Through the eyes of a normal person, serial killers are all the same. Deceitful, selfish, violent, and psychopathic. However, through closer examination, serial killers are much more complex. Dr. H. H. Holmes is considered America’s first serial killer and is unique compared to other serial killers. Holmes indulges in women and money and is an opportunist, taking every chance he gets to take advantage of his victims. Dr. H. H. Holmes manipulates and kills his victims in order to fulfill a psychological need for control. Serial killers have different things that drive them to kill. Some kill specific groups of people out of hatred, others kill because they are psychotic and derive pleasure from killing. And then there are those who …show more content…
H. H. Holmes is known as one of the most manipulative serial killers in history. Naturally, Holmes had no rules or morals; if he wanted something he did whatever it took to get it. Erik Larson, author of The Devil in the White City, noted that “Besides his own person and his own interests, nothing is sacred to the psychopath” (105). Holmes only cared for himself and nothing could sway his mind, which is why he yearned for control. The way he achieved control was through his charm and good looks. Larson described him as having “striking blue eyes, once likened to the eyes of a Mesmerist” (49). His charismatic personality and mesmerized people, allowing him to gain their trust very quickly. Then, Holmes would use that trust to manipulate his victims to gain control of the person and their …show more content…
H. H. Holmes used his ability to gain other people’s trust to his advantage. Many knew Holmes to be a swindler, with one person describing him as “a charming swindler and ingenious crook” (Kriebel, 2). Holmes’ goal was power and control, and he got that by convincing his victims to give him their assets. According to Donahue Deirdre, “…And if they had any money or property, he finagled them to sign it over before he dispatched them” (2). This shows just how much control over people Holmes had. Most of his victims only knew him for a short time before they are killed, and yet in that time he is able to gain so much of their trust that they voluntarily hand over their assets. In addition to money, he also solicited sex from his female victims. Deirdre also wrote that “…he incinerated the bodies of his usually female victims. These women included women with whom he slept after he promised to marry them” (2). Holmes did whatever he needed to do to obtain control over his victims. In this case, he would promise to marry women, tricking them into thinking he loved them, so they would eventually do whatever he wanted them to do. Then after he gained complete control over them, he would kill them. These twisted examples show that Holmes sought not only control of assets, but of the people themselves, and he would go to great lengths to do
(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
Holmes and Holmes developed this typology based on various characteristics of the crime scenes and the victims themselves of 110 interviews of selected offenders and serial murders (Canter & Wentink, 2004). David Canter and Natalia Wentink conducted an empirical test of this typology and developed several criticisms to their work. Their empirical test concluded that the features described for each category tend to co-occur within each other. For example, the characteristics of a lust killer include a controlled crime scene, evidence of torture, the body being moved, a specific type of victim, no weapon left at the crime scene, and rape; all of these features are also included for the thrill killer. This makes it difficult to categorize these
Even though through research we have found the traits, and reasons why serial killers like to kill there is still much to be learned about them. As years go on so will the research on serial killers and hopefully we as a society will fully understand them and one day be able cure whatever inside that makes them have the urge to kill.
Americans were shocked to know that as they watched Jack the Ripper’s series of murders in London, someone with a much higher body count was operating quietly in their own country. The discovery of the Holmes Hotel made citizens of Chicago find a fear in themselves that they didn’t even know existed. Stereotypes of murderers tend to be that they look scary, dress in dirty clothes, and that they are antisocial. Holmes, on the other hand was a handsome man who charmed nearly everyone he came into contact with. This fact added to the fear factor. The friendly, normal seeming man working at the local drugstore may, in fact, be a serial killer behind closed
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).
Included in subcategories within the Holmes & Holmes studies, are hedonistic killers, within the hedonistic characteristic is lust, thrill and comfort. As one of the most sensationalized typologies, hedonistic “lust” killers are often responsible for the most horrifying crimes.
His incredible popularity is both historically specific and in a contradictory sense, broadly generic. He, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, is inseparable from a particular historical moment at the end of the Victorian era, and has undergone a process of circulating through a wide range of pop cultural contexts, which functions as both a detective archetype and a kind of popular metaphor for ideas and qualities associated with detection and detectives, such as perceptiveness, deductive reasoning and, of course, a kind of eccentric genius.
Holmes in many cases behaves the way most people would behave, which further proves that he has emotions even though behavior does not always imply certain emotions. In "The Speckled Band," Holmes deduces that his client's stepfather has ill intent towards his stepdaughter. He killed his stepdaughter's sister, and had Holmes not intervened, his client would likely also have died. Holmes cautions Watson to arm himself. At the climax of the story, Holmes indirectly kills Dr. Grimesby Roylott. Holmes even admits to doing this, but he says that Roylott's death will probably not "weigh very heavily upon my conscience" (325). Most people would think this way. People do not usually sympathize with killers being killed.
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?
They are all motivated to for different reasons; some kill to gain or exert power over the victims, entertainment or mission. Some kill because they believe they have the responsibility to society to do so (Julietta Leung N.D.) Frequently, homosexuals, prostitutes, and the homeless are viewed by serial killers because they might believe they are devalued in society or they view as being beneath humanity. They believe those kinds of people are easy targets based on the belief that no one would notice if they went missing.... ...
Biological Therapy - The biological approach would be the most effective method of therapy for Holmes because it may help to disabuse himself of the delusion that the devil is controlling him. The therapy may also in allow him to understand that he has a problem instead of blaming it on delusions.
Serial killers are usually young, white males who are quite intelligent and often come from broken homes. They may have been abused either physically or sexually during childhood and they have serious personality defects, such as low self-esteem and a lifelong sense of loneliness. Although no two serial killers are alike, they all fit this description somewhat. In the sixth edition of Crime and Criminality by Sue Titus Reid, a serial killer is defined as a person who commits more than one murder but at different times (Reid, p. 134).
Serial killers are everywhere! Well, perhaps not in our neighborhood, but on our television screens, at the movie theaters, and in rows and rows of books at our local Borders or Barnes and Nobles Booksellers” (Brown). When people think of serial killers, names such as Dahmer, Gacy, Bundy, and Gein are cited. During the time Jack the Ripper was executing his victims in London, Holmes began his gruesome career in Chicago (America’s Serial Killers). “Despite being America’s first serial killer, Holmes is hardly a familiar name and until now we haven’t had any popular visual record of his crimes: (Spikol). Why is it that people only think of the more popular killers with higher known profiles? They are all very similar to one another because they share characteristics. H.H. Holmes was a successful serial killer because he was well educated, cunning and charming. Those are just a few traits Holmes ...
“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.” (qdt. in Roland 12) Mudgett, better known as H.H. Holmes, said this during a confession in 1896. Holmes is diligently studied and sometimes admired because, not only was he America’s first major serial killer, the depths of his intelligence for crime remain unchallenged. Herman Webster Mudgett was the most prolific killer in American history because of the elaborate design of his Murder Castle, ingenious ways of disposing of evidence, and finally the abundance of methods he uses to finance his lifestyle.