Herman Webster Mudgett, better known by the alias H. H. Holmes, was an American serial killer and con artist born on May 16, 1861, in Gilmanton, New Hampshire. Though the exact number of his victims remains debated, estimates range from 20 to 200. He is particularly notorious for his elaborately designed murder house in Chicago, nicknamed the “Murder Castle” during the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition. Holmes lured victims, often young women and children, into the labyrinthine building with promises of employment or accommodation. There, he is believed to have tortured and murdered them in various gruesome ways. Apprehended in 1894, Holmes was convicted of the murder of his business partner and accomplice and sentenced to death. He was hanged on May 7, 1896, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The macabre legacy of H. H. Holmes and his Murder Castle continues to fascinate and horrify to this day.
