H. H. Holmes: Original Evil (2018) - full transcript

Humanity has
achieved great heights.

We have landed on the moon,

place a powerful
computer in our pockets,

cured numerous diseases,

and brought the
world the most evil

and deranged serial killers.

There are very few that
stand out quite as much

as H.H. Holmes and
his murder hotel.

In fact, his
notoriety is so great

that Hollywood embarked on
a blockbuster about him.

Now it has even
claimed that Britain's



most notorious serial
killer, Jack The Ripper

was none other than
Holmes himself.

He presided over The Castle,

a devilish, architectural
creation in downtown Chicago

made specifically
to murder people.

Trap doors, chutes, false doors

hidden passageways and spy holes

made the Murder Castle the
infamous building of its age.

Many victims were
beaten to death,

some were strangled,
others gassed,

and yet more were
tortured on racks

before they lost their lives.

When he was finally caught,

he confessed to 27 murders.



Although it is believed by many,

that he murdered over 200.

Somebody
help me. Someone help.

Please help us.

But it is
not the number of deaths

that is the cause of
his devilish fame.

It is, in fact, the
methods he used.

This is the tale of
the evil dark lord

of the murder
hotel, guts and all.

His real name was
Herman Webster Mudgett,

and he was born in 1861.

He has become one of America's
most famous serial killers

under the name of Dr.
Henry Howard Holmes.

But his tale is not
so easy to decipher.

Of the 27 people he
claimed to have murdered,

there was a problem.

Some of them were in fact
still alive when he confessed.

Of the 200 he supposedly killed,

we discover that
this myth originated

in a pulp magazine
from the 1940s.

It is stated he murdered his
victims in the murder hotel

close to the 1883 World Fair.

In fact, the hotel itself

was never truly
opened to the public.

So what is the truth?

What did this enigmatic
evil man really get up to?

The other side of Holmes was
as a con artist and bigamist

with over 50 lawsuits in
the Chicago area alone.

But beware because not only
was Holmes a con artist

but much of that is
claimed about him

is equally based on fiction.

His own life was a lie,

and so too are a great many
of the stories about him.

In order to unravel the
mind of the murderer,

we need to understand his
character and background.

Unlike the police of the period,

we need to be more like
FBI agents and profile him.

This involves understanding
his early life,

what created him,
what forces pushed him

towards the life that
he decided to lead?

His life began in
Gilmanton, New Hampshire

on May the 16th, 1861.

Both of his parents were
descendants of English settlers,

and Herman was the third child.

In all, he had an elder
sister and brother

and a younger
sister and brother.

He was the middle
child, nothing special.

The family were foreigners.

They would do whatever they
needed to in order to survive:

farming, trading, and
even painting houses.

Along with the majority
of people of the period,

they were devout Christians,

and in their case Methodists.

There is no evidence that
he was in any way cruel

or even abused during this time.

These are things we
would have expected,

and indeed these are things
that have been claimed

and found to have
no basis in fact.

Herman lived a perfectly
ordinary childhood

as far as we can tell.

He graduated from
high school at 16

and proceeded to take on
teaching jobs in Gilmanton

and nearby Alton.

He eventually met Clara Loving,

and they married on
July the 4th, 1878.

They had a son, Robert Loving
Mudgett two years later.

Robert would himself go on to
live a perfectly ordinary life

and become an accountant
and city manager

in Orlando, Florida.

After a short time under the

apprenticeship of
Dr. Nahum Wright,

where he learned about
human dissection,

Herman managed to
get himself into

university in Burlington,
Vermont when he was only 18.

But spent only one year there

due to being dissatisfied
with the university itself.

In 1882 he enrolled into
the University of Michigan

in the Department of
Medicine and Surgery.

During his time there,

he worked in the anatomy
laboratory under Professor Herdman.

He graduated in 1884.

His time around anatomy and
human cadavers would later

enable him to use them to
defraud insurance companies.

By 1884 Clara left Herman and
moved back to New Hampshire.

She never saw him again.

Their housemates
would later state

that Herman was
violent towards Clara.

Herman then moved to
Mooers Forks, New York.

Where things started to emerge.

Rumors started to circulate

that he had been seen
with a young boy.

