he has come down through history as
America's first serial killer the
incarnation of pure evil he was the
first of a new breed of American
celebrity the handsome debonair and
super intelligence mass murderer his
legends fueled by his own insatiable
appetite for exaggeration would turn him
into a monster
the Archfiend of the age and the
greatest criminal of this expiring
century is murder castle situated at the
heart of the world's greatest exhibition
who was reputedly
the scene of unspeakable horrors yet the
truth about dr. HH Holmes is far removed
from the sensationalism that surrounds
his name no one did more to turn the
gossip into legend than Holmes himself
which makes it all the more difficult to
get the truth about the devil in the
White City I was born with the devil in
me I could not help the fact that I was
a murderer more than a poet's can help
the inspiration to sing
[Music]
the man who would come to call himself
Henry Howard Holmes was born with a far
less impressive name and that was Herman
Webster Mudgett on a 16th of May 1861 in
Gilmanton New Hampshire
by all accounts his parents were upright
and respectable people with the child's
upbringing being pretty unremarkable
later stories that his father was a
violent alcoholic he would smother his
children with chloroform soaps
handkerchiefs to you it teach them a
lesson
are the result of a newspaper writers
overactive imagination yes there is one
incident in him in his youth which
clearly did have a profound impact on
his later life when he was about
thirteen to older boys dragged him into
the local doctors office a place Herman
was terrified of because of the various
tales had been told about body parts
lying around the place
bullies brought the terrified boy face
to face with a human skeleton but rather
than frightening him human bones they
fascinated the trials this fascination
it grew into an adult desire to study
medicine Holmes had another early
fascination man that was with women by
the age of 16 he was working odd jobs
when he fell head-over-heels in love
with a beautiful young woman by the name
of Farah Lovering a man met Clara while
working on her father's farm soon after
they were both at a church social
Clara though well she was flirting with
another boy and this made young hermann
see red he promptly marched over the
other boy and threatened to punch his
lights out if he didn't get lost
well this seemed to impress young Clara
with Herman escorting her home arm in
arm the next day he was telling everyone
that they were engaged that are both 17
years of age at the time were married by
a justice of the peace on 4th of July
1878 for the first six months of the
marriage it was kept a secret with a
couple living apart with their parents
when it was finally revealed Herman's
mother Reilly commented she couldn't
have done much worse and we'll probably
have to support you borås father
arranged her Herman to work in his
brothers grocery store in East concourse
nine months later Clara she gave birth
to a son who they named Robert becoming
a father seems to have inspired herman
to pursue his interest in medicine he
quit the store and went home to take up
an apprenticeship under dr. right the
owner of the office in which had been
introduced to the skeleton six years
previously Farah and the baby went to
live with her
parents
after a year the budding medic took up
more formal studies at the medical
school in Burlington Vermont during this
time he conducted himself there's a
single man in fact he carried on a
relationship with the daughter of his
landlord that became so passionate that
people thought they were engaged when
Herman's roommate Fred Engels revealed
to the girl's father that he was already
married the two-timer
laid a thrashing on Engels that left him
with a black eye and scratched face
darker than this there was the fact that
the wife of the owner of the
boardinghouse once noticed a foul smell
emanating from Herman's room on
investigating she was horrified to find
a dead baby under his bed his
explanation was that had been
experimenting with dissections as part
of his homework Herman was warned to
never bring dead bodies into the house
again in 1882 Helen went to Ann Arbor to
study at the University of Michigan this
time he took his wife and son with him
but the marriage well it was already on
shaky grounds other residents of the
boarding house where they lived later
recalled that the couple often quarreled
with Clara frequently sporting black
eyes at some point pirate mr. decided
shared enough because she returns home
with her baby their marriage well it was
effectively over but this would never be
formalized now unfettered by family
Hermann threw himself into his studies
he was particularly fascinated with the
dissection of human bodies loving
nothing more than to cut his way into
flesh and pull out body organs once more
he took to taking home infant corpses to
work on during the spring break his
fellow students remembered that Hammonds
fascination with dissection well it was
unnatural Mandan Irving but then there's
the question of whether or not Hammond
participated in a ruse of faking
someone's death in order to collect
insurance money in his very dubious
autobiography he claims that he and his
medical student pals spoke of the idea
that never actually did it and given his
pension for self exaggeration it seems
unlikely he would have been shy about
revealing this the one scandal from his
college days which can be substantiated
involved not surprisingly a woman though
still married to Clara
he began courting the woman in his
boardinghouse he resided he had promised
to marry her that then the woman found a
letter in his room that was signed by
his wife this certainly shocked the
woman but she should have counted
herself lucky at least he didn't find a
dead baby
nevertheless the woman contains the
medical school faculty citing breach of
promised home appeared at a hearing and
claimed the woman was lying and that he
never promised to marry her the faculty
believed him and he was acquitted a few
months later on being handed his
graduation diploma though Hartmann
approached his professor and said doctor
those things that woman said about me on
