H H Holmes part 1

First off – his name wasn’t even H.H.Holmes! It was an alias, one of many I might add. He was born Herman Webster Mudgett and changed his name several times throughout his lifetime. So, it isn’t confusing, will stick to calling him, Holmes.

Right, I thought I’d try something different with my posts. I know all the posts I do will be information heavy but I want to make it enjoyable to read – not something straight out of a textbook. So, with that said on with the story and murders of Henry Howard Holmes.

WARNING – This post mentions child death.

Holmes was born 16^thMay 1861 in Gilmanton, New Hampshire and was the third child of Levi Horton Mudgett and Theodate Page Price. Both parents were devout Methodists and Holmes seemed to have a normal childhood. According to different reports, classmates used to tease a young Holmes about his fear of doctors. So they forced him to stand in front of a human skeleton in a doctor’s office, which scared the poop out of him. But instead of making him more afraid, it made him fascinated with death. I’d even go as far as saying obsessed. At 16, he graduated high school and started teaching in Gilmanton and then in Alton. 4^thJuly 1878 (Happy Independence Day), he married Clara Lovering in Alton and had a son 3 years later.

Two years later, 18 years old Holmes enrolled in the University of Vermont but left at the end of his first year. In 1882, he entered the University of Michigan’s Department of Medicine and Surgery. What was he doing for a year in between? Lazy bum. Holmes’ housemates said he treats Clara violently so it’s no surprise that she moved back to New Hampshire in 1884. The same year he graduated and sources say she knew little of him after. To pay for his college tuition, he began to scam life insurance companies to get the payout and used cadavers from the school to fool anyone that came to look at the body of the deceased.

He moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and got a job at Norristown State Hospital but quit after a few days. He then got a job at a drugstore, but while he worked there a boy died after taking medicine that was purchased at the store. Naturally, he denied any involvement in the boy's death and when he could, left town like a bat outta hell.

Then he changed his name to Holmes and moved to Chicago. In 1886, he married Myrta Belknap but he was still married to Clara! So, he’s now living with Myrta and their daughter in Wilmette, Illinois and working in Chicago. He worked at a drugstore for Mr Holton and eventually he let Holmes buy the drugstore. At the same time, Holmes bought the empty lot next door. This is when the building of the ‘Murder Castle’ started (More will be revealed in the next post).

Whilst building continued, Holmes was travelling around the US under other aliases and starting up different enterprises, this is how he managed to accumulate a lot of money which he used to build the Murder Castle. Then in 1894, he married Georgiana Yoke in Denver, Colorado while still married to Clara and Myrta.

The Murder He Wrote & Died For

Holmes met Benjamin F. Pitezel during his short stint in prison. Pitezel was suspected to be Holmes’ accomplice until he turned up dead. This is when the ingenious plan to fake Pitezel’s death for $10,000 was concocted. The plan was to use a cadaver that Holmes would get, show the insurance company the burned body and say he died after an accidental explosion. Alice Pitezel, 14 at the time, would then travel to Philadelphia and identify the body. The insurance would be paid without question and Pitezel would quietly return to his family with half of the money.

That didn’t go to plan though. Holmes couldn’t get a cadaver, so he knocked Pitezel out with chloroform and then set his body on fire with benzene (lighter fluid?). Holmes said in his confession that Pitezel was still alive when prior to being set alight. Still, he somehow managed to get Mrs Pitezel to let her three youngest children (Alice, Nellie and Howard) be in his care, while the eldest stayed with her.

This is how Holmes ended up in Canada, where the three children met their end. He murdered Alice and Nellie by shoving them into a large trunk (like in Harry Potter) and locked them inside. But that wasn’t enough for Holmes, he drilled a hole in the lid, pushed a hose into the hole and fed gas through it. Essentially, a travel-size gas chamber. He then buried their naked bodies in the cellar of the house he was renting in Toronto. Howard was drugged, chopped into pieces before being burned in a rented property in Indianapolis.

In 1895, Holmes was finally caught and put on trial. HALLELUJAH!! He was found guilty of the murder of Benjamin, Alice, Nellie and Howard Pitezel. He was sentenced to death by hanging. Not long before his execution, Holmes was said to be calm. If that isn’t a clear sign the man is not normal, I don’t know what is. He had one request – to be buried 10 feet deep and surrounded by cement. He didn’t want people digging him up and dissecting his body. Which is sooooo hypercritical of him! He can do it to other people but they can’t?

So, he went to the gallows and a fault in the rope length meant that his neck didn’t snap. Instead, he hung there suffocating and twitching for 15 minutes before being pronounced dead. I do not blame anyone present for not helping to ease his suffering after admitting to 27 murders and there possibly being many more. 

So, after 3 years of scams, mutilated bodies and murder Holmes finally got what he deserved, in my opinion. Now that’s just the murders that were confirmed, we’ll go over all the murders and haunting of the Murder Castle in the next post!!