Eh...didn't think so. Do the names Dahmer, Bundy, or Gacy ring a bell? Well, add him to the list either by his given name, Herman Webster Mudgett, or by his alias. This was one of America's first serial killers - convicted of 27 counts of murder in the first degree (though it is suspected he might have killed up to 230 people) between the years of 1888 and 1894 and the abundance of his murders were committed not far from me - Chicago. The backdrop of his spree - The World's Columbian Exposition (better known as the 1893 World's Fair).
This guy wasn't just any old murderer - he built his own "Murder Castle." He "inherited" a drugstore from a couple - the man died, the woman mysteriously disappeared - and Holmes decided to build a grand building across the street. The first floor being his drugstore and various other shops, and he opened the rest as a hotel for those attending the nearby fair. This was no ordinary hotel. Sealed rooms, gas chambers, secret passageways, doors leading to nowhere, chutes that went from bathrooms to the basement where a giant furnace, vats of acid and even a stretching rack were located. He didn't just kill - he had fun with it. Halfway through construction, he fired the crew and hired a new one so that nobody would learn too much about the building, get suspicious and go to the police.
Before he started murdering people, he was a bigamist. Apparently he had a way with the ladies. Once he started his new life in Chicago, one of his lovers disappeared and he found another...actually many. Funny thing is, many of them disappeared too. His hotel employees were obligated to take out life insurance policies that Holmes would pay for, but also be the beneficiary of. Guess what - employees disappeared too. Most of his victims were his lovers, female hotel employees, and hotel guests. A few men and children's bodies were found as well. Many of the people were looking for a new life, had little family or were from places far away where it was difficult for family to come search for them.
His victims would suffer from the strangest forms of death. Some were asphyxiated in their own well-sealed guest rooms by gas he would pump in through hoses. Some were sealed in a soundproof bank vault near his office where they would suffocate. Others died of Holmes' badly-done abortion procedures. After they were dead, some would be dissected and stripped of all muscle, becoming skeleton models then sold to medical schools. Others were cremated or thrown into lime pits or even huge vats of acid. He knew how to get rid of his evidence.
With the closing of the fair and bill collectors on his heels, Holmes decided to high-tail it out of Chicago and ended up in Texas, where he was going to build another...um...hotel, but he wasn't a fan of law enforcement down there. He moved about for a while, probably killing a lot of other people as well, and then ended up in Philadelphia where he came up with another fine scheme...convince his associate to fake his own death and collect the life insurance money. Except, of course, the person would end up dying anyway. Holmes ended up convincing the dead man's wife (who had been convinced that her husband was in South America) to let three of their kids live with him. There's a great role model for your kids!
Holmes would lie to her about where they were staying when she would go looking for them. She ended up hiring private investigators to find them, but unfortunately what they came up with was two decomposed bodies of children. They finally tracked him down in Indianapolis in a nice little cottage he was renting. In the chimney in that cottage, they found the ashes and teeth of the third child that had been travelling with him. He ran again and was finally captured in Boston with his completely unsuspecting third wife. I'm telling ya - ladies' man.
In 1894, a custodian at the castle ended up telling Chicago police that he was never allowed above the first floor of the building and that's when they decided to go investigating. Over the next month, they searched the castle, found the secret rooms and means of disposal, but many of the bodies that were actually left were so decomposed or dismembered that they couldn't tell how many were actually there. The castle ended up burning down due to a fire of "mysterious origin" in 1895.
What happened to Mr. Holmes? Well, while he was in prison, he ended up making a deal with Hearst Newspapers for his confession. He wrote his own story, and had it published. His story did change over time though, first saying he was innocent, then toward the end of his time on this plane of existence saying he was possessed by the devil. He was finally hanged on May 7, 1896...it was a slow death. After that, he was buried in a concrete vault per his request so that nobody could dig up his body and dissect it the way he had done with so many others.
I had never heard of this man or the mass murders that took place in Chicago until I read a book about haunted Chicago of all things. It made me investigate further and I ended up reading a book called "Devil in the White City" by Erik Larson. His book weaved together the story of Holmes along with the World's Fair and those who made it happen. It was really fascinating - sick - but fascinating. The Columbian Exposition is another topic that interests me, so I might be writing something about that a little later on. Such a huge to-do and barely anything remains...
Anyhoo...I hope you've been educated a little bit today. I know it's not the happiest of subject matter, but it's just so dang odd that you never hear about this guy.
No comments:
Post a Comment