H. Holmes: America's First Serial Killer

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 the years leading up to the world fair, Holmes had been perfecting his “castle” that was built upon his pharmacy. His house, nicknamed the “Murder Castle”, was filled with mazes, trap doors, and multiple torture chambers, including an incinerator to burn the remains of his victims. With the promise of a warm, clean bed, he lured fair-goers and young women who moved to the big city alone to further their careers were attracted to the young doctor. Holmes had relations with some of his guests, at one point getting Julia Conner pregnant in 1891, but he used his new found “hobby” to dispose of the problem (Larson 146). Holmes was eventually charged with insurance fraud and stood trial for the murder of Mr. Benjamin Pitezel, he was estimated to have killed between 20 and 200 people (“H.H” 2). Even though he was only charged on one count of murder, once in prison he admitted to killing 27 people in his time in Chicago. Holmes was hung on on May 7th, 1896, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania for the homicide of Mr. Pitezel (“H.H.” 1-2). The disturbing legacy of Herman Webster Mudgett lived on in the form of H. H. Holmes as America’s first serial killer.

Holmes was born on May 16, 1861 in Gilmanton, New Hampshire (Biography 1). He did not have a very enjoyable childhood growing up. When he was younger the idea of torturing animals at his house gave him pleasure. Which got him interested in

In 1850 he and his family moved to Wisconsin where he lived for 5 years until his mother died. He moved with his father back to Freeport. While he was a young man he got $1,000 of inheritance money from his Grandfather and went to Michigan in an attempt to join the University of Michigan.

His Victims were lead by the promise for cheap lodging in his hotel.2With the World Fair happening Holmes saw the event as the perfect opportunity to commit the murders he has been. He knew that with such a big event and how many foreigners would even come that his murders would go unnoticed until it was too late, and they did. His main targets were foreign or just gullible women3; those that wouldn’t be missed or have people come looking for them, especially when millions of people are in town, they won’t be noticed

For example, as Larson tells a story of how "…Mudgett registered his name as Holmes" (page 44), because of this it demonstrates that H. H. Holmes changes his appearance from what his actual name was. Holmes only changed his name in order to work as a druggist and begin his numerous murders. As the story of H. H. Holmes continues, he lives a double life. Once life that he pretends to be, and the person he really is. Other characters like Mrs. Lawrence, began to get suspicious of H. H. Holmes, but they were never truly sure because many people saw him as a charming person, so his "…sympathy would [be] disarming" (page 125) causing people to lose their suspicion.

Most of his victims were black prostitutes or drug addicts. He is believed to prey on this specific type of woman, because he wanted to seek vengeance against a female figure who wronged him in the past. To do so, this meant that he hurt, raped, photographed (sometimes unconscious or while raping), strangled, and shoot at a close range (many times) victims who resemble her in some way. His first known victim, Debra Jackson, was murdered August 10, 1985. Jackson was found shot three

The less commonly known serial killers that displayed patterns of his past in their killings are Albert DeSalvo, also known as the “Boston Strangler” and Donald Henry Gaskins. Albert DeSalvo was one of six children in his family. DeSalvo, all through his childhood, watched his father beat his mother almost everyday. He was also very abusive towards the children, but mainly took his anger out on his wife. His father would often sell Albert and two of his sisters as slaves for nine dollars. As Albert aged, he bottled his anger up until finally he snapped. He killed and violated thirteen women in Boston, Massachusetts. He broke into all their homes and strangled them with their own clothes. They believe that he chose women because of the

At the same time this was happening, a handsome and wealthy young man, who went by the name H. H. Holmes, arrived in Chicago in 1886 searching for work as a doctor or pharmacist. He established his pharmacy, but later bought a small land across the street and built a construction that was perfect for his practice of disposing of the bodies he murdered. The first floor was for his pharmacy, along with retail shop fronts. The top two floors had apartments for rent with secret hallways and passages to the basement to make the disposal of bodies convenient. Holmes decided to turn his building into the World's Fair Hotel when he found out the Fair site was near him. The building underwent another construction project and he added a kiln in the basement

After graduating he moved to Chicago, Illinois where he found work in a pharmacy where he also used his new name Dr. Henry H. Holmes, he eventually took ownership of the business after the original owner “disappeared”. He started construction of his infamous “Murder Castle” which was a three story building with hidden staircases that lead to nowhere, trapdoors and chutes that lead to the basement where the real horror took place he even burnt his victims in a kiln that he had made. In 1893 during the Columbian Exposition he opened his home like a hotel for people that were traveling from other states for the exposition some made it out fine but others never left, this whole time he had joined forces with Benjamin Pitezel to pull off one of the biggest scams they have ever done for $10,000 unfortunately while traveling and committing other scams and frauds it landed Holmes in jail where he ran into Marion Hedgepeth who knew him under the name of H.M. Howard he let him in on the insurance scam with Pitezel but never honored the agreement so Hedgepeth tipped off the police but before he was apprehended he killed Pitezel, convinced his wife he was still alive but in hiding and took three of the children to ultimately kill them. He was finally apprehended and charged with insurance fraud, later he stood trial for

Over the years, the identity of the monster that terrorized the Whitechapel district has been shrouded in mystery. Jeff Mudgett believes to have the answer to this mystery when his grandmother investigated into his family's history . They discovered that they’re great great grandfather was Herman Webster Mudgett, alias Henry Howard Holmes (H.H. Holmes). The first serial killer that built his hotel, “The Murder Castle,” for the sole purpose of murdering his victims that were visitors needing a place to stay while they enjoyed the Columbian World’s Fair of 1893.

It was 1886 when H.H. Holmes, who was formally known as Herman Webster Mudgett came to the city of Chicago. Throughout his lifetime Holmes had several other aliases that he used to elude numerous creditors and former acquaintances he feared would step forward with accusations of fraud, poisoning and murder, so deciding he would change his identity now going by Henry Howard Holmes. But, to the rest of the world he would forever become H.H. Holmes, torcher doctor, monster of 63rd street, America’s first serial killer.

On May 16, 1861 Herman Webster Mudgett was born. His home town was Gilmanton, New Hampshire and he soon would become the notorious Dr. H.H. Holmes, Americas’ first Serial Killer. He was a small white male born into a devout Methodist family. Holmes’ mother Theodate Page Price forced strict religious studies while his father, Levi Horton Mudgett handed out the harsh, strong discipline. Holmes had one brother and sister.

Sherlock Holmes can be described in many words starting with mysterious or intelligent. Being born on May 22, 1859, in Edinburgh, United Kingdom, Doyle had various occupations, including physician, surgeon, and author. Although this may seem impossible, Arthur Conan Doyle wrote fifty-six short stories, most of them involving his most famous character, Sherlock Holmes. Inspiration for the famous detective came to Doyle while attending Edinburgh University in the late 1870s, where he met his teacher, Dr. Joseph Bell, who was able to deduce his patients' occupations and other information from observing their appearance. Bell became the model for Sherlock Holmes because of his deductive skills that allowed him to make proper diagnoses, and

The white chapel killer was a psychopath. He was a mass killers it was almost as if he killed one after another. It’s known that he killed women way more than one. There really only one suspect and that was Jack the Ripper and when he killed these women he would sexually abuse them first. They still don’t Know who Jack the Ripper is. This paper is going to tell u about the murders of Jack the Ripper and how he went about doing and why they don’t know who he is.