The Weird World of H. H. Holmes (Part 1)
In the late 1800s the neighborhood of Englewood (now part of Chicago) was a quiet, independent community located on the outskirts of the Windy City as Chicago is known. Among this community there was a "Mrs. Dr, Holden" as newspapers referred to her, who ran a drugstore at 63rd and Wallace. She had an awful lot of business to deal with in a fast, growing suburb and was happy to find an assistant by the name of Dr. Henry H. Holmes.
In 1887 a druggist was a chemist who knew all about elixirs and potions. The new assistant was just what the owner needed. He was handsome with blue eyes. He knew his trade well and was able to fill any prescription. His politeness and wonderful manners brought many of the ladies in the neighborhood to just this drugstore. Soon Holmes started taking over and seemed to have become the manager of the drugstore. He spent more of his time working with the ledgers and chatting with the ladies than filling prescriptions. In the neighborhood he was a well-known figure walking along 63rd Street with a stick in his hand. The drug store continues to make profit and Mrs. Dr. Holden was content. As time went on, Holmes was the more prominent figure in the business until one day he announced that he had purchased the store from the widow, who had moved out west. Needless to say the lady had simply vanished leaving no forwarding address.
Two years later, Holmes purchased a large lot across the street from the drug store on which he proposed to construct a hotel that he could operate during the coming Columbian Exposition in 1893. He informed no one of what he planned on calling the said hotel but for generations to come it would simply be known by one name - "The Murder Castle".
Holmes real name was Herman W. Mudgett who was born in 1860 in Gilmanton, New Hampshire. His father had been the local postmaster for almost 25 years and was a wealthy and respected citizen. Early on in life, Mudgett dropped his given name and became H.H. Holmes. This was also the name under which he attended medical school. Throughout the years of growing up he was in constant trouble and would be cruel to animals and smaller children. In 1878 Holmes married Clara Lovering who was the daughter of a farmer in Loudon, New Hampshire. It was the year he began studying medicine in Burlington, Vermont and later in 1879 he transferred to the medical school at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. At this school he devised a method of stealing cadavers from the laboratory. Holmes would disfigure the corpses and put them in places that made it seem as though they had been killed in accidents. To make it convenient for himself he had taken out insurance policies on these "family members" so that he could collect the money as soon as the bodies were discovered. A few months after he completed his biggest swindle, insuring a corpse for $12,500 and carrying out the plan with an accomplice who later became a prominent doctor in New York, he left Ann Arbor. He abandoned his wife and infant son. Clara then returned to New Hampshire and never saw her husband again.
In 1885 Holmes posing as an inventor opened an office in the North Shore suburb of Wilmette of Chicago. At this time he filed for a divorce from Clara but the case went on till 1891. Despite this fact in 1887 he married Myrta Z. Belknap in Minneapolis, Minnesota while he was still wed to Clara Lovering making him a bigamist. With Myrta he had a daughter named Lucy Theodate Holmes who was born on July 4, 1889 in Englewood, Illinois. The family lived in the suburb of Wilmette. The marriage was an odd one. Myrtle continued living in Wilmette while Holmes began living in Chicago. Myrtle's father John Belknap later discovered that Holmes had tried to cheat him out of property by forging his name on deeds. Belknap also declared that when he confronted Holmes of this matter Holmes tried to poison him. Myrtle ended the marriage in 1889. There are those who say that the house in Wilmette where Myrtle lived is haunted today.
Not long after he had married Myrtle, Holmes opened an office in downtown Chicago, with the A.B.C. Copier, a machine for copying documents. He worked form an office on South Dearborn but the copier proved to be a failure and Holmes vanished again leaving behind creditors with $9,000 of worthless notes. It was a few months after this that he began working at the drugstore in Englewood on the corner of 63rd and Wallace Street. It was in 1889 that Holmes having pulled off an insurance scheme returned to Chicago from Indiana and purchased the empty lot across from the drugstore. Work on the hotel began in 1890.
Holmes continued to run the drugstore adding a jewelry counter and hiring Ned Connor of Davenport, Iowa as a watchmaker and jeweler. Ned Connor, his wife Julia and daughter Pearl moved into a small apartment above the drugstore. Julia gained Holmes interest and he fired his bookkeeper and hired Julia in the man's place. It was not long after this that Connor began suspecting that Holmes was carrying on with his wife. Connor abandoned his family and went to work in another shop downtown. Afterwards Holmes took out large insurance policies on Julia and her daughter naming himself as beneficiary. Years later it was suspected that Julia had become a willing participant in a lot of Holmes' schemes. In August of 1890 he incorporated the jewelry business and named Julia and her friend Kate Durkee, as directors.