He never denied this.

When the boy disappeared
he claimed the boy had

simply gone back to his
parents in Massachusetts.

There was no evidence
that could stick

no boy, no body and so
there was no investigation.

Herman fled town soon after.

He ended up in Philadelphia

and managed to get
a job as a keeper

at the Norristown
State Hospital.

It lasted a few days
and he resigned.

He then appears to have
landed a job at a drugstore.

Again things turned sour
when a young boy died

from drugs sold to him
at the very same store.

Herman was accused and again
denied any wrong doing.

He fled again and just
before he arrived in Chicago,

he changed his name to
Henry Howard Holmes.

It is obvious that this
was to avoid having himself

linked by anybody to
previous misdemeanors.

Later in his confession

Holmes claimed that
about this time

he had killed his
former classmate

Dr. Robert Leacock
for insurance money.

In fact, Dr. Leacock died
in Watford, Canada in 1889.

At the same time as
this fictitious murder,

Holmes in fact
married Myrta Belknap

while still married to Clara.

He did actually file divorce
papers after marrying Myrta

alleging Clara had
cheated on him.

There was no evidence that
Clara ever saw the papers

or that she committed adultery,

and the divorce never happened.

He did go on to have
a daughter with Myrta.

Her name was Lucy,

and she would become a
school teacher later in life.

They all lived together in

Wilmette, Illinois
for a short while.

But Holmes was
getting into a habit,

and on January the 17th, 1894,

he married Georgiana
Yoke in Denver, Colorado

while still being married
to Clara and Myrta.

However, we must go back to
1886 and Chicago in order

to get to the more interesting
element of his life.

It was this year that
he arrived in Chicago

and where he discovered
the drugstore at the

southwest corner of
South Wallace Avenue

and West 63rd
Street in Englewood.

It was owned by
Elizabeth S. Holton,

and she gave Holmes a job.

Amazingly he proved himself
to be a hardworking employee

and eventually a deal was
struck and he bought the store.

Some have claimed that Holmes
murdered Mr. and Mrs. Holton.

But the truth is that
both lived out their lives

in Englewood into
the 20th Century.

Another example of the
fiction surrounding Holmes,

and a warning for
us about believing

everything claimed about him.

Business boomed for Holmes,

and he soon purchased an empty
plot opposite the drugstore.

He had plans.

By 1887 construction on a

two-story mixed
use building began.

His intention was for
apartments on the second floor

and retail space on the ground

with a super new
drugstore on the first.

In 1888 he was
already being sued

for nonpayment to the
architects and steel company.

But by 1892 he was
adding another floor.

His plan he told his investors

was to turn the upper
portion into a hotel

for the upcoming World's
Columbian Exposition.

In fact, the hotel portion
was never completed.

As if the world of Holmes
couldn't get anymore bizarre,

this is where the sickness
begins to reveal itself.

The supplier of his
furniture investigated

because of nonpayment
and found that he been

hiding their materials
in hidden rooms

and passages throughout
the whole building.

In fact, it was such a scandal

that news of the
investigation hit the press.

Investors were shown these
articles by a jeweler

from the building
and they pulled out.

Then another twist.

The third floor
strangely caught fire

on August the 13th, 1893.

The only people believed to
be in the building at the time

were residents and
long-term employees.

It transpired that Holmes had
taken out insurance policies

on the building with no
less than four companies.

They all sued him.

The life of Holmes thus far

appears to be as a
bigamist and con artist

with a couple of possible
child murders thrown in.

But what about the
serial killing?

Where did all that begin?

One of the earliest victims
we know of is Julia Smythe.

She was the wife of Alex Conner,

a resident of the
building and employee.

She was also the mistress
of Holmes himself.

Conner discovered the affair.

He resigned and left his
wife and daughter behind

to the fate of Holmes.

Smythe and her daughter
remained at the Holmes hotel

and continued her
relationship with him.

Then Christmas 1891
they both disappeared.

Holmes would later claim

that she had died
during an abortion.

It was never discovered exactly

what happened to both
mother and child,

but it is known they both
suffered at the hands of Holmes.

In May 1892 Emeline Cigrande
started working at the hotel.

She too began an
affair with Holmes,

and she too disappeared
the following December.

