the Legend: No Exit
WITH THE DEVIL
H. Holmes, whose real name was Herman M. Mudgett, was
born in 1860 in Gilmanton, New Hampshire. His father was
an abusive man, and his mother was a tiny submissive woman.
Mrs. Mudgett would do everything his father commanded
and this was the way that Holmes would always expect women
in life, Mudgett dropped is given name and became known
as H. H Holmes, a name under which he attended medical
school and began his career in crime. He was constantly
in trouble as a boy and young man and in later years was
remembered for his cruelty to animals and smaller children.
By puberty Mudgett had developed a hobby of killing and
dismembering stray animals. He was fascinated with anatomy
and would often conduct experiments on his prey.
1879, he transferred to the medical school of the University
of Michigan in Ann Arbor. While enrolled, he stole bodies
from the school laboratory. Disfiguring the corpses and
claiming the unlucky soul had been accidentally killed.
Conveniently, Holmes had already takes out insurance policies
on these “family members: and he would collect on
them as soon as their bodies were discovered. His hopes
of becoming a doctor were soon dashed when he was expelled
at 24 from the university after he was discovered stealing
1887 H. H. Holmes began working as an assistant at a local
drug store. Mrs. Dr. Holden, who ran the drug store at
63rd and Wallace, could not handle the trade any longer
and thus needed assistance. It was not long before Holmes
seemed to be more the manager of the store and less the
prescription clerk. In 1887, Mrs. Dr. Holden vanished
without a trace. A short time after, Holmes announced
that he had purchased the store from the widow, just prior
to her “moving out west.”
years later, he acquired a large lot across the street
from the drug store and began construction on an enormous
edifice that he planned to operate as a hotel for the
upcoming Columbian Exposition (World Fair) in 1893. There
are no records to say what Holmes decided to call this
building but for generation of police officers, crime
enthusiasts and unnerved residents of Englewood, it was
known simply by one name—“The Murder Castle.”
building was an imposing structure of three stories and
a basement with false battlements and wooden bay windows
that were covered with sheet iron. There were over 60
rooms in the structure and 51 doors that were cut oddly
into various walls. And his favorite room- the basement
with it’s dissection table and surgical tools and
had an office on the second floor, but most of the rooms
were to be used for the guests—guests that would
never be seen again. There were secret hallways and closets
connecting the seventy-one bedrooms. Holmes' Castle included
soundproof sleeping chambers with peepholes, asbestos-padded
walls, gas pipes, sliding walls, and vents that Holmes
controlled from another room. Many of the rooms had low
ceilings and trapdoors in the floors, with ladders leading
to smaller rooms below. The doors could only be locked
from the outside and all of his “prison rooms”
were fitted with alarms that buzzed in Holmes’ quarters
if a victim attempted to escape.
has come to be believed that many of his victims were
held captive months before their deaths. Evidence would
later be found to show that Holmes used some of the rooms
as “asphyxiation chambers,” where his victims
were suffocated with gas. It was believed that Holmes
placed his chosen victims into the special chambers into
which he then pumped lethal gas, controlled from his own
bedroom, and then watched them react. Apparently, he gained
some fiendish pleasure from this activity. Sometimes he'd
ignite the gas to incinerate them, or perhaps even place
them on the "elasticity determinator," an elongated
bed with straps, to see how far the human body could be
stretched. When finished, he might have slid the corpses
down the chutes into his cellar, where vats of acid and
other chemicals awaited them.
carefully supervised the building of his castle of horror,
making sure that no workman stayed on the job for more
than a week. Claiming their work was second rate, he fired
them, refusing to pay for their services, and at the same
time, ensuring that no one knew the exact layout of the
building. As far as the police were able to learn, he
never paid a cent for any of the materials that went into
the building. The castle was completed in 1892…
planned ahead for the many visitors who would be searching
for lodging as close as possible to the fair, knowing
that among them would be the most vulnerable prey: single,
naïve women on their own who would easily succumb
to a successful and charming “doctor.”
was stunned by the beauty of Julia, a 6 foot tall red-haired
green-eyed woman. Holmes instantly fired his current cashier
and hired Julia.
could not believe her luck. She rang and invited her 18
year old sister to visit her in Chicago. Gertie was as
beautiful as her sister and quickly caught Dr Holmes'
eye. He showered the young woman in gifts and affection.
