- Today, we check into the murder hotel. - Let's talk about that.
♪ (theme music) ♪
- Good Mythical Morning! - Okay. Halloween time is what it is.
And one of the reasons I like Halloween time...
- What it is. - ...is because I think it's one of
the few times that it's acceptable to be entertained by gruesome and
- wicked things. - Oh, yeah, of course you do.
You know, you just get a little bit every year, and then you go back to normal life.
Okay. You go back to hiding the fact that you revel...
- In the name -- - ...in all these demented things...
- ...for the rest of the year. - Yes. In the name of gruesome and wicked
things, I'm gonna be talking about America's first serial killer.
- I'm gonna scare your pants off. - Not literally.
- Tie 'em up tight. Um... - I don't have a drawstring today.
Tie those drawstrings on your sweatpants up, because they might come off.
- (laughing) - But don't worry. We're gonna cleanse
palette, your scare palette, by having a little physical challenge at the end
- of this episode. - All right, physical challenge to wrap
- up. I'll look forward to that. - Okay, so here here he is.
(Rhett) Dr. Holmes. Henry Howard Holmes.
(Link) Doesn't look like a serial killer to me.
(Rhett) No! I mean, I've never seen a serial killer...
(Link) Looks like a dude who needs a mustache trim.
(Rhett) Oh, no. He needs to let that thing keep going. But this guy just looks like a
normal guy with a mustache and a hat. But this a very demented individual,
as you will soon learn. First of all, he was born as Herman Webster Mudgett.
- I mean, there's your problem. - Mudgett.
If you're looking for motive, last name of "Mudgett." He took care of that quickly.
- Changed his name to Henry Howard Holmes. - Okay.
- He liked the triple H thing. - That is scary.
Then at age 19, he went to University of Michigan -- shout out! -- medical school.
This is where things get very, very out of hand.
- Mm. - Okay.
This guy was innovative. He had quite a head on his shoulders, because
he thought, "I'm in medical school. Gotta find a way to pay for it.
I got an idea. You know what I'm gonna do? I've got access to these cadavers."
- Those are dead people. - Dead people.
And what he did is he set up fake insurance policies to people who didn't
exist. Late 1800s. You can get away with anything.
So real insurance policies for fake people.
- People -- just make up a name. - Okay.
- Then he would take one of these bodies... - "His name is Cadaver!"
- "Yeah, this guy, Mr. Cadaver." - (laughing)
He would take one o the cadavers and he would disfigure its face with acid.
- Eugh. - And then he would stage the death.
And then he would go to the insurance people and be like...
"You know that policy I just took out on Mr. Cadaver?"
- "Well, here he is!" - "Lo and behold his acid face!"
- And he would collect up to $12,000... - Wow!
Which is $285,000 in today's dollars. So he made a lot of money.
And then what did he do with all this money?
- What did he do with all this money? - Well, he built the Murder Castle!
- Did it say that on the sign, because... - Probably not. That was a nickname,
and you'll see in a second why it was called that. 1893, Chicago World's Fair.
Huge celebration of human innovation in industry. A couple of things debuted
- there: the ferris wheel, the hamburger... - Ooh!
- Aunt Jemima! I don't know if she... - I love her!
...made an appearance, or if the syrup was invited at that point.
- Let's say the syrup. - Or "sare-up," as somebody I know says.
- I don't understand that. - "Somebody!"
I won't mention their name. Anyway, he builds this hotel. All these people coming
to Chicago. He says, "I'm gonna build a hotel." He builds a three-story hotel.
- It's your wife, isn't it. - No, it's somebody related to my wife.
- Don't make me say it. - Okay, okay.
Totally normal first floor, like a drug store and a place to check into the hotel.
- Okay, I'm cool with that. - And then the upper two floors of the
hotel... is where he murdered people.
I mean, how so? It's like stick your head in the mini-fridge and like wham, or...
- (crew laughing offscreen) - He would lure people in there. Mostly...
- Yeah, don't take... - "Take a look in the mini-fridge!
I don't know. Maybe see if your head fits."
