Short Essay On H. Holmes

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. Born on May 16, 1861 in Gilmanton, New Hampshire to devout Methodist parents, Herman Mudgett was an intelligent boy who was quite inquisitive and had a fondness for inventing things (Dahl). Being a son in an extremely religious family, Mudgett had to follow strict guidelines; he would be harshly punished by his father

He knew there was a great demand for cadavers and skeletons and that, as long as they were in good condition, colleges and hospitals would not ask questions (H.H. Holmes Bio…). Knowing this, he was able to satisfy his two lusts, killing and money. Holmes saw his first victim in his employee’s wife, Julia Connor. Being charmed by his blue eyes and superior intellect, Julia left her husband and became Holmes’ lover (H.H. Holmes). Before long, Julia had become pregnant and wanted to marry Holmes. Holmes agreed to marry her under the condition that she let him perform an abortion on her. Upon agreeing, Holmes led her down to the basement of his hotel on the Christmas Eve of 1891 and murdered her (H.H. Holmes). After stripping the flesh off her body he paid an articulator to resemble her bones in order to be used as a display skeleton in a school. Holmes then sold Julia’s skeleton to a medical school in Chicago for $200, over $5,000 today (H.H. Holmes

Knowing that 27 million people would be attending the fair during the six month period, many of whom would be looking for a place to stay, Holmes was eager to greet single, naïve women who he could charm into becoming victims in his deceitful hotel (Ramsland). In fact, so many people were looking for lodging that Holmes was able “pick and choose” who he allowed to stay and who he turned away (H.H. Homes Bio…). Holmes preferred two specific methods of killing, both equally as horrifying. The first was to gas his unsuspecting victims as they slept in their rooms by using a network of pipes throughout the hotel, controlled by a control panel found in his closet. The gas would remove the oxygen from the room and cause the victim to suffocate (H.H. Homes Bio…). The second was more personal, Holmes would put a rag with chloroform over a victim’s face to render them unconscious and then bring their body to the basement to torture and kill them (H.H. Homes Bio…). Then he would either sell the skeleton and organs to medical schools, incinerate the body in his incinerator, or rot the body in one of his two lime pits