H.H.

Holmes
I was born with the devil in me. I could not
help the fact that I was a murderer, no more
than a poet can help the inspiartion to sing.
-Herman Mudget, 1896
 Who is H.H. Holmes?
• Dr. Henry Howard Holmes (his real name was
Henry Mudgett) is considered the first serial killer
in the US. He is known for opening a hotel south
of Chicago that was nicknamed the Castle.
Holmes’ case was quite famous during his time. It
was reported nationwide and caught the
American public’s imagination wildly. However,
he was largely forgotten in the wake of the new
century with a new breed of serial killers making
headlines in America. Interest in him was aroused
again in the late 20th and early 21st century with
a number of books written and movies made
about him.
What was his Childhood Like?
• H.H Holmes was born on May 16, 1861, to
Theodate Page Price and Levi Horton
Mudgett. The third among four siblings,
Holmes was named Herman Webster Mudgett
at birth, a name which he discarded later in
his life.
• Although his family was affluent, Holmes had
a difficult childhood as his father was an
alcoholic and he was also bullied at school. His
other siblings, Ellen, Arthur and Henry, also
earned their father’s wrath.
Where there any precursor? Did
childhood behavior reflect
problems?
 Being bullied and being
beaten by his father has
what contributed to his
behavior.
What was his adult life like? Did he
finish high school/ college? Did he
marry? Have children? Was he a
loner?
• He graduated from the local high
school in 1877, at the age of 16. Two
years later, he went to the University
of Vermont but left it midway as he
was not satisfied with the curriculum
there. Finally, he went to the
University of Michigan where he
studied Medicine and Surgery and
obtained a degree in the same in
1884.
• Holmes married thrice in his life. His first
marriage was on July 4, 1878, with Clara
Lovering just after he had finished his high
school. The couple had a son, Robert Lovering
Mudhett, who would grow up to be the city
manager of Orlando, Florida.
• His second marriage was to Myrta Belknap in
Minneapolis, Minnesota, whom he married on
January 28, 1887, while still being married to
Clara. They had a daughter together, Lucy
Theodate Holmes, who became a public
schoolteacher in her adult life.
• His third and final marriage took place on
January 17, 1894 in Denver, Colorado, with
Georgina Yoke. He was married to both Clara
and Myrta at the time. He did file for a divorce
with Clara in 1887 but it never came through
and he remained married to all three women
till his death.
Clara Lovering
Myrta Z. Belknap
Georgiana Yoke 1894-1896
Was he ever diagnosed with a
mental disorder? Did he ever
receive treatment?
 He was assumed to be diagnosed with ADP
by most historians and psychologists.
Those diagnosed with antisocial
personality disorder (APD), a diagnosis that
carries with it a lot of controversy, are
characterized as being impulsive and highly
aggressive. Mental deficiencies heat up a lot
of polemic today.
What was the nature of his crimes?
What was the time span for his
crimes? How many victims?
• After finishing medical school, he sent his wife
back to his birth-town, New Hampshire, and
sought employment in Illinois at a druggist. The
druggist, Dr. Holton, at that time was severely ill
with cancer, so his wife, a future widow, was glad
for the help that Holmes offered. Later he
proposed to Mrs. Holton, now alone and
despondent, to buy the store. She accepted on
the condition that she be allowed to live on the
second floor of the building where the pharmacy
was located. Shortly, however, she mysteriously
disappeared, and no one thought to question
Holmes extensively about her quick departure.
 After that he bought some land across the
street from the drugstore, where under a
close supervision he build his own castle of
horrors. He made sure that the workers he
hired would not stay on the job for more than
a week, so that the layout of the building
would not create any suspicion. The Castle
was three stories high. The first floor was left
for exclusive shops, while the upper floors and
the basement were entwined with mazes,
secret hallways, trap doors, stairs leading to
nowhere, and gas pipes attached to a control
panel in Holmes’ bedroom.
 The basement had an acid tank, a dissecting
table, and a crematorium. In his Castle it is
rumored that Holmes killed more than 200
victims, while he admitted during the trial to 27
murders. Holmes behavior was particularly
gruesome. He is the prototype killer, to whom the
prospect of dying did not bring fear. The hotel,
which would later become one of the most
infamous buildings in the history of America, was
a complete maze with a host of rooms, deceptive
doors and hallways, stairways that would mislead
people and a number of other confusing and
misleading structures. It was constructed in such
a way that none of his victims could find a way
out in case they tried to escape.
 Post the opening of the hotel in 1893,
Holmes lured many victims, mostly females,
into one of the many rooms in the hotel which
he had designed specifically for killing them.
His methods were grotesque and ranged from
hanging his victims to suffocating them or
leaving them in a vault to die of hunger and
thirst. After killing them, he would either
dispose of the bodies by burying them in lime
pits or perform experiments on them and
later sell the skeleton and the remaining
organs to medical schools.
 All this while, Holmes had been running
insurance scams from time to time. One of his
associates in the insurance scams was
Benjamin Pitezel, whom he had met during
the construction of the hotel. Together, they
ran a scam which involved swindling $10,000
from an insurance company by faking the
death of Pitezel and collecting the insurance in
his name. However, Holmes killed Pitezel and
took all the money for himself. Fearing that
they would come after him later, he also killed
three of Pitezel’s five children.
 Span of Killings and
the Estimated Number
• From 1891–1894
• Approximately nine known
victims; other unverified
estimates put the number
from 20 to 200.
Holme’s Castle
3D view of the Castle
What was his behavior like when
he was caught? Was he found
Capable to withstand Trial? What
was he charged with or sentenced
to?
 Holmes was finally apprehended by the
police on November 17, 1894, in Philadelphia
after they got a tip from an inmate named
Hedgepeth, who was one of his accomplices in
the insurance scams. His first conviction was
that of insurance fraud, but the police had
grown suspicious of his activities at the
‘Castle’ and decided to investigate there.
What they found were skeletal remains of
scores of victims, including children, and a
number of other evidences which confirmed
beyond any doubt that Holmes had killed all
those unfortunate people.
 By then, it was also clear that he had
murdered Pitezel and his children as well and
he was convicted of those crimes in 1895.
During the trial, he confessed to the murder of
27 other people but his stories were full of
inconsistencies and false statements. The
police confirmed nine of his alleged 27
murders but based on the evidences found
and the account of the neighbours, they
suspected that the number could be
anywhere between 20 and 100.
Is he still alive? Or did he die after
his sentence?
Holmes was finally found guilty and
sentenced to death by the court of
Philadelphia for the murder of Benjamin
Pitezel and hanged on May 7, 1896 at the
Philadelphia County Prison. His beloved
‘Castle’ was gutted by fire following several
explosions in August 1895.
The Execution
 Bibliography
• https://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/
h-h-holmes-29982.php
• https://raverat.wordpress.com/tag/h-h-
holmes/