Among the many tropes found in horror stories, the one about the murder hotel is probably one of the most explored and, to be honest, the most terrifying. However, before this became a common motif in fiction, it was something that actually happened. We have stories like the murders of Burke and Hare in England, who would kill and sell their victims’ bodies to medical schools. But the case we’re about to discuss is the Murder Castle of H.H. Holmes. Built in the last decade of the nineteenth century in Chicago, it’s said that the huge building (called a castle by the neighbors) became the bloody setting of about 200 murders. But who was this man and why did he turn his property into such a macabre landmark?
Born in 1861, Herman Webster Mudgett (his original name) proved to have a sinister soul from a very early on. It’s said that he always showed a great and unusual interest in death and corpses, which led him to pursue a career in Medicine after he graduated from high school. He attended the University of Michigan Medical School, but his interest for anatomy went far beyond the books he studied. That obsession, mixed with his endless ambition, gave him an idea he would exploit for the rest of his life. He stole bodies of unidentified people to dismember them or injure them, only to later plant them on the street so the police would think they had been killed in a terrible accident. Then, he would alter their insurance bills so that he could receive some of the coverage money.
After he finished his studies, he moved to Chicago, where he got a job at a pharmacy. Not long after, the owner of the business died and left all his possessions to his wife. The story he told in his memoirs and in the confessions when he was arrested was that he convinced the widow to sell him the property and that, with the money she had received from the sale, she moved to California to start over. However, it was reported that the old woman disappeared without leaving any trace, so now she is believed to have been one of his victims. With the money he got from the pharmacy business, he acquired an empty lot across the street where he would start building his masterpiece, the macabre Murder Castle. Designed and directed by Holmes himself, it was reported that he would constantly hire and fire workers so that they didn’t realize what were the main intentions behind its design, and in 1892 the castle was ready.
He published some ads in the newspaper offering jobs to young women to work at his recently opened hotel, but that wasn’t the only thing he advertised. He also wanted to find a wife and promoted himself as a wealthy man seeking for a woman to spend his life with. One of the interesting things about these ads was that he required his employees and future wife to have life insurance. Once they proved to have one, he offered to pay for an upgraded insurance on the condition that they would name him as their sole beneficiary. Little did they know that they had just entered into the lion’s den, or to be more literal, they had signed their death sentence, since they were never going to be seen again.
In 1893, the city of Chicago was selected to host the World’s Fair in celebration of the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus’ discovery. This gave Holmes the opportunity to satiate his inner murderous drives. He promoted his hotel as the best lodging business in the city to drag hundreds of foreign tourist visiting the Fair. And, of course, many did check into the devil’s hotel. Now, how could a man murder so many people in that building without people noticing? I mean, screams or any sort of suspicious sounds. The thing is, Holmes was a very smart person (at least in regards to the design of his beloved hotel) and created soundproof rooms connected by a very intricate web of gas pipes that could be closed or open only to serve one room. And by serving I mean discharging the amount needed to asphyxiate his distinguished guests without altering the gas supply of the house.
Among the many other novelties the house had, he created strategic peepholes to spy on his guests, door traps to snare his victims, and a very optimized system of chutes that conducted to the basement. Now, these were used to dispatch the corpses of his victims to the basement, where he had installed a full set lab that worked as a morgue and slaughterhouse at the same time. He had a huge dissecting table where he would skin some of his victims and sell their skeletons to medical schools. But he would also cremate or get rid of them by throwing them into pits filled with acid.
Everything was looking great for this sinister character. However, the fair left the city in a huge economic crisis. Blinded by ambition, he abandoned the city and traveled throughout the country doing what he did best: conning people and insurance companies. This time he had an accomplice, a man called Benjamin Pitezel, but soon he found himself bored and wanting to diversify his criminal history. He changed paths and became a horse thief and dealer in Texas, crime that, after a while, would put him in hands of justice for the first time. In jail, he met Marion Hedgepeth, with whom he planned his comeback in the insurance scamming scene.
Holmes left prison after paying a bill and set the plan in. He was supposed to fake his death and cash 10, 000 dollars, but the insurance company didn’t really buy the story and refused to pay. Not giving up, he moved to Philadelphia and contacted his former accomplice to continue his plan. This time Pitezel was the one to fake his death, but Holmes wasn’t going to make another mistake and decided to kill the man and his family to keep all the money to himself. In 1894, back in prison, Hedgepeth, feeling angry for Holmes’ betrayal, told the police everything about the scams which led the authorities to Holmes.
When they tracked him in Boston, they realized that all his belongings were packed as if he were about to flee, which made them suspicious. They decided to investigate the records of this man, which lead them to his enormous castle in Chicago. There, they witnessed the horrors hidden beneath the walls, being the basement the most macabre and sinister thing they had ever seen. There were body limbs and parts all over the place in an advanced stage of decomposition, which made it really hard for the authorities to determine a real number of victims.
Holmes’ life has become a legend in America. It’s said that the number of people he killed reached the unbelievable amount of 200, counting the 27 murders he actually admitted to in court. He was convicted and sentenced to death by hanging. His castle was cleaned and remodeled to be opened as an attraction venue, but prior to the big opening, it was destroyed by a fire. As for him, many assure he escaped the hangman. Others, like his great-great-grandson, Jeff Mudgett, claim that he was no other than the legendary Jack the Ripper. What is true is that, no matter how much you dig in the story, each element seems to belong more to the realm of fiction than to reality, but being a real history makes it even creepier and more terrifying than any other horror tale.