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Hi friends, how are you today? My name is Bailey Sarian and today is Monday, which means it's murder, mystery, and makeup Monday. If you're new here, hi, my name is Bailey Sarian and on Mondays I like to sit down and I talk about a true crime story that's been heavy on my...
and I do my makeup at the same time. I do. And if you're interested in true crime and you like makeup, I would say you should subscribe. Why not? Live a little. And I mean, you don't have to, but you could because I'm here for you on Mondays. Okay, thank you. Thank you so much. So today's story, just a little trigger warning. Trigger warning for today's episode. We are going to be talking about, you know, children kind of getting murdered.
Yeah, so just letting you guys know. Today I'm going to be talking about H.H. Holmes and his murder castle. Ugh. The whole thing sounds fake. The whole thing I'm just like, is this real? Is this a real story or did someone just make this up? Allegedly it's real. I mean, it must be real. Today's story is about a man who people consider to be America's first serial killer. And I feel like I've said that a lot on Murder, Mystery, and Makeup because, you know, the
the 19th century, the 1800s. How was anyone keeping notes? You know, they weren't. So, you know, you could get away with a lot. And yeah. Anyways, I mean, like there are several weirdos who could be contenders for America's first serial killer. And, um...
That kind of sounds like a weird reality show. America's first serial killers. We're on the search. Enough, Bailey. Now today's story, like the case, is kind of straddling two worlds. Some consider him, yeah, like he's a serial killer. He loved killing. He got a thrill from it. And then there's the other side where like his profile doesn't quite fit the definition of serial killer. Like, um...
He seemed to be very money focused and not so much trophy, quote unquote, trophy focused. Does that make sense? Okay, great. I know it does. I know you got it. Come on. Okay, where do we even start, you know? I'll start with his name because we today all know him as H.H. Holmes, but when he was born, he was given the name Herman. Herman Webster Mudgett. Yeah, Herman Mudgett.
Could you imagine that name? Woo! That's a rough one. Herman Mudgett. Herman Mudgett. So Herman, Mr. Mudgett, he was born on May 16th, 1861 in New Hampshire. He was, I mean, he had brothers and sisters. He was the third child out of five kids in total. So he was like a middle child. Pay attention to me.
So Herman's family had quite the name over in New Hampshire. I mean, they had been living there for like over 100 years at this point. So they were well known and they were important people to the area. I mean, they were so important that like they even had a town named after Herman.
Herman's ancestors. So it was like, I'd say that's a pretty big deal, like, right? So this is the 1800s. They're for very religious family, you know, very old school, Puritan-like as they were back then. You know, it's like 150 years ago. And back then pretty much everyone was very, very conservative, very Puritan. I mean, they didn't drink, they didn't gamble, they didn't dance.
Don't you fucking move those feet to a rhythm. So this is only an assumption here, but I'm gonna say it. I probably assume that Herman's upbringing probably wasn't that great. You know, probably strict. I couldn't find any information about like what they did back then. Like, did they just stand around? Like, what did the family do? What are we doing? Couldn't find much. But I will say that the family were farmers. So most likely they were farmers.
extremely hard working and made sure that like the kids were involved, taken care, had responsibilities and all that stuff, you know? I mean farming is hard work and it requires a lot of discipline. I read Grapes of Wrath so I know what I'm talking about. So it's just strict home life, farmers, very
1800s, kind of what you assume. So Herman, growing up, he really loved his mom. As we would call it, he was a mama's boy. I mean, all the rumors out there said that Herman's, again, the household was just really strict and his dad just is an old school guy who like didn't really like build a relationship with any of the kids. So Herman would say that he was like, he was a loner, which led him to
to have a lot of free time. And in his free time, he really liked to read. Now this part had me really confused because he was reading like Edgar Allan Poe and there was somebody else that I'm forgetting, but they weren't very like Methodist. They weren't really books that a strict family would read. Do you know what I'm saying? So like, how did he get these books? I don't know, but that's what was said. Maybe his parents and stuff just couldn't read.
So they didn't really know what he was reading? I don't know. The 1800s was a wild time. I'm not sure anyone knew what was going on. Herman once said that he had a couple of traumatic experiences when he was younger in his childhood and that these experiences, they ended up shaping his whole life.
So there was one story about where he was being bullied like really bad and he was only five years old. He went to the doctor's office. We don't know why, but he's at the doctor's office. So he's out kind of playing like in the hallway or something. And there were other kids there as well. Well, I guess these mean little kids, as five-year-old kids tend to be, they gang up on people.
They end up like shoving him into a closet as a prank, but locking him in there. So this closet, it was inside of the doctor's office and inside had those
like real mounted skeletons, you know, that the doctors have. I don't know if they have them anymore. They usually have posters now, but back then you would see like the real skeletons just standing there. So Herman was like locked in the room with some skeletons and I guess he was like locked in there for a while. Herman would later say that this itself, this bullying situation was super traumatic for him. And I mean, yeah, he's only five years old and he's stuck in a closet with skeletons.
Oh my god, skeletons in the closet. Ah, but trauma, trauma. Is that why they say skeletons? Get your skeleton. I don't know. I'm having an epiphany. Epiphany. My brain hasn't fully turned on yet.
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with 25% off at virtual.com slash podcast. There was this other time where Herman was out playing with his friend Tom. I think that was probably his only friend. So they're outside, they're playing at an abandoned house, as one does in the 1800s, you know? And somehow his friend Tom fell off the roof and he died.
