The Holmes Curse at the University of Michigan

Herman Webster Mudgett, better known as the serial killer Dr. Henry H. Holmes, was the most notorious criminal of the late 19th century. After he was sentenced to death in 1895, the legend of a curse grew around him: death, disabling disease or personal ruin would follow those involved in his trial and imprisonment. Prominent among those said to have succumbed to the curse were the jury foreman who died by accidental electrocution (a rare thing in the 1890s) and the seemingly violent death of his spiritual adviser.

I don't abide by the notion of the curse. An equal number of those around Holmes prospered for decades beyond his death. Nevertheless, if one is going to talk about a Holmes curse, you might need to go back to his days in medical school when an unusual number of his classmates died.

Mudgett studied medicine at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, beginning his medical education in fall of 1882 and graduating in June of 1884. During the year prior to his arrival one student died. During the two years after his departure, a total of three died. During his two years there, thirteen died.

Excerpted from an 1880 bird's-eye map of Ann Arbor, MI. Holmes lived at 15 Cemetery, at the corner of Cemetery and Observatory (middle right). The entrance to the cemetery is marked with a "6." The Medical School buildings are on the middle left, marked with a "25."

A Diversion: A Medical Education at the University of Michigan in the mid-1880s.

According to a History of the University of Michigan (1885), "The qualification for admission [to the medical school] were . . . a good English education, a knowledge of natural philosophy and of elementary mathematical sciences, and some slight acquaintance with Latin and Greek."

Over the course of the 1880s the program changed, dropping the requirement of a thesis and transitioning to three years. Holmes/Mudgett stayed two years, perhaps receiving credit for his apprenticeship with Dr. Wight in his hometown.

The student's commencement speech for the medical school class of '83 included a volumetric and statistical description—with a bit of tongue in cheek.

The graduating students totaled 2,675 years in age. The heaviest weighed 225 pounds, the lightest 95 pounds. The tallest was 6 foot 3, the shortest 4 foot 11 in high heels.

The costs and living expenses for the medical education averaged $355 dollars per year. Fifty-four students, approximately half, were described as self-sustaining, i.e., working their ways through medical school.

Occupations before entering*:

36 students.
31 teachers.
10 farming.
5 clerks.
5 jacks-of-all-trades.
2 railroading.
1 each: mechanic, agent, druggist, jeweler; oil operator; "woman's sphere."
1 each: idle, pleasure-seeker, growing up.

*Note: not all total the same number of responses.

Affiliation:

48 Republicans.
20 Democrats.
5 Prohibitionists.
4 Free-traders.
1 each: Liberal, Anti-monopolist, Anti-secret, Anti-whiskey.

Student Deaths, 1882-1884.



The following are the student deaths which took place during the time in which Mudgett/Holmes was enrolled. The main sources were The Palladium, a student annual put out by the secret societies (i.e., fraternities and sororities) and The Chronicle, a student newspaper published during the terms.

1882-83. The fall session began September 27, 1882 and the professional schools began classes on October 1st.

• d. September 29, 1882. Sidney H. Burt. (Literary Department) His death is also listed as October 3rd. The floor of his family barn collapsed on him as he was making repairs beneath.
• d. October 21, 1882. Sarah Ella Hunt. (Medical School). In the Michigan Argonaut it says she died of a sudden and painful illness, typhoid. (class officer: seer)
• d. November 4, 1882. Leonard B. [or D.] Smith. (Medical School). Hemorrhage of the lungs.
• d. January, 1883. Ralph Kuechler. (Literary Department.) Died of pyemia after tonsil surgery led to infection.
• d. February 10, 1883. W.J. Nichols. (Literary Department) Fatal shooting, believed alone in barn, bullet through his eye. Labeled as accident.
• d. February 1883. Robert D. Stephens. (Medical School) Died of pneumonia while accompanying body of Ralph Kuechler to Austin, TX for burial.
• d. February 7, 1883. William A. Turney. (Literary Dept.). Typhoid pneumonia.
• d. May 4, 1883. Jason DeWitt Schafer [also written as J.W. Shaffer]. Died of pyemia. (Described as friend of Robert Stephens)

1883-84. The fall session began September 26, 1883 and the professional schools began classes on October 1st.

• d. January 16, 1884. William Walter Harris. (Literary Dept.). "Quick consumption."
• d. January 18, 1884. Frank Kilbourn Ferguson. (Literary Dept.). Typhoid.
• d. February 5, 1884. John F. Cowing, (Law School). Bright's disease.
• d. February 14, 1884. Lincoln G. Williams, (Law School). Stated that he died February 14 in The Chronicle but corrected in March, saying that he had not died. Michigan Death Index, 1867-1889 lists him as dying June 14, 1884. He could have had a lingering illness, supposed death and then ultimate death.
• d. May 21, 1884. James A. Jennings, (Medical School) Malignant diphtheria.

Holmes graduation: June 26, 1884.

Before and After.

Let's compare this to how students fared the year before Holmes arrived.

The year before Mudgett:

1881-1882. (one death)

• d. January 9, 1882. Noyes A. Darling. (Dental school) Cause of death uncertain. Suspected "poisoning of organic nerve centers."

The year after Mudgett:

1884-1885. (three deaths)

• d. August 19, 1884. Lincoln Buzzard. (Literary Department) Drowned in Base Lake.
• d. November 14, 1884. George B. Mizner (Law School). (Cause of death not stated)
• d. February 15, 1885. Homer S. Lynn (Medical School). (Cause of death not stated)

Two years after Mudgett:

1885-1886

no deaths.

What to Make of This.

 During Holmes's two years at the University of Michigan, there were an average of five more deaths than usual per year. Nine of the total deaths were ascribed to infections, one due to hemorrhage of the lungs, one violence, and for two I could not find the suggested cause.

The uptick in mortality was noted at the time:

"This [Cowing's death] is another factor in the unprecedented mortality in the University." (The Chronicle, February 16, 1884, p.174)

Is it possible that Mudgett was responsible? First of all, "is it possible" is near the lowest of all standards. So, yes, it is possible. Here, in my personal order of likelihood (most to least likely and they are all unlikely), are the means by which Holmes could have been behind several of the deaths.

• 1. He could have been involved in the gunshot death and the deaths for which I could not find a cause.
• 2. Determining cause of death at the time was (and still is) an imprecise task. Certain poisons can cause diarrhea and wasting and electrolyte imbalances and kidney failure. Perhaps some of the causes of death were misdiagnosed.
• 3. Holmes could have visited sick beds and did something to make the patient worse. 
• 4. Holmes was involved in the acquisition of bodies for dissection. He could have lowered the standards and acquired bodies from places with disease outbreaks. Included with the story of the dental student's death was a note that said they did not believe it was secondary to dissection of a contaminated corpse.
• 5. Holmes could have purposefully infected his fellow students.

Let me comment on the last one. Although purposefully spreading disease by, for example, passing over a louse-filled blanket taken from a dead man was a possibility, culturing microorganisms, even the science of understanding which microorganisms caused which disease, was in its infancy at the time. Infecting with specific organisms would have been borderline science fiction. The University of Michigan Medical School would open its first microbiology laboratory for students in 1887.

A final note: the time before and after Holmes in the 1880s were associated with violent death for Ann Arbor. In 1881, President James Garfield was assassinated by an ex-student of Ann Arbor High School, Charles Guiteau. Guiteau had been turned down for admission to the University of Michigan. Of course, Holmes went on to a career as the most notorious murder in the United States in the 1890s.

On top of this, the most notorious murderer in England of the 20th century, H.H. Crippen, was a classmate of Holmes, having attended the homeopathic program in 1883.

While Holmes went on to star in Erik Larson's The Devil in the White City, Crippen took center stage in Larson's next book: Thunderstruck.

Previously: Holmes at the University of Michigan, Part One.
Holmes at the University of Michigan, Part Two.

Adam Selzer endeavors to separate myth from fact in his new biography of H.H. Holmes.

H.H. Holmes is a major character in my novel, A Predator's Game.

---------------------------
A Predator's Game is available in soft-cover and ebook editions through Amazon and other online retailers.

A Predator's Game, now available, Rook's Page Publishing.

 -----------------------
Nikola Tesla, Arthur Conan Doyle and Dr. Henry H. Holmes are all characters in my  thriller, A Predator's Game, Rook's Page Publishing.

Back page blurb of A Predator's Game.

Manhattan, 1896.

