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Serial killers and their backgrounds
Serial killers and their backgrounds
Serial killer of united states term paper
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Herman Webster Mudgett, more commonly known as Dr. Henry Howard Holmes or H.H. Holmes, was convicted of the murders of 9 people. Holmes later confessed to 30 murders and may have been responsible for the death of as many as 200 people. Holmes’ legacy does not, however, come from the number of deaths he is responsible for but from the way in which he committed these heinous crimes. Holmes’ crime spree lasted 22 years. From 1872, when he was just 11 years old until he was apprehended at the very young age of 33 in 1894. Holmes was very sadistic and depraved in his ways, giving him the title of America’s first serial killer with a death count that could have been much higher had he not lacked honor among thieves. The layout of “Murder Castle” proved just how sadistic Holmes actually was. Contrary to popular belief, Holmes’ castle did not burn to the ground. It was in fact demolished in 1938 to build a post office (Adam). Despite the upper floors being gone, the basement of Holmes’ castle still resides under the post office …show more content…
The building of the castle took a solid year and a half and 500 total craftsmen. Not one construction worker worked on the castle for more than 3 weeks before Holmes fired them. This process of hiring and firing and then re-hiring caused a tremendous amount of delay in the construction of the castle but there was a method to Holmes’ madness. Holmes had the whole tower built for less than $100 and since no one ever built more than ½ of a room in the castle, only one person in the whole world knew the complete layout of the infamous “Murder Castle.” The castle was open to the public while Holmes was still living there. The first floor contained small shops run by Holmes and other local businessmen. The third floor held 36 rooms. The
A significant amount of people were in Chicago looking to take advantage of what it had to offer. Holmes used this lust people had for opportunity to exploit and attract his victims. His offerings of jobs, rooms, wealth, marriage and a multitude of other things combined with the opportunity Chicago had, composed an irresistible offering to women (The devil in the White City pg 162). They could not justify reasons to refuse moving into his building. From here Holmes treated women well and seduced them into positions where he could easily murder
Erick Larson wrote in Devil in the White City, “I 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 in the world, and he has been with me since” (Troy, Taylor). This statement was a quoted confession from Dr. H. H. Holmes himself in 1896. Holmes was the first major serial killer in America, even though he came after many others in his time. Thomas Neil Cream, the Austin Axe Murderer, the Bloody Benders, and Jack the Ripper came before him. His name was originally Herman Webster Mudgett. He was born on May 16th, 1860 in Gilman, New Hampshire. He was raised by his mother and father, who was a wealthy and respected citizen for 25 years. As a boy, Mudgett was always in trouble and was well known in his community for his rather sociopathic behavior. He would show cruelty to both animals and other children. The only thing keeping hope to society was the fact that he was an excellent student. He later changed his last name to Holmes in order to pursue both his medical and criminal careers. He had many other aliases in which he would hide under and try to derail the cops from finding him (Juan, Blanco). Holmes was medically trained to be a doctor and received his degree from the University of Michigan. He was not just into insurance fraud scams. His evil doings included forgery, claiming to find the cure for alcoholism, real estate scams, and pretending to have a machine that turned natural gas into water. He was quite the ladies man, had many wives, whom often had become his victims. Many of his medical partners became subject to him, also. He once even had three wiv...
... middle of paper ... ... According to Criminal Justice, almost every murder has a motive (Bender), and these areas from Ridgway’s past is what most likely caused him to go on his killing spree. Even through multiple interrogations, Ridgway has left people asking the same question, what caused him to commit the most murders in American history? Works Cited Bender, L. David, and Bruno Leone.
(O’Neill, Weisfeldt, & Cabrera, 2015, para. 24) On the opposing end, a defense psychiatrist found that Holmes was psychotic and he had a warped view of reality. The psychiatrist, Raquel Gur, said, “The severe defect in his brain made him incapable of distinguishing right from wrong by societal standards” (O’Neill, Weisfeldt, & Cabrera, 2015, para. 25). I believe that James Holmes is a psychopath and according to the DSM-5, suffers from antisocial personality disorder. Holmes obviously has a disregard for other lives and lacks empathy. He felt that with each life that he ended, his life began to add value. In an interview with an appointed psychiatric, Holmes said “he gained nothing from injuring people or leaving them behind to grieve for the dead. He spoke of the 70 people wounded as ‘collateral damage’” (O’Neill, Weisfeldt, & Cabrera, 2015, para. 42). With the ending of his romantic relationship before the massacre, that is also an example of James lacking the ability to maintain relationships. It is believed that along with the ending relationship with Lynne Fenton, he had few relationships. I also think that moving at the pivotal age of 12 created depression and most likely anxiety in Holmes and began to create the personality disorder. Holmes did not
When a waitress who worked at a bar he often frequented was raped and murdered he became a suspect. Eventually he was convicted of the crime which he did not commit and was sentenced to death. A friend of his, Dennis Fritz was also
One of the first men to single handedly terrorize the nation was Herman Webster Mudgett, more commonly known as H.H. Holmes. As a rather successful businessman with a degree in medicine, few would suspect the horrible secrets he kept locked away in the hotel he had built as his own personal torture chamber. By the time he was arrested, Mudgett had already taken an upwards of one hundred lives in a way that would shock the world.
