Holmes: A Serial Killer

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Herman Webster Mudgett, better known by his alias Dr. Henry Howard “H.H.” Holmes, was one of the first publicized serial killers in American history. Called a “blood-thirsty demon” in an 1896 New York Times article, Holmes was convicted and hanged for the murder of Benjamin F. Pietzel, but he confessed to 27 murders and his body count has been estimated to be nearer 200. Holmes, who started out his life of crime with insurance fraud when he was just out of college, eventually confessed “I was born with the very devil in me. I could not help the fact that I was a murderer, no more than the poet can help the inspiration to song, nor the ambition of an intellectual man to be great. The inclination to murder came to me as naturally as the inspiration …show more content…
It is relatively easy to rule out the sexual sadism, visionary, custodial poisoner, and mission oriented typologies due to the fact that Holmes apparently got no sexual pleasure from the killings and was not a religious fanatic, on a specific mission, or a custodial poisoner (although, as a doctor, he could have become one relatively easily if he wished). However, many of the other typologies apply in part to Holmes. The crime spree typology can apply to Holmes due to the fact that he killed many victims in a short time in his “murder castle” during the Chicago World Fair, but, as those were not his only killings, he cannot be classified as only a crime spree killer. Some of his killings fall under the killing for profit typology as he had a history of insurance fraud, and some of his killings, specifically the murder of Benjamin Pietzel, were engineered so he could make a profit from the insurance payout. One of the seemingly more likely typologies is that of the psychotic killer. Holmes killed his victims in so many different ways, seemingly not caring how they died, just that they did die, and the fact that his victims were so random (mostly women, but multiple men and children as well) seem to point to this typology; the idea of his being psychotic is furthered by the aforementioned statement made in one of his various confessions that he was “born with the devil in [him]...[and he] could not help the fact that [he] was a murderer.” Though we cannot take this statement as fact as it has been speculated that this statement was manufactured by the paper in which the confession was published. (Selzer, A. 2012) When some of the rooms in Holmes' Chicago murder castle are investigated, specifically the vault turned gas chamber, it could appear that Holmes was a

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