The same thing happened
to Edna Van Tassel

who simply vanished off
the face of the Earth.

For a time Holmes worked at
the Chemical Bank building

on Dearborn Street where
he met Benjamin Pitezel

a carpenter who was exhibiting
a coal bin invention.

The two became close friends,

and with Benjamin's criminal
record there is little wonder.

Together they plotted

and conceived various
criminal schemes.

In fact, Benjamin was nothing
more than the tool of Holmes

as the district attorney
would later state.

Minnie Williams had
been an actress.

She moved to Chicago and
soon she landed a job

with Holmes at his hotel
as his stenographer.

Through his persuasive ways,

he had soon convinced
Minnie to sign over

the deed to her property
in Fort Worth, Texas

to a man named Alexander Bond.

This man was in fact Holmes.

Holmes served as the notary

and later signed the deed
over to Benjamin Pitezel

under the name of
Benton T. Lyman.

Following this Holmes and
Minnie rent an apartment

in Lincoln Park as man and wife.

Minnie invited her sister
Nannie over to stay.

She wrote a letter to her aunt

that she was off to
Europe on a trip.

Neither Minnie nor Nannie
were ever seen again.

Even as all of
this was happening,

it is believed that his victims

in the Murder Castle
were piling up,

gassed, tortured,
beaten, and worse.

Most bodies would
never be found,

and the exact number
of his victims unknown.

Most were probably sent
down the body chutes

into the basement where
they were incinerated

or disposed by acid baths.

Some were skinned and
kept for observation,

and others reduced to
bones which he sold.

But things were not
looking good for Holmes.

His various criminal activities

were beginning to
reach a peak point.

Insurance companies were
after him for arson.

In July 1894 he fled
Chicago for Fort Worth

to take up property he had
inherited from Minnie and Nannie.

He had learned nothing

and decide to begin erecting
yet another castle or hotel

in the same vain as
the one in Chicago.

He proceeded to con
several suppliers.

For the very first time
Holmes was actually arrested

on the charge of
selling mortgage goods,

goods he did not own.

Every area of his life
has its opportunities.

While in jail he
found friendship

with the convicted
outlaw Marion Hedgepeth.

Holmes had a cunning plan
to con an insurance company

out of a massive $10,000.

He would take out a
life policy on himself

and then proceed to
fake his own death.

All Hedgepeth had to do
was give Holmes the name of

a lawyer who could be trusted
with such a devious plan

and in return he'd
get a $500 commission.

He was guided towards
a lawyer in St. Louis

called Jeptha Howe,

who was in practice
with his elder brother.

Neither of the brothers had
any links to Holmes or Pitezel,

and so there could
be no connections.

It was perfect.

Jeptha thought the
plan was inspired,

and they proceeded
to carry it out.

However, the insurance
company soon became suspicious

and refused to pay out.

The matter went no further.

Instead Holmes turned
back to Pitezel

with the exact same plan.

This time it would be
Pitezel's death and not Holmes.

Pitezel set himself
up as an inventor

under the name of B.F.
Perry in Philadelphia.

He would be killed and
mutilated in a lab experiment.

Holmes was to find a cadaver

that could be used as
the mutilated corpse.

What actually happened is much
more on the realms of karma.

Holmes actually
did kill Pitezel.

He used chloroform
to knock him out

and then set him on fire.

Later when confessing
to the crime,

Holmes stated that
Pitezel was alive

when he was set on fire.

But the evidence actually
showed the man was dead

even before the chloroform
was administered.

It had in fact been
a very poor attempt

to make it look like suicide.

The plot worked and Holmes
collected the insurance money.

It was never enough.

He proceeded to
convince Pitezel's widow

to allow three of her
children to be in his custody.

He traveled with them across

the northern states
and into Canada

while at the same time
meeting and traveling

with Mrs. Pitezel
along a parallel route.

He had told her that
Pitezel was actually alive

and hiding in London.

She had no idea where
her children were.

Holmes later confessed to
murdering Alice and Nellie.

He forced them into a large
trunk and locked them in.

He then drilled a hole through
which he forced a hose.

He then gassed the
poor little girls.

He proceeded to bury
their nude bodies

in the cellar of his
rented house in Toronto.