I don't think there were mini-fridges. But if there were mini-fridges at that
time, it would have been the kind of head you stuck your head into when he
would cut it off. Because this dude would -- mostly women. Mostly young
- women would come check into this hotel. - Okay.
And then he would lead them up to their room. They would go into their room
that could only open from the outside. And then we would turn on gas and
listen to them die on the other side of the door.
Ooh! So it was a gas chamber with a double bed in it.
That was one of the ways that he killed people. He did multiple things.
It was just like this maze of torture rooms and...
- Well, how to you... - ...gas chambers.
How do you build something like that? I mean, that's not code, brother.
He would hire and fire people working for him over and over again so nobody
ever picked up. They'd be like, "I don't know, the mini-fridge looks like a
- guillotine, but... - (laughing)
...I'm outta here, 'cause I got fired today."
"All I did was build the back of the fridge, not the blade of the fridge."
- Right, so nobody suspected anything. - Oh.
- There were like, "He just kinda weird." - Hm.
But then, at the bottom in the basement, he had a human disassembly factory where
he would take -- 'cause, again, he's an entrepreneurial kind of guy --
he would take the bodies. He would skin the people...
- Oh, dude... - ...in the basement, and then he would
take their organs and sell them on the black market. You know a thing or two
- about that, don't you, Link? - Not really.
- Yeah, you were pretty horrible at that. - (Link and crew offscreen laughing)
But he would sell the organs because he's got a medical background.
He's still -- "Hey, I'm just a doctor. I'm just a doctor. I'm not a murderer."
Okay, so he did this for six months. And, by the way, during this time, he was
also married to three women.
- At once? Yes, at once? - Well, yes, because he
was only 29, but by that time, he had been married to three women that he never
got divorced from. He just moved onto the next one and never got divorced from the
previous one. And had two children. Wouldn't you have liked to have him for
- a father. Okay, the World's Fair ends - No.
after six months. He goes and tries something new: an insurance scheme
where they're gonna fake the death of certain guy. Instead of faking the death
of that guy, he just kills him. And three of his children. Sick guy.
The other guy, the third guy involved in this thing, turns him in. He ends up
confessing to the killings and 27 additional murders.
But a lot of people thing that he killed up to 200 people.
- 200 people! - But while he was in custody, that's when
they went and the police found the Murder Castle, and that's how we know
- about it. - Well, this sounds like a movie that
- I will not watch. - It will be be a movie, because there's a
rumor that DiCaprio and Scorsese are teaming up to do something called
"The Devil in the White City," which is based on a screenplay by Erik Larson,
- which is this guy. And... - The guy who wrote the...
- A book. It's a book. Not a screenplay. - The guy who wrote The Far Side?
- Erik Larson? - (laughing) No, not The Far Side.
- And this is also... - It's, like, just drawings of a...
...serial killer. Leonardo DiCap is on this!
Yes! And this is also what American Horror Story hotel, this season, is
- loosely based on, is this guy. - Lady Gaga.
Lady Gaga is this guy. No. That's not who it works.
- (crew laughing offscreen) - Anyway, so when he was convicted,
he was quoted as saying to police, "I was born with the devil in me.
I could not help the fact that I was a murder no more than the poet could
help the inspiration to sing. I was born with the evil one standing as my sponsor,
beside the bed where I was ushered into the world, and he has been with me
- ever since." - Observation one: poets don't sing.
- Observation two: he had a sponsor! - Yeah, sponsored by Satan!
(laughing) Good for him! Everybody needs a sponsor.
- We know that. - Okay, well, my actual intention was to
get you feeling a little uneasy so I could take advantage and win this last
- challenge. - Ooh, physical challenge time.
It's time for the Airheads Bites Can't Stop, Won't Stop Challenge!
As you know, each week we've been competing against each other in a
ridiculous challenge to see who can last the longest.
Today is our fourth and final challenge, so one of us will be declared the winner,
and next week, that person will get to sit on beanbag with a bunny while wearing
a blue tuxedo, eating bacon, as his buddy tells him a bedtime story about how
- awesome he is in a British accent. - Today's challenge is called...