Meanwhile construction was going on across the street. The building was to have three stories and a basement, with false battlements and wooden bay windows that were covered with sheet iron. There were over 60 rooms and 51 doors cut oddly into various walls. Holmes was acting as his own architect and construction supervisor. As far as the police were to discover later it appeared as if Holmes hadn't paid a cent for any of the construction material used on the building. The building was also fitted with trap doors, hidden staircases, secret passages, rooms without windows, chutes that went down to the basement and a staircase that opened out over a steep drop to the alley behind the building.
The first floor contained stores and shops, while the upper floors could be used for living quarters. Holmes had an office on the second floor with the other rooms to be used for guests. Later evidence would prove that Holmes used some of the rooms as "asphyxiation chambers" where he suffocated his victims with gas. Other chambers were lined with iron plates and had blowtorch like devices fitted into the walls. In the basement was a dissecting table and Holmes also maintained his own crematory. There was also a vat filled with acid and pits full of quicklime, where bodies could be conveniently disposed of. If a victim tried to escape an alarm would ring in Holmes' quarters.
The so-called castle was completed in 1892 and afterward Holmes announced that he would rent out rooms to tourists who would be arriving for the upcoming Columbian Exposition. It is unknown how many people fell prey to Holmes but after the exposition at least 50 people were reported missing and the police following their trail found that it ended at the castle.
An advertisement for lodging went up during the fair. A large number of female victims were gotten through false classified ads placed in small town newspapers offering jobs to young ladies. The young ladies were informed that they would have a choice of positions and if accepted told that she had to pack up her belongings and withdraw all her money from the bank because she would need to have funds to get started. The applicants were also told to keep the location and the name of his company a secret because he had devious competitors who could try and steal his clients from him. Once the applicant arrived and Holmes was convinced she had told no one of her destination she became his prisoner. Holmes also placed ads for a partner in marriage. He described himself as a wealthy businessman seeking a wife. With those ladies who answered this ad he did the same as with those seeking a job. Unbelievably Holmes was able to keep his murderous affairs a secret for four years. During this time he killed a number of people most of which were women. Later he would confess to 28 murders.
In 1893 Holmes met a young woman named Minnie Williams. He introduced himself as Harry Gordon and said he was a wealthy inventor. He was interested in her because he had found out that she was the heir to a Texas real estate fortune. She worked in Chicago as an instructor at a private school. When Minnie became engaged to Holmes, Julia Connor was not happy about this. Not long afterwards, both Julia and Pearl disappeared. When Ned Connor inquired after his wife and daughter Holmes told him that they had moved to Michigan. When it came to confession time, Holmes said that Julia had died during a botched up abortion that he had performed on her and he had poisoned Pearl.
Minnie Williams lived at the castle for more than a year and knew a lot about Homes' crimes certainly more than anyone else. It was believed that Minnie instigated the murder of Emily Van Tassel. She was a young lady who lived on Robey Street. Emily was only 17 and worked at a candy store located on the first floor of the castle. She vanished one month after Holmes offer of employment. Minnie also knew about the murder of Emmeline Cigrand a beautiful young woman working as a stenographer at the Keely Institute in Dwight, Illinois. One of Holmes' acquaintances Ben Pretzel went to the institute to take a drunkenness cure. He told Holmes about the lovely stenographer. Holmes got in touch with Emmeline and offered her a job working for him in Chicago. She accepted and came to the castle but never left it. Emmeline was homesick after a few weeks and missed her family and the man she was planning to marry Robert E. Phelps. Later Holmes confessed that he locked the girl in one of the soundproof rooms and raped her. He then killed her because Minnie didn't want him lusting after attractive young women. After some time had gone by Robert Phelps came to the castle to inquire about Emmeline and that was the last time he was seen alive. Holmes described a "stretching experiment" with which he killed Phelps. Always being curious about how much punishment a human body could stand Holmes often used the dissecting table on live victims. He invented a rack-like device that would literally stretch a person to the breaking point.
Then in April of 1893 Minnie's property was deeded to a man named Benton T. Lyman better known as Holmes' accomplice Ben Pretzel. Later that year Minnie's brother was killed in a Colorado mining accident which was supposedly arranged by Holmes himself. In June of 1893 Minnie's sister Nannie came to Chicago and stayed at the castle. During this time Holmes seduced Nannie and got her to sign over her share of some property in Fort Worth. A month later she disappeared the explanation being that she had returned to Texas but Holmes said that Minnie had killed her own sister because he had been consorting with him. It was Minnie who hit her sister over the head with a chair and then she and Holmes dropped the body into Lake Michigan.
