Construction of Holmes’s World’s Fair Hotel, or better known as “The Murder Castle” in modern times, began in 1890. The building consisted of over 60 rooms and 51 oddly cut doors. By Holmes’s request, new construction workers were brought in each week so no one would know the exact layout besides him, and he refused to pay for any of the labor or materials used. Holmes used his intelligence and carefully contemplated every action to make sure it would be virtually impossible for anyone to catch him. In the top two floors of the 162 by 50 foot three story hotel there were trap doors, asphyxiation chambers, and blowtorches in the walls to torture and kill the people working in and staying at the hotel and a dissection table, crematory, and …show more content…
acid vat in the basement. Completed in 1892, marriage and job ads aimed towards women lured unsuspecting victims into Holmes’s trap. When a position was accepted, Holmes convinced the women to withdraw all their money from the bank because she would need funds to get started and to tell no one the address or location of the hotel because of his competitors willing to do anything to steal clients. Once the applicant arrived at the hotel and Holmes was sure they followed his instructions, they would become his prisoner. Posing as a wealthy inventor by the name of Harry Gordon, Holmes met a lady named Minnie Williams in 1893, and they soon became engaged. Julia and Pearl Connor seemed to disappear out of nowhere. Holmes later confessed that Julia had died in a bungled abortion he performed on her and then poisoned Pearl. He murdered Julia and Pearl because of Julia’s jealous feelings towards Minnie; “But I would have gotten rid of her anyway, I was tired of her,” stated Holmes while confessing to Julia’s murder. Minnie lived at the castle for over a year. She knew of the murders taking place and even instigated the murder of Emily Van Tassel, a 17 year old girl who worked at the candy store on the first floor of the hotel. Emily’s fiance, Robert Phelps, came by to visit Emily at work one day. Holmes had already murdered Emily so he captured Phelps and killed him using a “stretching experiment”. In April of 1893, Minnie’s property located in Texas was deeded over to Benton T. Lyman, Ben Pietzel’s, Holmes’s accomplice, alias. Holmes also arranged a mine accident to kill Minnie’s brother. Minnie’s sister Nannie came to visit in Chicago. Seduced by Holmes, Nannie agreed to sign over her land in Fort Worth to him. Minnie became jealous of her sister and the attention Holmes was giving her and became enraged. She killed Nannie, and Holmes dumped her body in Lake Michigan, telling others she had gone back to Texas. Having someone like Minnie to do such a thing as murder for him and encourage his actions made Holmes feel powerful and in control. A young woman from Indiana traveled to Chicago on behalf of an ad for a job at Holmes’s “hotel”. Holmes told the lady, Georgianna Yoke, that his name is Henry Howard and that Minnie is his cousin. On January 17, 1894, with Minnie as the witness, Holmes and Georgianna married at the Vendome Hotel in Denver, Colorado. After the wedding, the three traveled to Texas to claim Minnie’s property and organized a horse scam. Holmes purchased horses with counterfeit money and sold them in Saint Louis, Missouri to end up making a large profit. Once back in Chicago, Holmes killed Minnie. When the police questioned him as to where she was, he answered that he believes that she had killed her sister and fled to Europe. Seen as a respected man of the community, the police instantly believed him. Holmes later confesses that he put Minnie’s body in an acid vat after killing her. In July of 1894, Holmes was arrested for the first time as the result of the earlier horse swindle, but Georgianna quickly bailed him out. While in jail, Holmes met Marion Hedgepath, a train robber with a 25 year sentence. Holmes talks about his greed for money with Marion, and he gives Holmes the idea to take a $20,000 insurance claim out on himself and then fake his death. He also recommended a corrupt lawyer, Colonel Jeptha Howe, for Holmes to use in exchange for a $500 commission. Holmes’s plan was to fake the death of his partner, Ben Pietzel, in exchange for half of the insurance claim. In his greed for money, Holmes decided to actually kill Ben so he would not have to share the profits. After the claim was taken out, Marion Hedgepath did not receive his money for helping Holmes carry out the crime. Enraged, Marion decided to turn Holmes in to the police. Frank P. Geyer, a Pinkerton detective, quickly started an investigation. Aware that the agent was on his trail, Holmes traveled around the country in hopes to lose the detective. After almost two months, on November 17, 1894, Holmes turned up in Boston, Massachusetts and was arrested and sent to Philadelphia. Holmes, given the option to return to Texas and be hanged as a horse thief for his earlier swindle or to confess to the insurance fraud that caused the death of Ben Pietzel, chose insurance fraud. Through the Pinkerton agent’s investigation, he soon realized Holmes had killed Ben’s three children, Howard, Nellie, and Alice. Nellie and Alice were found in a trunk and had been asphyxiated. The remains of Howard were found in a kitchen stove of a house Holmes lived in while running from the agent. Having a good probable cause, detective Frank Geyer starts a search of Holmes’s house, The Murder Castle, and makes a floor plan.
