Well, gosh. It’s been a few weeks since we had an HH Holmes story to tell. But here’s a nifty one: in 1899, the Philadelphia Inquirer told an interesting ghost story about Holmes. It was in Phillie that Holmes had been imprisoned, tried, hanged, and buried, and the Inquirer covered the story very well (they were…
Tag: HH Holmes
Chicago Serial Killers: Dr. Thomas Neil Cream
The most commonphoto of Dr. Cream. H.H. Holmes is often advertised as “America’s First Serial Killer.” Really, though, he wasn’t even the first one in Chicago – or the only Chicagoan whose name has been floated as a suspect for the true identity of London’s “Jack the Ripper.” Long before anyone seriously* thought to connect…
HH Holmes vs The Lumber Men From Hell
Okay, that title is pushing it. And it should probably really be “The Good People at The Stockyards Lumber, Coal and Feed Co vs. The Customer From Hell.” But sometimes these HH Holmes lawsuit papers get a little dry. Holmes, for those of you just joining us, is the 1890s multi-murderer who has become famous…
Signed, HH Holmes
Yesterday was another fun day in the archives, going through old lawsuits. I was hoping that one of the records I pulled might help shed some light on the Foolkiller Submarine, but it was a bust. The find of the day was an HH Holmes lawsuit with a couple of nifty pieces of paperwork that…
Murder Castle of HH Holmes Ebook EXPANDED!
Our first ebook, THE MURDER CASTLE OF HH HOLMES, has now been expanded to a FULL LENGTH book. Re-organized with tons of new info, new diagrams, and more to tell a more complete picture of the famous “castle” through eyewitness accounts from people lived and worked in the building. Now over 55,000 words to tell…
Podcast: The Detective’s Grave
Time for a new podcast! You can download today’s episode from feedburner, archive.org, or iTunes. Today, we’re back at Graceland Cemetery, searching for the grave of a deranged Victorian private detective. My job is pretty sweet. I’ve lately been back working on the HH Holmes case, trying to gather, evaluate, and catalog all of the best…
Where Was HH Holmes? A North Side building still standing
Roslyn Place, just above Lincoln Park. No topic around here keeps my occupied quite like tracing the career of H.H. Holmes, the Devil in the White City guy. Figuring out what really happened and separating fact from fiction is notoriously hard. Lately, I’ve been in the process of organizing all of my data, cataloguing all the…
H.H. Holmes: The Truth About Dr. Holton
When H.H. Holmes first came to Chicago, circa 1885-7 (depending which source you’re using), he took over Dr. E.S. Holton’s pharmacy at 63rd and Wallace, across the street from the spot where he’d one day build his famous castle. The commonly-told version of the story is that Dr. E.S. Holton was an old man, dying…