H. H. Holmes

Herman Webster Mudgett
Mugshot of Holmes (between mid-1880s and early 1890s)
Born	Herman Webster Mudgett (1861-05-16)May 16, 1861 Gilmanton, New Hampshire, U.S.
Died	May 7, 1896(1896-05-07) (aged 34) Moyamensing Prison, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Cause of death	Execution by hanging
Resting place	Holy Cross Cemetery (Yeadon, Pennsylvania)
Other names	See aliases & nicknames H. H. Holmes Alexander Bond America's First Serial Killer The Beast of Chicago The Devil in the White City The Torture Doctor The Arch Fiend Judson Robert E Phelps
Alma mater	University of Vermont (1879–1880) University of Michigan (1882–1884)
Spouses	Clara Lovering ​ (m. 1878)​ Myrta Belknap ​ (m. 1886)​ Minnie Williams ​ (m. 1893)​ Georgiana Yoke ​ (m. 1894)​
Conviction(s)	First degree murder
Criminal penalty	Death
Details
Victims	1 (confirmed) 20 – 200+ (suspected)
Span of crimes	1891 – 1894 (confirmed) 1886 – 1894 (suspected)
Location(s)	Illinois Indiana Ontario Pennsylvania
Date apprehended	November 17, 1894

Herman Webster Mudgett (May 16, 1861 – May 7, 1896), better known as Dr. Henry Howard Holmes or H. H. Holmes, was an American con artist and serial killer active between 1891 and 1894. By the time of his execution in 1896, Holmes had engaged in a lengthy criminal career that included insurance fraud, forgery, swindling, three or four bigamous marriages, horse theft, and murder. His most notorious crimes took place in Chicago around the time of the World's Columbian Exposition in 1893.

Holmes was convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of Benjamin Pitezel, his accomplice in several of his cons. However, Holmes confessed to 27 murders, including those of some people who were verifiably still alive.^[1] It is believed that he also killed three of Pitezel's children, as well as three mistresses, the child of one mistress and the sister of another.^[2] Holmes was hanged on May 7, 1896.^[3]

Much of the lore attached to Holmes concerns the so-called "Murder Castle", a three-story building he commissioned in Chicago. Details about the building, along with many of his alleged crimes, are considered exaggerated or fabricated for sensationalistic tabloid pieces with some accounts estimating his body count could be as high as 133^[4] or even 200. Many of these inaccuracies have persisted due to the combination of ineffective police investigation and hyperbolic yellow journalism of the period, which are often cited as historical record.^[5]

Holmes gave various contradictory accounts of his life, initially claiming innocence, and later that he was possessed by Satan. His propensity for lying has made it difficult for researchers to ascertain the truth on the basis of his statements.^[6] For example, he claimed that Dr. Robert Leacock, a fellow medical school classmate, was one of his first murder victims, and that he killed him in 1886 for insurance money;^[7] however, Leacock died on October 5, 1889, in Watford, Ontario, Canada.^[8]

Since the 1990s, Holmes has often been described as a serial killer. In his book about Holmes, author Adam Selzer writes: "Just killing several people isn't necessarily enough for most definitions [of a serial killer]. More often, it has to be a series of similar crimes, committed over a period of time, usually more to satisfy a psychological urge on the killer's part than any more practical motive." He adds: "The murders we can connect [Holmes] to generally had a clear motive: someone knew too much, or was getting in his way, and couldn't be trusted. The murders weren't simply for love of bloodshed but a necessary part of furthering his swindling operations and protecting his lifestyle."^[9]