When the author Arthur Conan Doyle meets Nikola Tesla he finds a tall, thin genius with a photographic memory and a keen eye, and recognizes in the eccentric inventor the embodiment of his creation, Sherlock. Together, they team up to take on an "evil Holmes." Multi-murderer Dr. Henry H. Holmes has escaped execution and is unleashing a reign of terror upon the metropolis. Set in the late nineteenth century in a world of modern marvels, danger and invention, Conan Doyle and Tesla engage the madman in a deadly game of wits.

Martin Hill Ortiz, also writing under the name, Martin Hill, is the author of A Predatory Mind. Its sequel, set in 1890s Manhattan and titled A Predator's Game,  available from Rook's Page Publishing.

His recent mystery, Never Kill A Friend, is available from Ransom Note Press. 

His epic poem, Two Mistakes, won second place in the 2015 Margaret Reid/Tom Howard Poetry Competition. He can be contacted at mdhillortiz@gmail.com.

Continue reading →

The Twenty-Seven Murders of Henry H Holmes, Part Four

The Twentieth and Twenty-First Victims.

This is the final chapter in my critical evaluation of Holmes and his victims.
 

    "The Williams sisters come next. .... I first met Miss Minnie R. Williams in New York in 1888, where she knew me as Edward Hatch .... Early in 1893 I was again introduced to her as H. H. Holmes in the office of Campbell & Dowd. of Chicago, to whom she had applied for them to secure her a position as a stenographer. Soon after entering my employ I induced her to give me $2500 in money and to transfer to me by deed $50,000 worth of Southern real estate and a little later to live with me as my wife .... I also learned that she had as sister Nannie in Texas who was an heir to some property and induced Miss Minnie Williams to have her [sister] come to Chicago upon a visit. Upon her arrival I met her at the depot and took her to the Castle .... It was an easy matter to force her to assign to me all she possessed. After that she was immediately killed in order that no one in or about the Castle should know of her having been there save the man who burned her clothing. It was the foot-print of Nannie Williams, as later demonstrated by that most astute lawyer and detective, Mr. Copps, of Fort Worth, that was found upon the painted surface of the vault door made during her violent struggles before her death. [snip] I took Minnie] eight miles east of Momence [Illinois] upon a freight line that is little used, and ended her life with poison and buried her body in the basement of the house^b."

    Holmes had a high turnover rate among secretaries. He killed them. Having known Minnie Williams for years, in March, 1893 he acquired her services as a stenographer. She was an orphaned child raised by a rich uncle in Fort Worth, Texas. Her younger sister, Anna "Nannie" Williams grew up in Mississippi and became a school teacher in Texas.

    Holmes wooed and quickly married Minnie Williams in a private ceremony with just the two newlyweds and the preacher — who may not have been a preacher. The marriage was never registered²⁹; the ceremony was probably intended to induce Minnie to sign over her properties. With another wife living closeby, Holmes moved Minnie into a house away from the Castle.

    Perhaps concerned about all of the letters Minnie wrote to her sister, Holmes asked Minnie to invite Nannie to come visit. In contrast to Holmes's confession, when Nannie arrived, he treated the two sisters to a tour of the Columbian Exposition. Holmes is believed to have killed Nannie in his vault on or about July 5th, 1893.

    What happened to Minnie is uncertain. Holmes confessed to killing her and burying her in the small town of Momence south of Chicago. There are several indications that she lived for several more months, presumably unaware of the fate of her sister.

     In his explanation for Nannie's disappearance in Holmes' Own Story, he offered up his most brazen act of chutzpah. He claimed Nannie became enamored by the irresistible Holmes and Minnie killed her in a fit of jealousy. Afterwards Minnie suffered a series of nervous breakdowns and institutionalizations. Holmes claimed she later took the Pitezel children [victims twenty-five through twenty-seven] and headed off for London to start a massage establishment with Edward Hatch.

Summary: Victims Twenty and Twenty-One

Minnie and Nannie Williams
Secretary and her sister
Motive: Money.
Method: Locked in vault and suffocated. Poisoned.
Site: Holmes Castle. Possibly Monence, Illinois.
Time: approximately July 5th, 1893 and unspecified time, early 1894.
Confirmation of murder: Generally accepted as being among those Holmes killed.

Minnie and Nannie (Annie) Williams
Hopkinsville Kentuckian, August 27, 1895

Victim Twenty-Two.
    "A man who came to Chicago to attend the Chicago Exposition, but whose name I cannot recall, was my next victim. ... I determined to use this man in my various business dealings, and did so for a time, until I found he had not the ability I had at first thoughthe possessed, and I therefore decided to kill him. This was done, but as I had not had any dealings with the "stiff" dealer for some time previous to this murder, I decided to bury the body in the basement of the house that I formerly owned near the corner of Seventy-fourth and Honore streets, in Chicago, where, by digging deeply in the sandy soil, the body will be found^b."

    The Chicago Exposition, more properly "The World's Columbian Exposition," closed on October 30, 1893, giving an anchoring point for the timeline of this story. Although Holmes provided some additional details on how to find the man's name, no such victim was ever identified and his body was not unearthed.

 Summary: Victim Twenty-Two

Unknown
Castle guest.
Motive: Did not have money.
Method: Unspecified.
Site: Holmes Castle.
Time: During the Chicago Exposition. May to October, 1893.
Confirmation of murder: none.

Victim Twenty-Three.

    "After Miss Williams' death I found among her papers an insurance policy made in her favor by her brother, Baldwin Williams, of Leadville, Col. I therefore went to that city early in 1894, and, having found him; took his life by shooting him, it being believed I had done so in self-defense. A little later, when the assignment of the policy to which I had forged Miss Williams' name was presented to John M. Maxwell, of Leadville, the administrator of the Williams estate, it was honored and the money paid^b."

    In Holmes' Own Story, he ascribes the death of the Williams brother to a train accident taking place before Minnie came to work for him. Holmes quotes Minnie as telling him, "At about that time my brother, whom I had never seen much of, was killed, or rather died, as the result of a railroad accident at Leadville, Colorado...^a"

    A Baldwin H. Williams of Leadville, Colorado died in early 1893.

    "Estate of Baldwin H. Williams, Deceased. The undersigned, having been appointed administrator of the estate of Baldwin H. Williams, late of the county of Lake and the state of Colorado, deceased, hereby gives notice that he will appear before the county court of Lake County at the court house in Leadville, at the January term, on the third Monday in February next being the 20th day of February, A.D. 1893, at which time all persons having claims against said estate are notified and requested to attend for the purpose of having the same adjusted. All person indebted to said estate are requested to make immediate payment to the undersigned,
Dated this 17th day of January, A.D., 1893, John M. Max[?]e[?]l, Administrator³⁰."

    In the newspaper notice, no cause of death is given. This death took place before Holmes hired Minnie Williams supporting Holmes non-confessional version of the story. Holmes did have the detail of estate administrator correct.

    What can be made of this? Holmes had known Minnie Williams for years including when she lived in Boston and Denver. Immediately before she moved to Chicago, she lived in Denver. Perhaps the death of her brother gave her the impetus to move on. Perhaps Holmes visited her there and helped settle her brother's estate. Or perhaps he remembered details of this from what he had later told her.

Summary: Victim Twenty-Three

Baldwin H. Williams
Brother-in-law
Motive: Money.
Method: Shooting.
Site: Leadville, Colorado.
Time: 1894? 1893?
Confirmation of murder: None. A man by this name did die a year earlier than mentioned.

Leaving Chicago.
    On January 4, 1894 in Denver, Colorado, Holmes married Georgiana Yoke³¹. She remained in rapturous ignorance of his three other wives and his myriad schemes. She would defend him and when necessary, bail him out. Together they headed to Fort Worth, Texas where Holmes attempted to collect on the estate of Minnie Williams. Once there, intent on starting a franchise, Holmes initiated the construction of a new murder castle. He found a new accomplice, John C. Allen, alias "Mascot." They tried their hands at a horse swindle which ended in St. Louis where Holmes was jailed. While incarcerated he concocted a plan to kill off an old associate for the insurance money.


Victims Twenty-Four through Twenty-Seven: The Pitezel family.

Benjamin Frelan Pitezel

    "Benjamin F. Pitezel comes next. .... It will be understood that from the first hour of our acquaintance, even before I knew he had a family who would later afford me additional victims for the gratification of my blood-thirstiness, I intended to kill him...^b"

    Holmes was convicted and executed for just one murder: that of Benjamin Frelan Pitezel. Holmes insured Pitezel for $10,000 and set him up in a storefront in Philadelphia where he offered to buy inventions. Holmes told Pitezel he would fake a disfiguring accident, provide a substitute corpse and they would split the proceeds from the insurance fraud. On September 2, 1894, Holmes got his long-time friend drunk. Once he had passed out on the floor...