The first floor consisted of a drug store, candy store, jewelry store and restaurant. The second floor was a labyrinth of narrow hallways, rooms lined with sheet iron of asbestos, trap doors, and lethal gas jets. Seven feet below the building, known as the “chamber of horrors”, was a room that contained a dissecting table, torture devices, jars of poisons, a crematorium, and a wooden box that contained female skeletons. After a search of the ashes, investigators found a watch that had belonged to Minnie Williams along with a ball of hair that had been carefully wrapped in cloth. Police detectives found two naked footprints in a pile of quicklime outside of the vat of corrosive acid. Other human bones and jewelry were found that could be traced back to Holmes’s mistresses; Ned Connor was called upon to identify a bloody dress that Julia had owned, and Pearl Connor’s bones were found in a hole in the middle of the floor. Following his conviction for the death of Ben Pietzel, Holmes confessed to 30 murders and six attempted murders. However, some investigators now believe that he killed over 200 people. His trial took six days, and Holmes was eventually given the death sentence on November 30, 1895. On May 7, 1896 at 10:25 a.m., the coroner pronounced Holmes dead after being
hanged. Although influences from his childhood, want for money and power, and intelligence gave him the power to complete the Murder Castle and commit the hundreds of killings, Holmes believed that he was possessed by Satan. "I could not help the fact that I was a murderer— I was born with the 'Evil One' standing as my sponsor beside the bed where I was ushered into the world, and he has been with me since." -H.H. Holmes. Holmes blamed his murders on the belief that he had the devil inside him. Whichever is true, Holmes became one of the first documented serial killers and his name has gone down in infamy for eternity.
...mes’ lifestyle. Holmes, throughout his life was a criminal. Holmes desire to murder people was believed to come from from his desensitized feeling about dead bodies. This was due to his medical career. As mentioned earlier, when Holmes was in medical school, he had many dealings with cadavers and was very familiar with them. Later, when he began killing he did not look at the bodies as human beings, but as material or later, cash money. This relationship between crime and deviance is mainly why I choose this book. I feel that H. H. Holmes, although Holmes was a strange and demented man, was very successful. This success questions what makes people successful: is it your status, education, or was it his determination?
The Castle, directed by Rob Sitch, is an Australian comedy, which delves into the lives of a stereotypical Australian family, the Kerrigans. The film touchs on issues close to home in a humourous way. The audience is introduced to the classic Aussie family, narrated in the viewpoint of the youngest of the Kerrigans, Dale.
“MURDER CASTLE OF H.H. HOLMES! EXCERPT FROM "HAUNTED CHICAGO” N.p., 2003. Web. 03 Mar. 2014.
On page 39, it describes the moment in which bullies from his school force him to go face to face with a skeleton in a doctor’s office. Such a terrible experience truly could have scarred Holmes, but at the same time his comfortability with an representation of death could have prompted his killer roots. Also, the “accidental” death of Holmes’s childhood friend, at an event that Holmes was present, was another red flag in terms of potentially becoming a psychopath. We learn more of Holmes’s younger upbringing through the text in which it states,"He drifted through childhood as a small, odd, and exceptionally bright boy....in the cruel imaginations of his peers, he became prey" (Larson, 38) Holmes was essentially an outcast, a person who has been rejected by society or a social group. He was the target of many because of his oddness and rather unique characteristics. With no solid upbringing, and a probable fascination with death, Holmes was bound to be the infamous serial killer he became in his future.
1.Though The Glass Castle is brimming with unforgettable stories, Which scenes were the most memorable for you? Which were the most shocking, the most inspiring, the funniest?
