H.H. Holmes Website

Howard

Henry

Homles

Often regarded as America's first serial killer,

H.H. Holmes was notorious for his brutal

methods of killing and having his own dungeon

filled with traps. Allow us to further enlighten

you about this macabre historical figure.

Early Life

Beginning of Murders

Getting Caught

Murder Castle

Other Interesting Facts

Media

Early Life

Born Herman Webster Mudget, the child was clearly intelligent. Although his academic endevors were quite disturbing, he showed great interest in dissecting animals, as well as human beings.
After having married his first wife Clara, Mudget went on to medical school and would later become chief instructor in the anatomy lab.
It was during his tenure at medical school where he started commiting his crimes.

He stole and dismembered corpses, he sold some of the cadavers, as well as skeletons, but it is believed that he kept some for his own experiments.

In 1886, he remarried, two years after he was left by his first wife and changed his name to Henry Howard Holmes, after infamous detective brought to life by Arthur Conan Doyle.

Murderous Deeds

After finishing his building (see 'Murder Castle') Holmes began to put out adds inviting young women to work for him. During their employment, they were required to take out life insurance policies under Holmes' name, or one of his other numerous aliases.
After claiming to use the third floor of his building as a hotel for the World's Columbian Exposition, several women disappeared. Though the hotel portion was never finished, Holmes still opened the floor to guests and called the area "World's Fair Hotel."
Holmes lured people in with ads in the newspaper, and it would seem that he was successful in ensnaring unsuspecting victims. Many people were reported misssing throughout the fair, but over fifty of them were connected to the castle, where the trail went cold.

The third floor of the hotel caught on fire on August 13th 1893. Instead of paying Holmes, the numerous insurances that he had taken out sued him on counts of arson and false insurance claims.
Holmes than fled Chicago but was soon arrested. During his sentence, he struck up conversation with convicted felon Marion Hepworth, and they concocted a plan to collect a life insurance policy on Holmes' close friend Benjamin Pitezel. Holmes told Pitezel to fake his death and when the life insurance policy was collected, Holmes burnt his 'friend' alive, after knocking him out with chloroform.
He then lied to the deceased's wife and children, eventually getting three of the five into his custody. Holmes killed two of the young girls by asphyxiation and burying them in Toronto. He then rented a cottage in Indianonapolis where he killed the last child with drugs and cut him up, bones and teeth were later found in the cottage chimmney.

Getting Caught

On November 17th, 1894, Holmes was arrested in Boston Massachusetts. Initially, he admitted to nothing but insurance fraud, but over time, his stories changed, at one point he admitted to killing 28 people. Criminologists estimate that the real number was anywhere from 20 to 200, though only nine were confirmed. He was paid around 216,000 by the Hearst Newspaper for his testimony, much of which was proven to be false.

Murder Castle:

Following Holmes' arrest, the authorites began to
investigate the building in which the killer took up
residence. It was found that Holmes never
paid a penny for the building, citing poor
workmanship and such for the dozen teams
that he hired.
The ground and third floors were found to be relatively
normal, divided into retail spaces for drug stores
and apartments. The second floor and basement revealed
themselves to be something straight out of a horror movie.
The second floor was a maze of 35 windowless rooms,
hallways leading to dead ends, trapdoors, and some rooms were
soundproof with peepholes so that Holmes could watch his
victims, other rooms had gas lines that would asphyxiate
those unfortunate enough to find themselves in the room.
The basement had it own crematorium, a blood stained dissection
table, vats of acid and poison, and a multitude of torture
devices. Throughout the building, hastily hidden body parts were
found, including bones, hair and skin.

Interesting Facts:

Shortly following Holmes' execution, his 'Muder Castle'

caught on fire and exploded.

Although his death was witnessed in the gallows, some believe that Holmes escaped. One of these people being his descendent Jeff Mudgett, claiming that he continued his killing spree under a different name, Jack the Ripper.
In 2017, there were doubts about his body's decomposition, when the grave was dug up, it was found that his clothes had barley deteriorated and his moustache was still intact. The body was proven to be Holmes' by dentist forensics.
He was legally married to three woman at one time before getting arrested.

Famous Quote:

Holmes wrote this in his confession "I was born with the devil in me, I could not help the fact that I was a murderer, no more than a poet can help the inspiration to sing."

Media:

It should come as no surprise that America's first

serial killer has a multitude of books, movies, and

even video games about him. These include titles

such as "Murder Hotel," "The Devil in The White

City," "H.H Holmes, The Life of The American Ripper,"

and "The Devil In Me."

Sources:

https://thecrimewire.com/multifarious/5-Strange-Facts-About-HH-Holmes-Americas-First-Serial-Killer

https://www.legendsofamerica.com/h-h-holmes/

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/enduring-mystery-hh-holmes-americas-first-serial-killer-180977646/