Short Story

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.

Like Jack the Ripper, most of Holmes' numerous victims were females. Some of them worked for him as stenographers in his pharmacy or hotel, and others he courted and later married. However, unlike the infamous British serial killer, Holmes did not kill face to face. He preferred "being near enough to hear the approach of death in the rising panic of his victims" (349). It was in those moments that "his quest for possession entered its most satisfying phase" (349). For Holmes, choosing how his victims died, be it "[filling] a room with gas and [letting] the guest expire in her sleep, or [creeping] in with his passkey and [pressing] a chloroform-soaked rag to his face" (349), was a measure of his power; the ultimate form of establishing dominance over the

Dr. H. H. Holmes has a passion for murder, and he hides his true personality behind an act of a charming man managing a hotel. Since Holmes uses his creativity to disrupt the lives of innocent people, he brings out the Black City of Chicago. As a result of Holmes’s passion for murder, he has to keep his psychotic talent secret. Only very few people know Holmes’s true lifestyle, and if they do, he kills them. Holmes weaves his way into to his victims’ lives to manipulate them for his personal benefit.. Even though the White City masks some of Chicago’s problems, evil still

Lastly, Holmes has so much bravado.  As the creditors were swaying to arrest Holmes, “Holmes fled”(Larson 325).  This shows he won’t be a man and face the consequences. He won’t fight back. As Holmes fled, he shows the reader this fake courage and fake dignity.

Throughout the novel, Larson repeatedly expresses Holmes’ wicked, yet, alluring nature through figurative language. In order to convey Holmes’ twisted feelings after a killing and project how joyous and fulfilling murdering truly is for him, Larson uses a simile to compare the sensation to a “warm languor (148)” one would obtain from “sitting too long in front of a hot stove. (149)” This association tends to make the reader think of happiness and fullness, as many link it with warmth, making them feel a similar emotion to Holmes. Later, with the purpose of expressing Holmes’ proneness to psychoticness, Larson writes of a simile comparing the office Holmes built for himself to the “corner of a room where the gaslight could not reach. (266)” This dark alliance makes the reader think of emptiness, linked with loneliness. A trait of a psychopath is detachment and dissociation, and the fact that Holmes has no issue working on his own in an empty, dim place highlights

When H.H. Holmes arrives in Chicago, he looks like any other ambitious young doctor braving the journey to the Windy City to start a new life. “He walked with confidence and dressed well, conjuring an impression of wealth and achievement. He was twenty-six years old… He had dark hair and striking blue eyes, once likened to the eyes of a Mesmerist,” describes the author. Larson cites a physician, John L. Capen, “‘Great murderers, like great men in other walks of activity, have blue eyes’” (35). In including this citation, Larson clues the reader in on Holmes’ true nature in addition to eliciting a feeling of unease through his diction. With this first impression, the reader is already wary of Holmes and his actions. Larson further solidifies this distrust with the following passages. “The city had impressed [Holmes], he said later, which was surprising because as a rule nothing impressed him, nothing moved him. Events and people captured his attention the way moving objects caught the notice of an amphibian: first a machinelike registration of proximity, next to calculation of worth, and last is a decision to act or remain motionless.” (37) With this quotation, Larson explains how Holmes chose

In this passage, Dr. H. H. Holmes is deviously planning the blueprint for his house. Larson’s purpose in this passage is to bring out Holmes’s true evil and psychopathic impulses. The doctor wanted a chamber in the basement of his Chicago building where he could murder young women in secret and then store them under the building forever.

After her bedridden husband died, Holmes murdered her and disposed of her body. Mrs. Holton was one of Holmes’ many victims and her tragic story has added another perspective to the issue of homicide. After this book was published, the many that read it became more aware of the cruelty of homicide as it is discussed in the book. The different perspectives included allow people to comprehend the history of Chicago and realize that anyone can encounter this type of situation. With this understanding, the audience is able to further realize how sadistic homicide is and that one must be careful when interacting with strangers. This publication was recognized by thousands and acted as an aid to spread awareness of the matter because many people discussed the content.

Little did Mrs. Holton know she was going to be one of Holmes first kills and make him turn into the blood lusting animal that we know him as today. After Mr. Holton passed, Holmes killed the little old widow and burned her body in the stove upstairs. When locals would ask about Mrs. Holton, he would tell them that she was visiting family in California, but people started noticing that it had been weeks since they had seen Mrs. Holton and started to worry more. Holmes just ran on with his lie and said that she liked California so much, she had decided to stay there and start a new beginning.

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).

Many times Holmes was able to get what he wanted by what he told the many women in his life. He told lies to women for them to leave their husbands and convinced men to take out life insurance in Holmes’ name. He did all of this to increase his ability to move forward with his idea of his dream building. He was able to make people to place their trust in him. Julia Conner was one of the many women who put her trust in holmes and “reached for his hand” to let Holmes know that she had full trust in him (Larson 148).

it is life, Mama!” Mama: “Oh—so now its life. Money is life. Once upon a

H. H. Holmes exerted an excessive amount of power over his victims. Holmes was able to exert this amount of power over some of his victims by luring the young women in with his charm. Once lured in with his charm, the young women quickly feel in love with him. After Holmes knew that they had fallen in love with him, he asked for their hand in marriage. But little did they know, the marriage wasn’t official.

Holmes started school at the age of six, but this was not an easy experience for him. Constantly bullied by the older kids who were jealous of his great intelligence, Holmes began to shy away from many people. He came to feel worthless and that he did not belong because of the combination of violence at home and harassment at school. One day, his bullies made him touch a real skeleton his school owned. Scared at first, Holmes finally gave in to the bullies. He recalled feeling very fascinated as his hand was caressing the skeleton. This spark in Holmes led to the fire that was going to explode inside of him in the years to come. Having this close contact with a dead body is a foreshadow to the murders he would commit later in his life.

A young woman from Indiana traveled to Chicago on behalf of an ad for a job at Holmes’s “hotel”. Holmes told the lady, Georgianna Yoke, that his name is Henry Howard and that Minnie is his cousin. On January 17, 1894, with Minnie as the witness, Holmes and Georgianna married at the Vendome Hotel in Denver, Colorado. After the wedding, the three traveled to Texas to claim Minnie’s property and organized a horse scam. Holmes purchased horses with counterfeit money and sold them in Saint Louis, Missouri to end up making a large profit. Once back in Chicago, Holmes killed Minnie. When the police questioned him as to where she was, he answered that he believes that she had killed her sister and fled to Europe. Seen as a respected man of the community, the police instantly believed him. Holmes later confesses that he put Minnie’s body in an acid vat after killing her. In July of 1894, Holmes was arrested for the first time as the result of the earlier horse swindle, but Georgianna quickly bailed him out. While in jail, Holmes met Marion Hedgepath, a train robber with a 25 year sentence. Holmes talks about his greed for money with Marion, and he gives Holmes the idea to take a $20,000 insurance claim out on himself and then fake his death. He also recommended a corrupt lawyer, Colonel Jeptha Howe, for Holmes to use in exchange for a $500 commission.