Mary Katherine, a young adult with sociopathic behavior, displays her disorder with frequent outbursts, lack of remorse and disregard for social norms throughout the novel We Have Always Lived in The Castle by Shirley Jackson. Her sociopathic tendencies are constant in the novel with mention that this behavior has been consistent since she was a child. Mary Katherine progressively shows her volatile actions in the story and her actions cause way to a multitude of problems for anyone in her path, especially her close older sister Constance. Her personality disorder coupled with her schizotypal disposition is inherent and not due to being spoiled or temperamental despite her being raised wealthy in a large household.
Holmes was never arrested for the incident with his father-in-law. However, he was later arrested in “July 1894, Holmes was arrested for the first time. It was not for murder but for one of his schemes” (Taylor). Being arrested should have scared Holmes onto the straight and narrow path, it did not. It was in jail that Holmes met one of his accomplices, Marion Hedgepeth (Nash, Bloodletters 448).
The sentencing of underage criminals has remained a logistical and moral issue in the world for a very long time. The issue is brought to our perspective in the documentary Making a Murderer and the audio podcast Serial. When trying to overcome this issue, we ask ourselves, “When should juveniles receive life sentences?” or “Should young inmates be housed with adults?” or “Was the Supreme Court right to make it illegal to sentence a minor to death?”. There are multiple answers to these questions, and it’s necessary to either take a moral or logical approach to the problem.
Ramsland, Katherine. "H. H. Holmes: Master of Illusion." Crime Library. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Mar. 2014. .
17-year-old Cameryn Mahoney's dad is the town's coroner, and Cameryn wants to follow in his footsteps. She eventually persuades him to hire her as his new assistant, but she has no idea that one of the first deaths, she'll investigate is one of her good friends Rachel. Rachel is the fourth victim in a series of killings known as Christopher Killings, girls who are strangled and then left with St. Christopher medals on their corpses. The book The Christopher Killer is an adequate book, even though it somewhat lacks energy, does not focus on the plotline very well but had an exciting ending.
Summary: The movie is about a typical Australian family living in the suburbs of Melbourne. The patriarch: Darryl Kerrigan is a sweet, yet a little dim witted, loving father and husband. Him and his wife (Sal) are parents to three sons (the narrator: Dale, Steve: an aspiring engineer and Wayne: who’s serving time for armed robbery) and a daughter (the oldest: Tracey who’s married) They are shown as the archetypal loving family, who enjoy every moment together, laughing through the joys and showing solidarity in the pain. Darryl is also very proud of his home, repeatedly quoting the old phrase “a man’s home is his castle” and sticks to that when developers acquire the land (compulsory acquisition) to expand the airport (which
Since I was little my favorite thing to watch on TV would be murder shows that where based on true stories. I would stay up all night watching these shows. Most of my friends found it weird but I felt like this is something that keeps me from being naïve to this world we live in. I was thirteen around the time. So by now I had watch almost a thousand murder shows and I thought I had heard it all. Well I was wrong. This is a story I would never forget. I remember it because it was hard for me to believe that something so horrendous could not only be committed by someone young but to innocent people.
Did you know that Henry I was the first monarch to use Windsor Castle as a home? During his reign, the wooden keep and walls were replaced with stone and served as a stronger structure for the castle to survive upon. Windsor Castle has housed many kings and queens throughout its lifetime, and has become a monument in England’s history. It has been refurbished over the years, but still has remained with the same layout. The interior is the extent of the changes made around the castle over its lifetime, besides the walls being substituted with stone.
Does the name Moors Murders make you scream in fear? In 1963-1965 that name would have scared many people living in England. Ian Brady and Myra Hindley were the notorious couple of kidnapping young children and teens. The couple came together in 1963 and started to murder children. They would bury the victims on a desolate moor in England (“Myra” 1). Out of the two year span of the killings, the couple killed five innocent people. Eventually the two were arrested in 1966. This all started because Myra Hindley and Ian Brady wanted to perform the perfect murder.
Michael Sanders, a Professor at Harvard University, gave a lecture titled “Justice: What’s The Right Thing To Do? The Moral Side of Murder” to nearly a thousand student’s in attendance. The lecture touched on two contrasting philosophies of morality. The first philosophy of morality discussed in the lecture is called Consequentialism. This is the view that "the consequences of one 's conduct are the ultimate basis for any judgment about the rightness or wrongness of that conduct.” (Consequentialism) This type of moral thinking became known as utilitarianism and was formulated by Jeremy Bentham who basically argues that the most moral thing to do is to bring the greatest amount of happiness to the greatest number of people possible.