AMERICA’S FIRST SERIAL KILLER // H. H. Holmes (Herman Webster Mudgett);born in Gilmanton,

AMERICA’S FIRST SERIAL KILLER // H. H. Holmes (Herman Webster Mudgett);born in Gilmanton, New Hampshire, Holmes was the third child to two devout Methodist parents. Holmes excelled in school which often made him the target of ridicule. When he was still young, he had a fear of doctors, which when the bullies found out, they decided to force him to stand face to face with a human skeleton and even put the skeleton’s hands on his face. After that, Holmes was cured of his fear and became fascinated with death and even picked up dissecting animals as a hobby. His fascination didn’t end there, in 1882, he enrolled in the  University of Michigan’s Department of Medicine and Surgery. During his time as a student, he would steal cadavers from the lab, disfigure the bodies and then claim they were victims of an accidental killing in order to collect insurance money from policies that he took out on the deceased. It was around then he abandoned his wife and son. He also changed his name to Holmes, possibly to avoid previous scams from catching up with him. In 1887, he married Myrta Belknap in Minneapolis, Minnesota while still married to his previous wife Clara (since 1878). He fathered a daughter with Myrtha in Englewood, Illinois. Holmes, his second wife and his daughter lived in Wilmette, Illinois together but he spent most of his time in Chicago, tending to business. In 1894, Holmes married Georgiana Toke in Denver, Colorado while still married to both Clara and Myrta. He also was reported to have a relationship with Julie Smythe, wife of on of his former employees and one of his future victims. In 1886, Holmes began working in a drug store in Chicago. After the owner of the drugstore died, Holmes offered to buy the store from his former boss’s wife, she agreed and sold it to him. He also purchased a lot across the street and began work on the three story, block long World’s Fair Hotel which was nicknamed The Castle (and then later, The Murder Castle). The hotel was opened to be used as an inn for the World’s Columbian Exposition in 1893. The ground floor contained Holmes’ relocated drug store and various other shops while the second and third floor was a maze of windowless rooms, stairs leading to nowhere and doors that opened to brick walls. The true intent of the Castle was for murder. In order to keep anyone knowing the full floor plans, Holmes constantly fired contractors and hired new ones; letting them each only build a small part of the hotel. At the time of the opening, Holmes made all of his employees sign up for life insurance, he paid their premiums and in return, he was listed as beneficiary. His victims were mostly female employees, hotel guests and lovers.There were a variety of torture rooms in the hotel; some were lynching rooms, some had iron walls with blow torches installed to incinerate his victims, some had gas leaking in them to  asphyxiate his victims at any time. The victims bodies were then dropped down a chute to the basement where some were stripped down and made into skeleton models and then sold to medical schools.Eventually he left Chicago, reappearing in Fort Worth, Texas, where he began to create another murder castle, only to give up halfway through. But in 1894, Holmes was briefly arrested for a horse swindle. While in jail, he struck up a conversation with a convicted train robber about his plans to fake his own death to collect insurance money. The train robber directed Holmes to a trustworthy lawyer sot hat the plan could be carried out in exchange for $500. But ultimately it failed when the insurance company became suspicious and refused to pay. Instead of pressing the claim, Holmes came up with a new, similar idea. This time he would fake the death of his criminal friend, Benjamin Pitezel. Pitezel agreed to fake his death so his wife could collect $10,000 in life insurance, which would then be split between him, Holmes and the lawyer. Pitezel was supposed to get a life insurance policy under the name of B. F. Perry, an inventor. And then he was supposed to “die” in a lab explosion. Holmes’ job was to find a body that could pass as Pitezel’s. Instead, Holmes killed Pitezel by knocking him out with chloroform and then setting his body on fire. After which, Holmes convinced Pitezel’s unsuspecting wife to give him custody of three of their children (all of which he would later kill).The downfall of Holmes came when the train robber tipped off police about Holmes because he never received his payment. His murder spree ended in Boston on Nov.17, 1894. It was around that when a former janitor of the Castle told police how he was never allowed to clean the second floor, which led to an investigation of the hotel. They uncovered Holmes’ torture rooms, a pile of human bones, a dissection table covered in dry bloods, balls of women’s hair, women’s bloody clothing, and lime pits of skeleton remains of his victims. Holmes’ victims count is anywhere between 20 to 200. He first confessed to 100 killings but later changed it to 27 for unknown reasons. Though he also claimed he was innocent at one point and then later claimed that he was possessed by Satan. However, the eventual finding of the three murdered Pitezel children were what sealed Holmes’ fate. On May 7, 1896, H. H. Holmes was hanged at Moyamensing Prison for the murder of Benjamin Pitezel. Up until his death, he remained calm and amiable and showed very little signs of having any fear, anxiety or depression. However, he did ask that his coffin be contained in cement and buried 10 feet deep because he was concerned that grave robbers would steal his body and dissect him. Holmes’ death was not an easy one. His neck did not snap and instead he slowly strangled to death for 15 minutes. He wasn’t pronounced dead until 20 minutes after the trap had been sprung. In August 1895, the Murder Castle was mysteriously burned down to the ground. Some believe it was to cover up any remaining evidence that had yet been found by police while others believed it was outraged citizens wanting to rid their city of the horrible place and keep it from becoming a tourist attraction. The site is currently the Englewood Branch of the United States Postal Services.  -- source link

More pics about