Trivia

There's a very well made documentary film (from 2003) on H. H. Holmes. Highly recommend and will give you chills.

He was able to put his surgical training to good use by selling the stripped and monted skeletons of his victims to local anatomy schools!

He was one of the first documented serial killers before that term was even used.

First began using the alias "H.H. Holmes" while engaging in shady business deals and promotions.

Great-great-grandfather of Jeff Mudgett.

Despite his claims of murdering dozens and even hundreds of people, he was only tried and executed for one murder, that of his business partner Benjamin Pitezel.

In addition to murder, he was also involved in insurance fraud, forgery, swindling, bigamy and horse theft over the course of his criminal career.

Although it has become synonymous with his legend, there is no evidence that his building in Chicago, his notorious "murder castle", contained torture chambers, trap doors, gas chambers nor that it had hundreds of bodies buried underneath or any of the other wild claims newspaper ran with.

His exact number of murder victims has been subject to considerable debate as Holmes was prone to lying extensively about his actions, even claiming to have murdered people who were verified as alive during his trial.