Within the cheerful, bustling setting of the World’s Fair in Chicago, a harrowing story of America's first serial killer unfolded in the background. Living in the perfect period and setting to become an infamous murderer, Dr. Henry Howard Holmes’ traumatic history and ill behavior combined for a perfect storm. As seen through his convicted 27 killings, the possibility of over 300 murders, and the haunting “Murder Castle” that he used to torture victims, Dr. Henry Howard Holmes was an extremely intelligent and sadistic sociopath. Herman Webster Mudgett, later know as H.H. Holmes, was born on May 16, 1861, into a middle-class, religious, and ultimately abusive family. In Holmes’ early childhood, seeing the Civil War concluding at the time, he was very exposed to death and many images of the resulting …show more content…
Holmes hired and fired people working on the strange building often, to ensure no one was employed there long enough to suspect anything. Consisting of hidden, murderous components, the building included trap doors, fatal gas jets, secret rooms, and a kiln where he would cremate his victims. This new building would later come to be known as the infamous “Murder Castle” (Grey, Blanco). After the construction of his house, in 1893, Holmes opened it up to the public. During the World’s Fair in Chicago, 26 million people attended and needed lodging. There were a plethora of people, so Holmes could turn people away with no suspicion, only allowing his selected victims to stay; which were overwhelmingly alone, unmarried, young, attractive women. No one knows for certain how many people he killed; the number ranges from at least 30 to as much as over 200. This number may also include the numerous women he married that suspiciously disappeared (H.H. Holmes,