Essay Example on H H Holmes was born into a wealthy Family

H H Holmes was born into a wealthy family in New Hampshire His real name was Herman Webster Mudgett He was very privileged growing up His mother was a schoolteacher was a very cold and distant individual who used religion as a daily guide for parenting Read 2004 His parents would abuse him physically and mentally His father was alcoholic and he had disciplinary strategies for Holmes to listen like food deprivation and using kerosene rags to quiet him when Holmes cried He was incredibly bright and intelligent He was a loner in school He never developed real meaningful relationships and was bullied in school He was the outsider of many things He had a fascination with performing surgeries on animals He had a fascination with skeletons and soon became obsessed with death He wanted to major in Medicine because he felt like him experimenting on animals made him want to explore things further He enrolled in University of Michigan Medical School and he would steal cadavers from the laboratory He would burn them and disfigure them and then planted the bodies making it look as if they had been killed in an accident He used them to make false insurance claims 

That’s what made him start scamming and start his schemes to get what he wants He was married to a woman named Clara Levering She was extremely wealthy and he took that to his advantage to pay his tuition in University of Michigan Medical School He was extremely flirtatious with women and he even had 3 wives in different cities He would make women take out life insurance policies naming him beneficiary and use them Part II Criminal Activity HH Holmes built the Murder Castle but he designed it like a maze to trap the guests that would sleep there It had three floors and it the layout was so secretive that only he knew While he was killing these people staying at the Castle he sold the bodies The Castle became an elaborate scheme to fulfill Holmes dark desires while also allowing him to make an income selling the skeletons of his victims to medical schools When constructing the building it was complex and the architecture was different from other buildings and that attracted people to stay Inside the castle was an operating room a torture chamber a mortuary and a room to conduct human experiments because he had a fascination with opening people up Maybe it had to do with him being bullied as a child Many women lost their lives because he seduced them Holmes rooms were built to have booby traps in them in mazelike fashion incorporating corridors leading nowhere with concealed passages behind walls sliding panels secret staircases peepholes into the rooms through the backs of pictures and trapdoors concealing metal chutes that connected with the elaborately designed basement But he was tried for the murder of Benjamin Pitezel Once he left Chicago he went back to scamming he and Benjamin Pietzal made a plan to fake his death to collect 10 000 from a life insurance company But turns out he actually killed him and his three children The only reason why the authorities found out was that while he was in prison for a life insurance fraud he told about his killing to an inmate and his name was Marion Hedgepeth He helped investigators find out the truth The time span of the crimes was from 1891 to 1894 He was put on trial in October 1895 and was found guilty He confessed about other murders he committed as well 

The evidence that was used in the trial was the murder castle Why is that because it had a lot of tools for torture and kill his victims The tools were poisons knives acids and etc When the police looked in the basement they saw a lot of bodies The other evidence was that they found bones and the teeth s of Howard Pitezel inside Holmes s chimney He was hanged on May 7 1896 in Philadelphia Pennsylvania He killed around 20 to 200 people Part III Characterizing the Serial Killer Holmes was extremely smart he didn t get caught until he told his fellow inmate Hedgpeth The category he would fall into would be an organized offender because he was incredibly smart and got away with so many murders and none suspected a thing In the hotel he murdered so many people The murders were extremely planned out and in full detail He knew the victims very well He was intelligent because he was also charming and he convinced Pitezel to go with the devious plan Another reason why he is an organized offender is that he was able to keep doing these hideous crimes for years He had a wife and a normal life he wasn't a loner HH Holmes killed to gain profit he knew the victims very well The type of serial killer he is would be a Hedonistic serial killer He killed for his pleasure and his personal gain He always outsmarted the law He killed people to feel a rush because he liked to play doctor and do experiments on the victims