H.H. Holmes

"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... I was born with the evil one standing as my sponsor beside the bed where i was ushered into the world, and he has been with me since." Henry Howard Holmes (born as Herman Webster Mudgett), better known as H. H. Holmes or "The Beast of Chicago", is one of America's most well-known criminals. Holmes is famous for being considered America's first modern serial killer and for creating the infamous "Murder Castle".

Background
Holmes was born in Gilmanton, New Hampshire, and was the third-born child to Levi Horton Mudgett and Theodate Page Price. His father was described as being an alcoholic and abusive towards his family. Despite the abuse, Holmes was considered an amazing student at his school, which resulted in him being bullied by jealous classmates. In an attempt to scare the young Holmes, the bullies forced him to stand face to face with a human skeleton and place the skeleton's hands on his face. Holmes was frightened at first but found how fascinating the whole experience was, and how it cured him of his fears. The experience eventually resulted in Holmes becoming obsessed with death, he later began to dissect animals as a hobby. Holmes graduated from high school at the age of 16 and later married with a woman named Clara Lovering and together they had a son, Robert Lovering Mudgett.

Three years later, Holmes enrolled in the University of Vermont in Burlington, but left only one year later. In 1882, he entered the University of Michigan's Department of Medicine and Surgery and graduated in 1844. While enrolled, Holmes stole several cadavers from the laboratory, disfigured the bodies and claimed that the victims were killed in accidents in order to collect insurance money. Holmes eventually abandoned both Clara and Robert and spent his next years working on various jobs and making more scams. He moved to Mooers Forks, New York and was seen with a little boy, who later went missing. Holmes claimed that the boy went back to his home in Massachusetts and subsequently left town, no investigation took place. He later got a job as a keeper at Norristown State Hospital in Philadelphia but quite days later. Still in Philadelphia, he began to work at a local drugstore and while working there, a boy died from taking medicine that was brought from the store. Holmes repeated the same process and denied any involvement with his death before leaving the city.

He later changed his name to Henry Howard Holmes to avoid being caught for his previous scams and moved to Chicago. While still married to Clara, Holmes married with another woman, Myrta Belknap and had a daughter with her, Lucy Theodate Holmes. Holmes tried to divorce Clara but failed. While still married to Myrta, Holmes again married another woman, Georgiana Yoke. In Chicago, Holmes began to work at Elizabeth S. Holton's drugstore and proved himself to be a hardworking employee. After Holton's husband death, she sold the drugstore to Holmes and was never seen again, when asked about her whereabouts, Holmes would say that she moved to California to be close to relatives. Later, Holmes purchased an empty lot across from the drugstore and there he built his hotel building, it was dubbed "The Castle" by local residents. The Castle was not a regular hotel, it contained a labyrinth of rooms with doorways leading to brick walls, oddly-angled hallways, starways leading to nowhere, doors that could only be opened from outside and other strange constructions. To ensure that no one discovered how odd the building's design was, Holmes began firing and hiring different workers. Holmes later met with former criminal and carpenter Benjamin Pitezel and turned him into his right-hand man.

Murders, Arrest and Execution
Following the completion of the hotel, Holmes began luring victims to his hotel (mostly women) and there, murdering them in a variety of ways. One of his victims was his mistress, Julia Smythe, who was married to a man named Ned Conner at the time of her murder. Conner eventually discovered Smythe's relationship with Holmes and moved away, leaving Smythe and her daughter, Pearl, alone with Holmes. In 1891, Smythe told Holmes that she was pregnant with his baby and demanded marriage, he agreed to marry her but also told her that they could not have the child and suggested performing an abortion, she agreed. Holmes later overdosed Smythe with chloroform before poisoning and butchering her daughter. When asked about their whereabouts, Holmes replied saying that they had left to attend a family wedding in Iowa. To articulate Smythe's skeleton, Holmes hired a man named Charles Chappell and showed him the body. Chappell took the arms and legs to his home to articulate them and later the rest of the body. Chappell was hired again but this time he had to articulate the body of a man. Chappell was hired a third time to articulate another skeleton, but Holmes refused to pay the money he owned him and as a response, Chappell refused to give him the skeleton and kept it in his home. Later, Holmes met with a railroad heireness named Minnie Williams while on a business trip in Boston, they began dating and entered in a relationship. Holmes eventually returned to Chicago but constantly sent love letters to Williams. In February 1893, Williams moved to Chicago and began to work at his hotel as his personal stenographer. Holmes persuaded her to transfer the deed to her property in Fort Worth, Texas, to a man named Alexander Bond, who in reality was Holmes himself. In April 1893, Williams transferred the deed and later signed the deed over to Benton L. Lyman, an alias used by Pitezel. Minnie later invited her sister, Annie Williams, to Chicago and she accepted it. Shortly after her arrival, Holmes and Annie became close friends. While working in his office, Annie was tasked by Holmes to get a file for him inside his vault, and while searching for the file, Holmes locked her inside and gassed her before poisoning her sister Minnie.

