1890's World Fair Killer
By: Ashley Aird
America's First Known Serial Killer
Have you ever heard about the tragic events that happened in the 1890s? H.H. Holmes was America's first know serial killer. He had many different ways of luring in his victims. Including a Chicago pharmacy that he built into a hotel later known as, The Murder Castle.
H.H. Holmes was born as Herman Webster Mugett on May 16, 1961 in Gilmanton, New Hampshire. As a child, Holmes was always unusually intelligent and very interested in medicine. In his twenties, Holmes took over a Chicago pharmacy and built it into a hotel. This hotel was later named, The Murder Castle. In the castle, Holmes supposedly murdered up to 200 people. The Murder Castle was a three story building. The second floor was filled with secret passages, hidden chambers, hidden rooms, stairways that led to nowhere, doors against walls so there was no way of getting out, etc. When Holmes told others about the building, he would always brag about the soundproof vaults constructed into the building.
The reason behind why Holmes built the hotel in the 1890s was because of the World Fair taking place in Chicago. He knew many people would be looking for a place to stay. After killing up to 200 people in the Murder Castle, Holmes was later arrested and murdered by his prison mates when he was only thirty-four. The prison he was killed in was the Moyamenson Prison in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The date H.H. Holmes died on was May 7th, 1896.
Murder Castle
H.H. Holmes
Newspaper article
The Murder Castle
Have you every heard about the horrifying events that took place in H.H. Holmes Murder Castle? H.H. Holmes was America's first known serial killer. He built a hotel above a pharmacy in Chicago to lure in his victims. Holmes had the hotel built mainly because of the World Fair that was taking place in Chicago and he knew many people would be coming to Chicago looking for a place to stay.
When Holmes had the building built, he only had people work on a certain section for little to no time. He then fired the workers because he was worried suspicion would arouse if they found out what the building consisted of. Inside of Holmes Murder castle, there were trapped doors, secret passageways, walled up rooms, stairways that led to nowhere, doors that were in front of walls, and soundproof vaults. There were also up to 100 secret rooms that Holmes had built into the hotel to keep his victims in. Many so called bedrooms were connected to gas lines. That way he could instantly kill someone.
No one was ever known to escape the Murder castle once they got in and were trapped by all of the secret constructions built into the hotel. H.H. Holmes was later caught, then arrested for the murders. Holmes was later hung in prison by his prison mates. He died on May 7th, 1896.
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