Insane Mind Of D. H. Holmes, America's First Serial Killer

Have you ever wondered, What was that person thinking? What caused this person to do such horrific things? How did he carry out these things and Why did he continue to carry them out? These are some of the questions someone would probably think about asking about H.H. Holmes, America's First Serial Killer. These questions to me into a deep research to get inside the wild and insane mind of America’s First Serial Killer,Dr. H.H. Holmes.

What caused H.H. Holmes to do such horrific things? To answer this question, I took my research into the Doctor’s childhood and early life to see analyze and find where the madness may have started. Born named Herman Webster Mudgett, on May 16th, 1861, Herman did not start out as the kind of child that would

Looking at the motives of the tremendous amounts of murders he committed, you would come to find that it was mainly for the money earned from the cadaver. You can clearly see this from he became so desperate for money, that he planned to fake his own death to claim the tremendous amount of insurance money. After he failed he went into a state of depression where he actually planned to kill himself. When he told the authorities of his plan, they immediately detained him and put him into an asylum. After 2 months in the asylum, they released him and soon after he was in the need of more money. He looked to his College lab partner, Dr. Robert Leacock, as his first victim of murder. “... I knew that his life was insured for a large sum and after enticing him to Chicago, I killed him by giving him an overwhelming dose of laudanum.” This quote, taken from his 27 confessions, proves almost indefinitely that he committed most of his murders for

H.H. Holmes’ “Murder Castle” was one of his amazing plan to gain wealth and knowledge. This “Castle” was built at the Worlds Fair of 1893 and put there for the killing purposes of Holmes. Holmes’ “Castle” had secret passageways, fake walls, and trap doors. Some rooms were built sound proof and connected to gas pipes. His bedroom was the control room for this hellish house. These controls controlled the gas pipes allowing him to kill anyone in these rooms at anytime. During the 1893 Worlds Fair, Holmes attracted many victims such as young women and tourist attending the Fair. After an unknown amount of years, authorities finally caught him in the act after he attempted to claim the insurance on a recent cadaver. The authorities then searched his “Castle” finding, throughout the Castle, over 200 corpses of victims. 27 of these victims were confessed before he was hung on May 7th, 1896 for his crimes. After all of the research, you can see the pulled of tons of murders with skill, but in the end it was his greed for wealth that was his downfall. He became to greedy, not being able to see past his love for money to see that what he was doing was extremely wrong. And now you know the man who was known as America’s First Serial Killer, Dr. H.H.