...Plank 'N' Stank.
All right, in this challenge, we're gonna be planking on our forearms while
stanks are introduced under our noses. And the first man to fall out of his plank
- loses. - All right. Let's assume the position.
(both grunting)
It's been a while since I've been down here.
Okay, yeah. Thanks for cleaning the floor for first, guys.
- All right. Ready. - (Stevie offscreen) Here we go...
- ...3, 2, 1, go! - ♪ (rock music) ♪
- Plank! - Ugh, we're planking.
And now here comes the stank.
- Oh, gosh. That is unpleasant. - Woo! Cheesy.
- And I'm a cheese lover. - What is that? My lower back's
- already hurting a little bit. - I'm doing the shake a little bit.
- I got quite a plank to keep up here. - Yeah, you do.
I can't see the end of your plank. It's waaaay back there!
This is a super-plank situation. Oh, gosh!
Ugh! Gosh! Is that a bag of fish?
(slow motion coughing)
- (gagging) - Oh, hold on now! Whoa!
- Are you seriously... (laughing) - Yes! (laughing)
- You're gagging?! - Yes, it's horrible!
- It's not that bad! - Do you smell it? That's rancid.
Oh, yeah. Oh, gosh, I smell it. (gruffly) But I'm gonna make it though.
- I'm a stanky planker. - Ugh!
The problem is I'm breathing more deeply.
Ah! A lot of things hurt! A lot of things hurt. Mm.
What is that? Cotton balls?
- Gosh, my stomach hurts. - Oh! Oh! It hit me.
- What is that? - (Stevie offscreen) Coyote urine.
- (unison) Coyote urine?! - (Rhett laughing)
- Jinx! - (both grunting)
- Gosh! Oh, baby! - Oh, I'm feeling burn from the
- coyote "yurn!" - Oh, now he's putting it all in.
(grunting)
I think I'm dislocating my back. You don't seem like you're (gasp)
struggling! And they put that freaking fish right in my face.
Ugh! I don't! Oh, gosh! You're not struggling enough!
What's wrong with you?! Ugh! Ooh!
(Rhett grunting)
I think I'm gonna hurt myself permanently.
- (crew laughing offscreen) - Augh! (incorrect buzzer)
Yeah! Yeah! I tied it up! Well, Airheads Bites may have long-lasting flavor, but you
don't have long-lasting plank-stank- standing ability.
- (Link) I win this challenge. - (whooshes)
- Okay. You won that one. - Boom Shakalaka!
But that just means that we're tied two-to-two...
- Yeah. - ...overall in this whole challenge.
So we both get to experience the amazing prize next week, Link.
All right, we'll work that out. Thanks for liking, commenting, and subscribing.
And thanks for Airheads Bites for sponsoring this episode.
- You know what time it is. - My name is Nick from Chicago,
Illinois, and it's time to spin The Wheel of Mythicality!
Airheads Bites have the same tangy, bold flavors and chew of Airheads but
are now in easy-to-eat, bite-sized pieces! To find Airheads Bites at a store near
you, click on the link in the description.
And click through to Good Mythical More, where we will play the serial killer
- guessing game! - Mm!
- Lots of fun to be had there. - Nobody's gonna die.
- (police siren) - (Rhett) "Good Cop, Bad Cop:
- Serial Teddy Bear Unstuffer!" - Hey, man. Thanks for coming...
in today. You know, we just wanted to ask you a few questions about...
- Hey, punk! I see you with... - ...those teddy bears. You know?
I see that pair of scissors. What'd you do with those scissors?
- I know what you did! - I love scissors as much as the next
- guy. But I mean, did you... - People like you make me (slap)
- crazy! - Stick 'em into the bear, I mean...
- I wanna take you... mm! - You can tell me.
I wanna rip your arms out by their sockets!
Did you give a little cutty-cutty to the teddy bear-bear?
I wanna treat you like a teddy bear. The way that you treat teddy bears!
- And that's not nice! - So I take that as a yes?
[Captioned by Kevin: GMM Captioning Team]