Herman Webster Mudgett: A Serial Killer

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Have you ever wondered the origin of the phrase, “serial killer”? A serial killer is Defined as a person who has killed three or more people over a period of more than a month. Herman Webster Mudgett, known as HH Holmes, is credited with being one of the first serial killers in America. Holmes’s crimes started out as simple insurance fraud to help him live a comfortable life while in school. Soon, his crimes turned gruesome. Holmes brutally tortured and murdered up to 27 men, women, and children; but most believe he murdered up to 100 people. Holmes’s early childhood showed little to no indication of his future actions of mass homicide. Herman Webster Mudgett was born May 16, 1860 in Gilmanton, New Hampshire. He grew up in a strongly committed…show more content…
Holmes decided to build a home that also purposed as his business (pharmacy), and as a hotel for fair goers to stay. When constructing the castle, he frequently fired and rehired workers to prevent anyone but him knowing the full layout of the building. The castle was built in such a way that guaranteed that no victim would escape, “... a maze of over 100 windowless rooms with 51 doorways that opened up to brick walls. Other mysterious architecture included oddly angled hallways, stairways that led to nowhere, doors that opened only from the outside, body shoots to an incarcerator, hidden rooms...” (Life insurance 6). Holmes would lure people into the murder castle by presenting a place for the fair goers to stay, and offering jobs in the pharmacy, mostly to women. Many of the people who worked for, or stayed at Holmes’s hotel were never seen again, but few questions were asked. All the while, a steady stream of skeletons and organs were being donated to local medical schools; still, no questions were asked. Holmes also began to have an affair with one of his workers wife. When Holmes discovered she was pregnant, he realized he was not ready to be a father. He conducted a ruthless abortion, which in turn. killed the woman. Holmes’s murders soon took another terrifying turn, he would kill the one person he considered a close
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