    "Only one difficulty presented itself. It was necessary, for me to kill him in such a manner that no struggle or movement of his body should occur, otherwise his clothing being in any way displaced it would have been impossible to again put them in a normal condition. I overcame this difficulty by first binding him hand and foot and having done — I proceeded to burn him alive by saturating his clothing and his face with benzene and igniting it with a match^b."

    In Holmes' Own Story, he maintained that Pitezel's death was suicide. The suicide note, which, naturally Holmes had to destroy, asked him to stage the death as part of a crime scene. "He wished me to so arrange his body in one of two ways that it would appear that his death had been either accidental or that he had been attacked by burglars and killed, giving the details of how I was to carry our either course: First, that his family should not at present know of his death; second, that the children should never know he had committed suicide...^a"

    If nothing else, Holmes' Own Story was inventive for its range of explanations behind the disappearance of so many: one staged his death for insurance, one ran off to get married, they killed each other, suicide, accidents, they were still alive (sometimes true)...

    With his associate dead, Holmes headed back west to undertake the steps involved in collecting the insurance. Benjamin's wife, Carrie Pitezel, knew of the scheme and believed the corpse to be a substitute. The five Pitezel children believed their father dead. Holmes couldn't bring Carrie to Philadelphia to identify the body — she would see who it really was. So, instead, Holmes instead brought fifteen-year-old Alice to identify her father's body. On September 20th, she wrote to her mother.

"Just arrived Philadelphia this morning ... I am going to the Morgue after awhile ... Have you gotten 4 letters from me besides this?³²" 

Holmes intercepted and never mailed any of her letters, stashing them in a tin box. 

    On September 27th, Holmes received the insurance money. He told Carrie that, with her husband still alive, they were to take separate paths and later meet up with him. With Holmes having long been a family friend, a virtual uncle to the children, he convinced Carrie to let him transport three of her children.


Howard, Nellie and Alice Pitezel



Howard, Nellie and Alice Pitezel.
 
    Holmes saved his greatest act of sadism for his last three victims. Their murders seemed without motive, a cruelty beyond fathoming. It left no doubt Holmes could not be romanticized as an anti-hero or be pitied as some pathetic creature.

    With the insurance money in hand, Holmes began to hopscotch between cities with three of the Pitezel children in tow. He ordered them to stay in the hotels, indoors. They were cold. Alice wrote, begging, "Tell Mama that I have to have a coat³³."

    Eight-year-old Howard Pitezel became the first to die.

    "I called at the Irvington [Indiana] drug store and purchased the drugs I needed to kill the boy ... I called him into the house and insisted that he go to bed at once first giving him the fatal dose of medicine. As soon as he had ceased to breathe I cut his body into pieces that would pass through the door of the stove and by the combined use of gas and corncobs proceeded to burn it with as little feeling as 'though it had been some inanimate object^b."

    Unaware of her brother's fate or what awaited the rest of them, Alice wrote home, saying, "Howard is not with us now³⁴."

    In Holmes' Own Story, he tried to pass off the child's disappearance on the mysterious Edward Hatch, a name he invoked sixty-six times. "I met Hatch and Howard later upon the street. This was the last time I ever saw the boy Howard...^a"

    The detectives were not impressed. Holmes complained, "They at once branded my statements concerning Hatch as untrue, and said that he was a mythical person, asking me to name any one who had ever seen him...^a"

    Now with only Nellie and Alice Pitezel in his charge, Holmes continued to move from town to town. In Detroit with the two girls stashed in a hotel, he met up Carrie Pitezel and her other two children. He planted explosives to kill them but was unsuccessful^b.

    He transported the children to Toronto where, on October 25th, he enticed the Pitezel girls to climb inside a trunk where he locked them in. "[After] 8:00 P.M. I again returned to the house where the children were imprisoned, and ended their lives by connecting the gas with the trunk, then came the opening of the trunk and the viewing of their little blackened and distorted faces, then the digging of their shallow graves in the basement of the house, the ruthless stripping off of their clothing and the burial without a particle of covering save the cold earth, which I heaped upon them with fiendish delight^b."

    In Holmes' Own Story, he claimed the Pitezel girls went off with the still-living Minnie Williams and the never-seen Edward Hatch, headed to London where they would use the insurance money to open a massage parlor him...^a."

    Why kill the Pitezel children? Perhaps the telling clue comes in the fact he tried to kill Carrie Pitezel and the remainder of the family. With Benjamin Pitezel's death being real, he feared Carrie would soon realize he had arranged the murder. She and the children were witnesses.


 
Letter of Alice Pitezel to her grandparents, October 14, 1894

Summary: Victim Twenty-Four

Benjamin Frelan Pitezel Long-time associate Motive: Money. Method: Burned alive. Site: 1316 Callowhill Street in Philadelphia. Time: September 2nd, 1894 Confirmation of murder: well-documented.
 

Summary: Victims Twenty-Five through Twenty-Seven  
Howard, Alice and Nellie Pitezel Friends of the family  
Motive: Witnesses?  
Method: Howard, poisoned. Alice and Nellie locked in a trunk and gassed.  
Site: Howard, Irvington, outside Indianapolis, Indiana. Alice and Nellie in Toronto.  
Time: Howard, October 5, 1894; Alice and Nellie: October 25, 1894.  
Confirmation of murder: well-documented.

End of the Line.

     In order to secure the Pitezel insurance money, Holmes needed a crooked lawyer. To find a crooked lawyer, he asked the notorious train-robber, Marion Hedgepeth. Hedgepeth turned in Holmes, telling the authorities and the insurance company about the swindle.

    On November 17, 1894, Holmes was arrested in Boston. While on a train being transported to custody, he tried to bribe his way free.

    "I'm a hypnotizer. If you let me hypnotize you so that we can escape, I'll give you $500."

    "Hypnotism," [responded Detective Crawford], "always spoils my appetite³⁵."

    While insurance scams were common enough, Holmes, with his multiple wives, proved to be a particularly salacious scandal. His story made national headlines. Holmes tried to account for his polygamy. "He explained that when he left New Hampshire he went west and while traveling there he had his skull fractured and was robbed of his gold watch and considerable money in a railroad accident. In the hospital he was given the name of H.H. Holmes and went out never knowing he had any other. During the year [sic] of his mental trouble he married a western woman and by her had one child³⁶."

    Holmes was imprisoned, charged with insurance fraud. Even within a week, newspapers began speculating he was responsible for at least six murders: the Williams sisters and the Pitezels.

Holmes vs. Holmes.

    On June 3, 1895 Holmes pled guilty to insurance fraud and received a mild sentence. With his national notoriety, the Chicago police began searching the Castle, uncovering blood and bones. Frank Geyer, a Philadelphia detective, embarked on a hunt to track down the location of the three missing Pitezel children, fearing they had been abandoned somewhere. His methodical investigation was broadcast day by day across American newspapers. Geyer became known as the American Sherlock Holmes. On July 15th, he discovered the bodies of the Pitezel girls. On August 27th, he discovered Howard Pitezel.

    Although generally acknowledged as having killed a dozen more, perhaps scores of victims³⁷, in late October 1895, Holmes was tried only for the murder of Benjamin Pitezel. For part of the proceedings he acted as his own lawyer. He lost.

    On May 9th, 1896, while walking to the gallows in the courtyard of Moyamensing Prison, Holmes made one last confession, again rewriting his story.

    "Gentlemen, I have very few words to say. In fact, I would make no remarks at this time were it not that by not speaking I should acquiesce in my execution. I only wish to say that the extent of my wrong-doing in the taking of human life consists of contriving the killing of two women that have died at my hands as a result of criminal operations. I wish to also state, so that there can be no chance of misunderstanding my words hereafter, that I am not guilty of taking the life of any of the three Pitezel children, or the man for whose death I was convicted, and for whose death I am now to be hanged. That is all I have to say³⁸."

    The phrase "criminal operations" has been interpreted as abortions, although, in his confession to the murder of Anna Betz, "operation" could also have meant "criminal venture."

    At 10:13 a.m., H.H. Holmes was hung. He took fifteen minutes to die.



Frank Geyer, Philadelphia detective.
The more bad-ass mustache always wins.

Holmes' grave

    Shortly before his execution, Dr. Holmes had converted to Catholicism. In this age, many sins, even divorce, could exclude a Catholic from a church burial. Oddly, he was buried on consecrated ground in the Holy Cross Cemetery, south of Philadelphia. (Holmes never divorced.) Fr. Henry McPake presided over the service. To ensure no one would dig up his grave, he had his coffin filled with cement and set beneath a one ton block of cement. "The remains of Holmes were pronounced safe from grave robbers for all time³⁹." His grave is unmarked. 


