"The clock strikes midnight in the murder city."
Caroline read a book.
Listen up, kids:
It's time for a history lesson...
First, look at this handsome devil...
Because he's the "Devil in the White City"...
Yeah.
Okay.
His name is Herman Webster Mudgett
But in 1886 he changed his name to Henry Howard Holmes and is known as
H. H. HOLMES
Born in 1861 in Gilmanton, New Hampshire, this guy wasn't that crazy as a kid. That is until two older kids had locked him in a doctor's office with a real skeleton. After hours of this, Mudgett was traumatized and this likely assisted his then fascination with death and more morbid things.
As if that's a surprise.
They could have compared moustaches.
Herman went to school like a good little boy and actually became a teacher and then a principal!
This is where things get weird...
...Holmes found himself in a life insurance fraud.
It was a pretty sweet gig! Holmes and a bud would deal with insurance for cadavers and, OH WAIT they're dead, so they could collect on the life insurance! They would get $40000 for the death benefit!
I'm explaining this in so many words but you get it.
Moving on...
Interestingly, Mudgett had to quit his job because the faces of the patients were too unsettling.
1886: Herman Webster Mudgett changes his name to Henry Howard Holmes and runs a pharmacy.
This is when he left to live in Chicago.
THE CHICAGO WORLD FAIR OF 1893
Because the world was finally ready for the Ferris wheel.
Think about it! People from all over the world attending this massive event right in Chicago! Holmes wasted no time in having his dream hotel (OF MURDER) built! Our favorite serial killer was having the time of his life hiring contractors and builders only to fire them halfway through trivial projects like installing doors. By continuously firing and hiring new workers all the time before anything was even finished, no worker could figure out what Holmes was planning. It's brilliant!
So yes, here is the three story (plus basement) murder mansion:
Let's take a look inside...
Inside this place there were rooms that could be gassed up to knock out the visitors. There were stairs leading nowhere. There were rooms that could only be opened from the outside... etc.
And at the center, there was a chute that sent dead bodies straight to the basement.
THE BASEMENT
This was where our buddy performed experiments on his victims. He would torture them. Kill them. Mess with them. Who knows? Holmes had a thing for seducing women and most of his victims were young ladies who he had promised to marry. We do not know how many people were killed here.
So what happened?
I'm gonna summarize (as if I haven't been doing that this whole time)...
Holmes and his insurance fraud pal, Pitezel, got stuck in jail. In their cell in Texas, Holmes and a guy named Hedgepeth made a deal for the life insurance of Pitezel. Carrying out the first stage of the deal, Holmes killed Pitezel, but did not send Hedgepeth his part of the share. Of course, Hedgepeth was mad so he told the authorities who then went after Holmes. After our favorite serial killer killed Pitezel's children (not to mention the 20-100 other people from the hotel) Holmes was captured and hanged on May 7, 1896.
As for the whole "devil" thing...
It's not just because he killed a bunch of people in Chicago. Holmes was convinced that the devil was inside of him and that's who wanted the blood.
So there you go.
You learned something.