Yeah, he was like right in front of Herman. And again, absolutely traumatizing for Herman here. But Loki, I was kind of thinking maybe this was the point where he was introduced to death and he was like, "Hmm, interesting." I guess watching his friend Tom die had a big effect on him. I'm laughing 'cause it's like, yeah,
I could see that. Checks out. So besides all of this little trauma, you know, little hiccups he had, he was a smart young man. You know, he could do big things with his life if he really tried. So once he's done with high school, he ends up getting a job as a teacher. Yeah. And he's only 16, which is like, wow, good for you.
And it would also be around this time where Herman, he met a nice young woman named Clara. She was only 15 at the time, but you know, 1800s. And they just like, they really liked each other. I mean, so much that they ended up dating
seeing each other and then one year later the two of them would get married in July of 1879. You're probably thinking at home or maybe you're not but I was I was like oh young love you know this is young 1800s love but it's not like it's not they didn't love.
I don't know if they really did like each other. I think honestly, look, it's the 1800s and what happens if you end up getting pregnant before marriage?
You'll be burned at the stake. Yes, correct answer. So when they got married, what I'm saying is the couple went on to have a baby like real quick. The math was not mathing up, you know? So yeah, we could say they were in love or maybe they just didn't want to, you know, get caught, be burned at the stake. So I don't necessarily think this is a surprise. Well, maybe it is because Herman doesn't seem that bad yet.
But apparently, like, neither of Clara's parents were thrilled about Herman. Clara's family thought that Herman was, you know, he was a little different. They considered him to be a little...
peculiar, you know, a bit of a deadbeat. And they also really like criticized his job because being a school teacher back then wasn't considered a respectable job for a man to have. Like men during this time had important jobs. According to them, I'm not saying this,
important jobs like I don't know I can't even think of one but you know doing man shit and they thought it was like a little questionable I mean Clara's mom was not stoked she even like told her daughter like you could do so much better but you're probably gonna be supporting this man for the rest of your life
Whoops, you know, that was a little harsh, but okay. You see with Clara's family, they came from money and people with money, they usually only want to marry into a family with money. So Clara's parents would even go as far as like trying to help out their new son-in-law, you know, whatever his name is, Bozo, Herman.
So they offer him a job. They're like, look, you can't be a school teacher and be with our daughter. You got to get a better job. So they offered him a job working in the family grocery store. And he, you know, he takes a job. At least he will be a little less embarrassing for Clara, I guess. So Herman and Clara's son is born in February of 1880. They named him Robert.
And it was also around this time that Herman stopped working at the grocery store and goes on to become an apprentice to a doctor. I know. Wow. This doctor's name was Dr. White.
It's just funny to me that you can just kind of choose a job. And back then they were like, yeah, come on in. We'll show you how to do it. So Herman works with this doctor for about a year and then he gets a little antsy and wants to move. So he goes to Burlington, Vermont. I hear they have great coats there.
Thank you, thank you, I'm here all day. So this is when Herman starts studying medicine and apparently he was not a great student at this point. He wasn't really like living up to his potential as being that highly intelligent Herman that he was growing up. And also when he moved to Vermont, he didn't like take his wife with him
So he's living like with a roommate so he can attend school and then the roommate also goes to school. It was like a dorm pretty much. So he left Clara and little Robert back at wherever they were and he studied in Burlington.
So his roommate is another young medical student. His name is Fred. So Herman tells his roommate that he's married and he's like, look, if you can keep that on the like down low, that'd be great, you know? And his roommate's like, okay. I think he wanted to live as a single man. I'm not sure, but he didn't want to be married in this.
And Fred was kind of like, okay, it goes along with it. But then he starts to notice Herman is flirting with different girls in the classes at school. It didn't sit right with him. And then slowly that tension starts building between Herman and his friends.
roommate, 'cause Fred is like, "I'm not liking this guy. Shady." So tensions are really building between the two and they end up getting into some kind of fight. Okay, but it's like the most 1800s fight I've ever heard in my life. So Fred one day had used Herman's mustache wax without asking. You know, when your roommate uses your shit and you're like,
It was like that Herman was livid. And then they got into a full on, one of these kind of fights. You wanna get out of here? Like they really did. That's what it said. Anyways, Fred, he ended up with like a black eye and a pretty scratched up face. Herman went off. So things really aren't going that great in Vermont, you know, like for school and everything. 'Cause like Herman's kind of weird and awkward, but this is when Herman finds his passion in life.
His passion, his calling, something like that, you know? Dissecting bodies and money. Money was Herman's biggest motivator. It was his North Star. And the passion was only growing with time. I mean, there's a story about how around this time in his life, when he's in Vermont and whatnot, he had a cobbler come fix his shoes for him and told him that he would pay him 43 cents.
Bargain, I know. He's like, "I'll be right back. I got it. I left my wallet. I'll be right back." So he leaves and he comes back and, well, he doesn't come back actually. He leaves, he ghosts him and he just never shows his face again. And then if he ran into the shoe guy, the cobbler, Herman's like,
What are you talking about? I sent that money with my, I came looking for you. You weren't here. I asked my friend to get, it's your fault. He was really good at gaslighting. So he would do this to people and just kind of make them feel a little crazy. And nobody really knows like what happened to the money. I'm gonna assume he didn't even have any. He's like, yeah, I'll pay you back, man. Be right back. And just never showed up again. He was becoming...
