![]() ![]() Holmes had a three-story building constructed nearby, creating an elaborate house of horrors. He eventually took over the business and was later rumored to have killed its original owner. He soon found work in a pharmacy, using his now infamous alias, Dr. In 1885, Holmes moved to Chicago, Illinois. Holmes may have used the bodies for experiments, as well. As a medical student at the University of Michigan, he stole corpses and used them to make false insurance claims. Holmes' life of crime began with various frauds and scams. Some accounts indicate that he may have been responsible for the death of a friend. He expressed an interest in medicine, which reportedly led him to practice surgery on animals. Still, there were haunting signs of what was to come. Born into an affluent family, Holmes enjoyed a privileged childhood and was said to be unusually intelligent at an early age. Holmes was born Herman Webster Mudgett circa May 16, 1861, in Gilmanton, New Hampshire. He killed many of his victims in a specially constructed home, which was later nicknamed the "Murder Castle." Apprehended in 1894, he was hanged for his crimes two years later. Sometimes referred to as the "Beast of Chicago," Holmes is believed to have killed somewhere between 20 and 200 people. Holmes, was a con artist and bigamist who was one of America's first serial killers. ![]() There were trap doors, sliding panels, and yes, there really were secret chutes that would open and send guests to the basement.Herman Webster Mudgett, better known as H.H. Some were airtight, some were soundproofed, and some of the doors led to closet-sized rooms fitted with gas pipes. The second floor had 51 doors leading from six hallways, to 35 normal rooms and plenty of not-normal rooms. Holmes had an office on the third floor, along with a bank vault and a series of rooms, angled hallways, dead ends, and stairs to nowhere. Holmes rented out areas to merchants and rooms on the upper floors to unsuspecting travelers. One of the three floors was even open to the public. It was finished in 1892 and covered a whole city block. Construction of the Murder Castle took about 18 months because Holmes fired worker after worker - in part to keep from paying them, and in part to keep anyone from catching on to the full extent of what they were building. ![]() It started in 1887, when Holmes took over the pharmacy he'd been working at after the owner mysteriously disappeared. He even ran one out of the Murder Castle: There was a pharmacy on the first floor from which he sold magical, "miraculous healing mineral water" by the glass. Really, it was a washing machine he'd hooked up to a gas main, but he was such a charismatic liar that his pyramid schemes worked. He once juggled three women in three different cities at one time.Īccording to The Telegraph, he also masterminded some bizarre scams, like selling a cure for alcoholism or selling a machine he claimed could turn water into gas. Holmes wooed and married multiple women, then convinced them to make him the beneficiary of their fortunes before leaving them. His tuition was paid with money he'd swindled from a wealthy woman, and according to Forensic Scholars Today, that was a regular thing. While he was a student at the University of Michigan, he would steal bodies from the medical school, mutilate them, and then collect insurance claims. Long before the Murder Castle, Holmes started his dark ways with insurance fraud. ![]()
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