But there was a
detective on his trail.

Frank Geyer was
from Philadelphia

and he'd been on Holmes'
trail for a while.

He dug up the cellar

and found the decomposed
bodies of the girls.

Nellie's feet had been removed
and Frank wondered why.

He then discovered
she'd had clubbed foot.

It turned out that Holmes
had removed her feet

to stop the bodies
being identified.

Frank followed Holmes
to Indianapolis.

Holmes had rented
a small cottage

and had recently
purchased the same drugs

he had used to murder Pitezel.

He'd also been to a repair shop

to have his knives sharpened.

In fact, the third child
had now been murdered,

and his bones and
teeth were later found

in the chimney of the cottage.

There was no longer
any escape for Holmes,

and on the 17th of November
1894 he was arrested in Boston.

He had been tracked all the
way by the infamous Pinkertons.

Initially he was held on an
arrest warrant for horse theft

a small matter but one that

allowed the authorities
to hold him.

They suspected he was
about to flee the country

along with his
unsuspecting third wife.

It was soon after
this arrest that Alice

and Nellie's bodies had
been found in Chicago.

Soon reporters and police alike

were looking more closely
at his property in Englewood

which had now become
known as The Castle.

There were copious claims
made about The Castle

but no evidence.

Claims of torture equipment
found in the building

remained just that: Claims.

The evidence does
not back this up.

By October 1895, Holmes
was standing trial

for the murder of
Benjamin Pitezel.

He was found guilty
and sentenced to death.

It was obvious that he'd
also murdered the children.

He then proceeded to
confess to the murder of

27 people in Chicago,
Indianapolis, and Toronto.

Some of the people that he
claimed to have murdered

were in fact still alive.

Bizarrely the Hearst newspaper

paid him $7,500
for his confession.

Even at the point of near death,

Holmes could not help himself

and he spun a story
for the people

that were happy to be conned.

The confessions
were very quickly

brushed aside as
full of fantasy.

Money well spent.

Yet, the legacy of
his fiction continued.

Even today books, articles,
TV shows, and movies

continue to repeat
the so-called facts.

Throughout the whole thing

Holmes continued
to spin his tales.

He gave several
accounts of his life

all of them
contradicted each other.

On the one hand it was
completely innocent,

and then in the next
breath he was guilty

and working for Satan himself.

His statements cannot and
should not be taken into account

because even those experts
who interviewed him

knew he was lying.

Holmes himself wrote
whilst in prison

that his facial
features had changed

and that now he
resembled the devil.

On May the 17th, 1896

the devil was hanged at
Philadelphia County prison.

Until the end he was
calm and friendly.

He showed no signs of
fear or depression.

He did ask one thing,

something that takes us
right back to his early days

when he worked in
anatomy and dissection.

He requested that his coffin
be buried 10 feet deep

and covered in cement.

He feared the grave robbers
and subsequent dissection.

Amazingly there would be some

strange karma in
this as we shall see.

At the final hour it turned
out that his neck did not snap,

and so he was strangled
to death instead.

It took 15 to 20 long
minutes for him to die

as he twitched and moaned.

The death surrounding
this serial killer

did not seem to end there.

The prisoner Hedgepeth,
who had helped Holmes

was shot dead on
New Year's Eve 1909.

The caretaker of The
Castle a Mr. Quinlan

appeared to have committed
suicide with strychnine.

He left a note that simply said,

"I could not sleep."

He had been haunted
by hallucinations.

In 1895 The Castle itself

was almost destroyed
by a mysterious fire.

Two men had been seen entering

at the back and leaving again.

A half empty gas can
was later discovered.

Today the building is completely
new and a post office,

and so we arrive
at the modern era

and the fantasies
that have emerged

surrounding the con
artist and bigamist

who liked to murder people.

Claims that Holmes had in
fact never been executed

were so strong that in
2017 his body was exhumed.

The world awaited the results.

The cement he had so
strongly insisted on

having cover his coffin actually
helped the investigators

because the body
was well preserved.

His clothes and
mustache were intact.

His teeth records
and DNA analysis

researchers proved beyond doubt

that the body they exhumed
was that of H.H. Holmes.

