Serial Killer

H.H. Holmes

Once upon a time, there was a young boy named Herman Webster Mudgett. He was born in New Hampshire on May 16 1861.
Herman Mudgett, soon to be known as H.H. Holmes, was this super intelligent young man, who became the first serial killer in the US. "I was born with the devil in me", he said.
Holmes lived with his mother Theodate Page Price, his father Levi Horton Mudgett and his 3 siblings Ellen, Arthur and Henry. His mother was a devout methodist and his father was an alcoholic. He was bullied in high school, where he graduated at age 16. His classmates discovered that he feared doctors, so they forced him to stand in front of a human skeleton in a doctor's office and touch it. Holmes was definitely scared in the beginning, but later he said, "This experience exorcised my fears about death".

Two years later Holmes studied medicine at a small school in Vermont before being accepted into the University of Michigan Medical School. There, he used to steal cadavers from the laboratory and disfigured them. "They died in an accident", he said trying to collect insurance.

Chris Bradford in "The Way of the Warrior" said: "Tomorrow's victory is today's practice." And that is what Holmes did – he perfected these insurance scams and became the beneficiary on the policies of several women wo worked with him. Most of those women mysteriously died shortly after.

David Frost said, "Don't aim for success if you want it, just do what you love and believe in, and it will come naturally." Holmes said, "I could not help the fact that I was a murderer, no more than the poet can help the inspiration to sing."

"Do what you love "is written in a lot of motivational quotes or cards, but they should also say "unless what you love is hurting/killing people (or animals).

In 1878, Holmes married Clara A. Lovering. In 1884, he passed his medical exams and in the next year he moved to Chicago – where he got a job working at a pharmacy. A few years later, Holmes married Myrta Belknap while still married to Clara Lovering. He filed for divorce from Clara a few weeks after marrying Myrta, but it was never finalized. When the owner of the drugstore that worked with Holmes passed away, he left the drugstore to his wife. However, Holmes convinced her to let him buy the store. She agreed, but realized that he wasn't going to pay her back, so she tried to get justice done. A few days later she was missing. "She went living in California", Holmes said at the time.

After Holmes had become the owner of the drugstore, he purchased an empty lot across the street. He designed and built a hotel, which the neighborhood called the "Castle", soon to be known as the "Murder Castle". During the Hotel construction, he hired and fired his construction crews many times. "In this way, they don't have a clue about what I'm doing and what is going on", he said proudly. His employees, guests, wives and fiancés were all required to have a life insurance policy – he would pay for it, but the only thing he wanted in return was to be the beneficiary. And when they least expected, they would disappear. His neighbors starting to notice  something was wrong; they would watch visitors go into the Castle but they would never see them leave.

Chicago hosted the World's Fair in 1893, which attracted millions of people from all around the world. "This is a huge opportunity," Holmes thought. He knew how many visitors would be searching for a place to stay during the event. Has you can see, many of those visitors who stayed in the wrong place, never left it.

The most interesting things about the Castle were the soundproof rooms and the gas lines contained in them. All around the building, there were trap doors, peepholes, stairways that led to nowhere and chutes that led into the basement, which was Holmes personal lab. His personal lab included a crematory, a stretching rack and a dissecting table. Holmes also used is victims to earn money, by selling them to medical schools.

One year after the event, he found, again, the love of his life. Georgiana Yoke was his third wife, while he was still married to the other two. So, has you can see, even in 1890, girls were attracted into bad boys.

After working alone for a couple of years, Holmes found a buddy, Benjamin Pitezel. They traveled around for a while, committing other frauds. In Texas, they were put to justice but only for their scam crimes. Holmes brought fellow inmate Marion Hedgepeth in on the life insurance scheme with Pitezel, but when he failed to deliver Hedgepeth's share of the deal, tipped off the authorities. Pitezel died in Holmes' hands – one more time the police couldn't stop him from killing again. The Pitezel widow wanted to know what had happened, so when she asked him about it Holmes said, "Your husband is still alive and out there". As a result, the woman went looking for her husband, leaving her children exposed. Little did she know they would be dead in a couple of hours.

At first, Holmes was charged with insurance fraud, later he went to trial for the murder of Pitezel. While he was under custody, he gave numerous stories to the police: "I killed 27 people", he confessed, but he is associated with 20 to 200 victims.

"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."

In May 1896, the three wives of H. H. Holmes began their life as widows – he was hanged and the Castle it was burned.

Maybe he was born with the Devil inside him, or next to him. Maybe itwas his awful childhood who made him like that, all the pain and suffering hehad and just wanted to make people feel like he did. Maybe he wanted to feellike a god, deciding who lives and who dies. Truth to be told, we will neverknow what happened to him, but life has a way to change people, to make themcold. Maybe life happened.