DS Book Reviews

H.H. Holmes

H.H. Holmes is a famous serial killer who lived in Chicago. Once again he was one that proved looks can be deceiving. If you looked at him, you saw a well respected man who dressed well and was self made. What was hidden inside of him and his “castle” is something that would frighten anyone.

Depraved: The Definitive True Story of H.H. Holmes: Herman Mudgett, born in New Hampshire in 1860, purportedly achieved worldwide notoriety as the serial killer Dr. H. H. Holmes. He certainly made an impression in Chicago, where he built a “castle” filled with soundproof rooms, stairways that went nowhere and chutes leading to huge vats in the basement. How many women died there is unknown. Ironically, a case of insurance fraud that was no fraud at all resulted in Holmes’s arrest, conviction and hanging. He had talked his aide, Ben Pitezel, into getting an insurance policy on his own life, assuring Pitezel that they could render a cadaver unidentifiable, pass it off as Pitezel and collect $10,000. Then he killed Pitezel and, subsequently, three of his five children. Schechter ( Deviant ) has done a masterful job of reconstructing Holmes’s killing spree and detailing the detective work that led to his apprehension.

Devil’s Disciple: The Deadly Dr. H.H. Holmes: Some say he was Jack the Ripper, but Herman W. Mudgett, alias Dr. H. H. Holmes, was far too busy piling up corpses on this side of the Atlantic to have ever traveled abroad. The basement of his infamous Chicago “Castle” boasted a crematory, lime pits, acid vats, and torture devices. Also in the basement was his “human elasticizer,” a basic torture rack that he believed could be employed to create a race of giants.  Holmes’ final confession began with these words: “Yes, I was born with the devil in me.

The Beast of Chicago: In this graphic novel series, Geary covers some of history’s most famous murders in meticulously researched, beautifully drawn volumes. This one takes on H.H. Holmes, one of America’s first serial killers, whose “murder castle” shocked and stunned the era. It’s 1886, and Holmes arrives in Chicago, a seemingly clean and enterprising young man but actually a murderous con artist with a spectacular ability to talk people into trusting him.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 14th, 2008 at 10:04 am and is filed under Book Stuff. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.