So he loved money, right? Great. But his passion for dissecting bodies is what would be his ultimate toxic trait, you know? So in medical school, dissecting cadavers is one of like the main ways you learn
how to treat bodies or, you know, if you're gonna be a doctor, you're probably gonna have to dissect and look at like human parts, right? And Herman was so into it. He's like, "Oh my God, I love this. What's this? Liver?" He was just like living, learning, loving. And Herman was just so into this that he would actually take his classwork home with him. For example,
There was one morning at his dorm room where he's staying with the roommate, you know? So Fred is noticing something stinky going on. He's like, I don't know what's going on, but this shit stinks. So he goes downstairs and he tells like the landlady that he just did not sleep well that night. And the landlady says,
said that, or she noticed that Fred, he just looked really pale. Like he saw a ghost. So she goes upstairs later that morning to like tidy up their room. And she noticed a really strong smell coming from their room. Stinky, you know? So she's starting to use her nose to investigate where the source is at. So she's looking around, looking around. And then she sees like under Herman's bed, there's a dark object.
So she grabs her broom. Yeah, she kind of like tries to pull it out, whatever was under the bed, which was not surprisingly crusty socks, but instead she pulls out what seemed to be a dead baby. Girl, I got questions. I feel like this is enough. We don't need to go on from here, right? So for one of like Herman's classes, they were doing, it was a cadaver for their class, the dead baby.
for class and he was having so much fun with it he just decided to take it home. I don't know you guys. I really just don't know. What was he gonna do? Keep dissecting it? What was he gonna do? What was the end goal there? I don't know. I don't know.
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with 25% off at ritual.com slash prenatal. So I think once Herman goes to this college, he's really like leaning into that weirdo side of him, you know? And it's not just the dead babies under his bed. It's also how he would treat his family. I mean, no surprise here. Well, it's sad that I say that, but it's like,
Of course, Herman was like pretty abusive to Clara. And it's while he's in Vermont that she finally has enough. She's like, I'm not taking this anymore. I'm leaving. He must've been totally fine with it because she ends up leaving him. And she also ends up living with Herman's parents.
That part I couldn't really figure out because I thought her parents were well off. So I was like, why don't you just go home? I don't know. Maybe they felt some kind of like obligation to her. I don't know. She's part of the family. So she lives with Herman's parents. So now that Herman is free from the old ball and chain, he decides, hey, I'm bored of Vermont. I should go somewhere new. So he decides it's time to go to medical school at the University of Michigan.
Which was like a great move for a young man. He's entering medicine and this school is becoming like a serious scientific frontier. I mean, this is a time in history when like healthcare, medical attention stuff was a little funky. Like, I don't know, questionable. But now it was like evolving and it was becoming what we consider modern medicine today, you know?
And Herman was right there at the forefront of it all. And it's like, go Herman, you could be a doctor and do things. And it's like, no, no.
No, of course not. But Herman, he ends up using medical school and this kind of free-for-all frontier industry to conduct his first little like money-making crimes. It's like he loves bodies and medical stuff and money. Interesting combination there. Again, back then like medical school was just the wild west. It was the wild west. With so many like change and so much exploration and discovery happening,
that is when medical schools, they really needed cadavers to teach people with, right? And there was like this huge need for them. I mean, how else do you expect people to practice, you know, or learn on alive bodies?
I don't think so. And this gets Herman to thinking, "Hey, there's a demand for bodies. If there's a demand, there's an opportunity." So once class ends, Herman goes up to his anatomy professor and says, "Hey, I heard you need bodies. I got a guy." Which I don't really know if he got a guy. I think the guy was himself. Yeah. So Herman is thinking like, "You know what? There are bodies just like hanging around, right? They're in like a cemetery."
Sorry for laughing, it's just, he's thinking about it. No one's using those bodies, they're just laying in the ground. So Herman, he pulled himself up by his bootstraps, grabbed a shovel and started digging up these graves to get the bodies. #selfmade.
I don't know. But what he was doing was called grave robbing. So yeah, it was very much illegal back then, but Herman, he didn't care. Okay. He's like, "I'm just needing to make some money. People need bodies. I'm not gonna get caught." He's like so overconfident for someone who's never done it before. It's very bizarre. So Herman, he would literally, you know, dig up these graves, pull out these bodies and then sell them to the medical school.
And Herman found out that this was an easy and like, it was good money, you know? One estimate said that he made like what would be a million dollars today by selling these bodies. And he made it quick. So yeah, he's like, why get a job? I'm gonna just sell these bodies. I mean, during this time, like he wasn't the only one doing it. It was like a, you know, black market type of deal. But, uh...
Herman was definitely one of the biggest players out there. Now, I don't know if this is funny or if this is like just a weird coincidence. I giggled a little because I'm not kidding you. Herman lived on a street. The street that he lived on was called Cemetery Way. And as a bonus, he lived directly across the street from an actual cemetery. Herman was like, it's meant to be. Okay. God is telling me.
I have to do this. So it really worked in his favor, you could say. So life on Cemetery Way was not great for Herman. His classmates, because he was attending the University of Michigan, remember? And a lot of his classmates were not fond of this Herman guy. They said he was dumb, that he was weird, and he also gave people the creeps.
And I was like, what does that mean? Like, what's 1800 creep? You know? Like, people didn't know what was off about him, but there was something
You're just kind of like, I don't really like you, but you don't know what it is. You just get that weird vibe. So a lot of people were kind of like that. A big reason why I also thought he was weird because he was cross-eyed. So it's not funny because like, but they thought it added to him, like giving off that shadiness. And they also said, I think the grossest part of all, they said that he smelled weird.
the other students would say that he had a quote, "peculiar odor." And then they gave him the nickname, "shmegma." Shmegma. Do you know what a shmegma is? Well, if you don't know, according to WebMD, a shmegma is the thick, white, cheesy substance that collects under the foreskin of the penis.
Schmegma. So maybe you could see why he wasn't that well liked. He had a funky odor, looked a little shady, was weird. You get it. Just the smell alone, I think I would keep my distance. So Herman graduates medical school in 1884 at the age of 23, and he goes on to become a school principal. Now, once he gets a little bored, once again, he's very antsy.
