If you know anything about serial killers, you've probably heard of H.H. Holmes. But
did you know that Holmes did business with medical schools? And, for a while, they were
happy to comply. Keep watching for the full story.
H.H. Holmes has the dark distinction of being among America's first serial killers. Born
in Gilmanton, New Hampshire, Holmes committed his most infamous and deranged acts in Chicago.
In 1889, he began construction on his so-called "murder castle," into which he lured at least
nine and possibly as many as 27 victims to their death.
Holmes spent years building elaborate secret passages, false doorways, and staircases to
nowhere at his hotel. Although Holmes had made a fairly lucrative career out of running
cons and scamming people, along the way he had also found another way to make some quick
cash. Holmes had obtained his medical degree from the University of Michigan's Department
of Medicine and Surgery. As a student, he had made quite a few connections with researchers
and doctors. And he had one thing that medical schools at the time desperately wanted: human
bodies. Taking advantage of his network, Holmes would sell the partially dissected bodies
of his victims to medical schools. Or he would strip the flesh from the corpses and sell
the skeletons to medical supply houses. In the 1800s, performing medical research
on real human bodies was difficult. A decline in executions, as well as poor refrigeration
methods, meant medical students had less access to fresh bodies that they could dissect and
study. However, medical schools were still desperate to get their hands on real cadavers
for anatomical lessons. And they were willing to pay whenever someone came along with a
fresh body for their research. They were even willing to turn a blind eye if it appeared
the body had come into its owner's possession under nefarious circumstances.
For Holmes, selling the bodies also provided an added benefit. At the medical school, the
bodies would be poked, prodded, dissected, and generally manhandled. Whatever else remained
was simply dissolved in lime or acid. It effectively destroyed much of the evidence of his crimes.
But that wasn't even the first money-making scheme Holmes had concocted using medical
cadavers. While he was a student, Holmes started taking the cadavers from the medical school's
laboratory and then burning o r disfiguring them. With the bodies mutilated beyond recognition,
Holmes would then take out a life insurance policy on them. Then he would plant the body
somewhere in an attempt to make it look as though they had died in an accident. At that
point, he could collect the insurance money. This was the first among many insurance scams
he would run throughout his life, most of them involving dead bodies. After medical
school, Holmes would take out life insurance policies on several people, including his
wives. He’d also forge policies for his employees and even the guests at his creepy
hotel. He’d make himself the beneficiary of all of them. That way when these people
mysteriously turned up dead, Holmes would get the cash. Ironically, it was one of these
types of scams that helped bring Holmes to justice, by way of a disgruntled criminal
and partner in crime. Holmes had been arrested in St. Louis in 1894,
but not for murder. He had been running a con stealing horses in Texas and then selling
them for a tidy profit in Missouri. The police got wise to his scheme and locked him up.
Behind bars, Holmes' cellmate happened to be the famous Old West outlaw Marion Hedgepeth.
Not one to take a day off, Holmes was soon concocting another scam with his new acquaintance.
They decided Holmes should fake his death, after taking out a $10,000 insurance policy
on himself with Hedgepeth as the beneficiary, which they would then split. However, once
he was released, Holmes decided that he didn’t want to go through with the plan. Instead,
it would be easier to simply kill his old business partner Benjamin Pitezel and keep
the money for himself. Of course, that meant Hedgepath never got his cut. Angry that Holmes
had never paid up, Hedgepeth decid ed to rat him out to the authorities. This launched
another hunt for Holmes. Authorities eventually caught up with him in Boston. Once he was
arrested, the true nature of his gruesome crimes finally emerged.
"Uncovers among other things: a vat of acid with eight ribs in it, charred high heeled
shoes, various bones, and a kiln." He was hanged at the gallows in 1896.
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