Holmes even told Gertie he would divorce his wife to be
was shocked by his proposal and hastily left Chicago.
Holmes rebounded quickly from Gertie's rejection by turning
his attentions to Julia. He told Julia that Holmes did
not love her, she was only his second choice after Gertie
was deeply in love with Holmes and subsequently became
pregnant with his child - a fact that Holmes did not like.
The doctor told his lover that he would only marry her
if she aborted the pregnancy. Being a mother to Pearl
already and feeling the unborn child inside her, Julia
could not face the prospect and continually put the procedure
1893, Holmes met a young woman named Minnie Wiliams. After
further insistence by Holmes Julie, sobbing agreed that
he could perform the procedure. Holmes put Pearl to bed
and then carried the hysterical Julia down to his makeshift
operating theatre in his basement. Neither Julia nor Pearl
were ever seen alive again. In Holmes’ confession,
he admitted that Julia had died during a bungled abortion
that he had performed on her. He had poisoned Pearl. He
later admitted that he murdered the woman and her child
because of her jealous feelings toward Minnie Williams.
“But I would have gotten rid of her anyway,”
he say. “I was tired of her.”
Williams lived at the castle for more than a year and
knew more about Holmes’ crimes than any other person.
It was not until much later that Holmes confessed to killing
her too. Although her body was never found, it is believed
to have joined other victims in the acid vat in the basement.
July 1894, Holmes was arrested for the first time. It
was not for murder but for one of his schemes, the earlier
horse swindle that ended in St. Louis. Georgianna promptly
bailed him out, but while in jail, he struck up a conversation
with a convicted train robber named Marion Hedgepeth,
who was serving a 25-year sentence. Holmes had concocted
a plan to bilk an insurance company out of $20,000 by
taking out a policy on himself and then faking his death.
Holmes promised Hedgepeth a $500 commission in exchange
for the name of a lawyer who could be trusted.
Pitezel another of Holmes' lackeys hung off his every
word, he did everything asked of him and soon would give
his life for Holmes. The two men came up with an insurance
scam where they would share in $10,000.
plan was that Pitezel would take out a life insurance
policy for $10,000. Holmes was the beneficiary. Pitezel
would disappear to Philadelphia, Holmes would get a corpse,
disfigure it, then with the help of Pitezel's children
he would have the body identified as Pitezel and claim
"accident" took place on the morning of September
4, when neighbors heard a loud explosion from the patent
office. A carpenter named Eugene Smith came to the office
a short time later and found the door locked and the building
dark. For some reason, he became concerned and summoned
a police officer to the scene. They broke open the door
and found a badly burned man on the floor. The death was
quickly ruled an accident and the body was taken to the
morgue. After 11 days, no one showed up to claim it and
so the corpse was buried in the local potter’s field.
plan worked brilliantly and Holmes claimed the money.
However Holmes was fearful when the police became interested
in him and torched the Castle and fled Chicago with one
of the Pitezel daughters with Mrs Pitezel following behind.
Presumably to meet up with Benjamin in Philadelphia. What
Mrs Pitezel did not know was that Holmes had murdered
never bothered to contact the train robber again, a slight
that Hedgepeth did not appreciate. He brooded over this
awhile and then decided to turn Holmes in.
Frank Geyer, a twenty-year veteran, of the Philadelphia
Police Department, was a driven man who was looking for
just such a case to focus his attention on-something to
keep him from dwelling on his personal tragedy, a recent
house fire that claimed his wife and only daughter. It
was in Toronto where he finally hit pay dirt when Thomas
Ryves came forward claiming that Holmes, along with two
young girls, had rented the house next door to him on
St. Vincent Street. Ryves told a chilling tale. His new
neighbor came by to borrow a shovel explaining that he
needed to dig a spot in the cellar where his sister could
a Toronto Police Officer with him, Geyer went to the house
in question knowing full well what awaited him. The two
men headed straight for the cellar. Brandishing a shovel,
Geyer dug only two feet when a human arm bone resurfaced.