He then moves to Philadelphia and he starts working at a local pharmacy. But I guess this doesn't last very long because something kind of strange happens. A little boy had mysteriously died after taking medicine supplied to the boy by Herman. And then once Herman got word of this, he just was like, "Oh, that's crazy.
"Well, time to clock out." And he just leaves. No one sees him again. Did he do it? I don't know. But by his actions, I would say maybe. Schmecma. That's a fun word, Schmecma. Hey, what's that? Schmecma. What are you doing? Schmecma. So now it's 1886 and 25 year old Herman got the hell out of Philadelphia and decided to go to Chicago.
And this is a big turning point for him because this is when he decides to rebrand himself and he changes his name to Henry Howard Holmes. In other words, H.H. Holmes. So around this time, there was a very popular book series out. It was called Sherlock Holmes. And remember, growing up, like Herman, he loved to read. And he would confirm later that
that he named himself after Sherlock Holmes. Yeah, he was like, I mean, Sherlock Holmes is a character of towering intellect and he's also a genius. And Herman's like, oh my God, me. So makes sense, right? I'm gonna keep calling him Herman because I think it's kind of cute. So great. Plus I'm not gonna give him what he wanted. He wanted to be known as H.H. Holmes and no, I'm not doing that.
You're Herman, know where you came from. So he's in Chicago and he starts an entirely new life, you know, just from scratch.
And Chicago was a perfect place to do just this because the city itself was rebuilding after the great Chicago fire. I guess this fire had just ripped through the whole city in 1871, killing around 300 people. A third of the city's residents lost their homes and the fire burned for about four miles long and a mile wide. I guess in the end, like it destroyed nearly 18,000 buildings.
So with that being said, the city's kind of in ruins and they're looking to rebuild into the great city they were trying to be. So the city itself was offering
very low prices to a lot of land to like kind of get people to come back and build for them. So Herman is seeing this as an opportunity. He's like, "Oh, I could get land for really cheap, buy whatever I want. I mean, not buy whatever I want, but like build whatever I want and probably make money or something, you know?" He's like, "Yeah, I don't know. We'll see." This is when Herman really leans into his con man era. So he starts out with something that he's familiar with.
He gets a job at a drugstore and this drugstore is called E.S. Holton Drugstore. The owner of this drugstore, his name was Everett Holton. He had recently died. We don't know what of, most likely cancer, but all we do know is it was natural causes. So Herman goes to the now widow
And he's like, "Look, I got money. Can you please sell me the drug store?" And she's like, "Okay." Some sources say that Ms. Holton, after that, she mysteriously disappeared. Now many say that she took the money and she just ran, which I think kind of makes sense. Why not? And then others think that Herman may have,
removed her from the situation so he didn't have to actually pay her. Nobody knows for sure. So he gets this place, it's 1888. Herman is 27 years old and he's ready to like build his empire. So while working at the drug store directly across from him was this like empty plot of land. I mean the land was super cheap and Herman's just thinking of all the possibilities. He could build some kind of like giant complex
like almost for free. And then it's all profit, you know? So he does just that. He buys the land. He hires contractors, day workers, craftsmen, just people to like help him build
a freaking building and all that. But of course, because Herman is Herman, he decides, "I'm not gonna pay these contractors and stuff." Instead of paying them, he would complain that they did a really bad job, or he would lie and say like, "I sent you guys the money, you didn't get it."
Well, I know I sent it. It even had a stamp. You didn't get it? Well, that's not my fault. You must've been drunk and misplaced it. So he pulled that kind of shit. So he literally got this whole like complex built literally for free because like he didn't pay anybody. He was such a scammer. It's just wild. So Herman, he starts off by building, well, his team that he didn't pay, they built a really crazy,
cool place. He wanted something that would be cool and have lots of different things in it, kind of like almost a mall. So the first floor, it had a pharmacy, a jewelry store, a barber shop, a restaurant, and also a blacksmith.
Yeah, all of that on the first floor. Talk about a one-stop shop, huh? So, great, he builds all that. And then in 1889, Herman is kind of realizing that he's a very, he's lonely. He's a lonely man. He doesn't have any companionship in his life, you know? By the way, he smells, I'm sure.
there wasn't a lot of people interested in him. It's safe to say at this point in his life, he really didn't have a lot of friends either. So he decides that he should get a business partner. It's kind of like a partner, right?
Right? So he can't leave. He's your partner. He's your friend. He's your companion, but also he's helping you with the business. So Herman brought this guy on and his name is Benjamin Patizel. Now this Benjamin guy, he's also just, everyone's a hot mess at this time. When Benjamin first meets Herman, he was like 33 years old and he was working as a carpenter.
Most likely Herman met him during the construction job on his building. And I guess like there was something about this guy that Herman was like,
That's my man. That's my man right there. I'm sure like there were something about Benjamin's personality that Herman was able to pick up on. Also his weaknesses, you know? Like Herman sensed a bit of vulnerability in Benjamin and/or maybe he had also like some shaky morals. It was kind of true. I mean, Benjamin, he loved to drink alcohol. He loved alcohol. It was his life.
and he really struggled with it. And because of this, it might have put him in a very desperate situation where Herman could really take advantage of him. In 1889, the word alcoholic was literally just starting to be used
to mean like somebody who drinks too much. So Herman told Benjamin that if he came to like work for him, he would make his life great. You know, Benjamin would have money, he would have security. And Herman told Benjamin that he could also cure his alcoholism because he was a drunk.