after graduating Hammond lived with his
family back in New Hampshire during the
summer of 1884 that autumn he began
working as both a physician and a
schoolteacher in New York during this
time he gains a reputation as a debt to
falter and a womanizer he proposed
marriage to two more women there with
the latter mini Everett's backing out
with a prophetic reflection there is
something lurking in that man's
character that time will reveal I do not
like him I firmly believe that he would
commit murder Furman also acquired a
reputation as a swindler he would use
any number of excuses to get out of
paying his rent in the end he left town
in the middle of the night in order to
escape a mountain of debt
he even swindled the price of his train
ticket out of town it was May of 1866
and that's Windell train ticket had
taken him to Chicago it was his
intention to find work in a drugstore
but he needed a pharmacy license in
order to do that he went to Springfield
and sat a three day examination it was
subsequently announced in the press that
Harry H Holmes had passed the bar this
announcement it marked the first time
that the Holmes alias was used why he
chose to call himself Harry Howard
Holmes is still unknown countries what
many people think it's not a nod to
Sherlock Holmes Conan Doyle's most
famous creation would not appear for yet
another year Holmes christened his new
name by becoming a bigamist on the way
to Chicago he spent time in Minneapolis
where he took up with and then married a
young woman named Mirta Belknap but she
was rather plain looking but her parents
had money and that was enough for Holmes
shortly after moving to Chicago he used
this wealth to purchase a parcel of land
on what was then 701 to 703 63rd Street
and Englewood he had ownership put into
his wife's name and then into that of
her mother in order to keep the
creditors of bay almost mythology tells
us that the bad doctor needled his way
into the employ of a bedridden
pharmacist named es Holton whose young
wife was run off her feet operating the
business by herself Holmes was hard to
take over the operation and shortly
thereafter the couple disappeared with
the implication here being that Holmes
murdered them but this isn't at all the
reality of the situation instead dr. es
Holton was actually the wife her
husband's rather than being on his
deathbed was a robust longshoreman dr.
Holton took on Holmes and found him to
be an ideal asset for the business when
she became pregnant with her second
child
1887 she decided to sell the pharmacy to
homes rather than disappearing the
Hilton's both lived well into the 20th
century remaining in the same
neighborhood that whole time the
pharmacy business became a great success
becoming especially popular with young
women who came from afar to be served by
the charming handsome new doctor Holmes
he began taking on assistants who were
invariably nubile young beauties who
were flocking to Chicago by the train
fall at the same time Holmes turned his
attention to the vacant lot that he
owned on the same street as the pharmacy
he planned to construct a two-story
building with retail space on the first
form and residential apartments on the
second the building had some unusual
features there was a hidden compartment
between the first and second floors
along with a staircase between floors
that could only be reached from a
trapdoor in the second-story bathroom
far more troubling than these design
quirks however was the fact that Holmes
refused to pay his bills when the
builders and their iron and steel sued
in 1888 Holmes claimed that he wasn't
liable because the building was actually
owned by his mother-in-law when the
building company lawyers began to
chronicle his involvement in the project
Holmes alleged that one of the steel
beams provided was too short which
negated the entire contract defending
himself in court apparently did nothing
to dwindle his passion for swindling his
favorite trick was buying goods on
credit and then selling them for cash
and not paying the original bill in one
case he purchased an especially heavy
safe on credit and had it installed on
the first floor of his new building
having walls built around it
when the repossession agents came
knocking Holmes replied go ahead and
take the safe but I warn you not to
damage the building the repossessors
they struggled for hours finally
realizing that they couldn't get it out
without tearing down a wall they had no
choice but to leave the safe exactly
where it was
the people who worked for hums soon got
used to his quirky ways he once invited
a worker to step inside the safe and
start yelling when homes closed the door
in order to test if it was soundproof
his housekeeper would also regularly
catch him tiptoeing around at night and
the janitor who worked at the pharmacy
recalled a time when Holmes showed him a
collection of fake beards and other
disguises in 1890 I was decided to sell
the drugstore business in order to focus
on real estate unsurprisingly the seller
turned into another swindle after the
new owner took possession he was shocked
to find that much of the floor stock had
not been paid for with repossession
agents claiming them back still somehow
managed to talk his way out of this
trouble in fact even though he no longer
owns the drugstore he still spent a lot
of time there he just so happens to be
on hands one day when one of the new
investors showed up with important
information to share the man then
inexplicably collapsed right outside the
drugstore Holmes was the first one to
his side
pouring a dark liquid down the man's
throat within minutes he was dead this
was likely the first person to die at
the hands of dr. Holmes killed likely
because he knew too much about the mad
medic although we'll never really know
what that information he had was in July
of 1889 Holmes employed a young couple
Ned and Julia Connor he worked in the
pharmacy and lived on the second floor
of the recently completed Englewood
building within a month Holmes and Julia
were engaged in a torrid affair even as
Myrtle lived under the same roof this
understandably drove a wedge between the
couple with Ned filing for divorce and
quitting on his employ Julia now started
to entangle herself in Holmes's
