The Mystery of H.H. Holmes

During the late 19th century Chicago was a place of growth and development. Powerful new forces were acting upon it. It was growing in all different ways, population, industry and even architecturally. Chicago was growing skyward, with the new idea of sky scrapers and high buildings. While Chicago had its new point of fame, it was also looked down on by other competing cities. It cheated bu annexing large expenses of land just in time for the 1890 census. Because of this they were viewed by people of the east as greedy, hog slaughtering people, who were not soon to recover. The World Fair is what brought much of the new fame to Chicago above everything else. It won the vote to host the World Fair against New York City but 43 votes.The World Fair gave Chicago new opportunity for clever men to commit fraud and theft because of its growing population of people coming into the city. One of theses men was H.H Holmes. He would soon become known as America's first serial killer. 

H.H. Holmes given name was Herman Webster Mudgett. He was born in Gilmanion, N.H. As a young kid he was scared of the doctor, but that didn't stop him. He went to Michigan Medical school were he stole bodies from the lab and was involved in shady business. Holmes was very strange on the inside, he didn't appear this way on the outside. Later in life he moved to Englewood, the highest growing suburb in Chicago at the time of the worlds fair. As he walked the streets of Chicago, he could be described as dressed nice. He gave off an impression of wealth and achievement.He walked with confidence. His eyes were described as great murders. He had the same impression on women. He smiled often at them as he held them in his blue daze. He often lied to women about who he was or what he did, so he could make anything happen for them. He was married four  times, and yes they were all at once. He first married Clara Lovering. While he was still married to Clara, he married Mary Belknap and they bore a baby named Lucy. Next he married Georgina Yoke. Finally He married Julia Conner, who bore a baby, so they had to get married. When Holmes found a women that interested him, he became obsessed with her. This often meant more then one women at a time. This obsession is what soon drove Holmes to become clinically insane. 

Holmes had a brillant idea of a Hotel. He wanted to house all of the women, or women that he found walking the streets heading to the World fair in his hotel. He would call it the Hotel of the Fair and it would be within walking distance of the fair. He wanted to make it comfortable, but cheap. This building was located at 63 and Wallace. The 1st floor would be retail shops with women to generate income. The second and third floors would be apartments including his large living space and office on the second floor. While this circulating normal and a nice thing to create, in the mind of Holmes it was anything but that. This building would be a slaughter house. Holmes was crazy, crazy and obsessed with women, Weither it be immigrants new to Chicago or innocent goers of the World Fair, Holmes would get them. There would be doors on the second floor that opened to brick walls of, stairways to nowhere, and only doors open able from the outside. Holmes would have a room next to his office with a walk in vault with air tight seems and coated iron walls to suffocate his victims. He had gas jets embedded in the walls of the apartments that only he could control. He had a wooden chute descending from the second floor coated with axle grease to make the bodies slide down to the basement easier. In the basement he had lime pits, giant furnaces, pits of acid, and a stretching rank to do things to the bodies. Holmes Hotel soon became known as The Castle. While it was being built people weren't allowed to work on it for long periods of time because Holmes didn't want them to gain a true picture of its unusual features. 

Holmes careers as serial killer came to an end over a fraud scheme of all things. In order to get out of this scheme, Ben F. Pritzel faked his death with a cadaver to bilk the insurance company that was after Holmes, of 100,000 dollars. This plan succeeded, but when Holmes did give the man that helped him half of the money, he turned him in. This put Holmes in yet another turmoil.  Holmes was convicted of four murders, confessed to 27, succeed but was said to have killed up to 200. Holmes received the death sentence on November 30, 1895. Before he dies he sold his story to the Hearst Newspaper. William Randolph Hearst was the creator of yellow journalism. During this time period the rate of newspapers circulating daily increased. This allowed for the creation of yellow journalism, which was reporting in bold graphics to reach a mass audience. This helped gain publicity for Holmes trail.  Holmes wrote memoirs to the 27 people he confessed to killing. Later he said he just did that for a publicity stunt. 

Holmes life was a lived in secret for awhile. He appeared as a wealth, prospering man, just like the city of Chicago, Holmes was really a horrible person. He was a serial killer and a murder. He became known forever as Americas first serial killer.

H.H. Holmes

 The Murder Castle 

Cartoon of Holmes and one of his victims

Sources

• Wikipedia  
• Trutv - Serail Killers
• Herman Mudgett
• Internet Movie Database
• Devil in the White City By Erik Larson