Because he went to medical school, of course, hello. Now Benjamin's believing him. He's like, "What? Oh my God, yeah, you did go to medical school. You can probably cure me." You see, when Herman was working in the pharmacy, he was a bit of a pusher, you know? A pusher. Because Herman really dabbled in the snake oil side of medicine. So, you know, like natural ways of healing that are a little questionable at times.
Herman was into that. Anything that would make him money, really. Herman would make a lot of promises to his customers that he could cure their cancer with like bubble gum. Yeah, just chew it twice a day. It'll change your life. He did well. People didn't know any better. It's 1889. Okay. I don't know what they're doing. So yeah, what I'm getting at is Benjamin becomes Herman's sidekick.
They're like Bert and Ernie. They're working together. They're forming a good bond and friendship. And eventually Herman meets Benjamin, his family. And he has a quite large family. Benjamin was like married to a woman named Carrie and the two of them had five kids. So Herman being the stinky man that he was somehow became very friendly with the kids. Almost like an uncle. Yeah, he was Uncle Herm.
Now we enter the next phase of building for Herman. So the first floor of this building is totally legit, you know, has all those stores and stuff. But now that he has Benjamin,
You know, he had this partner who could help him with his little ideas. But also Herman wanted a lady. He wanted a lover. So in 1890, Herman begins having an affair with a married woman. Her name was Julia. So Miss Julia, she had actually worked at one of the businesses on the first floor. And once her husband had found out about the affair, he leaves her and their daughter.
So it's now Julia and her little girl named Pearl, the two of them. Now, both of them are living with Herman and they've become just really dependent on him. And then around the same time, Julia, she finds out that she's pregnant with Herman's baby. Oh, I know. He's like, "Fuck." Just kind of like,
slows down my plan. And then, you know, it's so weird because Christmas Eve of that year, they just disappeared. It's weird. He's like, "I don't know. They just left. That's crazy, huh?" Literally just vanished. Where'd they go? Nobody knows. Nobody knows. So sadly, Julia and Pearl, they were like never found. They just moved on, I guess.
Or did they? I don't know. But they were literally never found. People have their theories. But Herman said that Julia had actually died trying to perform an abortion on herself. But even then, it's like, okay, but where's her body at? And where's Pearl? I don't know.
Nobody knows. Okay, so Herman is ready to continue his building, which he tells Benjamin is now gonna be like a castle. So in order to keep building this castle, they need money. So Herman goes to different like investors and he's going to them and he's telling them that he's planning on turning the third floor of his building into a hotel.
And they were like, "Oh my God, we love that idea." And they loved that idea because the World's Fair was coming to town. So the World's Fair was like this massive event that was held in Chicago in 1892. And it was like to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus in Chicago. But with that being said, tons of people come to the town because they all wanna go to the World's Fair.
I think there's around 25 million people that visit. Isn't that nuts? Anyways, so investors know that like Chicago was going to be a major destination and they would need hotels. And there really weren't any around during this time. So Herman just tells the investors that it's going to be a hotel, but he really didn't have any intention of actually visiting.
making it into a hotel. Maybe some people could stay, but he's like, I'm not doing that shit. But he got a good amount of money from investors and he was like, cool, thanks. It was just so easy for him, it seemed like. So he gets some money and he continues building upwards for his castle. Three stories, baby. So now it's 1892 and Herman begins another affair with a young woman named Emmaline? Emmaline.
Emily. So Herman was like introduced to her by Benjamin and I guess Herman was, or whatever, you know, he just wanted to like bang, let's be honest. But Herman offers her a job working for him for double the pay because she was currently working at some rehab center. And he's like, how much you make? And she tells him and he's like, okay, I'll pay you double that if you come work for me as my personal secretary. So naturally she's gonna be like, fuck yeah.
Okay, I'm in. So Herman and Emmeline, they of course begin a romance and I guess he ends up proposing to her, which would be exciting for her. Except pretty soon after, she tells the neighbors that she's moving home to Indiana and doesn't say why. They're like, aren't you getting married though, girl? It was a lot. So people are just kind of,
minding their own business, but it was noted. And then just like previously, she was never seen again. What the hell's going on? I know. And like the neighbors would ask, they'd go up to Herman and be like, "Hey, what happened to so-and-so? "I thought you guys got engaged." And he's like, "No, she ran away to marry some other man named Robert."
I'm like, okay. So that happens. And then a year goes by and Herman is a little lonely again. So he wants a companion. So he ends up going on a trip to Minneapolis and he meets a woman named Myrta. He meets Myrta and he like falls in love, whatever, same shit, different day. And he's like, will you move back to Chicago with me? And she agrees. She's like, sure. You seem cool.
I like your mustache. Herman also tells her, "I'll give you a job. You can help me at my drugstore. I have my own drugstore. You can work there, make money."
And I mean, sounds great. She moves with him. Myrna was a little different than his past lovers though, because she seemed to really, really like him. And she was like also a little bit jealous. Yeah, she was like a jealous girlfriend. Anytime people would come in and like Herman would talk to a woman or like look at a woman, she'd be like, "What are you doing? Who's that? Are you fucking her? You want it?" You know. So she's starting to get on his nerves. And then shortly after Myrna, she becomes pregnant. So,
Maybe Herman really liked her too because he actually gets married to her. Yeah. I don't know how. He's got like how many wives at this point? Yeah, but he marries her. Great. So then Myrta goes on to give birth to their daughter, a girl named Lucy. And then we really don't hear much about them after this because for some reason he sends Myrta and Lucy home.
up to live with some family north of Chicago. And he would only visit them like twice a year. And sadly, that's a wrap on Myrta. Never hear about her again. It's like, okay, what's going on? So as time is going on, Herman is running out of money. So he's like, dude, we gotta get some money. We gotta get some work. We gotta do something, right? So he and Benjamin, they go down to Texas
And Herman like meets this woman who was an heiress to a little mini fortune, some kind of like a state out in –
So he meets this woman and he's like, "Okay, this is my prize right here. I gotta seduce her." So her name was Minnie. And even though she fell victim to Herman, she was actually, she wasn't a dumb ass, okay? So this woman is like, "You know what? I need a fresh start." And so she knows that Chicago is considered like a booming town. So she moves there, okay, and heads to an employment agency to look for a job.