Following the World's Fair, Holmes left Chicago and moved to Forth Worth, there, he planned to construck another murder castle but eventually abandoned the idea. In July 1894, Holmes was arrested and incarcerated for the first time, for a horse swindle that ended in St. Louis. While in jail, Holmes met with convicted train robber and famous Wild West outlaw, Marion Hedgepeth, a.k.a. "The Debonair Killer". Holmes had a plan to swindle an insurance company out of ten thousand dollars by taking out a policy on himself and then faking his own death. He promised Hedgepeth a five hundred commission in exchange for the name of a lawyer who could be trusted. Holmes was directed to a young St. Louis attorney named Jeptha Howe. Howe was in practice with his older brother, Alphonso Howe, who had no involvement with Holmes or Pitezel or their criminal activities. Jeptha, however, found Holmes' plan to be brilliant. Nevertheless, Holmes' plan to fake his own death failed when the insurance company became suspicious and refused to pay. Holmes did not press the claim and instead made a similar scheme with his Pitezel. The second scheme involved Pitezel being an inventor named B.F. Perry, who died in a lab accident. The original plan was to find an appropriate cadaver to play the role of Pitezel, but instead, Holmes knocked Pitezel unconscious with chloroform and burned him alive with benzene. Holmes eventually collected the insurance and manipulated Pitezel's wife into allowing three of her children: Alice, Nellie and Howard to be in his custody. While travelling throughout the Nothern United States and into Canada, Holmes forced both Alice and Nellie into a trunk and gassing them before burying their bodies in the basement of a rental house. A detective named Frank Geyer found the bodies and noticed that Nellie's feet was missing. He eventually discovered that Nellie had a clubfoot and theorized that Holmes had removed the clubfoot in order to prevent a distinctive identification of the body. Geyer followed Holmes to Indianopolis and there, Holmes visited a local pharmacy to purchase drugs, later used to kill Howard. After killing Howard, Holmes mutilated his body and removed his teeth before placing his body inside the home's chimney.

In 1894, Hedgepeth told police about Holmes because he was not paid as promised for providing help to his schemes. Holmes was finally arrested in Boston after being tracked by detective agency known as the Pinkertons for horse theft. Several Castle's employees were interviewed after his arrest, one of them was the caretaker, Pat Quinlan, he said to the police that he was never permitted to clean the second floor, this information sparked an interest in said floor, and there, Holmes' secret rooms and torture chambers were finally found. Police also investigated the basement in hopes of finding more evidence against Holmes and they were right, in the basement, several human bones were found. While exploring deeper within the hotel, three firemen, a plumber lit a match and caused an explosion, it was later discovered that the cause of the explosion was an oil tank hidden behind the wall, several men were injured and sent to the hospital as result. In October 1895, Holmes was put on trial for the murder of Benjamin Pitezel, was found found guilty and sentenced to death. Holmes initially claimed to be innocent and that he was possessed by the Devil. On May 7, 1896, Holmes was hanged at Moyamensing World but before his death, he asked for his coffin to be contained in cement and buried 10 feet deep to avoid grave robbing. During the hanging, Holmes' neck did not snap, but instead, he was strangled for over 15 minutes before being pronounced dead 5 minutes later.

Modus Operandi
Holmes varied in victimology and modus operandi. His victims were employees, lovers and hotel guests. Some of them were locked in soundproof rooms fitted with gas lines that let him asphyxiate them and some victims were taken to the "Secret Hanging Chamber", where they would be hanged by Holmes. Other victims were locked in a soundproof bank vault and left there to suffocate or taken to another secret room that was sealed by solid brick and could only be entered through a trap door in the ceiling, they were locked there and left to die of hunger and thristy. After their deaths, Holmes would take the bodies to a metal chute or a dummy elevator leading to the basement and there most of them were dissected, stripped of flesh, crafted into skeleton models and sold to medical schools. Alternatively, Holmes would dispose of them in lime pits, incerate the bodies or use corrosive acid, poison and even the infamous stretching rack. According to Holmes, he once sent an unnamed accomplice to kill a man named Milford Cole for him.

Confirmed Victims

 * Unspecified date in 1891: Julia and Pearl Conner
 * Julia Conner
 * Pearl Conner
 * 1892:
 * June 1: Emily Van Tessel
 * Unspecified date in December: Emeline Cigrand
 * July 5, 1893: Annie and Minnie Williams
 * Annie Williams
 * Minnie Williams
 * 1894:
 * September 2: Benjamin Frelan Pitezel
 * October 5: Alice and Nellie Pitezel
 * October 25: Howard Pitezel

Possible Victims

 * Unspecified: "Lizzie"
 * Unspecified: Sarah Cook and Mrs. Haracamp
 * Unspecified: Robert Latimer
 * Unspecified: Kate Durkee
 * Unspecified: Mr. Rogers


 * 1886:
 * Unspecified date: Robert Leacock
 * Unspecified date: Unnamed boy
 * Unspecified date: Unnamed boy
 * Unspecified date: Elizabeth Holton
 * Unspecified date in 1890: Russell
 * 1892
 * February 8: Anna Betts
 * July 18: Eva Gertrud Conner
 * 1893
 * Unspecified date: Unnamed woman
 * May to October: Unnamed guest
 * 1894:
 * Unspecified date: Milford Cole
 * Unspecified date: Baldwin H. Williams
 * Note: Based upon missing reports and the testimony of Holmes' neighbors, his actual body count is estimated to be above 200.

On Criminal Minds
Holmes' murder castle may have been the inspiration behind Charles Holcombe's meat plant. Similarities include: gas emitting vents, random dead ends and a furnace presumably used for disposing of body parts.

The way serial killer Henry Grace placed Kaylee Robinson and the children inside a gas chamber is very similiar to the way Holmes killed some of his victims.