But as ever the conspiracy
theorists will not rest.

Belief is a powerful thing.

But let us just step
backwards a moment

into the infamous murder
hotel, The Castle.

We now know that
using his abilities

as an expert con artist,

he managed to build the
so-called Murder Castle.

It is the method of construction

which begins to open our eyes.

Over the period of building,

Holmes hired and fired a
series of construction crews.

He held the architectural
plans close to his chest

revealing what he needed to.

Nobody seemed to know the
whole plan except him.

In the building
there was a basement,

a series of shops
at street level,

and two-stories sitting
on top of the shops

that comprise the hotel.

His intention was to have
the property finished

by the time of the World's Fair

also known as the
Columbian Exposition.

When complete the hotel
was a amaze of hallways,

soundproof rooms that often
locked from the inside,

and gas pipes that were
controlled by a panel

in Holmes own closet.

Additionally,
closets had peepholes

and secret panels that
led to passageways

which Holmes passed through.

Trap doors in
floors and ceilings

and horrifying greased chutes

that funneled his
hapless victims

to the basement of the building.

When police finally
raided the building

after Holmes' arrest,

they found a human sized oven

that could heat up
to 3,000 degrees

turning his victims
to untraceable ashes.

While many who went missing

after checking
into Holmes' hotel

simply disappeared forever,

Holmes was also known to sell
skeletons to medical schools.

It's unknown how many of
those prepared cadavers

were actually his victims
hidden in plain sight.

Because of all this uncertainty

and the devilish fantasy
he wove around himself,

we will actually never
know the entire truth

about the Murder Castle.

We will never know how many
victims and who they were.

This was the 19th Century

and records of births and deaths

were not what they are today.

As if the whole story of Holmes
was not difficult enough,

it now turns out there is
another twist to the tale

and one that has a lot of
people convinced H.H. Holmes

was none other than
London's Jack The Ripper.

Yes, you heard right.

Let us just take a moment

to delve into the world
of Jack The Ripper

to remind ourselves of this
particular serial killer.

The year is 1888.

The location
Whitechapel, London.

The name came from a
letter sent to the media

claiming to have been
written by Jack himself.

It is believed to be a hoax
and yet the name stuck.

From Jews to Irish immigrants,
the East End of Whitechapel

had swelled in numbers
during the 19th Century.

It was overcrowded, poor,
and in a terrible state.

Violence, theft,
murder, alcohol abuse,

and prostitution were rife.

Whitechapel was notorious
and grew worse when

in 1888 a series
of horrific attacks

occurred on prostitutes.

Nobody knows how many women
were killed by Jack himself.

There were so many.

We know of 11 murders between
April 1888 and February 1891

that were included in the
official police investigation.

Five of these are known
as the canonical five

and known to be his work.

There are certain indications
that give him away.:

deep slashes to the throat,

abdominal and
genital mutilation,

removal of internal organs,
and facial mutilations.

We need not run through all
the victims and circumstances.

Instead we'll take a look
at the canonical five.

Their names were Mary Ann
Nichols, Annie Chapman,

Elizabeth Stride, Catherine
Eddowes, and Mary Jane Kelly.

Nichols' throat had been cut.

Her lower abdomen ripped open.

Chapman's throat cut.

Her abdomen slashed
open and uterus removed.

Stride and Eddowes were similar.

A clear cut to the throat.

Stride's body had no
mutilations to the abdomen

leading some to claim the
Ripper had been interrupted.

Witnesses all gave
conflicting accounts

of a man they thought
they had seen.

Smart, shabby, fair,
dark nobody knew.

In fact one theory
claims that there

never was a single
Jack The Ripper.

Eddowes body was the same,

throat cut, abdomen ripped open.

Her left kidney and most
of her uterus removed.

Graffiti found nearby seemed
to implicate the Jews.

Fearing anti-Semitic riots,

the police had it washed away.

Kelly's body was found in bed.

The throat cut down the spine

and the abdomen emptied
and the heart missing.

All these murders
happened at night.

The mutilations seem to
have been getting worse.

Although Kelly is
considered by many

to have been Jack's
final victim,

there are others who
believe he continued.

These later murders
were all record.

These include decapitations,

torsos ripped open and
more gruesome atrocities.