So Herman meets her there and hires her as a secretary. Now she was smart, remember? She was a very smart young woman. And most likely the theory is that she was helping him with his dirty business. Her name had appeared on like a bunch of different documents and she definitely knew what he was up to. You know what I'm saying? She knew. I mean, she was very wealthy and she just trusted that guy
So she had no problem signing over her estate in Fort Worth to him. And then she somehow convinces her sister to do the same thing. Now, once this is locked and loaded, guess what? Once again, the sister is convinced that this is her sister's property.
Never seen again. So exhausting. I know. I'm like, dude, you are busy. Just chill out for a minute. Well, after Minnie disappears, like I'm tired right now of this, but I have to tell you, he gets married again. I know we're tired.
He's 33. She's 24. Her name is Georgiana. So technically she's his third wife because he's still married to Clara and allegedly Myrta. And now Georgiana. Okay. Yeah. What he liked about Georgiana was that she came from a wealthy family and she had a bit of an inheritance coming from
from her grandmother. So Herman's like, "You're a 10 in my book, let me snatch you up." We all know that Herman likes to collect wives and girlfriends and all that, right? Okay, great. Well, I'm sure you're thinking, "Well, where are they all going?" Well, let me tell you about the second floor of Herman's castle, okay? So what he built was actually pretty genius, right? Herman knew that in order to actually pull off the kind of fraud
he really was fond of, which were like medical cures, insurance fraud, screwing over contractors, and manipulating people. He just deep down needed to kill. If he was gonna feed this passion of his, he knew he needed to be able to get away with it.
So he built this insane group of chambers on the second floor that were literally chambers of death. So if you look at this, you can see things like laboratory or asphyxiation chamber.
which was a room he built with gas lines going to it. So like he could put people in there and then gas them to death. What the fuck? Yeah. Second floor, baby. He built that shit. I wonder if the contractors were like, I wonder what's gonna happen in here.
Kind of odd. So there were rooms that were completely surrounded by like the other rooms. And so therefore like there were no windows around. So like no one even knew it existed. On top of that, he soundproofed a lot of the rooms and he used asbestos to soundproof them.
soundproof it so like no one could hear any of his victims screaming or asking for help, you know? There was even a garbage chute where he could easily dispose of a body from like a room upstairs to the lower area where he had built an actual crematorium. So inside of there, it had acid baths and also an oven that could heat up to 3000 degrees Fahrenheit. Yeah, yeah.
I'm worried. Like what the fuck is going on? No words. I mean, it was again, like really smart for that time. And like, no one would see what was going on. No one would smell anything going on. It's like these people and their bodies would just be gone. It was pretty genius, but like terrifying at the same time, you know? But in total, like the second floor alone had 35 rooms. I don't even, I mean,
No comment. So Herman said that he was going to like rent out the rooms, like a hotel, which he didn't really end up doing. He ended up renting out like to people as long-term rentals and it worked out for him. Like nobody questioned what was on the second floor. They either assumed like it was more offices or it was going to be like a hotel or whatever.
No one just, no one had questions. Okay. So Herman, he ends up going to Texas and he starts like building another giant castle like thing, you know? This time though, what he does is he goes, he buys the land, buys the property. He takes out a bunch of mortgages on it. He gets the cash and then he leaves town. Kind of smart.
I'm not saying he should do that. It's just like, okay, yeah, you get it. Kind of smart. Anyways, on his way out, Herman sees some horses and he thinks to himself like, oh, I should take those horses because I could probably make some money on those horses. He's just always thinking about making money. Anyway, so he takes like all these horses on his way out and he sells them, takes the cash and just gets the fuck out of Texas. But this would really all become the beginning of the end for him because what happened?
was he would get caught, arrested for more fraud. And when he went to jail, he met a notorious train robber.
I know, it sounds so cartoony. A train robber, his name was Marion Hedgepeth. So this Hedgepeth guy, he was involved in a gang and they called themselves the Hedgepeth Four. And this Marion guy, he was all over like wanted posters. And on the wanted posters, it said like, it would describe him as having impeccably polished shoes. I mean, that's...
Really gonna narrow it down, huh? Now this Marion guy, he would be caught, Hedgepeth, he'd be caught by the Pinkerton Detective Agency. They were kind of like private detectives. I mean, they would catch everybody. And then they finally caught that Hedgepeth guy and his whole gang.
in the year 1891. So when Herman came and like started sharing a cell with him, he told him all about like a new plan that he was hatching up with his friend Benjamin, and they were going to fake his death and get money for it. I guess Herman had convinced Benjamin to take out a life insurance policy on himself, and then what they were going to do was fake his own death, and then they could split the money.
Yeah. So Herman's telling this to that Hedgepeth guy. And Hedgepeth is like, what? That's genius, you know? He's like, I want in. And he gives Herman the name of a shady lawyer who could probably help them find a body that they could say was Benjamin's body. And in exchange, Hedgepeth just wanted, you know, a little bit of a cut.
