Hhholmes.pptx 4f451w

H.H. Holmes

I was born with the devil in me. I could not help the fact that I was a murderer, no more than a poet can help the inspiartion to sing. -Herman Mudget, 1896

Who is H.H. Holmes? • Dr. Henry Howard Holmes (his real name was Henry Mudgett) is considered the first serial killer in the US. He is known for opening a hotel south of Chicago that was nicknamed the Castle. Holmes’ case was quite famous during his time. It was reported nationwide and caught the American public’s imagination wildly. However, he was largely forgotten in the wake of the new century with a new breed of serial killers making headlines in America. Interest in him was aroused again in the late 20th and early 21st century with a number of books written and movies made about him.

What was his Childhood Like?

• H.H Holmes was born on May 16, 1861, to Theodate Page Price and Levi Horton Mudgett. The third among four siblings, Holmes was named Herman Webster Mudgett at birth, a name which he discarded later in his life. • Although his family was affluent, Holmes had a difficult childhood as his father was an alcoholic and he was also bullied at school. His other siblings, Ellen, Arthur and Henry, also earned their father’s wrath.

Where there any precursor? Did childhood behavior reflect problems?

Being bullied and being beaten by his father has what contributed to his behavior.

What was his adult life like? Did he finish high school/ college? Did he marry? Have children? Was he a loner?

• He graduated from the local high school in 1877, at the age of 16. Two years later, he went to the University of Vermont but left it midway as he was not satisfied with the curriculum there. Finally, he went to the University of Michigan where he studied Medicine and Surgery and obtained a degree in the same in 1884.

• Holmes married thrice in his life. His first marriage was on July 4, 1878, with Clara Lovering just after he had finished his high school. The couple had a son, Robert Lovering Mudhett, who would grow up to be the city manager of Orlando, Florida. • His second marriage was to Myrta Belknap in Minneapolis, Minnesota, whom he married on January 28, 1887, while still being married to Clara. They had a daughter together, Lucy Theodate Holmes, who became a public schoolteacher in her adult life.

• His third and final marriage took place on January 17, 1894 in Denver, Colorado, with Georgina Yoke. He was married to both Clara and Myrta at the time. He did file for a divorce with Clara in 1887 but it never came through and he remained married to all three women till his death.

Clara Lovering

Myrta Z. Belknap

Georgiana Yoke 1894-1896

Was he ever diagnosed with a mental disorder? Did he ever receive treatment?

He was assumed to be diagnosed with ADP by most historians and psychologists. Those diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder (APD), a diagnosis that carries with it a lot of controversy, are characterized as being impulsive and highly aggressive. Mental deficiencies heat up a lot of polemic today.

What was the nature of his crimes? What was the time span for his crimes? How many victims?

• After finishing medical school, he sent his wife back to his birth-town, New Hampshire, and sought employment in Illinois at a druggist. The druggist, Dr. Holton, at that time was severely ill with cancer, so his wife, a future widow, was glad for the help that Holmes offered. Later he proposed to Mrs. Holton, now alone and despondent, to buy the store. She accepted on the condition that she be allowed to live on the second floor of the building where the pharmacy was located. Shortly, however, she mysteriously disappeared, and no one thought to question Holmes extensively about her quick departure.

After that he bought some land across the street from the drugstore, where under a close supervision he build his own castle of horrors. He made sure that the workers he hired would not stay on the job for more than a week, so that the layout of the building would not create any suspicion. The Castle was three stories high. The first floor was left for exclusive shops, while the upper floors and the basement were entwined with mazes, secret hallways, trap doors, stairs leading to nowhere, and gas pipes attached to a control in Holmes’ bedroom.

The basement had an acid tank, a dissecting table, and a crematorium. In his Castle it is rumored that Holmes killed more than 200 victims, while he itted during the trial to 27 murders. Holmes behavior was particularly gruesome. He is the prototype killer, to whom the prospect of dying did not bring fear. The hotel, which would later become one of the most infamous buildings in the history of America, was a complete maze with a host of rooms, deceptive doors and hallways, stairways that would mislead people and a number of other confusing and misleading structures. It was constructed in such a way that none of his victims could find a way out in case they tried to escape.

Post the opening of the hotel in 1893, Holmes lured many victims, mostly females, into one of the many rooms in the hotel which he had designed specifically for killing them. His methods were grotesque and ranged from hanging his victims to suffocating them or leaving them in a vault to die of hunger and thirst. After killing them, he would either dispose of the bodies by burying them in lime pits or perform experiments on them and later sell the skeleton and the remaining organs to medical schools.

All this while, Holmes had been running insurance scams from time to time. One of his associates in the insurance scams was Benjamin Pitezel, whom he had met during the construction of the hotel. Together, they ran a scam which involved swindling $10,000 from an insurance company by faking the death of Pitezel and collecting the insurance in his name. However, Holmes killed Pitezel and took all the money for himself. Fearing that they would come after him later, he also killed three of Pitezel’s five children.

Span of Killings and the Estimated Number • From 1891–1894 • Approximately nine known victims; other unverified estimates put the number from 20 to 200.

Holme’s Castle

3D view of the Castle

What was his behavior like when he was caught? Was he found Capable to withstand Trial? What was he charged with or sentenced to?

Holmes was finally apprehended by the police on November 17, 1894, in Philadelphia after they got a tip from an inmate named Hedgepeth, who was one of his accomplices in the insurance scams. His first conviction was that of insurance fraud, but the police had grown suspicious of his activities at the ‘Castle’ and decided to investigate there. What they found were skeletal remains of scores of victims, including children, and a number of other evidences which confirmed beyond any doubt that Holmes had killed all those unfortunate people.

By then, it was also clear that he had murdered Pitezel and his children as well and he was convicted of those crimes in 1895. During the trial, he confessed to the murder of 27 other people but his stories were full of inconsistencies and false statements. The police confirmed nine of his alleged 27 murders but based on the evidences found and the of the neighbours, they suspected that the number could be anywhere between 20 and 100.

Is he still alive? Or did he die after his sentence? Holmes was finally found guilty and sentenced to death by the court of Philadelphia for the murder of Benjamin Pitezel and hanged on May 7, 1896 at the Philadelphia County Prison. His beloved ‘Castle’ was gutted by fire following several explosions in August 1895.

The Execution

Bibliography • https://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/ h-h-holmes-29982.php • https://raverat.wordpress.com/tag/h-hholmes/