THIS is the terrifying story of how America’s first ever serial killer slaughtered hundreds of guests in his hell hotel.
H. H. Holmes butchered unwitting visitors who booked themselves in to stay at the Chicago guest house – not knowing they had strolled into the lair of a bloodthirsty maniac.
12
12
12
Once they had checked in they had little chance of escaping from the labyrinth-like “Castle” and Holmes was free to pick them off at his leisure.
The building was a nightmarish maze of hidden passages and death rooms – specially designed for killing, torturing and disposing of bodies.
Holmes had the hotel – which spanned nearly three blocks – specially built, and the cunning killer kept hiring and firing builders and architects so nobody knew the full design but himself.
It was filled with secret stairways, fake walls and trapdoors which he could use to ambush his victims.
Holmes – born Herman Webster Mudgett – would watch his guests through peepholes before sneaking into their chambers and murdering them in a variety of gruesome ways.
BURNED ALIVE
Many of the 100 or more rooms were sound-proofed, so he could slaughter at will without alerting the other guests.
There was a secret hanging chamber and even blowtorches hidden in walls to engulf victims in fireballs as they slept.
Some rooms were sealed air-tight with gas jets hooked up to a tank in the basement that could quickly fill the air with poison as he watched them struggle and choke.
All were wired to an alarm system which rang a buzzer in his private apartments if they opened the doors – meaning he knew if anyone was trying to flee.
There was also a hidden “vault” where it is thought Holmes would trap victims and before slowly filling it with acid.
12
12
12
12
Erik Larson, who wrote the book The Devil in the White City about Holmes, said in 2017: “One room was essentially a vault, in which he dispatched at least one victim.
“She left a perfectly etched footprint on the inside of the door which suggested, according to the Chicago Fire Department at the time, that Holmes may have spilled acid into the room underneath the door.
“In her terror she tried to force the door open by placing her foot against it.”
In another room – which had no doors and could only be accessed through a trap door in the ceiling – he would leave victims to starve.
All around the house there were greased chutes leading to the basement, which he could use to dispose of bodies – or push the living.
It was down here that he carried out some of his most gruesome acts.
TORTURED AND DISSECTED
The hellish dungeon had a Medieval-style torture rack which he could use to stretch his helpless victims until their bones popped out of their sockets.
A qualified chemist and pharmacist with a medical degree from the University of Michigan, Holmes also had a dissection table and surgical equipment to strip the flesh from their bones and carve out their insides.
The maniac would craft the leftover bones into skeleton models and sell them to medical schools, along with organs and other body parts.
The corpses and body parts he couldn’t sell were incinerated in the basement’s ovens, dissolved in vats of acid or buried in lime pits.
Many of his victims had travelled from out of town for the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, making them the perfect targets.
If anyone came asking about them he could just say they had checked out and left.
12
12
12
Holmes is believed to have slaughtered up to 200 people between 1891 and 1894, when he was finally caught and arrested.
He confessed to being an “evil” mass murderer and admitted to 27 killings – although the true figure is thought to be much higher.
Holmes is recorded as saying: “I was born with the devil in me.
“I could not help the fact that I was a murderer, no more than the poet can help the inspiration to sing.
“I was born with the evil one standing as my sponsor beside the bed where I was ushered into the world, and he has been with me since.”
Most read in News
He was hanged at Philadelphia's Moyamensing Prison on May 7, 1896.
Witnesses said he maintained his cool to the very end, even telling the executioner not to rush.
It took Holmes more than 15 minutes to die, twitching repeatedly as he strangled to death before he was pronounced dead, The New York Times reported.
Read More on The US Sun
Since his death, some historians have claimed he could have been Jack the Ripper, carrying out the infamous Whitechapel murders during a visit to London.
The horrific tale of his hell hotel is being made into a series for Hulu, with Leonardo DiCaprio and Martin Scorsese as the executive producers.
12
12
