Henry Howard Holmes was born as Herman Webster Mudgett in Gilmanton, New Hampshire on May 16, 1861.
Holmes had a fairly uneventful childhood.
His father was a farmer, trader, and house painter, and the family was devoted Methodist.
While studying medicine, Holmes had the first taste of dissection.
First, he worked in the anatomy lab under the chief anatomy instructor.
Then he apprenticed under a noted advocate of human dissection.
It was during medical school when he first turned to crime.
Holmes then collected insurance money on these people.
But these occasional acts of fraud were nothing compared to what was to come later.
Herman Webster Mudgett, better known as Dr. Henry Howard Holmes.
The first floor of the building had several stores.
The upper two levels consisted of apartment rooms.
Sometimes he would starve his victims or burn them alive.
The money would then be split between themselves.
Instead, Holmes actually killed Pitezel and then convinced his wife that her husband was still alive.
Holmes then murdered all three.
He killed the two girls by locking them inside a large trunk and filling it with gas.
He buried their nude bodies in the cellar of his rental house.
Holmes killed the youngest child and chopped up the body before he burned it.
On May 7, 1896, Holmes was hanged at Moyamensing Prison.
The castle was mysteriously gutted by fire in August 1895, while Holmes was still in prison.