    Seventeen months after Holmes' death, the thirty year-old Father McPake died under mysterious circumstances⁴⁰.


References, Notes and Citations
a. Holmes' Own Story in which the Alleged Multi Murderer and Arch Conspirator Tells of The Twenty-Two Tragic Deaths and Disappearances In which He is Said to be Implicated. Philadelphia. Burk & McFetridge Co. 1895.
b. Holmes Confesses 27 Murders. The Most Awful Story of Modern Times Told by the Fiend in Human Shape. The Philadelphia Inquirer, Sunday, April 12, 1896. Copyright 1896 by WR Hearst and James Elverson, Jr.



30. Administrator's Notices. Leadville Daily and Evening Chronicle. February 6, 1893, Page 4.

31. Holmes married Georgiana Yoke using the name Henry Mansfield Howard. Using a variety of names was one means Holmes employed to keep his wives from learning about one another. From Depraved: The Shocking True Story of America's First Serial Killer. Schechter, H. Copyright 1994. New York: Pocket Books. Page 77.

32. Letter, Alice Pitezel, dated September 20, 1894 as presented in The Holmes-Pitezel Case. A History of the Greatest Crime of the Century and of the Search for the Missing Pitezel Children by Detective Frank P. Geyer of the Bureau of Police, Department of Public Safety, of the City of Philadelphia. A True Detective Story. Publishers' Union copyright 1896, p. 353.

33. Letter, Alice Pitezel, dated October 14, 1894, ibid, pages 264-5.

34. Ibid.

35. Part of His Life. The Now Famous Mudgett Tells of His Crimes. Evansville Courier, November 21, 1894.

36. Mudgett's Early Life. Wilkes-Barre Times, November 21, 1894.

37. With his murderous bent, an abundance of opportunity and his complete unreliability in recounting his story the question of the true number of Holmes' victims remains open. Holmes combined a variety of methods popular among serial killers: he was a "Bluebeard," a poisoner, and killed for profit. The newspaper accounts named many more missing who were not mentioned in Holmes' confession.

38. Holmes Cool to the End. Under the Noose He Says He Only Killed Two Women. New York Times, May 8, 1896.

39. Holmes in a Ton of Cement; The Murderer's Body Buried. New York Times, May 9, 1896. 

40. MacPake in the above New York Times article, McPake most everywhere else. Large Rewards Freely Offered Strenuous Efforts to Solve the Mystery of Father Mcpake's Death. Philadelphia Inquirer Friday, November 12, 1897.

 --------------------------- 
A Predator's Game is available in soft-cover and ebook editions through Amazon and other online retailers.

A Predator's Game, now available, Rook's Page Publishing.

 -----------------------
Nikola Tesla, Arthur Conan Doyle and Dr. Henry H. Holmes are all characters in my thriller, A Predator's Game.

Back page blurb.

Manhattan, 1896.

When the author Arthur Conan Doyle meets Nikola Tesla he finds a tall, thin genius with a photographic memory and a keen eye, and recognizes in the eccentric inventor the embodiment of his creation, Sherlock. Together, they team up to take on an "evil Holmes." Multi-murderer Dr. Henry H. Holmes has escaped execution and is unleashing a reign of terror upon the metropolis. Set in the late nineteenth century in a world of modern marvels, danger and invention, Conan Doyle and Tesla engage the madman in a deadly game of wits.

Martin Hill Ortiz, also writing under the name, Martin Hill, is the author of A Predatory Mind. Its sequel, set in 1890s Manhattan and titled A Predator's Game, will be available from Rook's Page Publishing, March 30, 2016. It features Nikola Tesla as detective.

Continue reading →

Holmes Doomed to Misfortune

In its April 19, 1896 edition, the New York Herald ran an astrology article that boldly predicted misfortune for Dr. Henry H. Holmes, then on death row and three weeks from execution. The forecast might have had more authority if they didn't use an incorrect birth date. Holmes was born on May 16, 1861 (or perhaps May 17) not May 16, 1860.

The article read:

HOLMES DOOMED TO MISFORTUNE.
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Horoscope of the Murderer Shows That Evil Planets Predominated at His Birth.
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VIOLENT DEATH INDICATED.
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Crimes, Imprisonment and an Early and Sorrowful End Were Clearly Foreshadowed.
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HOW PLANETS TELL HIS LIFE.
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HERE is a horoscope of the notorious murderer, Herman Webster Mudgett, or, as he has of late years preferred, H.H. Holmes. It is based not on the ordinary astrological rules, as they would yield only a poor result, the man's birth hour being unattainable, but on the old rules of the Kabbala and on the unerring principles of the ancient Tarot.

The full name and the date of birth are first to be considered. The name Holmes plays no part in the work, being probably a mask and certainly assumed. Mudgett is the family name, and a cacophonous word it is. But many excellent persons have borne ugly names, and there are doubtless to-day many estimable persons named Mudgett. This Mudgett, however, was born on May 16, 1860, and precisely because he was born on that day he was bound to be unfortunate.

If we convert his full name and the day of his birth into numerals we obtain 28 and, as the year 1860 was ruled by the sun, his key number is 28 in the sun's year. Turning to this point we find the moon, and thus gain a clew to the character. The moon, in this instance, denotes many changes in life, much mystery, extraordinary conduct, a fanciful emotional temperament and a most fickle character. We next turn to the ascending sign and find the third decanate of Taurus, the violent sign of the Bull. Here we note infallible tokens of disaster, for this decanate foreshadows failure of business enterprises, great likelihood of poverty and unhappiness and a turbulence of spirit that is bound to bring much woe. The Bull, too, ascending, shows great danger of trouble through women and secret enemies and many short journeys for mysterious reasons.

MANY OMINOUS TOKENS.

Looking now at the positions of the planets, we find a clear forecast of the unfortunate man's doom and of the causes which led to it. Venus, the planet of love and ruler of the horoscope, is in the sign of the Crab and posited in the house of short journeys. She is also in conjunction with the Moon and in square to the baleful Saturn in the house of captivity. Her position and aspects denote much misfortune in marriage and through women, considerable success and much unhappiness, an inordinate passion for women, an utter lack of loyalty, much unscrupulous, and, without a shadow of doubt, imprisonment and an unhappy end to life. This is bad enough, but even worse is shown, for not only are the Sun, Moon, Saturn and Mars in angles, which generally betokens a violent death, but Saturn, lord of the tenth house, is in the house of captivity and the house of death, and and from the latter he casts a malignant ray into the fourth house, which signifies the end of all things. As he rules the tenth house, his presence in the house of captivity is a clear indication of imprisonment through the verdict of a judge, the tenth being the house of persons in authority, and his presence in the house of death foreshadows that imprisonment would only end with life.

But not much time will be spent in prison, for note Points VIII. and XV., one in the third and the other in the eighth house. The eighth point always symbolizes man's justice and the fifteenth in this instance shows a sudden and unexpected end. In the divine world this fifteenth point signifies predestination, and in any one's horoscope it shows that the career will be marred by invincible obstacles, which are the clear results of unrestrained passions. All this seems clear enough, but to make sure, let us glance at the other planets. Mars, the planet of violence, is in Pisces and lords it over the house of friends and children. Considering that he rules the houses of marriage, enemies and captivity, his position is, indeed, remarkable. Does not the world know how Holmes murdered children and friends and deceived the women who confided in him? All this is shown by Mars in his horoscope. But the Sun, too, is in an uncongenial position, and this again shows dangers to children and imminent peril of a violent death. Again, Jupiter is in Pisces, and this shows more than one marriage and many troubles in married life. Finally, the Sun, Jupiter and Mars are in conjunction, and while this shows considerable success, which was certainly true in Holmes' case, it also shows that the success would not last.

EARLY DEATH FORESHADOWED

The time of death, too, is clearly pointed out. Holmes is now in his thirty-sixth year, and according to this system of astrology, certain planets are in conjunction during this and every other year in a man's life, and from such planetary conjunctions predictions are largely made in regard to events of each year. Now Jupiter and the Sun, though naturally beneficent planets, are in this horoscope sorely afflicted, and, as one rules the end of life and the other is lord of the house of death, it is far to assume that their conjunction will be ominous, which it is certainly is, since it denotes death in the thirty-sixth year. If we need further testimony, we may only look at the hateful Saturn in the house of death afflicting the fourth course, which symbolizes the grave. Note, too, that the lord of this house is in a weak sign and in very evil company. Of death untimely and violent there are, indeed several indications.

