Henry Howard Holmes

Serial Killer

Henry Howard Holmes: Crimes, Victims, and the Truth Behind the Legend

Early Life and Criminal Career

Henry Howard Holmes, more commonly known as H. H. Holmes, was born Herman Webster Mudgett on May 16, 1861, in Gilmanton, New Hampshire. He studied medicine at the University of Michigan and graduated in 1884. His medical education gave him knowledge of human anatomy, poisons, chemicals, and methods of preparing bodies for dissection. It also placed him in an era when medical schools purchased human remains for teaching, sometimes from questionable sources. After graduating, Mudgett moved frequently, abandoned his first wife, committed fraud, and used several false names. By the time he arrived in Chicago in 1886, he was calling himself Dr. Henry Howard Holmes. He found work at a pharmacy in the Englewood neighborhood and eventually took control of the business. Across the street, at the corner of Wallace and 63rd Streets, he constructed a large mixed-use building that later became known as the "Murder Castle."

The So-Called Murder Castle

Holmes's building contained stores on the ground floor, rented rooms above them, and an unfinished third floor that he claimed would become a hotel. Later accounts described confusing passageways, rooms without windows, doors that opened onto walls, concealed staircases, a large walk-in vault, gas connections, trapdoors, and chutes leading toward the basement. Newspapers claimed that Holmes used these features to imprison, suffocate, and dispose of victims. Some parts of this story are supported by contemporary investigations, but many of the most gruesome descriptions were exaggerated by sensational newspapers. There is no reliable evidence that Holmes killed hundreds of visitors to the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition. His building was primarily a place for commercial activity, fraud, and rented accommodation. Nevertheless, several women connected to Holmes disappeared, and investigators later found human remains and personal possessions inside or near the property. ...

Confirmed Victims: (10)

Julia Smythe Conner Age: (31), Date of Death: 1891-12-25

Suspected Victims:

Doctor Robert Leacock , Date of Death: 1886-05

Unnamed boy , Date of Death: 1886

Unnamed boy , Date of Death: 1886

Doctor Russell , Date of Death: Late 1887

Rodgers , Date of Death: 1888

Charles Cole , Date of Death: 1888

Lizzie , Date of Death: 1888

Sarah Cook , Date of Death: 1888

Mary Haracamp , Date of Death: 1888-05-05

Russell , Date of Death: 1890

Rasine Van Jassund , Date of Death: 1891

Robert Latimer , Date of Death: 1891

Wade Warner , Date of Death: 1891

Unnamed banker , Date of Death: 1891

Unnamed woman , Date of Death: 1891

Virginia Anna Betts Age: (24), Date of Death: February 8, 1892

Eva Gertrud Conner , Date of Death: July 18, 1892

Unna

H.H. Holmes and the Murder Castle: Topics in Chronicling ...