Dr. H. H. Holmes: America's First Serial Killer Essay

Holmes had been born into a wealthy New Hampshire family and was given the name Herman Webster Mudgett (America’s Serial Killers). “If Mudgett or his brother or sister were bad, their strict Methodist parents sent them to the attic for a full day without speaking or eating,. Mudgett’s father was especially abusive after he’d been drinking - which was often” (Spikol). However, his father was a wealthy and respected citizen and had been the local postmaster for nearly twenty five years (Taylor). It is surprising an important member of the community was a child abuser. The abuse of his father may be one of the

In Erik Larson’s essay, The Devil in the White City, (2003), he investigates the way that Holmes used the World fair to lure in his victims. Erik larson establishes his ideas by developing the main characters in separate plots. Larson explains how the World Fair ended up in Chicago and how it was constructed and designed, in order to connect the fair to Holmes and show how he used it to lure in his victims. This novel was intended for anybody interested in a historic crime depicted in a narrative based mystery, and its intense, optimistic tone helps the audience picture the suspense before and during the fair. This essay is going to analyze how Erik Larson used a description of blue eyes to create a theme, and develop the two main characters.

The Devil in the White City reads, “As word spread that a young, handsome, and apparently unmarried doctor now stood behind the counter, an increasing number of single women in their twenties began to patronize the store”(Larson 46). You can’t build a log cabin without wood, and you can’t be a serial killer without victims. Victims are an essential part to the art of murder. As a result, he had a plentiful picking because he was “young, handsome and apparently unmarried”.  These attributes make Holmes a very charismatic person. While Holmes was being escorted to his death, the novel reads, “This was a difficult moment for his guards. They liked Holmes. They knew he was a killer, but he was a charming killer”(Larson 386). Even though the guards knew Holmes was a despicable person, they still liked him and found him “charming”. His charisma was such a potent attribute, even if people knew the real him...as seen in the text….they stilled “liked him”. They knew he had murdered innocent women and children, but still founded him “charming”. As can be concluded from the examples, Holmes’s charisma served him well in becoming a long time anonymous perpetrator.

He had several stores and a restaurant in the building. The third floor had rooms and offices to rent and it contained Holmes’s bedroom but it was the 2nd floor that had the horrible secret of the building. This floor had 35 rooms all designed as killing chambers, his victims would get caught up in this maze where doors lead nowhere and once they would turn a corner Holmes would surprise them and eventually kill them. Now the basement was worst of them all he had a chute that led down there so he could easily dispose of the bodies, it was like a medieval torture chamber, acid vats, quick lime pits and crematorium and this is where he would clean his victim’s bones and mount them and sell them to local universities and medical schools. Now, I have heard of some of the things that serial killers have done but this takes the cake, it made my stomach turn.

He changed his name to H.H. Holmes and posed as a pharmacist in Chicago. That was an ominous start to his career. [7]

His goal, however, was to murder innocent tourists a lure them into his “Murder Castle,” which was a hotel he opened up in order to charm unexpecting future victims into a trap. Holmes applied a vast amount of ways to kill a victim, one example that was reported was a human kiln, with the potential to reach up to 3000 degrees celsius, and found multiple human remains inside the kiln (Whalen, par. 10). In a way he was an architect like Burnham, he designed this “Murder Castle,” and designed each of his murders to perfection. He even described himself as almost insane, which some artist have no shame of admitting: “‘I was born with the devil in me,' Holmes wrote. '

Herman Webster Mudgett, a.k.a Dr. H. H. Homes was a notorious criminal in the 1800's. He is well known for his big insurance schemes and the murder castle he constructed, where he "killed at least 27 women during the World's Fair in Chicago" (Brown 2015). He took delight in pulling off scams with cadavers. He also enjoyed mutilating animals when he was young and as an adult, he began mutilating corpses. He had a rough past that leads him to be very sadistic. Holmes went through many obstacles in life that lead him up to this point.

