A notorious serial killer who built a hotel to torture women was Herman Webster Mudgett, better known as Henry Howard Holmes. According to the sensationalist press, this man, who pretended to be a friendly hotelier during the day, turned out to be a murderous beast at night, who anesthetized women with chloroform so that he could disembowel them on his operating table in his torture chamber or maltreat them with a scalpel, a knife, and all kinds of torture instruments. But who was this beast in human form, who outwardly played the perfect gentleman, was always well dressed, and beguiled women with his bright blue eyes and neat moustache, but described himself as possessed by the devil? Herman Webster Mudgett was born on May 16, 1861, in Gilmanton, New Hampshire, the third child of Levi Horton Mudgett and Theodate Page Price. His parents were devout Methodists who owned a farm where Henry dissected small animals alive at an early age. Henry’s father allegedly had a drinking problem, which led him to repeatedly abuse his family with a cane. When Henry was locked in the attic once again, he developed technical devices. Henry was considered a good student who, after attending Phillips Exeter Academy, successfully graduated from Gilmanton Academy with honors. Shortly thereafter, at the age of 16, he married Clara A. Lovering in New Hampshire. He then studied medicine for one year at the University of Vermont before transferring to the University of Michigan in 1882, where he successfully completed his medical studies in June 1884. During his studies, he worked in the anatomy laboratory under Professor William James. There he began taking out life insurance policies on corpses, which he then pocketed to finance his studies and his living expenses. After completing his medical studies, Henry initially practiced in Philadelphia. As his earnings were very low, Henry worked as a guard in a psychiatric ward, as a school principal, and sold books door-to-door, among other things, until he decided to move to Chicago in 1886. Chicago was considered an up-and-coming metropolis, where Henry decided to finally say goodbye to his old name, Herrman Webster Mudgett, and from then on call himself only Henry Howard Holmes. Henry settled in the Englewood neighborhood, where he was hired as a pharmacist by Elizabeth Holton, the wife of a pharmacist, in the pharmacy of her seriously ill husband, Everett Holton. Henry, who later took over the pharmacy, bought the neighboring property, on which he wanted to build a two-story house. Henry’s first marriage was long since history. Although he had never officially divorced, he married Myrta Z. Belknap in Minneapolis in 1887, with whom he had a daughter named Lucy. In the same year, he began construction work, which he financed with income from the pharmacy and numerous mortgages. As Henry was repeatedly in serious financial difficulties and the construction of the building was delayed by constantly changing craftsmen and a lack of money, he committed insurance fraud, forged documents, and even committed murder. After Henry learned that the World’s Columbian Exposition was to take place in Chicago from May 1 to October 30, 1893, he decided to turn his building complex into a 60-room hotel. According to the tabloid press, this hotel had a basement with a torture bench and operating table, soundproof and airtight rooms into which gas flowed through a nozzle, and rooms that led nowhere or were equipped with iron plates to heat them up. In addition, there was also a crematorium, acid baths, and lime pits to dispose of the bodies, which fell into the basement through a built-in trapdoor without other hotel guests noticing. After the hotel was completed, Holmes referred to it as his castle. Holmes acquired large quantities of chloroform at that time. Rumors quickly spread that many missing persons reports were filed with the Chicago police after people, often single women, had rented rooms in the horror hotel. In the fall of 1893, Henry fled Chicago with his third wife to escape his creditors. He was finally arrested on November 17, 1894, in Boston for the murder of his acquaintance Benjamin Pitezal, who was already being held in Texas for an outstanding horse theft. Henry Howard Holmes had taken out a life insurance policy on him, the proceeds of which he collected after his murder. Henry had also killed Pitezal’s three children. He buried Alice and Nellie in the basement of his house in Toronto, while Howard, Pitezal’s third child, was murdered in the US state of Indiana. Henry was tried for the murder of Pitzeal in October 1895 and found guilty. He was sentenced to death. Henry was hanged on May 7, 1896, at Philadelphia County Prison, having previously confessed to murdering 27 people. Before that, he had sold his story to the press for profit. However, some of the murders Henry claimed to have committed turned out to be untrue, as many of the alleged victims were still alive. After his execution, Henry Howard Holmes was buried at Holy Cross Cemetery in Yeadon, Philadelphia. He was then hyped up by the media as America’s most cruel serial killer. Numerous horror stories were spread about the horror hotel and Henry Howard Holmes, which were simply fictitious. The horror hotel never existed. The fact is, however, that Holmes was a murderer, con artist, and bigamist whose hotel burned down in 1895.
The Horror Hotel
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