H Holmes Murder Castle Research Paper

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.

    During the 1893 Columbian Exposition, H.H. Holmes was one of the first serial killers of America. Holmes would lure his victims into his building which he transformed into his “murder castle.” First he would manipulate his victims by coming off as a

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.

Henry Herman Holmes was known to many as the first American serial killer. Better known as just H. H. Holmes, he committed many murders in a suburb on the south side of Chicago during the late 1800’s. Holmes once admitted to police that he killed 27 people, but many actually predict that the number of murders he committed is near 200 (Handley). So what is the real number of people that he killed? Let’s take a closer look at the facts of Holmes’ life, occupation, and the mansion that he built to determine how many people he may have actually murdered.

To clarify, Henry Howard Holmes known as H. H. Holmes was America’s first serial killer. As a child, Holmes was terrified of the doctor, however a few bullies from his school forced him to touch the real skeleton in their doctor’s office which started his obsession with human anatomy. When Holmes was a teenager he interned at his local doctor’s office and later went to Michigan State for a medical degree and became a skilled doctor. Holmes took out fake insurance policies on the bodies he used in medical school after pouring acid on their face so they were unrecognizable in order to afford college. In 1889 Holmes designed and built a hotel to assist his murders.

He lived a pretty good childhood. After shooting up the movie theater in Colorado, James Holmes was sent to court and doctors said he was acting odd. He pleaded not guilty in court. Once he was sent to jail, a couple days later he ended up laying on the floor naked and motionless and did not want to respond to any jail staff. At lunch he would take the meat out of the sandwiches and put it between two pieces of paper and ate it. He was also found smearing feeces on himself, licking the walls and eating paper.

H. H. Holmes, who had evaded the police for so many years prior. It was because he had kidnapped the Pitezal children, that Pitezal’s wife had hired private investigators to follow him. The private detectives eventually caught up with Holmes in Philadelphia and had him arrested (Head and Wolcott 2010). It was soon discovered that the Pitezal killings were just the most recent of Holmes’ murders. The Chicago police became suspicious of Holmes because of his arrest and he appeared as though he had intentions to leave the country. His “murder castle” was investigated and the police discovered a lot of evidence against Holmes, including his strange, efficient methods for committing murder and several decomposing bodies. The investigation spread across the US, Holmes was never one to stay in the same place for too long. The bodies of the Pitezal children were eventually discovered. It was for their murders that Holmes was arrested and convicted for. He also admitted to killing twenty-seven other people, but through investigations and missing person reports, that number could be as high as two-hundred (Crime Museum Editors n.d.). Dr. H. H. Holmes attempted to appeal his case but lost, and he finally met his end when he was hanged for the Pitezal murders on May 7th, 1896 (Biography.com Editors

With his “murder castle” complete and the World’s Fair being hosted in Chicago in 1893, Holmes had the idea to market his castle as a hotel. With all the visitors coming to Chicago, Holmes could lure more people into his castle to murder. For the next few years, he selected victims among his employees, lovers, and hotel guests to torture and murder. Some of his victims were locked in sound-proof rooms lined with gas lines that allowed him to asphyxiate them at any time. He would also lock some of his victims in a large vault next to his office, so he could listen as they screamed, panicked, and finally suffocated. After being murdered, the victim’s body would be sent down to the basement. The bodies were sometimes dissected, stripped of flesh,

After being in the small store for a while Holmes decided he should start expanding, he saw an empty lot across from his store and decided to purchase it and start building his three story tall, Block long, hotel that soon became known as The Castle by the neighborhood, little did the know it was going to be the death of as many as two-hundred poor souls. Holmes imediently hired a crew to start his masterpiece, but Holmes fired the crew and hired a new one a week later. Holmes kept doing this until his

The facts of the case are very clear and evident that James Holmes should have been sentenced to life in prison or preferably the death sentence. In many states throughout the United States the death penalty is not enforced. The death penalty is a controversy that has been going on in the United States for a very long time. Thirty-one states in the United States favor the death penalty. Colorado is one of those states. There were many clinical psychology issues that were involved in this case. Since Mr. Holmes pleaded insanity. The clinical psychologist has the client as the patient in a trial so confidentiality cannot be breached. A clinical psychologist in this case would have to use their knowledge of mental illness and then they would make a decision as to if their client, in this case, Mr.Holmes, was insane as he pleaded or if they thought he was in the right state of mind. Insanity as defined in the Forensic and Legal Psychology book states that insanity refers to the criminal’s state of mind in the time the crime was committed. Insanity requires that, due to a mental illness, a defendant lacks moral responsibility and culpability for their crime, and

Not only did Holmes murder adults, Holmes also murdered children for the simple reason that he could do it. Holmes also turned some of his victims into the displays used to show anatomy at school and hospitals. Even after delivering the skeletons, no one suspected they were acquired through

He had two children, one son and one daughter. He went out of sight for six years after abandoning Clara and his son. He would always somehow come up with some con as to where he was and what he was doing during the time of his victims' deaths. The police had always questioned him, but had never really pinned anything on him. No one wanted to believe that Holmes was an evil master mind. He was so handsome and charismatic. His tall stature and piercing blue eyes made women often swoon at the sight of him. He could also talk anyone into anything at the sound of his voice and the medical, knowledgeable jargon he used. He even got an old lady to give him her husbands pharmacy after his death sometime after he arrived to Chicago. Other sources said that he killed her and inherited the pharmacy without anyone knowing what happened. Either way the old woman should have been happy that such a noble man was running her pharmacy. He was always the perfect assistant, making sure that her money was going towards helping the company in any way. He would even meet up with venders, creating a stable environment for her and her dying husband. He eventually killed her but when others would ask he stated that she had moved to California, but had no forwarding address (Taylor, Troy).

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. '

In 1884, when Holmes was twenty-three, he started working in a drug store in the state of Philadelphia. Holmes worked well there, until the owner died and relinquished ownership to holmes. Interestingly, rumors went around that Holmes had actually murdered the owner to assume control. Afterwards, Holmes murdered his first victim, an old friend from medical school. His name was Dr. Robert Leacock, who holmes had killed in Chicago by injecting