HH Holmes and The Murder Castle

HH Holmes, born Herman Webster Mudgett, was one of Americas first known serial killers. He was born in Gilmantown, New Hampshire in 1860.

Holmes and his business partner, Ben Pietzel, planned to fake Pietzels death in order to collect a $20,000 life insurance policy in Holmes' name. Unfortunately the insurance company did not want to pay up and so authorised an investigation. Pietzels wife, Carrie, had been told about the arrangment and was awaiting the reunion with her husband and three children (whom were under the care of Holmes).

After following Holmes' trail halfway across America, Detective Frank P Geyer found the bones of the two missing little girls, Alice and Nellie Pietzel. They had been gassed then buried in one of many rented houses of HH Holmes. After that discovery, Geyer also discovered the bones of their younger brother in a stove that Holmes still had sitting in his office.

In 1989 Holmes purchased an empty lot across the road from his pharmacy and planned to build a hotel, the rooms which he would rent out to tourists who would come in the thousands to Chicago's World Fair. The hotel was built, largely foir free because Holmes believed that the builders were not working to his standards. This was thought to be an excuse so that no one would know the complete lay out of the hotel. After the finding of the Pietzel children, the police searched the Hotel.

The hotel, nick named 'The Murder Castle', had a lot to hide. The first floor was made up of shops; a pharmacy, jewelry shop, cafe and sweet shop. The second floor however, was a mass of secret passages, doors that lead to nothing but brick walls, staircases that lead to large drop offs, rooms that could be sealed air tight by shutting the door, plus other rooms which had gas fixtures that could be controlled from Holmes personal quarters on the third floor. Then there was the basement; pits of acid and lime, a crematorium, gas chamber and torture chamber.

Bones were found in the crematorium, blood was all over Holmes' surgical table and over 50 people mysteriously disapeared from the World Fair. Holmes was found guilty of the death of Ben Pietzel and sentenced to death by hanging. The trial lasted 7 days and during those 7 days, Holmes used the media frenzy to create a large, mostly fabricated story of 27 murders that he had committed. Looking back, Detective Geyer noticed a lot of people, particularly women, who had something to do with Holmes, just up and disapeared. Too many for me to list here.

I dont know why I wanted to write and entry about this sad sack. It was just interesting to me how he built his house and went around killing people for a number of years before any one noticed. He was a smart killer, that interests me I spose. Check out the house here!