Herman Webster Mudgett, better known as H.H. Holmes, was an American con artist and serial killer. He chose a career of crime, including insurance fraud, swindling; check forging; 3 to 4 bigamous illegal marriages; murder, and horse theft. Holmes confessed to 27 murders while awaiting his execution, he was convicted and sentenced to death for only one murder, a business partner Benjamin Pitezel. Holmes was executed nine days before his 35th birthday, on May 7, 1896. He claimed that Satan possessed him when asked questions by the investigators about his crimes. Most of his crimes like Murder Castle were mostly exaggerated and did not prove as sinister as some tabloids made them look. However, any crime is not less or more, but Holmes’ propensity to lie about everything so neatly when being investigated made the cases ever more complicated and for researchers ascertain to make decisions about what’s true based on his statements.
Since the 1990s, he has been regarded as a serial killer, but many people, including authors who wrote about him, claim that killing several people does not make one a serial killer and he killed people with motive because either they knew too much or were getting in his way and he wanted to protect his lifestyle.
H.H. Holmes Early Life
Holmes had a common childhood like every other kid, he was the third born in the family among the five children that his parents had. He had been described as having episodes showing behavior like a serial killer as he tortured animals on his farm and was suffering from abuse at the hands of a violent father, but the witnesses of his childhood do not provide proof of either incident. He graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy at the age of 16 and took teaching jobs in Gilmanton and later nearby Alton. Later, he got married and had a son, who became a certified public accountant and served as city manager in Ontario, Florida. The accounts of his higher studies are still unclear, but it was revealed that he has been interested in medicine since his early days. He allegedly trapped animals and performed surgery on them, some accounts also suggest that he had killed one of his childhood playmates.
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H.H. Holmes Criminal Life
Holmes moved to Chicago in 1886 and took a job as a pharmacist under the name “Dr. H.H. Holmes”, soon after which, he started killing people to take over their property. Later, the house he built for himself was known as the Murder Castle, which was equipped with secret passages, trap doors, soundproof rooms, doors that could be locked from the outside, gas jets to asphyxiate victims, and a kiln to cremate the bodies, he had it all planned. He allegedly seduced and murdered a lot of women, basically by becoming engaged enough with them so he could access their life savings. He made his employees carry life insurance policies naming him as the beneficiary so that he could collect money after he killed them. Holmes also allegedly sold the bodies of his victims to medical schools.
H.H. Holmes confessed to 27 murders (he later increased the total to more than 130), although some of the researchers claim that the real number speculate the generous number of 200.
H.H. Holmes Murder Hotel
Murder Hotel is a documentary about the famed serial killer H.H. Holmes. In the late 1800s, he was known for the heinous crimes that he had committed. He owned a Murder Castle specifically built for that purpose and specially equipped to fulfill the desired way he had to kill people. Originally known as the World’s Fair Hotel in Chicago H.H. Holmes specially built the castle for his sinister crimes where he presumably killed over 130 people. This documentary released in 2005, written and directed by David Monaghan, is about that particular twisted hotel in which H.H. Holmes committed crimes that would wrench everyone’s heart and scares the toughest bit of it. The hotel has twisted pathways, doors that would open to a brick wall, staircases that lead nowhere, and bedrooms with gas pipes.
The documentary puts light on the Murder Castle, also known as Murder Hotel or Murder Castle that H.H. Holmes used to commit his crimes, that is, killed so many people and then sold their bodies to local medical schools. As thrilling as ever, the story sends a chill down everyone’s spine, and you might not want to see it right before heading to Chicago.