The Pinchin Street
torso for instance

was headless and legless and
found beneath a railway arch.

She was never identified.

Vigilantes started
to roam the streets

because quite simply the
police were dumbfounded.

A great many were suspected.

Butchers, surgeons, doctors,

and even occult ritual
practices were blamed.

A report from Inspector
Swanson to the home office

confirms that 76 butchers
and slaughters were visited

and that the inquiry
encompassed all their employees

for the previous six months.

Even the queen herself

thought the murders
pointed to a butcher.

Jack The Ripper is
in fact the earliest

police profiling on record.

Police surgeon Thomas Bond
investigated the process

and surgical skill
of the Ripper.

He wrote, "All five
murders no doubt

"were committed
by the same hand.

"In the first four
the throats appear

"to have been cut
from left to right.

"In the last case, owing
to the extensive mutilation

"it is impossible to
say in what direction

"the fatal cut was
made but arterial blood

"was found on the wall in
splashes close to where

"the woman's head
must have been lying.

"All the circumstances
surrounding the murders

"lead me to form the
opinion that the woman

"must have been lying
down when murdered,

"and in every case the
throat was first cut."

Bond refused to
accept that the Ripper

had descent surgical knowledge.

Holmes would have had
from his training.

He believed that Jack
was a solitary man

who had periodical attacks of
homicidal and erotic mania.

His attacks may have
derived from a revengeful

or brooding
condition of the mind

or that religious mania may
have been the original disease,

which I don't not think
either hypothesis is likely.

Soon psychologies
believe that the

penetration of the
victims with the knife

leaving them on display in
sexually degrading positions

with the wounds exposed
indicated that Jack

derived sexual pleasure
from the attacks.

It is true that the
majority of the poor victims

that succumbed to the brutality
of H.H. Holmes were women

just as in the case of Jack.

Nobody knows who
Jack The Ripper was,

and there is an almost annual
claim offered in the media.

There are well over
100 suspects now,

and we are still no
closer to the truth.

But there is another theory.

Holmes' great, great grandson

has recently so come forth
with so-called evidence:

two diaries he
claims were inherited

from his great,
great grandfather.

Experts, who we do not know,
analyzed the handwriting

and concluded that
they were indeed

written by the devil
incarnate himself.

It details several
of his murders

and a tale about how he was
raped as a child by a priest.

It also claims that he
was never in fact hanged.

That he staged
his own execution.

Of course we now know that
he was hung and buried,

and so this piece of
evidence is in fact not true.

We also know that Holmes was
the world's biggest liar.

The diary states that Holmes

knew the identity
of Jack The Ripper.

What is the problem
here is simple.

That this statement
is being over-egged

to reveal that Holmes
was Jack the Ripper

and that he didn't die.

We are being asked to believe
the words of a dead con man.

We are also, with
next to no evidence

being asked to
believe that Holmes

was in London during
the Whitechapel murders.

The diary describes them
as training sessions.

But it could also be the
ramblings of an egotist.

Yet, Holmes can be shown to
have committed fraud in the

United States at the time of
most of the Ripper murders.

In fact, Holmes
apparently had a trainee

who was instructed to carry
out murders on prostitutes

and to mutilate their bodies.

Why would Holmes do this?

Apparently to distract the
world from his own barbarism.

Is this stretching the
imagination too far?

While it is a wonderful
story that catches headlines,

it is in fact as
ridiculous as Robin Hood

having popped over the pond
to help the poor English

before returning to America
to become Abraham Lincoln.

The problem is that
Holmes was a massive liar,

and nothing in his
diaries can be trusted.

So no matter how logical
some of it may sound,

it is being manipulated
to sell books.

Indeed the author of
this new theory himself

describes his own visions
of the ghost of Holmes.

Alarm bells should ring.

True hardened Ripperologists

could literally
rip the story apart

from dates, methods, and motives

to the sheer fantasist
Holmes himself

and it seems
subsequent believers.

It was finally killed
with the discovery

that Holmes was in fact
executed and buried.

The Ripper murders
were not as is commonly

and falsely believed

precise murders carried
out by a surgeon.

They were frenzied and
no better than a butcher.

