Post by almagata on Nov 25, 2016 9:35:08 GMT
A few months ago a read a book called Devil in the White City about a serial killer who lived in Chicago in the late 1800's. His birth name was Herman Webster Mudgett which he changed in adulthood to Henry Howard Holmes; H. H. Holmes. H H Holmes was born in 1861 in Vermont and was an excellent student who went on to graduate from medical school.
After medical school, he moved to Chicago and worked as a pharmacist and eventually became owner of the pharmacy through some questionable business practices and likely murder. H H Holmes was quite the fraudster and generally contracted for services and property but rarely paid for the items or services. Eventually, he devised a plan to build a multi-floor hotel and he acted as the architect. Only he knew was the floor plan was and he continuously fired workers so that he would not have to pay them but also, no one was around long enough to understand the floor plan of the building.
The building included a number of sound proof rooms with viewing slots. They allowed for gas to be pumped into the rooms. There was a greased slide that ran from the second floor to the basement. The basement included a torture chamber with a rack like device, a dissection table and vats of acid.
The hotel was completed prior to the World's Fair and H H Holmes used the fair as an opportunity to house and murder out of area visitors. He would kill his guests in one of the secret sound proof rooms then slide the body to the basement where he dissected the corpse, bleached the skeleton in acid then sold off the skeleton to local medical schools for a handsome profit.
H H Holmes was married a number of times and also is known to have had trysts with many women whom he did not marry. Some of these women and their children disappeared and are presumed to have been murdered by him.
The total number of victims has never been confirmed but the conservative number was nine and some predict the number was upward to a couple of hundred.
H H Holmes was eventually caught after he had made a confession to a jail mate admitting to a murder for insurance fraud plan. Once the authorities started investigating him, they realized that many people were missing. He was convicted for murder and was eventually hanged for his crimes.
H H Holmes was fond of the stories of Edgar Allan Poe and the hotel was said to have been fashioned after the torture chambers described in his stories.
After medical school, he moved to Chicago and worked as a pharmacist and eventually became owner of the pharmacy through some questionable business practices and likely murder. H H Holmes was quite the fraudster and generally contracted for services and property but rarely paid for the items or services. Eventually, he devised a plan to build a multi-floor hotel and he acted as the architect. Only he knew was the floor plan was and he continuously fired workers so that he would not have to pay them but also, no one was around long enough to understand the floor plan of the building.
The building included a number of sound proof rooms with viewing slots. They allowed for gas to be pumped into the rooms. There was a greased slide that ran from the second floor to the basement. The basement included a torture chamber with a rack like device, a dissection table and vats of acid.
The hotel was completed prior to the World's Fair and H H Holmes used the fair as an opportunity to house and murder out of area visitors. He would kill his guests in one of the secret sound proof rooms then slide the body to the basement where he dissected the corpse, bleached the skeleton in acid then sold off the skeleton to local medical schools for a handsome profit.
H H Holmes was married a number of times and also is known to have had trysts with many women whom he did not marry. Some of these women and their children disappeared and are presumed to have been murdered by him.
The total number of victims has never been confirmed but the conservative number was nine and some predict the number was upward to a couple of hundred.
H H Holmes was eventually caught after he had made a confession to a jail mate admitting to a murder for insurance fraud plan. Once the authorities started investigating him, they realized that many people were missing. He was convicted for murder and was eventually hanged for his crimes.
H H Holmes was fond of the stories of Edgar Allan Poe and the hotel was said to have been fashioned after the torture chambers described in his stories.
Attachments:
Chicago_Daily_Tribune_Sun__Jul_28__1895_.pdf (863.3 KB)
Chicago_Daily_Tribune_Sun__Jul_28__1895_1.pdf (983.98 KB)
