Herman Cather Holmes Scams

Herman Webster Mudgett was born on May 16, 1860 (. He had a normal childhood where he grew an interest in medicine. After Herman graduated from High School; he goes on to teach at a local school. He soon discovers that teaching is not for him and he goes to college at the University of Michigan to study medicine. At college, He begins to take out fake insurance claims and he would use the corpses in the morgue as the bodies he would give to the insurance company to get money.

Once Herman graduates from college he moves until he finds where he is happiest, Chicago, Illinois. He took over a pharmacy, in which the original owner has vanished right after he began working there. Across the street, he began building what looked like apartment building

Holmes had many accomplices but one was Benjamin Pitezel (Blanco). Holmes and Pitezel traveled all around committing these insurance scams. One day they got put in jail and that is where Holmes met Hedgepath. He promised to let Hedgepath in on the scam but Holmes did give him his share so Hedgepath gave Holmes' name to the authorities. ("H. H. Holmes") Through the years, Holmes also had many wives and all of them are still missing. Holmes had three different wives all of which he had taken out insurance claims and then murder them. According to "Case in point: Minnie Williams, ‘a singular beauty' whose entire estate was worth seventy-five thousand dollars. Both she and her sister went missing" (Benzkofer). Later, when police search the murder castle they find Minnie and her sister's belongings. In the basement, they found belongings and bones of other victims of Holmes'. “Holmes was arrested and charged with the murder of Benjamin Pitezel” (“H. H. Holmes”). He had also killed three of the Pitezel children and Benjamin's wife testified against him in court. While in prison, in Philadelphia, for only the murder of his friend Benjamin, Holmes states "O, sure, I have killed twenty-seven people."