Henry Mudgett was born to a middle-class family in New Hampshire. His childhood was uneventful and yet he would grow up to be one of America’s first serial killers. He graduated from medical school, but never became a practicing doctor. During school, he stole some cadavers and used them to make fake insurance claims. It was the start of a life of crime. He ended up in Chicago in 1886 working in a drugstore, which he later owned. His first victims were apparently a mistress and her daughter. He had a three-story building constructed across the street from the pharmacy. This became known as “The Castle”. The second floor had apartments. Supposedly the rooms were sound-proof, the halls were a maze, and there were secret passageways. Chutes connected to the basement where he had a dissection table and acid baths and a crematorium for disposing of bodies. He sold organs and bones to medical institutions. By the time the Columbian Exposition opened in 1893, the building was functional and H.H. Holmes (the name he used) opened it as a hotel. Many of his victims were women attending the exposition. Meanwhile, Holmes was involved in various illegal schemes which caused him to flee Chicago in 1894. He made several stops and continued his scams. In one of them, he defrauded an insurance company by faking the suicide of a “friend” named Pitezel. After murdering Pitezel, he took off with his wife and three kids. He travelled separately with the kids and ended up murdering them. In 1895, he was arrested in Boston for a horse swindle in Texas. He had been tracked down by the Pinkertons. Soon he was connected to various murders. The Castle was searched, but no evidence was found. He was convicted of the murder of Pitezel. He confessed to 27, but it was for $7,500 from the Hearst newspapers. Some of the 27 were still alive so this was the first clue that some of his story was crap. Sensational stories about what the Beast of Chicago did in the “Murder Castle” were an example of the yellow journalism of the day. On May 7, 1896 he was hanged, but his neck did not snap and he twisted for fifteen minutes. Good. He deserved it, although he may not have been the devil on Earth that he was portrayed as. Modern scholarship has failed to prove the more lurid details, like the torturing of victims. Only nine victims can be confirmed. It is highly likely an upcoming movie about him will include torturing and more than nine victims. Don’t get your history from Hollywood, get it from here.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H._H._Holmes
https://www.biography.com/crime-figure/hh-holmes
https://www.history.com/news/murder-castle-h-h-holmes-chicago
H.H. Holmes and his Murder Castle
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