April 19, 1896, New York Herald, Sixth Section, Page 9

--------------
A Predator's Game is available in soft-cover and ebook editions through Amazon and other online retailers.

A Predator's Game, now available, Rook's Page Publishing.

 -----------------------
Nikola Tesla, Arthur Conan Doyle and Dr. Henry H. Holmes are all characters in my thriller, A Predator's Game.

Back page blurb.

Manhattan, 1896.

When the author Arthur Conan Doyle meets Nikola Tesla he finds a tall, thin genius with a photographic memory and a keen eye, and recognizes in the eccentric inventor the embodiment of his creation, Sherlock. Together, they team up to take on an "evil Holmes." Multi-murderer Dr. Henry H. Holmes has escaped execution and is unleashing a reign of terror upon the metropolis. Set in the late nineteenth century in a world of modern marvels, danger and invention, Conan Doyle and Tesla engage the madman in a deadly game of wits.

Martin Hill Ortiz, also writing under the name, Martin Hill, is the author of A Predatory Mind. Its sequel, set in 1890s Manhattan and titled A Predator's Game, will be available from Rook's Page Publishing, March 30, 2016. It features Nikola Tesla as detective.

Continue reading →

Dr. Henry H. Holmes at the University of Michigan, Part Two

In my first two posts, I examined the ordinary childhood of the notorious 19th century serial killer, Dr. Henry H. Holmes, then examined his experiences at the University of Vermont at Burlington, where he began his formal medical education. In the third post, I looked at the problem of grave-robbing in the 19th century, at how medical schools were involved, and how the University of Michigan possessed a particular infamy. Now, I intend to merge the story lines by looking at the finish of the education of Henry Holmes at the University of Michigan and to suggest how the moral, country kid became permanently twisted.

Trafficking Corpses and the University of Michigan Medical School in the 1870s and 80s.

Over the last half of the 19th century, the University of Michigan acquired an unusually large appetite for dissection cadavers. The institution had risen to become the largest medical school in the country and the state legislature required medical students to learn anatomy through dissection. Furthermore, every medical school in the country competed for the few legitimate corpses and, considering the wide-ranging and frequent scandals, it seemed every medical school obtained those corpses by contracting out to grave-robbers.


The Pickle Vats

Here is how the operation was set-up at Michigan. The demonstrator at the anatomy department bore the responsibility of acquiring the corpses. He filled a small portion of the quota through legal means, a few more by providing incentives to students to find corpses (through legal or illegal means), and then collected the remainder by dealing with grave-robbers, also known as the resurrectionists. Corpses would arrive at the school in barrels, usually labeled "Pickles." They were received by the medical school janitor, Gregor Nagele (his last name misspelled in the quotes below), who placed the corpses in  large communal tubs filled with preservatives: the pickling vats.

Nagele (right) and his pickling vat. Illustration from the student magazine, The University Palladium, University of Michigan, 1878.

The pickling vats had a wide and infamous reputation. One 1885 story in the Michigan Argus recounted the recovery of a corpse that had "accidentally" ended up among the cadavers set for dissection.

"Jesse Goodrich's body was rescued from Nagle's pickling vat on Saturday and restored to his relatives." ^1

Newspapers as far away as Illinois ran jokes about the Michigan pickler.

"How is the corpse?" asked an Ann Arbor medical student of the pickler. "The corpse?" was the reply, "the corpse? Oh, it's in the best of spirits." For proof of which he showed the liquor it was put up in. ^2

Doc Nagele

An institution in his own rite, "Doc" Nagele began work at the medical school at the time of its opening in 1850 and continued on until 1896, ringing the bell each morning without fail for 46 years to announce the beginning of morning classes . He received the corpses and tended the vats. Although unschooled and speaking broken English, he became an expert in dissection and instruction. When the acquisition of bodies brought him to court, he famously forgot his English altogether.

Gregor "Doc" Nagele

  In 1878, an incident occurred which would direct national outrage toward the activities of the resurrectionists. On May 29th, John Scott Harrison, Congressman, son of former President William Henry Harrison and father of future President Benjamin Harrison, was laid to rest in North Bend, Ohio. During the burial, those attending noticed the grave of the recently departed Augustus Devin had been dug up. John Harrison, Jr. and a friend headed off to search local medical schools for Devin's body. When visiting the nearby Medical College of Ohio, to his shock, John encountered his father, John Scott Harrison's, body, instead.

  On June 12th, a search party visited the University of Michigan to locate Devin's body. The account of the discovery makes for lurid reading.

  "The building, a great, gloomy old stone pile, situated in the outskirts of the town [Ann Arbor], was found nearly deserted, and the school term having closed, and nobody, but the janitor, whose name was Negley [sic], in charge. After some protestations on his part, which were quieted by the display of documentary authority, he led the way to the cellar under the building, where he admitted there were a few bodies which had been recently sent in, and been put in pickle by himself.

  "There arranged along the side of the vats, were three monstrous vats containing a large number of dead bodies floating in brine. Piled high above these were a number of empty coffins rudely broken open and rifled of their precious dead, while upon a rough table in the center of the room, was a mixture of red paint and nitrate of silver, used for injecting the veins.

  "First Negley hurled from their places huge rocks which had been placed above to weigh down and keep in place the bodies. Then, with bared arms, and an expression of fiendish satisfaction, he began reaching down into the vats in search of the bodies. As the weights were removed they floated to the surface and were seen to be closely packed in tierces in the vats, like so many slaughtered hogs packed for market." ^3

  The piece continues with bodies dragged out one by one. An example:

  ". . . the body of a beautiful woman of about thirty, the abdomen ripped open, the limbs twisted and disfigured, and the black streaming hair floating in the water about the head. Drawing it from the water he [a student assistant] threw it suddenly upon the heap of corpses and as it struck an infant of perhaps seven months fell from the womb. Snatching it up with a ghoulish leer and an expression beyond description, his assistant held it up to full view and with a heartless laugh asked if that was the one of which we were in search." ^4

After an hour, after more than forty bodies were retrieved, one of the bodies was identified as Devin's.

Dr. William J. Herdman

  The above incident took place under the watch of Dr. William J. Herdman. In 1875, Herdman graduated from the medical program at the University of Michigan and that same year took over the role of demonstrator of anatomy. He would continue in that position until 1890 after which he pursued his interests in electrotherapeutics (using electricity to treat nervous disorders), and nervous diseases and abnormal psychology, eventually becoming an alienist. The Cyclopedia of American Medical Biography (1912) described him thusly:

"Herdman was about six feet high, perfectly proportioned with a large head covered with luxuriant brown hair, high forehead, brown, bushy eyebrows shielding the deep set eyes, long curly mustache, keen glance, kindly manner and of remarkable dignity."^5

William J. Herdman

  During his tenure Herdman set about aggressively collecting cadavers and this period was filled with scandals--and progress towards laws which would allow corpses to be collected more ethically.

  After yet another debacle in early 1880, these comments from the Ypsilanti Sentinel summed up the attitude of the public towards the ghoulish dealings at the University of Michigan. (The city of Ypsilanti adjoins Ann Arbor.)

  "The study of medicine seems to develop the disposition of hyenas and vampires and an average medical student seems to imagine that the acquirement of his profession consists in hacking, and mutilating dead bodies. Even female students become she hyenas, and cackle round a corpse, like magpies. Yet when all these creatures enter practice, what are they? Mere pill peddlers. Not one in ten of them can amputate a limb, or reduce a dislocation." ^6.

  In June of 1880, the Medical School regents demanded that Herdman address the charges that he had dealt with  grave-robbers. He was defiant.

  "Though not strictly legal, I have endeavored … to secure this pauper material from different parts of our own state for dissection. You know full well the character of many of the men we are compelled to employ in this clandestine business." ^7

  "I have labored early and late and have tested every honorable method." He pledged "to exhaust all strictly legal sources of supply before resorting to any other means; to complete the supply from the surplus at other colleges, if possible; when necessary...to draw from the pauper and friendless dead at our County-houses and asylums with the consent of the proper authorities if such consent could be obtained." ^8

  And still the scandals continued. In March of 1881, the Baltimore Sun published the results of a major investigation into grave-robbing. Among their discoveries were letters from various medical schools directed to a gang of graverobbers. One came from the University of Michigan.

