H. H. Holmes

Herman Webster Mudgett (May 16, 1861 – May 7, 1896) was an American serial killer. He was one of the first documented American serial killers ever. He is better known as: H. H. Holmes or Dr. Henry Howard Holmes. Holmes was the owner of a hotel you would never want to stay at.

Name:                           Herman Webster Mudgett
Other names:             Henry W. Howard
                                       Dr. Henry Howard Holmes
                                       Henry Gordon
                                       Alexander Bond
Nickname:                  The Lady Killer
Born:                            May 16, 1861
Died:                            May 7, 1896 (Aged 34)
Cause of death:        Hanged (executed)
Penalty:                       Death
Convictions:               Four counts of murder in the first degree
                                      Six counts of attempted murder
Victims:                       9 confirmed, confessed up to 27, suspected up to 200

Early life:

Herman Webster Mudgett was the first serial killer in America. He soon changed his name to Henry Howard Holmes, H. H. Holmes.

When Holmes was 19 years old, he went to medical school. He was a very innovative and smart man.

Holmes had to pay for his medical school. The way that he got the money was just as smart as cruel. Holmes had access to corpses. He would set up fake insurance policies to people who didn’t exist. After he did that, he would take one of the bodies and disfigure its face with acid. He then would stage the death and collect the insurance money.

With doing this he collected up to twelve thousand dollars, in today’s value that’s 285 thousand dollars.

The Killings:

Now what he did with that money is the start of his 6 month killing spree…

Holmes build a three story hotel, we now know that hotel as ‘The murder castle’. The first floor was normal and looked like every normal hotel. But once you checked in… you may never get out. The second and third floor is were Holmes would murder his victims.

He would show his guests to their room, mostly young woman, and then leave them… to die. The doors of the rooms would only open from the outside. Once the ‘guests’ were in their room, Holmes would turn on the gas and listen to them die on the other side of the door. This was only one of the ways he killed his victims. The hotel was a maze of torture rooms and gas chambers.

In the basement he had a human disassembly factory. He would take the bodies and skin them. Then he would take out the organs and sell them on the black market.

The End: 

Holmes killing spree lasted for about six months, then he made a mistake. He tried something new… He wanted to set up another fake insurance policy but this time he didn’t use a body. He selected a person and killed him and three of his children. After this Holmes was arrested.

Holmes ended up confessing to the killings and 27 other murders. A lot of people think that Holmes may have killed up to 200 people in his hotel. While he was in custody, his murder hotel was found and got the nickname: ‘The murder castle’.

Holmes was executed by hanging in 1896. He was 34-years-old at that time.

How did he build that hotel without anyone knowing what was going on there?:

He would hire and fire people so no one ever finished a project. That way no one would ever know what the final product was.   

Quote: 'I was born with the devil in me. I could not help the fact that I was a murderer, no more than the 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.’

Source:

America's First Serial Killer. (2015, October 27). Retrieved December 25, 2015, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0Xj7LsROig