So Herman said like, "Oh yeah, for sure. Give me that number. You're in." So on September 4th, 1849, Benjamin's working at a drug store and he has like regular clients. One of his regulars comes in and finds Benjamin.
dead but it was like the real Benjamin. I guess what really happened was that Herman he got Benjamin really drunk so drunk that he either passes out or probably passes out or just was completely out of it and then Herman he went up to him and was able to overpower Benjamin with chloroform
Forgot about that one, I know. And once Benjamin is out, Herman just keeps pouring more and more chloroform directly into his throat.
while like pressing on his chest to make sure it had gone to his stomach. Herman then arranges the body to make it look like a chemistry accident, as if he like accidentally broke a bottle of benzene and a beaker. So then Herman lights a match really close to Benjamin's body, just trying to cause an explosion. And then...
he gets the fuck out of there. He figured that the body would be found, ruled as an accident, and just go on, right? So he's just waiting for that news. But it didn't happen that way. When the police came out to investigate the scene,
They thought the whole thing was like not an accident and not look like an accident. They're like some foul play has been involved in this. The explosion theory had been completely dismissed because the death was so sudden from the chloroform poisoning. This was determined by the investigators and autopsy reports. And they believed, I mean, it was obvious to them that the body had been staged.
For some odd reason though, the coroner's office, they ruled it as an accident.
Because Herman is just one lucky bitch, right? And then they didn't even dig further into like, well, I really haven't. So this is a story about a girl named Lucky. Her name's Herman. Because he just has the best luck, doesn't he? But this does kind of like make Herman panic a little bit because like, that was close. He's like, that was real close. Well, lucky for Herman, the plan was still working out. The check, the insurance check had been mailed.
And Benjamin's wife, she got the most money, like $7,200. Herman got $5,000. And what happened was that he forgot to pay someone else, and that was Marion Hedgepeth. Now, I'm no expert, but maybe you want to pay that guy who's like a train robber that you met in jail. I just feel like you probably want to make sure to pay that guy. But, you know...
Herman was always looking for a bargain. No, he wasn't. He was looking to just rip people off. Okay, but Herman was having a bit of a problem because Benjamin's wife, she didn't know that it was actually Benjamin that was dead. She thought it was like the whole body double situation. She had no idea that her husband was not coming back. But the daughter...
of Carrie and Benjamin, her name's Alice, she knew the truth. And Herman was questioning whether or not she would be able to keep it from the family. And she's young, I doubt it. So Herman was like, "Okay, I need to deal with the family." So remember earlier I had said that to these kids, Benjamin's kids, he was considered Uncle Herman, right?
So he invites the kids all back to his house. He's like, "I'll help you guys heal. Come with Uncle Herman." And he takes the children in. Children are like writing letters back to their mom. The letters are, they're sad, but like they keep saying that Uncle Herman is kind of weird.
Something's weird about him. Well, it wouldn't take long for Uncle Herman to poison. He poisoned one of the little boys by putting cyanide in his eggs with his breakfast. So this little boy, he ends up dying because he's poisoned by eggs. So after this, Herman ends up dismembering the boy's body. He shoves it into the stove along with some corn cobs and wood, and then lights it on fire.
with corn cobs and wood. Yeah, weird. And apparently he did it really quickly because he had killed the boy at 6:00 PM and still made it to his train at 9:00 PM. So remember there were like, I think there were five kids. So he's killed one now he's got to like continue with the others. And he does so, he ends up killing two more by poisoning their food.
and then he buries them in the cellar. And I don't know if he's just getting sloppy or just he's exhausted at this point, but he puts very little effort into like hiding their bodies. He didn't dismember them and he just buried them in a shallow grave. Okay, well, one thing for sure is you can't rip off a con man. You just...
You can't do that. So remember that Hedgepeth guy? He's like, "I'm gonna find this little shit." But he doesn't have luck. So he's like, "Okay, I'm gonna rat him out to law enforcement. I'm gonna go tell the insurance investigators that this guy is a fraud."
That's when Fidelity Mutual got wind that Benjamin didn't die in like an accident. And they sent investigators to go like snoop around. And eventually they end up bringing in Hedgepeth to question him. And he rats them all out. He tells them their whole story. Herman. He's like, yeah, in jail he told me he was gonna, um, it was gonna be insurance fraud. Uh-oh.
It's not going to be very good. So at this time, Herman's really starting to panic. He knows like shit's going down and he does the weirdest thing. Remember his very first wife, Clara? Well, in 1888, he goes to Clara's house and he tells her that he was in a terrible train accident and he got amnesia.
And he forgot all about that. And he's like, it's crazy. And then I woke up today and I was like, wait, I used to be married.
So he's telling her all this, hoping that she's gonna believe it. He's like, "Isn't that nuts? I came out of my coma and you were my first thought." But little did Herman know that the police, or I should say like that Pinkerton PI people, they were just right on his ass waiting for the perfect moment to arrest him. They couldn't just go arrest him just yet 'cause they didn't have any actual proof, but they ended up getting a telegram from the people in Texas. Remember when he was there and he stole a horse?
He was like, yeah, come here, horses. Authorities in Texas had sent a telegram to the authorities wherever he was staying. And it said like larceny of one horse. And like that was all the information they needed to go out, close in and arrest Herman Mudgeit.
Yeah, it was over. November 17th, Herman Mudgett, aka H.H. Holmes, was arrested for the murder of Benjamin. They don't know about everything else just yet, you know? So in July of 1895, the investigators go out to the castle and they start digging around. And then what they find, you know what they find, absolutely mind-blowing. They were not ready. 1895, they don't know what the hell is going on.
The first thing they noticed was that the smell in the cellar was apparently like beyond just the smell of death. It was like nothing investigators had ever smelled before. They called it unnatural.