  Ann Arbor, Mich., Nov. 21, 1880. – I learn through Dr. Rochester, of Buffalo, that you are prepared to furnish material for dissection, and I write to ask you how many you may be able to furnish us during the next three or four months, what price you may want, and how you have been in the habit of shipping. We consume over 100 in the course of a winter, and if you desire, and we can make satisfactory terms, we can give you large orders. Please let me hear from you at once.
                                     W.J. HERDMAN ^9


  Also in 1881, in part through the advocacy of Dr. Herdman, the state of Michigan passed a law declaring that those who died while in state-operated poorhouses, if not claimed by family or friend, would be forwarded to the medical school. This is generally noted as the beginning of the end of the medical school's association with graverobbers. The large scale scandals were fewer, but still news reports continued about illegally obtained cadavers bound for Ann Arbor.

  What was Herdman really like? News articles mention that he was a Sunday School teacher at the Presbyterian church, that he ran for mayor of Ann Arbor on the Unionist ticket (and lost) and that he was convicted for assaulting a man who had stepped on his recently painted floor. He was dazzled by the possibilities of electro-therapy. He began an electro-therapeutics lab at the University of Michigan in the early eighties and would later serve as the president of the National Society of Electro-Therapeutics. In the nineties, Nikola Tesla lectured this society about the health benefits of electricity.

Enter Herman Webster Mudgett.

Mudgett, aka Holmes, began his education at the University of Michigan in September, 1882. After he had become infamous, several of his classmates and professors reminisced about his time there.

One story reported in the Ann Arbor paper, noted that Holmes worked for Dr. Herdman. "He [Holmes] appeared to be in straightened [sic] circumstances financially, and for some time earned his room rent at Dr. Herdman's by doing odd chores about the place, caring for the doctor's horses." ^10

Odd chores was likely a cover story. Dr. Herdman would hardly announce that Mudgett had been contracted as a go-between for body-trafficking. In another story, a classmate, Dr. A.E. Coy confirms Holmes worked for Herdman, adding some speculation, "I believe he was working his way through college, for he found employment during his spare hours in the service of William J. Herdman, demonstrator of anatomy of the school. In that way he spent much of his time in the dissecting rooms, assisting Professor Herdman, and I believe he had the keys to that part of the building, so you see it would not be such a very difficult matter for him to have stolen a corpse with which to have swindled the insurance companies." ^11

Another indication that Mudgett was strongly influenced by Dr. Herdman comes from a report from a journalist who came upon a locked box of items which Holmes had left in safekeeping with an associate. The items inside included: his degree from Gilmanton Academy, on the back was written, "One round higher;" a certificate for a course in electro-therapeutics, "A little higher;" and, his University of Michigan medical degree, "Still higher." ^12

What was Mudgett like at the University of Michigan? One of the faculty, Dr. J.L. Rose recalled:

"... he remembers Mudgett well, that he looked and acted "like a clodhopper." He did not distinguish himself as a student and showed no marks of brilliancy or even acuteness. He did, however, get into trouble with a Mrs. Fitch, a hair dresser, who demanded that he marry her. This was impossible as Mudgett was at this time married. The matter was brought before the medical faculty and Mudgett narrowly escaped expulsion, as he afterwards narrowly escaped "plucking" on his merits as a student." ^13.

Also among the items in the above-mentioned locked box was a letter from one of the faculty, E.S. Dunster, stating that he and Dr. Herdman would not allow "this disagreeable affair" to prejudice Mudgett's examination for his degree.

From another classmate: "Dr. George A. Heath, resident surgeon at the University hospital, Ann Arbor, Mich., writes from Monroe, Mich., as follows: "In reference to the man H. H. Holmes, I knew him fairly well while he was studying medicine at Ann Arbor. He did not, while there, pass by the name of Holmes, but Herman W. Mudgett. I remember him as a mild, inoffensive student of ordinary ability, and, seemingly, the last person in his class to follow the murderous career that he seems to have followed." ^14

Another classmate Dr. A.E. Coy (also quoted above) stated: "He [Holmes] was a rather quiet sort of a fellow and was industrious. ... He was such a conservative sort of a fellow that we were all greatly surprised when he got into a serious scrape in which a woman figured. He managed to get out of the difficulty, however, and graduated. He immediately disappeared, and it was given out that he had gone to Zululand to become a medical missionary." ^15

One schoolmate of Holmes went on to fame. William J. Mayo of the Mayo Brothers Clinic (U of M, class of 1883), made no public statement available regarding Holmes.

At the University of Michigan, Holmes is described as quiet, but seems to have grown into a ladies man. The exposure to the bodies and the dangerous but high-paying world of body-snatching seems to have begun to infect him.

Continued in Supplementary Files.

Holmes, graduation photo, University of Michigan Medical School, 1884

Robert C Leacock, graduation photo, UM, 1884. Holmes lists Leacock as his first victim.

References.

1. Jesse Goodrich's body was rescued from Nagle's pickling vat on Saturday and restored to his relatives. July 24, 1885. Michigan Argus (Ann Arbor, Michigan), page: 3.
2. March 10, 1880. Rockford Weekly Gazette (Rockford, Illinois), page: 4.
3.  Horror On Horror. How the Dead of Our People Rest. The Remains of Forty-eight Pickled. June 15, 1878.  Cleveland Plain Dealer, page: 2.
4. ibid.
5. A Cyclopedia of American Medical Biography vol. 1, p. 399-400. Copyright 1912, W.B. Saunders Company.
6. As quoted in: The News And Comments. May 7, 1880. Jackson Citizen Patriot, page: 1.
7. As quoted in: In the Archives: The Friendless Dead. Ann Arbor Chronicle, October 1, 2013. Laura Bien.
8.  As quoted in Such Horrible Business, James Tobin, University of Michigan Heritage Project.
http://heritage.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/1880_Such-Horrible-Business-story.pdf
9.  Rifling of Cemeteries. Investigations of the Subject in Baltimore-the City a Control Point for Traffic to Human Bodies. March 22, 1881. Baltimore Sun. Supplement 1
10. A Murderer's Career in Ann Arbor. July 26, 1895. Michigan Argus (Ann Arbor), page 1.
11. Holmes at Ann Arbor. November 23, 1894. New York Herald, page 3.
12. "Mudgett" Was Holmes. August 05, 1895. Birmingham, Alabama Age-Herald.
13.  The First One Hung. May 15, 1896. Michigan Argus (Ann Arbor), page: 1.
14.  The Daily News, Denver, Colorado. July 24, 1895.
15. Holmes at Ann Arbor. November 23, 1894. New York Herald, page: 3


 ---------------------------
A Predator's Game is available in soft-cover and ebook editions through Amazon and other online retailers.

A Predator's Game, now available, Rook's Page Publishing.

 -----------------------
Nikola Tesla, Arthur Conan Doyle and Dr. Henry H. Holmes are all characters in my thriller, A Predator's Game.

Back page blurb of A Predator's Game (advance copy, subject to change).

Manhattan, 1896.

When the author Arthur Conan Doyle meets Nikola Tesla he finds a tall, thin genius with a photographic memory and a keen eye, and recognizes in the eccentric inventor the embodiment of his creation, Sherlock. Together, they team up to take on an "evil Holmes." Multi-murderer Dr. Henry H. Holmes has escaped execution and is unleashing a reign of terror upon the metropolis. Set in the late nineteenth century in a world of modern marvels, danger and invention, Conan Doyle and Tesla engage the madman in a deadly game of wits.

Martin Hill Ortiz, also writing under the name, Martin Hill, is the author of A Predatory Mind. Its sequel, set in 1890s Manhattan and titled A Predator's Game, is available from Rook's Page Publishing.

His recent mystery, Never Kill A Friend, is available from Ransom Note Press. His epic poem, Two Mistakes, won second place in the 2015 Margaret Reid/Tom Howard Poetry Competition. He can be contacted at mdhillortiz@gmail.com.

Continue reading →

Dr. Henry H. Holmes at the University of Vermont, Burlington Medical School

  In my previous post, I noted that early life of Dr. Henry H. Holmes, birth name Herman Webster Mudgett, was reasonably ordinary and that he was an exemplary youth -- at least after weeding out the tales presented in sensationalist journalism.

  If the young Herman Webster Mudgett was indeed the model of morality, then how did he become the embodiment of evil that was Holmes?


  In the spring of 1882, Mudgett began his formal medical education at the University of Vermont at Burlington. At this time, he would be nearing twenty-one years of age and this would be his first extended experience away from family.

Pomeroy Hall, U of VT Medical School, 1880

  Consider this account provided by one of Mudgett's classmates.