He was very smart and successful in what he did. I believe that if a few things would have gone differently for Herman when he was a child, Holmes might have never existed. Henry H. Holmes was a clever individual; some might even say a genius. Most serial killers work alone and rarely ever finish college. Holmes not only finished college, but also graduated from medical school. Holmes always stood out from the others, and I believe that if some of the different techniques we have presently would’ve been used on Holmes as a child, his behavior could have been controlled and even prevented. Instead of becoming the genius he had the potential to be, Herman Mudgett became America’s first serial
Countless serial killers have had an abnormal childhood; many people believe this is where the catalyst of events starts. It is proven, that more often than not, serial killers have either lived in an inhabitable home, had lackadaisical parents, or could have a different frame of mind. This being said, when one hears about mass murderers or serial killers, the first question that pops into a person’s head is, “What were they thinking?” For all a person knows, this could be the killer’s normalcy.
An analysis of the most famous murderers and serial killers in the Chicago area shows varying degrees of psychopathy or mental illnesses, which ultimately contribute to homicidal conduct. Analysis also shows that the paths of serial killers have a tendency to converge.... ... middle of paper ... ...
American serial killer H. H. Holmes once said “I 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 since” (Lukacs, 2017, n.p.). H. H. Holmes is notorious for being a well known serial killer during the late 1800s. Interestingly, he is also considered by many individuals to be the first American serial killer. Today, researchers still struggle to find a cause as to why he committed the crimes he did. It is difficult to explain his reasoning and choices – therefore, because of this, many researchers and criminologists have dabbled in attempting to create an accurate explanation for his actions. In order to do this, it is essential to first consider Holmes’ childhood, upbringing, and crimes in
...mes’ lifestyle. Holmes, throughout his life was a criminal. Holmes desire to murder people was believed to come from from his desensitized feeling about dead bodies. This was due to his medical career. As mentioned earlier, when Holmes was in medical school, he had many dealings with cadavers and was very familiar with them. Later, when he began killing he did not look at the bodies as human beings, but as material or later, cash money. This relationship between crime and deviance is mainly why I choose this book. I feel that H. H. Holmes, although Holmes was a strange and demented man, was very successful. This success questions what makes people successful: is it your status, education, or was it his determination?
Holmes claimed the lives of hundreds, though officially under the law they were only able to charge him with 9 counts of murder, many died at his hands. In a day with better technology, a bigger population, and a changed society, we need to try and end serial killers for once and for all because who knows the impact they can
Holmes was never arrested for the incident with his father-in-law. However, he was later arrested in “July 1894, Holmes was arrested for the first time. It was not for murder but for one of his schemes” (Taylor). Being arrested should have scared Holmes onto the straight and narrow path, it did not. It was in jail that Holmes met one of his accomplices, Marion Hedgepeth (Nash, Bloodletters 448).
The night of September 13, 1986, Jonathan Nobles was consumed with a combination of drugs and alcohol when he broke into the house of Mitzi Johnson-Nalley and Kelly Farquar. Nobles brutally stabbed both Nalley and Farquar more than 20 times to death. He severely wounded Nalley’s date, Ron Ross, who barely survived with a lost eye and 19 stab wounds. During the time of the attack, Nobles was on parole for about 4 months. He was also employed by the Central Texas Crime Prevention Association of Round Rock. A week after he escaped the night of the murder scene, the police had enough physical evidence to put him in custody. That is when he confessed and showed all the evidence he had hidden. He said he did not remember everything that happened the night of the murders because of his impairment from drugs and alcohol. In 1987, Nobles was found guilty and placed on death row for the murder of Nalley and Farquer. Nobles was not rehabilitated. He knew right from wrong given that he was on parole for theft and employed at a crime prevention association, he showed no remorse when he plead insanity at his trial, and he used the media to convince the public that he changed.
...he met the detective, fell victim to Moriarty’s games. “Moriarty is playing with your mind too. Can’t you see what’s going on!” (Sherlock). During Holmes’ last days before his faked suicide, he pleads with John to see reason through Jim’s manipulations, as does Desdemona with Othello’s accusations. Even Sherlock’s oldest friend Detective Inspector Greg Lestrade was doubting Holmes’ credibility.