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H. H. Holmes: the chilling first American serial killer

Currently, the emergence of fictions such as Mindhunter, True Detective or The Alienist seem to have contributed to the thematic about serial killers awakening more interesting than ever .If you are also attracted to the genre, it is imperative that you know the story of Herman Webster Mudgett (better known as Dr.Henry Howard Holmes): the first serial killer of the United States of which there is evidence.

Behind its name hides a spooky story, which is especially relevant for having developed an incipient methodology when it comes to committing the murders , building a hotel conducive to perform this task.Then, in Lifestyle we tell you the details of the case of the first serial killer, which in this case dates back to the nineteenth century.

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HH Holmes: the chilling first American serial killer

Childhood and youth: the nation Lying of an obsession

Born on May 16, 1861 in Gilmanton (New Hampshire), and being the son of an alcoholic father, his status as a good student at school earned him a few enemies: his companions came to force him to take a skeleton of science by the hands and place his face against that of the skull .Holmes would declare years after that experience would have been so fascinating that from that moment he lived obsessed with the idea of death, which probably prompted him to become the first serial killer.

At eighteen he married a rich young woman named Clara Loering, thanks to the fortune from which she would pay for her studies at the University of Michigan School of Medicine and Surgery.It would be during his time at the institution when he would begin to show an inordinate interest in anatomy classes, especially in those in which the dissection of corpses was proceeded, ro On the other hand, several corpses of the laboratory and disfiguring them to make them go through accident victims, in order to collect insurance policies .Around him rumors began to arise that claimed that he subjected his wife to extreme violence and that it was seen with a child who subsequently disappeared.However, despite all the accusations, a police investigation never began.

Construction of the «Castle of Terror»

While still married with Clara, Holmes later married Myrta, with whom he had a daughter in 1889.Although the three officially lived in Wilmetter (Illinois), Holmes spent most of his time in Chicago, where he worked in a pharmacy that he ended up acquiring based on counterfeit accounting and embezzlement, making the owner disappear some time later .I decided to buy a plot right in front of the street, with the idea of ​​turning it into a huge hotel, cu and the dimensions would make the neighborhood known as "The Castle".

The construction of the building was carried out by different companies and workers, whom Holmes hired temporarily for a short time after canceling his services and not paying them. His goal was that no one could get to know in depth all the details that hid his hotel , whose interior housed labyrinths of corridors that seemed to have no end, doors that led to walls, stairs that did not lead to no place or doors that could only be opened from the outside.

H. H. Holmes: the chilling first American serial killer

Under the floor was an electric installation concealed that allowed him to follow the movements of his victims through an indicator panel; could open taps of gas in different rooms to suffocate their victims without having to move to the scene of the crime; it had different instruments of torture and had a forklift and two slides that moved the corpses to the cellar, where l remains Carnics were incinerated or dissolved in acid-filled tanks, while the organs were sold to medical clinics and skeletons to medical schools.

The end of the adventure: arrest, confession and execution

To remedy the Low income generated by the hotel, our first serial killer decided to burn the last floor of the building in 1893 even with people inside; previously, of course, he would have contracted insurance with up to four different companies with the intention of overcoming compensation.However, the investigation that opened forced him to move to Texas, where he would commit a series of scams that would lead him to be imprisoned during a period of time .Once released on bail, he launched a new operation that consisted of the woman of his accomplice Pitezel receiving compensation after the feigned death of the husband, presenting as his own an anonymous corpse completely disfigured because of an accident.However, the first serial killer Holmes changed his mind and decided to kill his friend himself, keeping all the money from the first one and also killing his children.

Frank Geyer was the detective in charge of following him.track to Holmes, and it was he who discovered the bodies of Pitezel's daughters, helped by the complaint of a former cellmate of Holmes.Thus, on November 7, 1984, Holmes was arrested in Boston and in October in 1896 he was tried for the murder of his right hand, found guilty and sentenced to death.Holmes confessed to killing 27 people and the attempted murder of 50 is possible that the number was greater; in fact, some modern investigations calculate the number of his murders amounted to two hundred.However, his confessions were quite inconsistent, having declared himself innocent in some of them while in others he claimed to have been possessed by Satan .Finally, on May 7, 1896, he would be hanged without showing any hint of anxiety, fear or depression.

We hope you found it interesting to know the story of the first serial killer in the United States.As always, in Lifestyle we encourage you to leave us a comment with all your impressions.Do you know the case of the first serial killer registered? Which of all the details of this case have you found most surprising? Do you know other serial killers in history? We will be looking forward to hearing your opinion.

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