In the 1800s, Dr. Henry Howard Holmes — also known as H.H. Holmes — was one of America’s most prolific serial killers. People like to believe that he could have been the infamous Jack the Ripper. H.H. Holmes’ real name was Herman Webster Mudgett but, after he left his wife and child, he changed his name to H.H. Holmes and moved to Illinois so he could carry out his evil plans of opening a hotel. 

Holmes’ hotel functioned a lot like a spider’s web, built purposely like a maze to confuse his unfortunate guests. Some of the rooms the guests stayed in were also secretly gas chambers, designed so gas could easily flow into the bedrooms and knock the victims out. Holmes would also sometimes chloroform guests as they slept. Once you entered this spider’s hotel, you were in the palm of his vile hand. 

Holmes was a unique serial killer because of his sadistic building designed for torturing and killing. The building was full of secret hidden passages, trap doors and chutes, stairs that led nowhere and doors that opened to nowhere. Only Holmes knew how it functioned, a real-life monster with his own carefully planned trap. With these secret tunnel systems, Holmes would transfer dead — or worse, subdued — bodies throughout his entire hotel, completely hidden from sight, where he could continue his torture or clean up a dead body.

Holmes was also unique because he started killing and torturing for financial gain. (Traditionally, killers are assumed to be killers because of their sexual desires. This came later in Holmes’s life, which is quite rare for killers whose prime motivation isn’t that.)

Holmes forced a businessman to sign cheques for $70,000. At first the businessman refused but, after being starved and nauseated by the gas, the businessman signed the cheques. Holmes would sell dead bodies to colleges, where students would dissect them and study them. Discovering a new and easy way to make money and dispose of the bodies, Holmes’s killings started to take off.  

One of Holmes’s most horrific killings was the unspeakable acts he performed on his friend Benjamin Pitezel. Holmes hatched another financial scam, convincing his friend and work partner to fake his death so his wife could collect the $10,000 life insurance.

Holmes had other plans, though; instead of finding a look-alike for Pitezel, Holmes just killed him. He lit Pitezel on fire and watched his friend burn.

Holmes later said, “So horrible was this torture that in writing of it I have been tempted to attribute his death to some other humane means, not with a wish to spare myself, but because I fear it will not be believed that one can be so heartless and depraved.”

He went on to say, “The least I can do is spare my reader a recital of the victim’s cries for mercy, his prayers and finally his plea for a speedier termination of his sufferings, all of which upon me had no effect.”

Holmes found out that Pitezel’s family could claim the money. He quickly improvised another vile plan, telling Pitezel’s wife that her husband was actually in hiding. Holmes then volunteered to take her children to him as a kind gesture. Sadly, the wife trusted him and let her kids go with him. The outcome was as grisly as can be expected and led to Holmes claiming he’d killed three of the five Pitezel children.

Police discovered one of the dead children, and this murder lead to Holmes’ arrest. He claimed to have killed more than 200 people in his “Murder Castle,” which is what he liked to call his hotel. These claims were called into question, leading him to finally admit to 27 murders. Holmes was hanged in Philadelphia in 1896. He asked to be buried 10 feet under cement so his body would never be dug up and dissected.  

 Shawn Logan

Just a guy who loves to be creative. Loves shows and wants to create his own show someday.