Holmes' Secret Rooms

The idea of secret rooms and passageways ignites the imagination and causes a frisson of excitement along the spine. One interesting and yet gruesome real-life story involving both secret rooms and passageways, concerns the first ever documented American serial killer, Herman Webster Mudgett (1861-1896), who is better known as H.H. Holmes.

American serial killer, Herman Webster Mudgett

Holmes was a rather handsome fellow, who began stealing corpses while he was studying to become a doctor, in order to collect the insurance money. He also began to engage in murky business deals using the name of H. H. Holmes.

Homes Horror Hotel

Holmes had married Clara Lovering in 1878 and while still married to her, married Myrta Belknapin in 1887. In 1894, he added another wife to his list, Georgiana Yoke. He also had a relationship with Julia Smythe, who became one of his victims.

 H.H. Holmes horror hotel in Chicago, USA

While living in Chicago, Holmes built a "castle", which opened in 1893 as a hotel. Downstairs, there were shops, but upstairs, there were over 100 windowless rooms, with doorways opening to brick walls, strangely angled hallways, stairways that went nowhere, doors which could only be opened on the outside and lots of hidden rooms.

When he finished the hotel, Holmes employed mostly females to work at his hotel and they were required to take out insurance policies, which Holmes paid. He was also the main beneficiary. Holmes then began his killing spree, gassing some of his victims in specially constructed air-proof rooms, installed with gas lines. The bodies would be sent by body-size laundry shoots straight to the basement. In his secret basement, he had lime-pits set up and large kilns, where he would cremate bodies.

Also found in his hidden basement, was a torture device called a rack. Some bodies he dissected and then, he sold the body parts through his contacts to medical schools.

The exact number of his victims is not known, but the numbers may be as high as 200 people. Most of the verified victims were women.

Families often came looking for their missing loved ones, but upon enquiring at Holmes' hotel, they were told that the person that they were seeking had moved away without leaving a forwarding address.

It was thought that Holmes' horror hotel had been demolished; however, under the Englewood Post Office in Chicago, part of the original basement probably still remains, as there is a section of old-style bricks showing evidence of fire damage. Makes you wonder what may lay behind?

Holmes was hanged at Moyamensing Prison, On May 7, 1896.