance fraud scheme. Holmes knocked Ben out and killed him by setting him on fire. On July 15th, 1895 Alice and Nellie's bodies were found in a Toronto cellar. Sister's Minnie and Nannie William's were also known victims of Holmes. Minnie had married Holmes and he swindled her out of her inheritance. The bodies of Julia, Emeline, Minnie, and Nannie were never found but it is suspected that Holmes sold their cadavers to medical schools. While searching Holmes' hotel, authorities recovered Minnie's watch chain and Nannie's garter buckle in one of the ovens. Bones found in the basement were also linked to 12 year old Pearl Connor. Although there is a lengthy list of other potential victims, these nine victims have been attributed to the serial killer's killing spree.
In October 1895, Holmes was put on trial for the murder of Benjamin Pitezel. He was found guilty and sentenced to death. On May 7th, 1896 Holmes was hanged at Moyamensing Prison, also known as Philadelphia County Prison. Until the moment of his death, he remained calm and amiable, showing very few signs of fear, anxiety, or depression. He did ask for his coffin to be contained in cement and to be buried 10 feet deep. He was concerned grave robbers would steal his body and use it for dissection. Holmes' neck did not snap; he instead was strangled to death slowly, twitching for over 15 minutes before being pronounced dead 20 minutes after the trap had been sprung.
Later on the Murder Castle would be set on fire. Two men were seen entering the back of the building and about a half hour later, they were seen exiting the building, rapidly running away. Following several explosions, the Castle went up in flames. The building survived the fire and remained in use until it was torn down in 1938. The site is currently occupied by the Englewood Branch United States Postal Service.