The “Black City” was always lurking and ready to “welcome men back” (247). Holmes fully represented evil and turned the White City Black again. He went so far as to, “erect his Castle close to the Fair grounds so as to gather in these victims by the wholesale” (336). Holmes earns money off of the fair by turning his “Castle” into a hotel to lure women in (85). Holmes embodies every part of evil and near the end of his life, he even states that he was born with the devil inside of him (109). Holmes displayed his likeness to the devil even further when Larson says: “He liked being near enough to hear the approach of death in the rising panic of his victims” (256). Holmes believed he played in a game where he was all powerful. He moves women and children around as if he possessed them: “He possessed them all and reveled in his possession” (350). Without people being attracted to the White City that Burnham built with good intentions, Holmes never would have been able to take advantage of people by welcoming back the Black

Dr.Holmes was born in Gilmanton, New Hampshire on May,16,1861.his parents names were as follows.Levi Horton Mudgett,father Theodate Page Price,mother. He had three siblings, Henry,Arthur,and Ellen. Dr. Holmes was found to be rather intelligent for his young age. He graduated from high school at the age of 16. He went to the University of Michigan from 1882–1884. Dr.Holmes was a physician.Dr.holmes hobbies included creating elaborate traps and labyrinths and torture.Holmes was America's

And ironically, he wasn’t even arrested for murder but instead insurance fraud. The reason Holmes was able to go all those years without being caught was because of his charm and people skills. When families would write letters to him, he would show sympathy for their loss and offer his help in any way he could. When families would hire private investigators, he would invite them for lunch and use his charm to act like he knew nothing about the disappearances. In some circumstances, he would give a list of friends the young women “said” they were going to visit.

The Chicago city itself provided the vanishing of people, a cover-up after a murder. Holmes has everything that a typical American figure should be. A “handsome” and “unmarried” young doctor, now living in Chicago (46). It was to create a strong American Ideal, showing wealth and appearance. So, it was a way for him to blend into the population of Chicago while at the same time murdering people without their knowledge because he looks like an American Ideal. It was the control of space and anxiety from the people. His murdering of Mrs. Holton was a success because of his cover up that she is visiting California, and buying her drug store. (45 – 47). “Holmes smiled and explained that she had decided to visit a relative in California, something she had wanted could not have done with her husband on his deathbed…. sometime modified the story by saying she had decided to settle their permanently” (47).

Holmes selected mostly female victims from among his employees (many of which were required as a condition of employment to take out life insurance policies for which Holmes would pay the premiums but also be the beneficiary), as well as his lovers and hotel guests. He tortured and killed them in some of the worst possible ways you could imagine. Some were locked in soundproof bedrooms fitted with gas lines that let him asphyxiate them at any time and some were locked in a huge soundproof bank vault near his office where they were left to suffocate. He

Both Holmes and Burnham exhibit a great determination to become rich. If Burnham could obtain enough money to “out-Eiffel Eiffel” he could become the greatest architect (156). Holmes would kill anyone to get money, his only problem was that he couldn’t kill under the radar. However, the Chicago World’s Fair gave both men the perfect opportunity to become rich. Burnham was not poor when he started this fair, in fact, Burnham and his firm had just started to get

Connor was crazy and ignored her. Later on in 1895, ¨it has been calculated that in just the Western portion of Michigan the following graveyards [had] corpses missing: Grand Haven, South Haven, Muskegon Holland, St. Joseph, The Bay, and Lakota¨ (Fresh start taken, 1895, p. 1, col. 3-4). These bodies had been brought to the castle, chemically treated, and then sent off to medical colleges in exchange for money. Jasper Richardson is an expressman in the town of Englewood, also testifies after he hears this that he had made many trips to Holmes’ house to pick up packages that were sent to physicians, medical students, hospitals, and various depots, but did not know what the boxes contained. Holmes, by a chance of luck, has dodged another bullet of getting caught sooner 5 years sooner than he should have because he had a faithful employee, Quinlan, who minded his own business. Quinlan ends up feeling so bad for this after he finds out the man Holmes really is, that he ¨commit[ed] suicide by poison in 1914 because he could not sleep and often had hallucinations¨ (Crime castle builder dead, 1914, p. 6, col. 5).

Many things today confuse, yet enthrall the masses. War, murder, medical science, incredible rescues, all things you would see on The History Channel. There is another topic that is also made into documentaries however, serial killers. Dark twisted people that commit multiple murders are of interest to the population, but what caused them to be this way. What horrible tragic set of events could twist a man to murder one or many people. Could Schizophrenia, psychopathy, or sociopathy? Many people have researched this topic and believe that childhood trauma, heavy drugs during the growing phase of life, as well as many other things have twisted the minds of men such as Jeffery Dahmer, Charles Manson,