financial web he listed her as the
co-founder of a number of businesses and
took out numerous dad's in her name then
on July the 4th 1891 Julia and her
eight-year-old daughter pearl
disappeared off the face of the earth
the bodies were never discovered and
Holmes never confessed to murdering them
but it seems quite likely that they were
the next victims of the deadly doctor
around the same time tom started a brand
new business and this was the a warner
glass bending company despite the fact
that he knew nothing about glass bending
he convinced those who would listen that
he had invented a unique
spending technique to perfectors hid
built a furnace in the basement of his
two-story building and made a great show
of setting to work though no one
actually saw him bend any glass
after the establishment of his basement
furnace the de spirits of young women
who came into Holmes's circle became
more and more frequent
first there was Emmeline segrand who
came to Chicago looking for work in May
of 1892 Holmes employed her is a
typewriter girl and was seen getting
much more for his money when the girl
disappeared around Christmastime Holmes
dismissed it with what became a common
explanation she's gone to Europe to get
married by the end of 1892 the whole
city of Chicago is abuzz with the
prospect of the approaching World's Fair
in celebration of the 400th anniversary
of Columbus's landing on the Americas
never one to pass up an opportunity
Holmes quickly had a third story put
onto his building to serve as a hotel
however he never really intended to use
the floor as a hotel the amount Holmes
could make renting out rooms with small
potatoes compared with what he could
make by convincing others that he was
opening a hotel with such a venture in
the works he could raise money from
investors who'd never see a penny back
he could also by numerous goods on
credits and sell them without paying for
them and then as a final windfall he
decided to make thousands in insurance
money by setting the building on fire
despite the popular notion that the home
so tall was flourishing during the
World's Fair during countless women to
their death there are known records that
he even took in a single paying customer
when he set the structure ablaze on
August 13th 1893 to claim the insurance
the only people on the site where long
term residence the resulting claim would
spend years going through the courts by
which time the claimants in be behind
bars
with mounting lawsuits Homs decided that
it was time to quit Chicago his travels
took him to Denver Fort Worth Texas and
Luis and finally to Philadelphia along
the way he got married once more this
time to a 23 year old with a
two-thousand dollar inheritance he also
fell in with a like-minded swindler by
the name of Benjamin Katz all fiat salt
later got himself thrown in jail for
passing bad checks and while he was
inside almost began paying the premiums
on his life-insurance policy when he got
out the two joined forces and purchased
a vacant lot in Fort Worth here they set
about building a replica of the complex
that Holmes had built and then burned to
the ground in Chicago just like the
original building the Texas Hotel
featured a number of strange passages
and twists but just what Holmes planned
to do with the building is unclear he
never hung around long enough to use it
what he and Piazza did do was take out
tens of thousands of dollars on
mortgages in it and then disappear
without making more than a couple of
token payments the two moved to San Luis
well Holmes bought a drug store for the
down payment of $50 and promissory notes
that were completely worthless what a
surprise Piazza then approached a drug
store supplier and convinced him that he
was interested in buying the drug store
from Holmes if they don't in the money
he would then use them as their main
supplier they agreed these twins
although it came unstuck when the drug
stores rep called in the next day only
to find the place shuttered up he got
suspicious and called in the authorities
Holmes was arrested and he spent three
days in jail
[Applause]
on his release Holmes headed for
Philadelphia and the swindle that would
prove his undoing
here he planned to make good on those
insurance premiums had paid for Piazza a
few months back the team men had long
been scheming to defraud the fidelity
mutual insurance company by faking
quetzals death and splitting the
proceeds in early September however
Petzl got cold feet and wanted to back
out and I'm happy Holmes agreed to meet
up the next day to further discuss the
issue when he turned up a pet source
address almost proceeded to get him
drunk then he knocked him out with the
chloroform hankerchief increasing his
dosage into this old friend was dead
Holmes then attempted to stage the scene
to make it look like an accident then
with his 23 year old wife in tow he
jumped on a train for Indianapolis
intent on securing at the $10,000
insurance payout in the end the payout
was made to Pierre Saul's Widow but
Holmes convinced her that her husband to
die doing in $7,500 for the taxes
building she handed the money over as an
act of seeming graciousness Holmes
agreed to accompany the Petzl children
to Indianapolis where they were to stay
with their aunt before he could deliver
them however he discovered that he was a
wanted man authorities from a number of
states including Philadelphia
now officially on the run he moved the
children all over the countryside at
some point they he decided that the
children would have to die
the youngest eight year old Howard was
poisoned with cyanide
while the two girls were likely gassed
to death the bodies were buried in a
cellar by now detectives were hot on
homes a--'s trail they finally caught up
with him in Boston and of all things
arrested him for horse theft a raft of
the charges followed and in October of
1895 he was convicted of murdering
Benjamin Quetzal home subsequently
confessed to 27 murders and was hanged
on May the 7th 1896 his dying wish was
for his body to be buried under 10 feet
of concrete to prevent grave robbers
from stealing and dissecting his body a
luxury which he denied many of his
victims so I won't ask whether you
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