Serial Killers: The World's Fair

The World’s Fair in Chicago in 1893 was home to many new inventions and discoveries. What many people do not know is that it was also home to one of the first serial killers in the United States. It was home to all the horrors his victims went through. This murderer went by the alias of H.H Holmes. The World’s Fair was also filled with so many people, that it was likely no one would notice if somebody went missing. He killed these people in a building he advertised as the World’s Fair Hotel. It was not a hotel but an intricate murder castle filled with different ways to kill his victims. Holmes was interested in medicine from a very early age and implicated that later in life when he lived in Chicago and ran a drugstore. He was eventually …show more content…
He was caught trying to leave the country by steamship (Swindler). Holmes gave up easily because he thought he could talk his way out of it. Holmes was incarcerated in Moyamensing Prison and stayed there for several months (Swindler). While Holmes was in prison, he accepted a bribe for $7,500 to tell his story to Hearst Newspaper. In his story, Holmes admitted to killing twenty seven people. However authorities at the time believed that number was closer to one hundred. Eventually Holmes was charged with the murder of Benjamin Pitezel. He was sentenced to death. His last wish was very unique. He wished for his coffin to be filled with cement (murderbygaslight.com). His reason for this was so people would not dig up his body and use it as a cadaver like he had done so many other times. No one knows why he didn’t want people to dig up his body. On May 7, 1896 Holmes was hung(history.com). He was thirty-five years old when he died. Reports say when Holmes was hung, his neck did not snap. Instead he suffocated for several minutes while his body was twitching. Holmes did get his last wish with some opposal. People did not want his body to have special treatment. He was buried ten feet deep with two feet of sand and concrete before he was covered with dirt (murderbygaslight.com). Holmes built quite a legacy during his lifetime. If Holmes actually killed a fraction of the people estimated, he surpassed Ted Bundy and …show more content…
Holmes was a murderer, a liar, and a scammer who tricked people into to staying in his “hotel” during the World’s Fair in Chicago. He killed mostly women and lived a fairly solitary life. People who met him would have not known that he was a murderer of up to 200 people. He was very good at lying and getting the attention off of him. Authorities did not suspect him of anything at the time. The people he killed would have never known Holmes was a murderer until it was too late. Why he killed these people is a question that is still undecided. Holmes certainly left a big impact on the history of Illinois. He ended up being one of the most important parts of the World’s Fair and shocked the people of