All the evidence proves this.

The Ripper went
out for his kill.

He stalked the streets.

Holmes lured his victims.

He didn't stalk.

He was precise with his murders.

He took his time over them.

Paper evidence proves that
Holmes is carrying out fraud

and building his castle
in the United States

at the time of the
Ripper murders.

There are a lot of
claims being made

that there was no evidence
of Holmes in Chicago in 1888.

But they are simply not true.

It is also claimed that
the Ripper's handwriting

was proven to be the same as
the handwriting of Holmes.

Again not true because
there are no proven records

of the handwriting
of Jack The Ripper.

There are dozens of
different examples

and none of them are proven.

Indeed the whole Holmes' story

has and is becoming a
new fantasy in the media.

It seems to have been this way

since the first news stories
about the Murder Castle.

There have been dozens
of books on the subject,

and they all seem to
contradict each other.

There have been
copious documentaries,

TV plays, theater
productions, and movies.

There has even been an opera.

We began this investigation
in an attempt to be forensic

to analyze the mind of the man

through his actions and deeds.

We have discovered that his life

was one very big lie
from beginning to end,

and the lies continue
even after his death.

Was he really bullied in school

and forced to stand
before a skeleton?

This it is claimed
was the reason

for his fascination
with cadavers.

Problem is we have only
his word on this tall tale.

The facts we have reveal he
was born into an ordinary

hard working Methodist family
of farmers nothing more.

We do know that his
fascination with cadavers

seems to have begun
just prior to university

and it was there that
his ability to use

the corpses as methods
of making money began.

Somewhere his moral
compass went wrong

and started pointing
in every direction.

It is difficult to know where

but sometimes just the
simple necessity to survive

can cause humans to
do terrible things.

When those crimes have proven
to work and nobody's any wiser

then the temptation to proceed
to up the game increases.

Could it simply be that
Holmes was a opportunist

who kept taking the risks

until the final one
was one too many?

It is a pattern in crime.

It is also a pattern
with psychotics

that they secretly
wish to be caught,

to be known, to be famous.

He definitely had little empathy

for his fellow human beings.

He mimicked it because he
was an excellent con man.

Psychotic people are
very often believed

to be friendly,
intelligent, and methodical.

Holmes has all those traits.

His methods of making
money was so well planned

that he constructed a building
to extract money and bodies.

He had no compassion
for the people.

It was a challenge to
his psychotic mind.

His building had 51 doorways
that opened unto brick walls,

100 rooms without windows,
stairs that led to nowhere,

chutes for bodies, gas
holes, secret passageways

and a huge incinerator.

It was planned and
executed very well.

It was a castle of fantasy
for a psychotic fantasist.

It was a mirror of his own mind.

The true psychological
analysis of H.H. Holmes

does not come from his lies

but from the bricks and
mortar of the Murder Castle.

It reflects him.

During his confession in
Chicago in 1896 he said,

"I was born with
the devil in me.

"I could not help the
fact that I was a murderer

"no more than a poet can
help the inspiration to sing.

"I was born with the evil one

"standing as my
sponsor beside the bed

"where I was ushered
into the world

"and he has been with me since."

We cannot believe
his confessions.

We cannot believe
his so-called diaries

if indeed they are real.

We can only believe
the evidence.

Holmes was a bigamist, fact.

He was a superb con man, fact.

He was a serial killer, fact.

He was Jack The Ripper,
extremely doubtful.

In the 21st Century
nothing has changed

from the 19th Century when
his evil deeds emerged.

Within his own
lifetime people were

making up tales about
him and his life.

In subsequent generations
those lies have been spread

altered, improved
upon, and regurgitated.

Just because his
words are spoken

it does not make them truth.

Just because they are repeated

it does not make them gospel.

Just because they are turned
into documentaries and movies

it does not make
them gospel truth.

The facts are the facts.

He was an egotistical liar

who believed he was superior
to the rest of mankind

just as is the case
with the vast majority

of serial killers
modern and ancient.

We place them on
the silver screen

and make icons out of them
and their Chinese whispers.

He was evil but
he was not Satan.

He was mentally deranged.

But he was not Jack The Ripper.

That story is yet
to be revealed,

and it will be an eye opener.