Holmes and Minnie went to Denver with another young woman named Georgianna Yoke who had come to Chicago from Indiana. The woman had applied for a job at the castle. Holmes informed her that he was Henry Howard and the Minnie was his cousin. On January 17, 1894 Holmes married Georgianna at the Vendome Hotel in Denver with Minnie as witness. Afterwards they all went on to Texas where they claimed Minnie's property and arranged a horse swindle. Holmes bought several railroad cars of horses paying for them with counterfeit banknotes and signing the papers as "O.C. Pratt". The horses were shipped to St. Louis and Holmes made a fortune. However it would be this swindle that would later destroy Homes. When the threesome returned to Chicago, Minnie disappeared. Holmes explained that she had killed her sister in a fit of passion and then had fled to Europe. At this time the police believed him thinking him to be an upstanding citizen. It was only later on that Holmes confessed to killing Minnie. Her body was never found and it was believed that she became one of the victims of the acid vat in the basement.
Holmes was arrested for the first time in July of 1894. This was due to the horse swindle that ended in St. Louis. Georgianna bailed him out. While in jail Holmes started up a conversation with a convicted train robber named Marion Hedgepeth who was serving a 25-year sentence. Holmes had made up a scheme to bilk $20,000 dollars out of an insurance company by taking a policy out on himself and then faking his own death. He promised Hedgepeth a $500 commission in exchange for the name of a lawyer who he could trust. The train robber directed Holmes to Colonel Jeptha Howe. The brother of a public defender and he thought Holmes' plan was brilliant. Holmes then took a cadaver to a seaside resort in Rhode Island and burned it. He disfigured the head and then dumped it on the beach. Afterwards he shaved his beard, altered his appearance and returned to the hotel registering under another name. He then inquired about his friend Holmes. When the body was found it was identifies as H.H. Holmes. However the insurance company suspected fraud and didn't pay out any money. Holmes had to return to Chicago and think up another scheme.
After a month, Holmes held a conference with Ben Pretzel and Jeptha Howe and his new plan was put into action. This time Pretzel went to Philadelphia with his wife Carrie and opened a shop for buying and selling patents under the name of B.F. Perry. Holmes then would take out an insurance policy on his life. The plan included a scheme where Pretzel would drink a potion that would make him unconscious. Then Holmes planned to masquerade as someone who had been severely burned. While a witness went to summon an ambulance Holmes would replace the unconscious Pretzel with a corpse. Then the insurance company would be told that he had died. Pretzel in turn would receive a portion of the money for taking part in the scheme but soon he learned that Holmes could not be trusted.
The supposed accident took place on the morning of September 4. Neighbors heard a loud explosion from the patent office. A carpenter named Eugene Smith went to the office and found the door locked and the building dark. He was concerned about what had happened and summoned a police officer. They broke down the door and found a badly burned man on the floor. The death was ruled as an accident and the body was removed to the morgue. After 11 days when no one claimed the body it was buried in the local potter's field. Afterwards the police found out that the dead man (Pretzel) had come to Philadelphia from St. Louis and they asked the police of that city to search for relatives. Within days attorney Jeptha Howe filed a claim with the insurance company on behalf of Carrie Pretzel and collected the money. Howe kept $2,500 and Holmes took the rest. Later he gave Mrs. Pretzel $500 then took it back and told her he would invest it for her. Marion Hedgepeth didn't receive any money leaving behind one slighted criminal.
Hedgepeth stewed over this for a while and then decided to turn Holmes in. He explained the scheme to a St. Louis policeman by the name of Major Lawrence Harrigan who then notified the insurance company investigator W.E. Gary who passed the information along to Frank P. Geyer a Pinkerton agent who began an immediate investigation. There was one thing in all this that Holmes had not told anyone. The corpse that had been discovered in the patent office was really Ben Pretzel. Holmes himself had burned Pretzel so that he could not be identified so he wouldn't have to split the money again. He kept this part of the plan a secret because he and Georgianna were traveling with Carrie Pretzel and her three children. Carrie believed that her husband was hiding out in New York. On October 1 the group was last seen in Cincinnati and then in Indianapolis. They then sent Carrie east and the children were left with Holmes and Georgianna. Holmes told Carrie that he would meet her in Detroit which was where her husband now was hiding. Holmes arrived in Detroit several days before the time he had said he would meet Carrie and put the three children into a boarding house. He then returned to Indiana and got Georgianna whom he placed in a second boarding house. When Carrie arrived she was placed in a third boarding house. Then Holmes started traveling about because he was aware that the Pinkerton detective was on his trail. This went on for 2 months and then on November 17, 1894 Holmes arrived in Boston alone, was arrested and sent to Philadelphia.