"During his year at Burlington Holmes was rather retiring in his disposition, and to a very considerable extent he became the butt of his class. All kinds of practical jokes were put up and played on him, and he took them good naturedly and without any effort at retaliation. He had only one suit of clothes during the entire year that I knew him, and that was certainly not made for him. Where he got it the Lord only knows. The trousers were as baggy as bloomers, and the coat and vest large enough to fit a man twice as stout as Holmes. But it was the overcoat that was the masterpiece of grotesqueness in Holmes's costume. It was a brown check affair that reached to his heels and completely swallowed the fellow. The sleeves were so long that they completely covered the man's hands, and often the boys asked him why he didn't go to some dressmaker and have a tuck taken in them. Holmes had just about money enough to get through the term and didn't seem to mind the absurd appearance his clothes gave him.^1"

  Reading between the lines, the author reveals his snobbishness and cruelty. Holmes wasn't one of the boys and so his classmates bullied him. His bumpkin appearance and his poverty were ridiculed. The recollection continues:

  "He was sane enough, and a hard worker and there were no evidences about him anywhere that his mind was an unusual one, or that his life would develop any of the characteristics that have marked him a murderer. At the time I mean he certainly was not one who would have in any way been successful with women. There was nothing fascinating about him, nor did he display any desire for women's society. I met him once or twice in company with young women at Burlington, but at the time Holmes was decidedly bashful, and had almost nothing to say.^2"

  One noteworthy aspect of this is story is that Mudgett, to a remarkable degree, was exactly the opposite of Holmes. By the time his transformation was complete, Holmes had become a sharp dresser, a smooth-talker, a confidence man, a lady's man, a lady-killer. He had become obsessed with schemes to make money.

  In February of 1883, a news story appeared which foreshadowed Holmes' future: grave robbers were plaguing the outskirts of Montreal. The past winter, 145 corpses had disappeared, having been sent off to supply American medical schools with cadavers for dissection. As the story noted, "One-half of those brought to this city [Montreal] have been sent to Burlington, Vt., Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, and as far as Ann Arbor.^3"


1. Holmes in College. Former Classmate Tells of His Many Peculiarities. April 29, 1896. Indiana State Journal (Indianapolis, Indiana), page: 2   
2. ibid.
3. Wholesale Grave-Robbery. February 8, 1883. Elkhart Daily Review (Elkhart, Indiana), page: 1 (What a perfect quote/segue, linking Burlington to Ann Arbor by the way of grave robbing and set in 1883!)

Next Up: Holmes at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.


A Predator's Game is available in soft-cover and ebook editions through Amazon and other online retailers.

A Predator's Game, now available, Rook's Page Publishing.

 -----------------------
Nikola Tesla, Arthur Conan Doyle and Dr. Henry H. Holmes are all characters in my  thriller, A Predator's Game.

Back page blurb of A Predator's Game.

Manhattan, 1896.

When the author Arthur Conan Doyle meets Nikola Tesla he finds a tall, thin genius with a photographic memory and a keen eye, and recognizes in the eccentric inventor the embodiment of his creation, Sherlock. Together, they team up to take on an "evil Holmes." Multi-murderer Dr. Henry H. Holmes has escaped execution and is unleashing a reign of terror upon the metropolis. Set in the late nineteenth century in a world of modern marvels, danger and invention, Conan Doyle and Tesla engage the madman in a deadly game of wits.

Martin Hill Ortiz, also writing under the name, Martin Hill, is the author of A Predatory Mind. Its sequel, set in 1890s Manhattan and titled A Predator's Game, is available from Rook's Page Publishing.

His recent mystery, Never Kill A Friend, is available from Ransom Note Press. His epic poem, Two Mistakes, won second place in the 2015 Margaret Reid/Tom Howard Poetry Competition. He can be contacted at mdhillortiz@gmail.com.

Continue reading →

The Mystery of Dr. Henry H. Holmes

My thriller, A Predator's Game*, takes place in 1896 Manhattan. Nikola Tesla teams up with Arthur Conan Doyle to track down the serial killer, Dr. Henry H. Holmes. The conceit of this story has Conan Doyle functioning in the role of Dr. Watson, Tesla acting as Sherlock Holmes, and Dr. Henry Holmes as Moriarty.

*Rook's Page Publishing, available March 30th through Amazon and major retailers.

I have extensively researched the life of Nikola Tesla and have posted novel information in this blog. Now, I will turn my attention to my research regarding H.H. Holmes. Although Holmes was not Moriarty, a master criminal, he was a fascinating character nonetheless. In this series of posts, I will endeavor to present the reality behind the myths of Dr. Holmes and a theory for his malignant personality.

Dr. Henry H. Holmes, Legend.

On May 7th, 1896, the life of Dr. Henry H. Holmes ended with the drop of a scaffold's trap and the jerk of a noose. Appropriately, the doctors who pronounced him dead were named Butcher and Sharp.

Holmes was a criminal extraordinaire, a serial killer with an unknown number of victims. Second to John Wilkes Booth, he was the most well-known American criminal of the 19th century. As one newspaper described his infamy:

Holmes career of hideous crimes does not find a parallel in the history of the country. He was not only a multimurderer, but a bigamist, seducer, resurrectionist, forger, thief and general rascal, villain and fiend.^1

A headline in the May 8th, Baltimore Sun made an unintentionally apt observation–Holmes's Career: a Story of Crime Rarely Equaled in Fact or Fiction. This sums up his murderous legacy: fact fought against fiction with truth being the victim.

First in line among the fabricators was Holmes himself. He confessed to 27 murders. While some of his claimed victims were still alive, at the same time, other associates who were not included in his list met early deaths and may well have been his prey.

Second on the list of unreliable sources were the newspapers of the day. Sensationalism trumped facts. Did Holmes really build a "Murder Castle?" The preponderance of evidence says, "no." He constructed a building, demented in design, where he committed several murders. Perhaps individual rooms were fashioned as traps, but the newspapers depicted every nook and cranny as evil in intent.

Note the diagram below, reproduced from the Chicago Tribune. A room about the size of a closet is declared "The Maze" (near the bottom). And then there was "The Room of the Three Corpses." Surely, three corpses must have been found there. Or traces of corpses. Or a story that three people were killed there. Nope, just an exciting name. (Some bones were found in the basement which may have been human--or not.) Perhaps my favorite is the "Five Door Room." The room had Five Doors!

Let's back up. I'm not saying that Holmes was anything but a serial killer. His victims included friends, associates and children. He was a con man and a sadist. He did confess to having killed people in his "castle" and it did have peculiar features that may have been used in murders. And he may indeed have killed scores -- it's just that the hard evidence doesn't exist and it is difficult to separate legend from fact.

The Portrait of the Killer as a Young Man.

I'm going to start by laying out Holmes's early life with an emphasis on non-sensational reporting, and eye-witness accounts. In my next entry, I hope to point out where and when his life seemed to go wrong.

Well before his murder trial, before the extent of his crimes came to light, Holmes was already a nationwide sensation. Reporters endeavored to dig up new victims and determine when his murderous career began. Past associates and family members were interviewed.

These narratives of his early life can be divided into two sets: sensational tales that demonstrated he was evil from an early age; and, stories which stated he was ordinary and was raised in an exemplary household. This latter set predominated and, strangely enough, was presented as more disturbing. How could someone so evil come out of good Christian stock and a moral upbringing?

Let's begin with a thumbnail sketch of his first twenty-three years.

• Henry H. Holmes was born Herman Webster Mudgett on May 16, 1861** in Gilmanton, NH. 
• He attended Gilmanton Academy, then, already, a 100-year old institution. 
• He married a local woman, Clara Lovering, on July 4, 1878. 
• After apprenticing with the local physician, Dr. Nahum Wight, in 1882, Mudgett went to the University of Vermont in Burlington to begin a formal medical education. 
• In the fall of 1883 he headed off to the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, where he received his medical degree in 1884.

**May 16, 1861 is the most commonly cited date. In Holmes' autobiography, he says May, 1861. A letter from his father reprinted in the Boston Journal (below), says May 17, 1861.

What was he like in his youth? Here are two versions of the same story. First the sensational one.

In a news story titled "Did Holmes Kill Beck?" the Boston Daily Advertiser suggested that a neighbor and relative of Holmes may not have committed suicide.

A Concord Relative of Holmes, Alias Mudgett, Might Not Have Committed Suicide After All.

