D. H. Holmes Influence On Society

Never before had the United States faced a serial killer such as Doctor H. H. Holmes, his influence would forever detail and shape the American populous’ perception of evil. Doctor Holmes was a coveted wealthy entrepreneur in the time of the Chicago World’s Fair who crossed the boundaries of the law and common social restrictions repeatedly, committing horrible acts of fraud and murder in order to promote his own agenda and future. Serial killers have detailed and puzzling patterns and cycles that they subject themselves to in order to promote their deeds, Homes is no different; he would use his natural abilities to exert his control over his victims; victims that have a similar background given to the time period; this also contributed to …show more content…
These being ones of drastic change in social structure due to newly found social mobility. This is not only a reason he was able to controls his victims as much as he did but also serves as the common weakness that all of his prey had. The late 19th century served as a time period in which women had new found freedom and started to overcome the stereotype of house wives, with this altercation came an influx of women moving to areas that allure them; this is observable when Larson states, “Never before in civilization have such numbers of young girls been suddenly released from the protection if the home and permitted to walk unattended upon the city streets and to work under alien roofs.” (Larson 11). This phenomenon took place all across the United States at the time, but in particular many women moved to Chicago in search of work, often traveling long distances to escape their past homes and lives. This is commented on by Larson, “Many of these trains brought single young women who had ever seen a city but now hoped to make one of the biggest and toughest their home.” (Larson 11). The importance of this is that women were far away from home and people they knew and could go to for help; this generated their weakness of being stuck and trapped without a beacon of help or guidance. This allowed Holmes to exploit this weakness and use them for whatever want he …show more content…
One reason for this is can be contributed to the common weakness of his victims; without anybody they knew around them they would have no one to directly search for them, therefore there was no one to question Homes. But the main reason Holmes was not caught earlier was his disposal of the bodies. Any large notable people he would come into contact with he would strip their bodies of flesh and get the bones articulated for selling which he would gather immense profit from; this is supported when Larson states, “He offered Chappell thirty-six dollars to cleanse the bones and skull and return to him a fully articulated skeleton…Soon afterword Chappell returned with the skeleton. Holmes thanked him, paid him, and promptly sold the skeleton to Hahneman Medical College” (Larson 151). This process removed any chance of the corpses being identified and seamlessly removed the threat of him being caught for their murderers. Though this still leaves the bodies he had of non-notable people, Larson documented, “The Discoveries came quickly: a vat of acid with eight ribs and part of a skull settled at the bottom; mounds of quicklime” (Larson 364). One can conclude from this that Doctor Holmes coated their bodies in quicklime to breakdown the flesh and then dumped the body in acid to dispose of most of the remains. Using this