The bodies of Nellie and Alice Petizel were unearthed
and now H. H. Holmes was not just guilty of an insurance
scam- he was also a killer.
in Englewood, detectives paid a visit to the castle. They
were hardly prepared for what they found. Inside the large
stove still in Holmes’ office, they discovered a
human rib and a hank of long hair- most likely a woman’s.
In the basement, they located a wooden tank hidden behind
one wall. Lighting a match to help them see, they unwittingly
ignited an explosion. The tank, as it turns out, was filled
with chemicals. As soon as the air cleared, the detectives
returned to the house where they found the skeletal remains
of a young child- probably Pearl Conner. Now, they were
convinced that the castle of horrors, and the man who
built it, held unimaginable secrets.
after name of missing persons once associated with Holmes
appeared. The list went on and on and so did the evidence
when a mound of human bones, hidden among soup bones,
were found in the basement. The press went wild with the
heinous stories sweeping a shocked public into an unprecedented
frenzy of horror.
Detective Frank Geyer was still looking for Howard Pietzel.
His search led him to Irvington, Indiana, six miles outside
of Indianapolis. There, he found a real estate agent who
remembered dealing with Holmes in October 1894. He was
looking for a house to rent for his widowed sister. The
house was located on the east side of Irvington, and just
as Geyer suspected, the charred body of a young child
was found inside the chimney. All three Pitezel children
were now accounted for.
October 28, 1895, Holmes went on trial for the murder
of Benjamin Pietzel. Labeled as ‘the trail of the
century,’ crowds clamored to the Philadelphia courthouse
hoping to get a glimpse of the fiendish doctor. The daily
newspapers painstakingly covered the entire trial delivering
every sordid detail to a demanding public. In the end,
Holmes was fund guilty of first degree murder. Eventually,
he admitted killing twenty-seven men, women, and children,
including Benjamin Pitezel and his three children. His
confession, however, proved to be dubious when some of
his purported victims came forward still alive and breathing.
Exactly how many people Holmes murdered remains a mystery,
but some estimates number more than 200.
August 19, 1895, the castle burned to the ground. Three
explosions thundered through the neighborhood just after
midnight and minutes later, a blaze erupted from the abandoned
structure. In less than an hour, the roof had caved in
and the walls began to collapse in onto themselves. A
gas can was discovered among the smoldering ruins and
rumors argued back and forth between an accomplish of
Holmes’ burning down the house to hide his role
in the horror and the arson, being committed by an outraged
neighbor. The mystery was never solved, but, regardless,
the castle was gone for good.
H. Holmes was hanging on the morning of May 7., 1896,
but his strange story continued.
FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE
to his wishes, the bottom of his coffin was filled with
ten inches of cement and then his body laid inside. The
coffin was then filled with more cement being nailed shut.
He was buried in a double grave ten feet deep. Two more
feed of sand and cement were poured into the open grave
before it was covered with dirt.
were a couple of macabre legends associated with Holmes’
execution. The most enduring supernatural legend of H.
H. Holmes is that of the “Holmes Curse.” The
story began shortly after his execution, leading to speculation
that his spirit did not rest in peace. Some believed that
he was still carrying on his gruesome work from beyond
the grave. In the years that followed, those involved
with Holmes met violent deaths in rapid order. Perhaps
Holmes got his revenge after all…
was born with the devil in me. I could not help the fact
that I was a murderer, no more than the poet can 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
H. H. Holmes
MURDER CASTLE BLUEPRINT:
THE MURDER CASTLE
my research I took alot of the key elements. Provided
below are links to the main sites about H. H. Holmes and
his sadistic Murder Castle.
MURDER CASTLE OF H. H. HOLMES
LIBRARY: H. H. HOLMES
GOTHIC: THE STRANGE LIFE OF H. H. HOLMES
the Legend by Dean5339