H.H. Holmes born Herman Webster Mudgett was a notorious serial killer during the 1800s. He has been referred to has “America’s first serial killer” and the “beast of Chicago.”

Holmes was one of the more educated killers, even though he was around 150 years ago. At an early age, he showed an interest in medicine and anatomy. Holmes’ sketchy tendencies started while he was in college, the University of Michigan. He would steal corpses being examined for medical purposes, take an insurance policy out on them, and collect the money. This is what he did for almost all of his victims once he started killing people.

In 1886, Holmes had a three-story home built in Chicago. During the construction, he hired and fired multiple sets of construction workers. He did this so that they wouldn’t get curious about the strange instalments Holmes wanted and tell the cops. The top floors was comprised of small rooms. The basement held a furnace, operating tables, and gas chambers. All throughout the house, there were chutes that led down to the basement. Holmes would use these to move the bodies to the basement easier. When the Chicago World’s Fair began in 1893, Holmes transformed his house into a hotel. This is where he tortured and killed 27 known people. It is suspected that he killed around 200 people just in that hotel.

The upstairs was designed so that people could easily get lost and walk into an unknown room and meet their death. Each room had built in gas jets that Holmes could turn on to asphyxiate his victims. There were hidden doors in the walls as well. The basement was where he torture his victims in gas chambers. Some of his victims would be cleared of all flesh, and their bones would be cleaned and sold to medical schools.

The fun ended in 1894, when Holmes was caught with the bodies of his ex-business partner (Mr. Benjamin Pitezel actually helped dispose of Holmes’ victims) and his three kids. This lead to him being arrested for almost 30 accounts of murder and was sentenced to be hanged.