One morning in 1877, the dead body of a man named Beck, a prominent citizen of the adjoining town of Loudon, was found hanging in a room of the house, his legs bent under him, and his knees touching the floor. This circumstance, and the peculiar manner in which the rope was tied about his neck, aroused much suspicion that Beck had not taken his own life. Holmes, now in jail in Philadelphia, was a relative of Mr. Beck's wife, and member of the family, going to then by the name of Mudgett. Mr. Beck's brother suspected Mudgett of murder, and communicated his suspicion to the other relatives, but no action was ever taken to connect him with the deed. Recent alleged disclosures against Holmes revived these suspicions, and the subject is a matter of general discussion in the neighborhood where Mr. Beck lived, and where there are many people who remember Mudgett and many of his then peculiar traits.^2

So, did Mudgett/Holmes kill a relative when he was 16?  Holmes' Father, Levi Mudgett, responded to the story.

HOLMES'S FATHER'S LETTER.
Gilmanton, N.H., Aug 6, 1895
To the Editor of the Boston Journal

 My notice has been called to your dispatch from Concord, N.H., in regard to the named Beck, charging his murder 18 years ago on Holmes, alias Mudgett. There is no truth in what your correspondent says. Mr. Beck married my brother's widow. I don't know the date of their marriage. She came to our house once soon after the marriage, and I think I made them a visit once. I never heard of any trouble in the family. I did not go to the funeral.

  I am sure that our son Herman was never in their house, and I am also sure that he [Beck] must have died as early as 1875. I know it was a number of years before his wife died, which was in October, 1878. Our son was born May 17, 1861, and could not have been over 14 years of age at that time. Mr. Beck was a large, heavy man, I should say his weight was over 200. ...

 I don't wish to screen him from any wrong doing but I feel sure that he has been accused of many things that are wrong, as we also have been as a family.

                                    Yours respectfully,
                                               L.H. Mudgett ^3

Can this matter of when Henry Beck died be cleared up by modern search engines? I failed. I found conflicting information, which would slow down the narrative, so I detail them at the end of this post.

Holmes' mother also spoke highly of him. "The newspapers have done us great injustice in this awful ordeal. I want to say that, until Herman left us, some six years ago [sic], he was the cleanest youth in town." ^4

Let's go outside of Mudgett's family to get a testimonial to his moral and upright life.

A Reverend McGregor spoke to the Minneapolis Journal about his experiences with Holmes when Holmes was nearing twenty years of age.

A Model Young Man Such Was the Monster Holmes.

In 1880-81 Mr. McGregor was the pastor of the Methodist church of that town [Gilmanton, NH] and was very well acquainted with young Mudgett [cutting out some pleasant descriptions of Gilmanton and the surroundings].

  "In one of the smaller houses–it was a story and a half structure with a peaked roof–lived Postmaster Mudgett and his family. The front room was used as the postoffice and the family lived in the rear. Besides the small revenue the postoffice afford him, Mr. Mudgett derived a meager income from a stony farm. Both Mr. and Mrs. Mudgett were the most estimable people, of the simple, frank New England type. Neither were they the kind who allow their children to grow up without moral instruction and discipline. The same simple virtues they had learned from their ancestors through many Puritan generations they strove to inculcate in their son. And to all appearance good seed was never sown in better ground.

  "When I first saw Herman Mudgett . . . he was still attending Gilmanton Academy . . . The Mudgetts, particularly Mrs. Mudgett, doted on their son, and as his wife was the most amiable person in the world . .
.
  ". . .Mudgett seemed to be very much engrossed with medicine and surgery. Indeed, he seemed to have a strong natural bent in that direction. At the time, as my somewhat vague memory recalls him, he was like his father, a rather slight man, or rather boy, of perhaps 5 feet 6 inches. His eyes were blue and his face excessively long. He was not careful about his dress, being in this respect like the average country swain. His conduct was exceedingly exemplary and he was fairly well endowed with wit and brains. He was unassuming and respectful and a regular church attendant.  . . .

  "It is an inexhaustible sort of wonderment to me that a boy of that good, straightforward, commonplace kind should have developed into the monster that Holmes is."^5

A rather well-done, well-researched and non-sensational article addressing Holmes' early life was presented in an August 1895 edition of the Syracuse Herald.  It included quotes from those who knew "Herman."

Clara Bean, who is clerk at the Post-office, and who also presides over the meetings of the church sewing circle, went to school with Herman, and knew him very well in his school days.

  "Herman was always a very bright scholar," says Miss Bean, "one of those boys who never do anything to displease the teacher, but always study hard. I remember in school he was always the model pupil. He was a perfect little gentleman, always just so polite ever since I remember him, and he was a great deal different from most boys of his age. He never was rude to girls, unlike most boys. But he did like money. He was always very anxious to earn money and he always seemed older in his ideas than the other boys. My father always said he was just like his grandfather.^6"

 and

Madison Nutter worked on the farm that summer with Herman and has a most pleasant recollection of that season [summer, 1878].

"He was then a thoroughly whole-souled, good-natured boy, just as genial a boy as you would want to meet. We all liked him. He was a hard worker in the field, but he did not seem satisfied with the ordinary farmer's life.
 
"His wife did the housework, and she was a very pleasant little woman, no one could help liking her, and you could see that she thought a great deal of Herman. Herman was a very modest sort of fellow, but yet he had lots of real grit. If he set out to do a job he would do it.^7"

  It could well be that the young Mudgett was already a sociopath, even murderer, who had hoodwinked his parents, the Reverend MacGregor and others. Nevertheless, these were the people who went on the record and spoke of him. Other accounts in newspapers made insinuations or else gave second-hand accounts of his youth. Typical is this account.

[Former associates in New Hampshire] who knew him five years ago [sic] as Herman W. Mudgett, one of the most promising young men that ever went from Gilmanton or Belknap county, are surprised that in so short a time he should be identified with so many peculiar transactions, and, especially, suspected of murder. Many, however, now assert that Herman's sister told them many years ago he would surely come to some bad end, as he has engaged in one or more peculiar transactions that cost his father considerable trouble and money.^8

My next post looks at the bad influence of his medical education.


1. Rock Island Argus, May 7, 1896
2. Did Holmes Kill Beck? August 3, 1895  Boston Daily Advertiser, page 1.
3. Holmes' Father. Writes to the Journal About Mr. Beck. August 8, 1895. Boston Journal, page: 5
4. Holmes Parents. November 4, 1895.  Worcester Daily Spy page: 3  
5. A Model Young Man Such Was the Monster Holmes According to Rev. A. McGregor. August 9, 1895. Minneapolis Journal.
6. Syracuse Herald, August 11, 1895
7. Ibid.
8. Interest Taken At Laconia. November 23, 1894. Boston Herald, page: 3

Some information matched a key part of Levi Mudgett's story, but not other aspects. On the site geni.com, we have this information, along with a link to the tombstone.

Martha A. Dwinell was married twice. First to Albert Newell Mudgett (uncle of H.H. Holmes) and then to Henry A. Beck. Martha died October 24, 1878 in Loudon, New Hampshire in agreement with the recollection of Holmes' father. The 1870 Census has both Martha A. Beck and Henry Beck living together in Loudon. However, at the same site, Henry A. Beck is listed as dying on March 11th of 1893. This Henry Beck has a tombstone that places him at 30 years old at the time of his death, indicating an error on the site. A search of historic newspaper databases yields nothing further. A different Henry Beck died October 28, 1874, in the neighboring town of Canterbury, but he had married a Polly Whitney who died in 1857.
 -----------------------------
Nikola Tesla, Arthur Conan Doyle and Dr. Henry H. Holmes are all characters in my thriller, A Predator's Game, Rook's Page Publishing.

A Predator's Game is available in soft-cover and ebook editions through Amazon and other online retailers.

A Predator's Game, now available, Rook's Page Publishing.

 -----------------------
Back page blurb.

Manhattan, 1896.

When the author Arthur Conan Doyle meets Nikola Tesla he finds a tall, thin genius with a photographic memory and a keen eye, and recognizes in the eccentric inventor the embodiment of his creation, Sherlock. Together, they team up to take on an "evil Holmes." Multi-murderer Dr. Henry H. Holmes has escaped execution and is unleashing a reign of terror upon the metropolis. Set in the late nineteenth century in a world of modern marvels, danger and invention, Conan Doyle and Tesla engage the madman in a deadly game of wits.

Martin Hill Ortiz, also writing under the name, Martin Hill, is the author of A Predatory Mind. Its sequel, set in 1890s Manhattan and titled A Predator's Game, will be available from Rook's Page Publishing, March 30, 2016. It features Nikola Tesla as detective.

His recent mystery, Never Kill A Friend, is available from Ransom Note Press. His epic poem, Two Mistakes, won second place in the 2015 Margaret Reid/Tom Howard Poetry Competition. He can be contacted at mdhillortiz@gmail.com.

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