And then they went down to, or they went over to the drugstore and they found a hidden door that was lined with asbestos for soundproofing, yes. And they figured it was a place he could lock someone in and no one would hear them scream. What the hell, dude? He was so bored. Like, I don't know what he was doing. Like, okay, he would lock him in, but then he wouldn't torture or anything, which I think is great. Like, at least he wasn't torturing. I think locking in a room is kind of torturous, but...
You know, normally you hear about some other shit going down. He just locked them in a room and like left them there for a while until he was ready to kill them. Like, what was that? Anyways, investigators, they found a stove on the third floor. It had ashes inside the stove. And inside they also discovered like a watch and chain. And this watch and chain had belonged to the missing Texas woman or Texan woman. Her name was Minnie. Remember Minnie?
Yeah, it belonged to her. They also found a dummy elevator that was being used in the restaurant on the first floor, but it could also be used for bodies instead. Yeah. And once they went to the second floor, that's when they discovered
So much more. They found the fake passages and stairs. They found doorways that led to nowhere and secret panels that led to secret rooms. I mean, it was a lot, right? Now press gets a word of this and they go pretty insane. Of course, in newspapers, they're all talking about the story, the tabloids, and it was insanity. The headlines were wild. It would be like, "Ribs in the ashes." It's an insane story. Do you blame them?
There's a murder castle.
You don't hear that every day. But they were also kind of like making the story worse. And there was like a bunch of tabloids coming out and just making wild claims. So that part like really kind of messed up the story because it was taken as truth. So it gets really messy. So Herman's trial comes up and he did not get along with one of his lawyers. So he's like, you know what? Fuck that guy. I'm gonna represent myself. Of course he did. Of course he did. And as you're aware, I'm sure...
These never go well. But you know what? He ended up pleading guilty.
which I thought was like interesting. I thought he would have said, "Not guilty." So at first he was, you know, trying to defend himself saying he had nothing to do with Benjamin's death. And he was trying to convince the court that Benjamin had killed himself and he had nothing to do with it. But he would actually, Herman, he would end up taking money in exchange for giving like his side of the story to the press. So he confessed to 27 murders in total.
And he also went on to say that he was possessed by Satan. Yeah. He told the papers that he was born with the devil in him. And like he knew he had to like kill people. I was like, oh, okay, yeah. So the good news is that he got some money for this. The bad news, he got the death penalty. So Herman...
Herman, he was hung in prison on May 7th, 1896. I guess it kind of was a shitty death sentence because like his neck didn't snap like it's supposed to. So he kind of like dangled for a while. It was a slow death is what I'm saying. And you can't really be that mad, can you? I think slow and painful is probably the best for him. Yeah, I guess he ended up like slowly suffocating for like 20 minutes and then he shit his pants and then he died, so.
You know, not too mad about it. Now Herman only had one request. He wanted after he died, he wanted his body to be buried in concrete so that nobody could dissect him. I know, I thought that was a little weird 'cause I'm like, okay, so you did it to everyone else, but why? Maybe he was an alien, I don't know. But he did not want anyone to dissect him, okay? And the court actually granted this. Kinda odd, but okay. And then I was mind blown because in 2017,
2017, they ended up exhuming Herman's body and his grave was just like his murder castle, very creative. There was a fake coffin.
Okay, there was a fake coffin buried in the ground, but then once they moved that coffin, they found the concrete and then a second coffin. I know. I don't know what the fuck is going on in the story. I just don't know. It was said that his body was so well preserved that it still had Herman's signature look, the handlebar mustache.
So here's what I'm going to end it on because it's quite interesting. There's actually some evidence out there to suggest that Herman, a.k.a. H.H. Holmes, was actually Jack the Ripper, notorious London serial killer who mutilated and murdered six sex workers and whose identity was never discovered.
You see, Herman's descendant, Jeff Mudgett, thinks that Herman was in fact Jack the Ripper. And even though that's an insane theory, there's some evidence that actually backs it up. First of all, Herman left a pretty significant paper trail, right? He was always taking notes, writing letters, making deals, signing documents, whatever. But there was a strange gap in Herman's life.
like paperwork or deals happening between mid 1888 and early 1889. The exact period when Jack the Ripper was on his murder spree in London. Also,
There's ship records of an H. Holmes on a passenger ship returning to the U.S. from London after the final Ripper murder. You want to talk about Suspish? I was like, what? Tell me more. And like-
Turns out, man, it's a whole nother story. But I mean, literally, because our next murder mystery in makeup has been also requested many times. So I'm gonna do, I've been working on a two-part deep dive into Jack the Ripper. Two-part. There's a lot. I don't know how to do, it'd be like a five-hour freaking video. So I'm gonna do a two-parter because I wanna know, I think...
I think it was H.H. Holmes. Anyways, so that's the story about H.H. Holmes. There's so much I had to leave out because, you know, this is easily also would be a three-part
parter and I thought about it, but mmm. It's just all insurance fraud mainly. And like that's fine. That's what he did. He loved money. I really think that was his motivator, but it's just bizarre how far he took it, huh? Like for the weird and unique style of killing he did, you would think he was like all about murdering people, but it just seemed like they were disposable.
and he was really just trying to get their money. I don't know, this dude is weird. H.H. Holmes, was he a serial killer or just a bored, dedicated businessman? My personal opinion, I think he was Jack the Ripper, but we'll find out more next time. I also just really don't like this guy. He was exhausting. I don't know how he found the time to do as much as he did. This
It was wild. Anyways, thank you guys so much for hanging out with me today. I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day. Please make good choices out there and I'll be seeing you guys later.